[reducesuffering]

SoCal will just use NorCal water along with access to ocean desalination. For residential use, there is plenty, without needing to ship out water in the form of half of the US's fruits, nuts, berries, and vegetables. Solar ramp-up is progressing well, already at 17% vs. 50% natural gas, with battery storage to eventually buffer the rest of the 15% nuclear + hydro.

[dragonwriter]

> SoCal will just use NorCal water along with access to ocean desalination.

There’s not enough NorCal water for that, which is why SoCal already relies on Colorado River water as well as NorCal water.

> For residential use, there is plenty, without needing to ship out water in the form of half of the US’s fruits, nuts, berries, and vegetables.

Sacrificing the state’s agriculture would…rather deeply harm the economy.

> Solar ramp-up is progressing well, already at 17% vs. 50% natural gas, with battery storage to eventually buffer the rest of the 15% nuclear + hydro.

Nearly a third of California’s energy is imported. displacing fossil fuels with clean renewables for in-state generation is good, but it isn’t self-sufficiency.

[nerdchum]

Do you know how much energy it would take to desalinate water for 30 million people plus all the farms?

We're talking numerous large nuclear power plant levels of energy.

Have you reaf how long it takes to build a nuclear power plant??

Around a decade.

So it's not as simple as just "desalinate"

[reducesuffering]

Right now, 80% of California water is used for agriculture. If you reduce the ag water usage that is shipping most of that produce to the rest of the country, CA has water for residential and ag. for its 39 million.

[dragonwriter]

> If you reduce the ag water usage that is shipping most of that produce to the rest of the country,

Those aren’t gifts to the rest of the country (and, actually, much of it is exported directly internationally), they are cash crops, and the lifeblood of rural California.

[reducesuffering]

This whole thread I responded to was about CA self-sufficiency and I was specifically arguing that CA can be quite self-sufficient.

> California would immediately become a failed state on its own, unable to meet even the most basic needs of its residents

Of course CA independence would be economically harmful and disruptive. Doesn't mean CA won't be able to provide its own water by taking an ag trade economic hit.

[nerdchum]

From where?

I don't understand how that's possible. I don't know of any lakes or rivers or aquifers larger enough to provide water to almost 40 million people in California.

[reducesuffering]

The Sierra Nevada watershed

https://www.nature.org/media/california/california_drinking-...

The large greenery to the right is the Colorado River which provides 15% of CA water at the bottom.

[nerdchum]

Sierra Nevada watershed is already being used by Northern California.

It provides 60% of California water.

Even removing the farms, I couldn't find any data supporting that it was enough water for the rest of California.

But that doesn't necessarily mean that it can't either.

The data I found says the Sierra Nevada watershed supports 750,000 farms.

Is that equivalent to 15 million people or so?

[reducesuffering]

Californian agriculture is 80% of water usage. That agriculture is largely shipped out of state, internationally, and supplying the rest of the US half of its produce outside staple grains: fruits, nuts, vegetables, berries, etc.

[tristor]

Desalination will likely be required long term for SoCal no matter what, but currently California is not capable of supporting the energy requirements of desalination to replace the water it gets from out of state. The vast majority of California water comes from out of state, less than 30% comes from sources in-state.

[reducesuffering]

> The vast majority of California water comes from out of state, less than 30% comes from sources in-state.

That's quite a preposterous assertion. Source? CA has ~85% coming from the Sierra Nevada watershed, only 15% is the Colorado River at the bottom. "California receives 75 percent of its rain and snow in the watersheds north of Sacramento."[0] CA is more than water self-sufficient if it loses the 15% Colorado River, but reduces the ag. water usage (80%) that ships out most of it to the rest of the states.

https://water.ca.gov/water-basics/the-california-water-syste...