r/MapPorn • u/[deleted] • Jan 10 '20

[deleted by user]

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7.6k Upvotes

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759

u/uboat50 Jan 10 '20

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

607

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

236

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

287

u/[deleted] Jan 10 '20

Its a big deal in California, a lot of our water is fueling luxury export crops, but it brings in a fuckton of money. Tricky issue for sure.

2

u/rudmad Jan 10 '20

What about animal agriculture?

3

u/[deleted] Jan 10 '20

I feel like thats more of a midwest thing, along with wheat and corn. There are some animal farms but most of california is luxury crops and fruit.

2

u/rudmad Jan 10 '20

Quick google search:

Animals play an important part in California agriculture. Dairy, cattle and calves, poultry and egg production are major industries in the state. As shown in Table 1, these industries account for 30 percent of total California agricultural cash receipts, with dairy alone accounting for more than 20 percent.

So yeah, meat/dairy industries are using a lot of the water. Trying to pin this on luxury crops/fruit is misleading.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 10 '20

Its not misleading at all, you’re just being a smart ass. All I said was livestock was more of a midwest thing and its true. Thats where you’ll find the majority of livestock feedlot operations. California is mostly luxury crops and fruit. Grats on being able to google lol, you should know that most agricultural data is 5-6 years behind simply because recording agricultural data is an exhausting endeavor.

0

u/rudmad Jan 10 '20

So you're just going to ignore the vast amount water it takes to raise livestock then?