- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A climate researcher used a colorful word picture at a conference Monday in Sacramento to convey the gravity of rising temperatures on earth, reported Elizabeth Case in the Davis Enterprise.
"The climate is an angry beast and we're poking it with a sharp stick" said Benjamin Santer, a research scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
The conference, hosted by UC's Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics, covered water use, adaptation to a changed climate and tangible predicted impacts on California's agricultural production, the...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Agricultural operations ranging from small family farms to agribusiness giants are feeling the pinch of the California drought, reported Dale Kasler in the Sacramento Bee. Growers are fallowing land, tapping expensive groundwater and rationing supplies to keep their orchards and vineyards alive.
The article said west side farming giant Harris Ranch plans to fallow thousands of acres of cropland and use it's scarce water supplies to irrigate permanent crops: almonds, pistachios and asparagus. The ranch says it will hire at least 1,000 fewer field workers than usual this year.
“The trees are there. They can't be moved, they...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Authors of a newly published water policy book say a new approach is needed to manage California’s aquatic ecosystems, according to a Public Policy Institute of California news release about the publication.
Recommendations include moving away from the current strategy, which aims to save one species at a time under the federal and state Endangered Species Acts. Instead, a broader approach would create better conditions for many species and address the multiple causes of ecosystem decline.
Wide-ranging water policy reforms are detailed in Managing California’s Water: From Conflict to...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The most recent estimates of job losses due to cuts in water allocations from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta are far lower than was first predicted, according to an article published last week in the Contra Costa Times.
In early 2009, UC Davis economist Richard Howitt predicted the drought and new restrictions on Delta pumping would cost 95,000 jobs, but he revised the figure downward a number of times. Even though, the old number is still sometimes used, recently by Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman and Republican U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina,...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
California Sen. Dianne Feinstein fanned a controversy earlier this month when she said she would propose legislation urging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to raise the valley's water deliveries. Her idea was hailed by West Side growers and farmworkers - who say they are suffering economically because of short water supplies - and criticized by environmentalists and many of her fellow democrats - who believe the water is needed to protect delta smelt and salmon.
Yesterday, the Los Angeles Times bolstered the environmentalists' position with an article that said agriculture's reported economic difficulties have been...