Pumped Dry: A race to the bottom of the Ogallala in Kansas
Вставка
- Опубліковано 9 гру 2015
- The largest aquifer in North America is nearing depletion in many areas, putting massive stress on farmers and communities.
In places around the world, supplies of groundwater are rapidly vanishing. As aquifers decline and wells begin to go dry, people are being forced to confront a growing crisis.
Much of the planet relies on groundwater. And in places around the world - from the United States to Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America - so much water is pumped from the ground that aquifers are being rapidly depleted and wells are going dry.
PUMPED DRY: The Global Crisis of Vanishing Groundwater, The Desert Sun, USA TODAY, The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting
See more: www.usatoday.com/pages/interac...
****************
Humankind: Amazing moments that give us hope ➤ bit.ly/2MrPxvd
Humankind: Stories worth sharing ➤ bit.ly/2FWYXNP
Animalkind: Cute, cuddly & curious animals ➤ bit.ly/2GdNf2j
Just the FAQs: When news breaks, we break it down for you ➤ bit.ly/2Dw3Wnh
The Wall: An in-depth examination of Donald Trump’s border wall ➤ bit.ly/2sksl8F
He talks about a good corn crop 9:00 and worries that the pump is starting to gasp air. Corn is a water intensive crop. Was it a good idea to raise corn in a dry climate and not some crop that requires less water?
Exactly! If Kansas is not a rain intensive state then we probably shouldn't have a lot of farms there. At one time, when the farms were smaller and the climate was different it might have been ok, but as populations and climate, etc. changes then we need to make some changes too. We're going to have to be smarter about how we utilize our limited resources.
And corn is basically nutritionally void. It’s fattening filler they put in all processed garbage. It’s not even like actual good sweet corn that you would eat alone as a whole food. They are growing trash and they know it but they are roped into it by subsidies. American farmers are almost not really growing edible food. Then people get obese eating that bullshit and their health bills fall on tax payers. Our system needs a complete overhaul. Sometimes I think the powers that be are retarded or they are purposely just letting civilization drive off a cliff. I have a feeling we are in for a ride come the 2030’s or 40’s.
@@ryanleblanc6817 We are in for a ride in the rest of the 2020's. It's already started.
@@frankblangeard8865 A lot of different ecosystems and party of the natural world are facing collapse in the 2030s and 40s. Even insects are taking a huge hit.
What crops are you suggesting ?
They need to set up recharge stations all over the plains. It would only take 90 trillion gallons of rain water to recharge.
India is a great case study on how to do this.
This is partly because we live in such excess. Like the man said in the beginning, "We thought it was going to last forever". Nothing lasts forever, that's why we need to exercise restraint. We're bulldozing ecosystems as if there's an infinite number of them on the earth. We're over manufacturing everything, cars, houses, stuff that goes inside of the houses, always looking to buy something new when what we have still works. We're destroying the world we live in and we're beginning to reap the repercussions of our excessiveness.
Lieutenant Governor Colyer said the problem is going to require "community buy in for decades" to solve the problem. That's a cop-out. The government knew what was happening and should have jumped on this problem years ago. The government can exact change and this is one of those situations where it's vital for them to do so or there's not going to be anything left there for them to govern.
More than just a euphemism. "Nothing lasts forever" doesn't really describe the totality of climate change--even by the planet cycle itself. "Little Ice Age" is correct, but the slowness of just that alone would have given man the opportunity to change slowly. This is calamity for this area. The reduction in rainfall means virtually no crop will survive, forget lasting forever.
it is very frustrating to think that half of the food that we produce is used to fatten livestock.
A great deal of it also ends up in landfills. We're very wasteful. When you consider how much we throw away on a daily bases from our own homes, and the grocery stores and restaurants, etc. It's a HUGE amount.
How much of the corn goes into gasoline.
Yes. This. Being vegan can help farmers
@@secondact7151 About 40%.
I feel terrible for what farmers are going through. Hopefully y'all can get together and save the aquifer for your future generations. And I like wheat, beer especially.
They have been monetizing water that does not belong to them. Think about it-- they didn't pay for that water but they get to use it to make money just because their families got there first... it's unfortunate that they won't be able to pass along the family business in the future but they caused the problem by not realizing that water is a finite resource! They could have paced their use decades ago while looking for alternatives. Now no one gets to use that water.
Ironically, part of the answer is to grow more wheat. Uses less water.
This guy---"I want my kids to have this lifestyle". Also this guy---I gotta get this shit before my neighbor does.
The tears of this farmer did not move me in the slightest. I spent years farming and know how obstinate the majority of them are. Some farmers prefer to pay the fine for pumping over their allotments rather than lose the yield. Another example is continuing to water after the corn is mature to maintain test weight. Another example is refusing to remove their 90 gal/min end-guns which are hugely inefficient by blowing water up into the hot summer wind. And policies of "use it or lose it" contribute to the waste. If you cut back on your pumping, they will remove your rights and give them to someone else. And by the way, the midwest does not feed the nation. Growing corn for producing unhealthy beef in a feedlot, high fructose corn syrup, ethanol, and soy is not how the world is fed. I call BS on all of this.
I agree. If you can't figure out that the wells are getting lower year after year. Not rocket science. Gonna wait till no water left than look for a bailout ? Large areas of Sask and Alberta are drier. They grow difference crops with no irrigation. Might not be as profitable but they adapt and still farm. These large farms always want to grow one crop over thousands of acres. How about some diversity.
Why don't they water the fields only at night to minimize the losses by evaporation? And how many times a day do they need to water the fields? And why don't they plant trees around all fields to reduce erosion? Thanks to the person who will be able to give me an answer.
I am just a trucker and I have known of this issue for over 10 years. I got geology 101 from the library and they told of this issue then. Thing is we can't keep population levels the way they are if we continue to waste water. We need to change the way we go to the bathroom. We need to change the way we use water. We can take our shower water filter it and use it for other use if we stop using all these petroleum products when we shower? Think I am nuts well I might be just an old trucker but I have worked all aspects of the trucking industry, harvest, processing, chemical transport, cryogenics transport. That and we are taking in MORE wasteful people? If Americans that for the most part obey and follow rules will not I can't write anymore this has brought me such extreme depression that I have no hope for our nation let alone for all the assholes that are trying to come here and kill people for their religion.
you should watch cowspiracy
Reading your comment about Americans following rules for the greater good in the lens of mid-pandemic is really disappointing
There must be a giant empty cavern down there just waiting to cave in
My uncle grows (used) cotton around Black TX, and we sailed past doomsday a decade ago.
A ruminant crop would be better just like what used to roam over this area. Trampling their faeces into the ground, trimming the grass and helping it grow lower in the ground and changing the top area into a sponge which will hold water and deliver it back into the Aquifer. Grain crops are all take, take, take. And when they leave the area they leave nothing behind, no life of any sort, no Carbon in the ground.
Money. 90% leave to put food on their table. That is, unless you revive tribal heritage. Got a bow and arrow anybody?
Very smart and educated farmers. But even they are unsure what to do about it. Very worrying.
Any update for 2018?
We're SOL
I like the bravery to go on record and agree to be profiled. The people in this story represent thousands.
the best way i can explain why america has been so rapidly depleted of topsoil and fossil water resources:
( and why african americans have been intentionally collecting and cooking, the otherwise safe, clean, regulated prescription pharmaceutical alternative, into deadly concentrations of the active ingredient fentanyl to kill people with )
is with a History Lesson ( concerning "no talk" topics )
HEROIN STATED IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA,
people who went there ended up on it, and it quickly spread .... so Other People HAD TO make their own heroin, to treat their affected, To Avert Losing Their Autonomy.
Sub-Saharan Africa Uses Heroin Like A Weapons System.... NO OTHER PEOPLE HAVE EVER MADE IT FOR ANY OTHER REASON THAN A DEFENSIVE MEASURE.
they don't report their numbers, they don't report their incomes, but they will breed faster than the food grows, if feed.
We pumped it dry for corn to put in gas tanks wait 5 years for failed crops to feed us with there are not instant replacement. We will see how smart turning food to gas was.
This is a real issue, when than I look at Washing County that is using that water for lawns and golf courses. We need to look at the nation and our water uses.
Unsustainable in all measures. My mother was the last generation born in a colonial farm, these families settled around the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 1900 hundreds. Looking at the history of my mothers' family, you see that the whole business model was unsustainable, they struggle to adapt and by 1950's the farm business was pretty much dead, they only had the old big colonial houses, by then they had to sell what was left of it and move to the cities, the family broke apart after that. Today folks are all strangers and the new generations know nothing about the past colonial history.
It took thousand of years to fill the groundwater reservoirs...and it is taking us less than 200 years to deplete most of it, out modern way of life is unsustainable and we are moving towards a wall at 200 miles a hour, there is no way to stop it. Population numbers will have a severe correction, I would say it will drop to 20% or less from the current numbers before the end of the century, there is just not enough water and food for all.
I don't get why we don't just limit the human population
@@treyprevost2547 People in the West and China don't want to stop all the mass consumption and people in the second and third world don't want to stop getting 8 children.
@@treyprevost2547 We live in a growth-based economy under the assumption that the population is always increasing. If the population starts to decline, you'll see the wealthiest start to panic. It's why Elon Musk is telling everyone to make more children, even though it's bad for the planet.
Farmers talk about not taking from the government and they “love living off the land” but once they milk this water source dry they will be clamoring to front of the line with their hands out asking for help. Pathetic
Once "they"? They're not the ones buying and eating the corn, you are.
You will be at the front of the line looking for food when the farmers give up farming !
As someone that is farming on the driest continent on the planet .. Australia .. something I noticed that seems to be everywhere in the US , and would help this unused home , where are the spouts .. gutters .. and water catchment tanks ? Even the machinery sheds ... wouldn't need to rely on a well to live in a house,
If the use of irrigation was stopped what would the yield be? Half what they get now? That would give them a higher price for the crop. Supply and demand. I'm sure I'm wrong just wondering. Would It even out?
What they produce in the Southern Plains is dwarfed by production in the corn belt and South America, so they don't have enough of the market to make an impact on price. For example 2012 was one of the best years ever for those guys because they had a pretty good year for rain and there was a historic drought in the corn belt which drove the market price way up, so that year they had high prices and high yields. I know it's been a year since you posted this but I hope that answers your question.
Plant Perennial Woody Crops and Cacti?
This came out in 2015. What’s the status on the aquifer today?
10k to 30k cows died
still very bad! there's a reason rivers and lakes are drying up. when the groundwater is depleted, it no longer keeps the streams full.
So did the well run dry yet? Just checking.
You have to ask why isn't every person East of the MS river asked to grow something ANYTHING ! Money can't be the only reason to do things? There has to be some other reason
Money isn't the only reason and anyone who believes that is a fool. Money is a medium of exchange, not an end of itself.
A lot of food crops used to be grown in the Midwest but could not compete with irrigation and long growing seasons. It has been many years since I've seen a tomato crop here in Indiana. I don't think any tomato canning facilities are left so even if a farmer wanted to plant tomatoes, he would have no market.
Water water no where and not a drop to drink . . . Salty 🎵
Ma family has been here 100 yrs . . .
How much of the corn is raised to supply biofuels production?
growing grain for meat uses the most water. Should be more growing of plants for people to eat, and less mass meat production
Pump any yearly flood waters into the Aquifer, build pipe lines dedicated to that, is that so hard to do, is that stretch for us to think about and do, spread this solution now
You have 10,000,000 mosquitoes land on your arm at the same time drawing the blood out of your arm. How many glasses of water do you need to toss down your throat to keep up with the loss of blood from your arm every day?
Or maybe we could build a pipeline at the end of the Mississippi river just before the water flows into the Gulf of Mexico, and pump it up back to the central plains.
The aquafer is about history.
I resent being forced to use (crap) ethanol in my vehicles.
Get RID of the ethanol and maybe look into a pipeline from the Great Lakes.
It would be a huge job but look at how we all pay to keep New Orleans from flooding. We rebuild the coast after every hurricane.
It's time to consider moving water from where it is to where we need it.
And then we will empy the Great Lakes and turn them into a desert like the Aral sea. We should rather pump water up from the end of the Mississippi river before it flows out to the Gulf of Mexico and bring it back with a pipeline to the central plains.
im curious , has anyone in govt ever had a study done to see how much food s needed , actually needed to feed this country. not to fuel cars or sell to china but self reliance study. we would be well ahead of the problem if we grew the right crops and only what we needed.. the less we grow the more water we save, kinda simple.
Because we export food to countries that can't produce enough to cover their local needs. Like we import products we can't produce in our country.
Can't rivers be partially diverted by pipeline to the aquifer rather than running to the sea? If you can run oil pipelines OVER the aquifer you should be able to run a pipeline INTO the aquifer. Mother nature will take abt 6,000 years at approx.1/2 inch a year to refill it.
You cannot run a river into an aquifer because the aquifer water is cleaned through the ground. If you put river water into an aquifer you will contaminate the cleanliness of the aquifer.
The Arkansas river runs right over the aquifer and has been bone dry for decades.
Your solution: Stop farming corn, wheat today. Raise chickens or low water crops. Protect the little water you have left.
J
Exactly totally agree 👍
It is tragic and I feel sorry for the famers and of course the consumers. We are going to be in trouble because this is happening in many places of the world. The biggest problem is meat consumption. Most of the corn will end up as cattle feed. If don't cut back on meat we will run out of water and food very fast.
Most of the corn goes to ethanol at 40%
Animal feed is next at 36%
STOP THE ETHANOL RIPOFF!
Better yet, cut the earths population down to a sustainable 2 billion
Trey Prevost might wanna talk to China and India
Bring back the Buffalo and open prairies. The people that lived here 10,000 years ago had it right.
The struggle of tradition against the changing times... Nobody wants the dustbowl back and it's up to everyone to work together to prevent that. Now is not the time to let anyone bury their head in the sand.
Quit throwing stuff down into the well...
Plants free of water deficit events more efficiently absorb available plant nutrients enabling plants to achieve their maximum genetic potential. SWRT membranes installed below plant root systems retain water where it falls, providing continuous delivery of
drought-free periods up to 3 times longer than intensely irrigated control sands without root zone water retention membranes (Guber et al, 2016).
MORE THE REASON TO PROTECT THE RIVERS AND LAKES... #MNIWICONI #WATERISLIFE #NODAPL #NOKXL
Bruh
Idk these frames seem to be crying boo-hoo over a crime they are committing.
Take that Kansas farmers. The ogallala aquifer belongs to nebraska! Hiss!!!!!
Boo, hiss. Good one, only topped by "Go tell it to Texas!"
@
They worry about this every 15 years. Then one good year of rain, BOOM! It's all replenished. The water isn't going anywhere. Anyway, they are talking about the SOUTWEST part of Kansas. Part of the Dust Bowl.
Trying to scare you into not eating meat.
Actually, the High Plains Aquifer is a lot more than just one section of Kansas - as it points out in the beginning of the video, the aquifer extends through eight different states. The aquifer takes hundreds of years to replenish, and one year of good rain doesn't do it. Then there's the subsidence issue, which can create a whole range of other problems.
I am originally from Nebraska and we are all well aware of what the Ogallala Aquifer is and where it is located. It does not take hundreds of years to replenish. No idea where you got that info.
My point is, that those area on the edge of the aquifer will see it recede more that the areas in the middle. Just like a lake, when there are dry times, ect. especially those areas that are dryer than most, like Southwest Kansas.
Half of the what is produced in the fields is used to fatten livestock. How can you defend that?
Dropping at 2 feet per year, replenished at about 1/2 inch per year.
You do not know what you're talking about, facts are facts
I see these huge farm buildings and millions in equipment. But basically zero diversity in crops there. Ground water has been depleted over many years. Not like you could not see the future coming. Sad but time to use some common sense and not always look at the mighty $$$. so many farmers were all too happy to keep buying their neighbors and grow into these huge land masses. Now they face a dismal future. Good luck to them.
All The World's Nations Need To Unite AGAINST The United Nations !!!! ( to keep sub-saharan africa from pulling the bottom out of the world's food supply )
they breed faster than the food grows, and don't cooperate with census work.
It's their own damn fault.
Whoa. Farmers don't create demand. And, do you even know Water Laws?