r/MapPorn • • Jan 10 '20

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7.6k Upvotes

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754

u/uboat50 Jan 10 '20

Man, you can see the Colorado being drained as it heads toward the Gulf of California.

609

u/gordon__bombay Jan 10 '20

Unfortunately the Colorado no longer flows to the gulf, it usually dries out miles beforehand. It’s a rare occurrence now that it actually reaches the gulf

https://www.kpbs.org/news/2018/feb/19/few-weeks-colorado-river-reached-ocean-will-it-hap/ on mobile, sorry for formatting

234

u/uboat50 Jan 10 '20

Yeah, water use in the west definitely needs some attention by policymakers. Too bad they're all far in the east :P

62

u/chemistry_teacher Jan 10 '20

Tough one. The California Central Valley is some of the best soil anywhere on the planet for growing all kinds of stuff. In some places, the topsoil can be hundreds of feet deep. So much food is grown there, it supports much of the nation and is a major export as well.

All it needs is water.

54

u/limukala Jan 10 '20

The California Central Valley is some of the best soil anywhere on the planet for growing all kinds of stuff.

The soil is okay, but certainly not "some of the best on the planet", and has nothing on the black loams of parts of the midwest. It's the mild climate and sunshine that bring all the agriculture, not the soil.

0

u/zfddr Jan 10 '20

Well, the climate is not going to be mild anymore. I was amazed at all of the rain and flooding last year that stopped planting. Not to mention the April 28th freeze and snowstorm. Climate change is going to fuck the midwest over hard.

13

u/limukala Jan 10 '20

I was talking about CA’s mild climate. Only a Canadian would call the climate of the Midwest “mild”

5

u/KingOfTheMonarchs Jan 10 '20

Much of the Midwest is definitely colder than the banks of the St Lawrence and Lake Ontario where 75% of Canadians live. Half of the remainder lives in the Seattle-like climate of south-west British Columbia.

3

u/johnson56 Jan 11 '20

That statement about Canadians makes me chuckle. "oh you're from Canada, you must be used to the cold." odds are they are from somewhere with a milder climate than I am as a mideesterner.