Most of the water is used by agriculture 80%. The rest is used by people. most of the farms are in central and northern california. If you ever drove the 5 in summer. They spray water in 110 degree heat in 24/7. most evaporate in the heat. wasted water. Most of the food is eaten by the other 290 million Americans who dont grow fruits veggies and nuts Instead they grow corn. and wheat.
@@saybanana ???????? Are you sure ? I live in san joaquin county, the farm isn using 24/7, dont make the narration if you are not live close to farm, there is no water evaporated at all, come drive 12/99/180/122. Come now to see it your self, you just drive i5, i5 is highway and you see the dried one😅
I see these comments but i live in san Diego and in the city im from if you go more up you see mountains and green and really pretty I've never really realized the problem we have with water ⛰.
They divert water away to save a specific fish species. There's plenty of water they are just keeping it from the residents. And they get away with over charging you guys because you put up with it and keep voting these thieves into office.
The 2012 to 2016 droughts were so horrible, there was this huge lake behind my high school and in those few years that lake went from being full of water to looking like dried desert land.
The 3D aerial CGI map is awesome! Nice drone coverage too! Gives a different and unique perspective while also being educational. Cool video. Thank you.
Lived in LA my whole life. Private landscaping is a huge water waster. Additionally, if LA found a way to capture its seasonal rains and didn’t let it flow to the ocean, that would solve the entire regions problems.
Theresa Dailey Local legislation has passed recently but heretofore you needed to get special permits to have rainwater capture devices on your property.
I used to drive home to Sacramento from LA every holiday, and the drive is 7 hours long, and that aqueduct will still never leave your sight. That thing's the height of Germany practically
Further than that, go up to Oroville and see the dam there, that controls some flow down Feather River, which leads directly to the Sacremento River, which of course empties to the delta that los Angeles draws from for the main aqueduct. And that Oroville dam is supplied by the way up north Sierra Nevadas.
I remember asking my Mom when I was a kid, "Why am I watering the lawn when we live in a desert?" Our house had both a front and back lawn which took quite some time to water and it seemed to be a waste of water to me when I was young.
I had a really beautiful green lawn when I used to live in California but it was mostly thanks to the septic tank that had it's water outflow placed across the lawn. Never had to water once and had to cut it weekly because it would turn into a jungle xD
@@olderbutyoung7959 that’s what happens when you “green” yourself into poverty voting in socialists , leftists and first generation Californians raised by migrant parents that refuse to assimilate into the system by walking away from the values that pushed them out of their original countries , this explains why the exodus of people leaving California are welcomed elsewhere so long as they leave their failed California ideologies IN CALIFORNIA
Mt Whitney is only one of 3 almost same height mountains in the lower 48. Mt rainier and Mt Elbert are almost the same height. But yeah, it is not that rare that very high and very low points are near to each other
As a Californian from the Central Valley it’s very easy to see that we could be big trouble if droughts continue to happen. Last year it didn’t rain to much here. Hopefully we have some decent rain. The more rain the more snow up in the mountains means more water in the spring time.
The biggest idea I am trying to express is tunneling aqueducts from the coast, in this case the west coast of the USA inland to feed combination geothermal power and sea water desalination plants. The idea seems to be so big that no one has considered it possible but I believe it is not only possible but it is necessary. For over a century the fossil water contained in aquifers has been pumped out to feed agriculture, industry and municipal water needs. The natural water cycle cant refill fossil water deposits that were filled 10,000 years ago when the glaciers melted after the last ice age. Without refilling these aquifers there is not much of a future for the region of the United states. As a result ground levels in some areas of the San Joaquin Valley have subsided by more than 30 feet. Similar fossil water depletion is happening in other regions all around the world. TBM and tunneling technology has matured and further developments in the industry are poised to speed up the tunneling process and it's these tunnels that are the only way to move large volumes of water from the ocean inland. The water is moved inland to areas where it can be desalinated in geothermal plants producing clean water and power. In many cases the water will recharge surface reservoirs where it will be used first to make more hydro power before being released into rivers and canal systems. It's very important however to not stop tunneling at these first stops but to continue several legs until the water has traveled from the ocean under mountain ranges to interior states. Along the way water will flow down grade through tunnels and rise in geothermal loops to fill mountain top pumped hydro batteries several times before eventually recharging several major aquifers. What I am proposing is essentially reversing the flow of the Colorado River Compact. Bringing water from the coast of California first to mountaintop reservoirs then to the deserts of Nevada and Arizona and on to Utah, New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming. This big idea looks past any individual city or states problems and looks at the whole and by using first principles identifies the actual problem and only solution. Thank you for your time, I would like the opportunity to explain in further detail and answer any questions
What gets me high key heated is it's 110 degrees out right now and they want me to let my lawn, shrubs and trees die. Meanwhile, their running water to the desert farmers on the west side of the Central Valley in an unlined ditch that runs right by my property. A couple of years ago after a 6 year drought, we had a super wet winter that filled all the dams in the state. Instead of pumping it down injection wells to the aquafer like they're required to, they drained the dams off to the farmers without a thought to residential use. It's all about priorities.
The production and processing of cotton uses large amounts of water, yet we continue to grow it here in California. California ranks 2nd in rice production in the U.S. You can travel for miles through the Sacramento Valley and see nothing but fields flooded with precious water for the growing of rice. Most of that rice goes to Asian Countries. Were almost always in a water crisis her in California, why is big agriculture allowed to grow some of the worlds most thirsty crops? Why not grow more olive groves? Some of the best Olive oil I have tasted I got in Corning CA. Love seeing those trees driving up the 5 freeway knowing they give us so much in the way of good health, and demand so little water.
This is the same in Australia. We grow cotton and rice in dry areas completely unsuited to water intensive cropping, and as a result our great but fragile Murray-Darling River system is in great stress, particularly in times of drought.
And, if the olive trees are drought-stressed, the quality of the oil produced is even better. It's one reason why Moroccan olive oil is some of the finest produced. As someone else said, crops should match the growing conditions.
That topographic map was excellent. Seeing all the rivers and aqueducts laid out in relation to each other shows how vast these project really are. And this was just California, I have to remind myself that there are seven states which share Colorado River water. I understand that we now put so much demand on it that it no longer reaches the Gulf of California in Mexico. It sure makes me want to redouble my conservation efforts.
@Bergelicious75 The San Jaoquin valley is only partly a desert, and used to have a bunch of lakes. The question you really have to ask is why there's any agriculture at all in places like the Cochaella valley. The Salton Sea is fed solely by irrigation runoff. Just water piped in and evaporating in the desert for no reason.
The Southern Valley wasn't even a valley, it was a series of lakes and marshlands home to Native American tribes and wetland ecosystems that all got filled in for the sake of farming. Now, heavy water extraction not only caused the land to become dry and crusty, but but caused it to sink.
Eric You alright? NorCal + Central Cal account for over a third of the nation’s fruits and veggies bc of its geography. Y’all are mainly a desert, what do you grow lol
it always bothers me to see people running their sprinklers at night just to water their sidewalk. so many people take the water we have for granted. i love california, but some of the people that live and move here are not the brightest. it’s a shame to see this beautiful state be abused.
Yeah, but what about the sidewalk. I hear that in Texas concrete must be watered so that it does not subside and become un-even. That practice is not only for sidewalks in Texas.
During the last drought we were on the verge of investing into desalination plants. The support for these plants has diminished since the end of the drought, but I think that is a mistake and we should start building them now while we can.
Yea, I wouldn't mind that. Just find a way to NOT throw all the chemical infused water that was use for desalination back into the ocean. I swear, that is one of the reasons why there was protest against.
When I saw Wilson I was reminded of how he allowed Nestle to empty one of our reservoirs for company projects. Most folks don’t understand that water bottles, that take a tremendous about if water to create and cause issues in drains and other water systems, are often just tap water. We would save money if each person put the money they spent on water bottles into updating local pipes and leaks, and would I hear less arsenic, plastic, and other chemicals found in the water in water bottles. I’m guessing the amount of lead in water is rising everywhere because we simply aren’t updating our symptoms enough. I’d love any professional’s opinion on this. Wishing everyone safety as we shift too quickly towards global instability like we’ve never seen.
Hahah worked near there and had to quit within a month. They dump potassium permanganate at the fish farms around there too. City drives in and doesnt even care since I guess that's one "medication" aka ocean pollutant for fish parasites. The hidden hands, the nephilim have no limits it seems.
I have never been to such an apocalyptic setting... near Bombay beach, got as far as Jeep could go then started walking out to shore... To my horror I looked down and I realized I wasn’t walking on sand, I was walking on fish bones and shells.
@@juch3 No, I would say that once the whites were booted out of government, that the corrupt and inept gentlemen of the ANC never bothered to maintain the system they had and instead stole the money from the infrastructure to line their pockets.
Kalifornia hasn’t built a water storage project since the 1950’s, yet they keep on building in places where there is no water. Don’t get me started on electricity.
I know it is small in scale and needs to be expanded- Carlsbad passes a bond a few years ago to build a desalination plant, Huntington Beach has a sewage treatment facility that is used to help recharge the O.C. aquifer- these are newer projects so there is hope. This problem isn't going to be solved at the state level, for certain. As for electricity, losing San Onofre was a big hit. Diablo Canyon will be closed soon, maximum production from wind & solar doesn't align with peak demand. Battery storage has limitations and NIMBYs don't like "peaker" generation. People living in So Cal need to modify our expectations and start building infrastructure again.
@@emmanuelaguado9740 "I'm praying for rain. I'm praying for tidal waves. I wanna see the ground give way, I wanna watch it all go down" - Tool, Ænima One can really hope for the St Andreas fault to do its job sooner than later
They border the largest ocean on Earth: If California was truly serious and prioritized environmental protection and water conservation, then they would desalinate on a massive scale.
@@emmanuelaguado9740 It has been known for a long time that the LA area has water problems and should not have had settlements of that size. It ties back to the gold rush, as with many things in California history, and once people became established and entrenched in the area, bringing water there became more politically expedient than limiting how many people can live there.
@@Wasserkaktus To be fair, they already do desalinate a lot, and it causes issue with making the areas they draw from oversalinated with brine when it is pumped back into the sea, damaging ecosystems. Though, that damage is more close to home than the damage out in the mountains, for the coastal city-dwellers, which is the same sort of dilemma as previously mentioned. There definitely could be more effort to desalinate, either in CA or elsewhere, funded by CA money, and powered by the excess solar energy they have from the massive-scale projects they embarked upon, but lack the capacity to store the excess of.
why does this feel like I'm a human from the future reading about ancient technology before the dark age of global civilization and marvelling at how well-engineered things were like reading about aqueducts in Ancient Rome...
last time I checked Saudi Arabia is the only large country with no permanent water sources, only seasonal streams along the western mountain ranges....is that right?
@@seanthe100 True. But compared to other countries like Switzerland, California has not even close to half of their population density, and yet they manage to be sustainable by making use of a similar mountain profile.
@@Zifti21 California is nothing like Switzerland. Death valley is in California and it just hit the hottest temps on the entire planet in 107 years. California's agricultural industry again is the main culprit and lack of rainfall.
We have a huge wetlands restoration project going on along Highway 37. That place is a fairly good indicator for CA’s current precipitation level by how dry that area is.
Darren Dube Vox is a left leaning political bullshit that thinks it’s viewers are dumb. Neo is at the very least factually correct and doesn’t get involved in politics.
Israel has 6 or more desalinization plants, They sell its excess water to Jordan. California can do this AND sell and supply Arizona and Nevada and possibly Mexico more water to help offset costs
That would be a simple solution if we didn't get constant push back from environmentalists who believe they are bad for fish populations because they believe that the plants shift the salt content in the water so much that it would affect them when in reality the salt content equalizes with the environment.
@@Ohioboi93 yes, over time, but if too close to shore then it creates a deadzone. The real issue is money if course. The concentrated brine could be piped miles out to sea and then the volume of the ocean, along with some sort of dispersal mechanism could mitigate the deleterious environmental effects. But that would add even more $$$ to the pricetag. Our collective Walmart mentality wouldn't pay. But yes, we could make it work. Conservation will never be enough as long as the constant growth mindset is our norm
@@Andras_Schiff I agree with your ocean statement, but I gotta say I believe there is NO WAY IN HELL Alaska is gonna have a water problem, at least not for the next 70-100 years
I just moved out of california after living there my whole life. I lived in San Luis Obispo, and we couldn’t go over a certain amount of water usage without being fined crazy amounts. Showers always had to be 5 minutes or less, and at one point in the big drought it got so bad we could only shower once every few days, along other things. I’m glad I’m gone, but it’s sad to see how my hometown on the beach is slowly becoming to look like a desert.
@@luism8612 Big metro cities don’t have the same restrictions because they are economic centers and the bulk of water usage in the state is from agriculture.
@@Pyrrhic. but that doesnt make sense. He said he would be fined for home water usage e.g showers, sinks etc. Thats not for agriculture that means it should have been applied to metro areas too following the same logic??
I was surprised this wasn't mentioned! Just google "california land subsidence" and you see insane pictures of how much the ground has been sinking. This can release arsenic from compressed mud into the system. Not to mention that the aquifers aren't getting enough recharge time which leads to more overdrawing
I lived in Northern California for the first thirty years of my life, and I have watched MANY drought cycles. Every one of them ended with a bang, rather than with a whimper. The most memorable one was 1975-1976. Meager snowpack and little rain. Lake levels dropped to approximately the levels where they are now. We didn't have water meters in Sacramento in those days, but everybody pitched in and self-rationed. I remember hearing the "experts" announce that we would never see the lakes full again. That was in January, 1976. It began to rain, and by April, they couldn't turn the water loose fast enough. They had to blow the levees and flood the bypasses. Mother Nature LOVES to make fools of such arrogant people. Here's hoping she will repeat her work.
I agree there was a bad drought in the 80s in Shasta Lake got really low parts of the crane that used to build the dam we're now visible for the first time. That just happened again. Anyway they said it would take 7 years of normal rainfall to fill it the next year was El Nino and it rain like hell and filled up everything including the lake in one year
Yeah, water in CA has always been feast or famine, but what's happening now is more longer, more frequent and more intense drought coupled by massive heatwaves.
Phil Rubio Take a look at the rapidly depleting groundwater underlying much of the midwest farm belt. Sufficient fresh water is a national, indeed global problem.
I don't know how to express my thanks but thank you so much, I have watched your videos before and especially subscribed this morning and its a coincidence that you've uploaded a video on the same day, please continue making videos and ill make sure to watch them all
In the old West there were Water Wars, they were so bad that that the cowboys used to say “Whiskey is for drinking...Water is for Fighting!” “It’s ChinaTown Jake ! China Town !”
Water desalination is an interested topic which I wish was covered a bit more. Solar powered desalination just kinda makes sense in my mind - peak drought, peak output.
Water desalination requires an enormous amount of energy and results in a huge pile of contaminated salt that is difficult to process into anything useful. So if we want to talk widespread desalination, we need to think nuclear energy. Solar will not be enough, fossil fuels--how many plants do we want? Each plant only produces a small amount of product... Also think what will happen to the coastlines of CA, they will not get prettier because we will need alot of desalination plants. Desalination is an expensive and not particularly efficient undertaking that belongs to measures of last resort and therefore is not much talked about.
Where do we put all that super-saline brine though. California's cold oceans are also rich fishing grounds, and such drastic changes in salinity destroys the vibrant ecosystem.
I remember one being built in Santa Barbara but they shut it off because its water was more expensive than standard sources. The problem of California's water isn't that there isn't enough on average, it's that it's feast or famine. When you feast desalination plants don't make financial sense. When you famine they do.
When I was in 6th grade they taught us how to conserve water and they had people come in from the local water company talk to us about conserving water.
Southern Calif. DOES recycle it's waste water. Some of it goes to watering landscaping while a large part of waste water is pumped upstream and allowed to drain into the underground aquafers. And, the condensate from the central air conditioning systems in buildings drains into the sewer systems allowing it to be recycled (Note: a single family dwelling can produce 10 gallons of condensate/water in one day during extreme humidity and warm weather).
@@clydebutler6487 Brown/gray water is recycled, but any run off goes straight to the ocean. It would be better to capture the run off for dual purpose of re-using it and to clean it.
Tell me all about it. We up here rationing water during the droughts and the southerners enjoying their swimming pools and green lawns. Not fair. But we've tried seceding to no avail.
Almost half of California’s water supply simply flows out to sea. About 40% is used by agricultural, growing high value crops on land that really can’t support it and paying very low rates. Almonds come to mind. Only 10% is use by urban areas paying very high rates. Thus the corporate mega-farms profit, using what is essentially subsidized water. And no mention at all about the pumping of ancient water out of the Central Valley aquifer at unsustainable rates and ground subsidence issues. This video while an honest attempt, barely scratched the surface of a complex issue.
Gary Yencich ...So very true sir! I watched a documentary about the massive amounts of water being used by almond, cashew and other nut “farms”...they are essentially stealing water from the residents in the area. There’s no sustainability at these rates and I don’t see them slowing down anytime soon.
Half the water does flow to the sea. Via a very essential delta that requires fresh supplies to sustain vast amounts of animal life. Reducing this flow also allows for seawater intrusion and further pollution of the already stressed aquifers.
If you dont like where they are grown, dont eat them. They grow in warm, Mediterranean climates, hence your "land that can't really sustain it". Water for growing has been reduced by 33%. Any company can become a corporation, so quit using that word like it's evil. Over 90% of almond farms are family owned. One of the biggest reasons the aquifers are being drained is because ca outlawed flood irrigation which naturally replenished the aquifers. Farmers pay out the nose for water, and many of them do not even recieve what's been contracted for and even paid for. If ca would have been investing into water storage like the dozens of bonds that have been passed since the seventies by the vote of the people, we would not be having this discussion. A years worth of water for 462,207,200 people went straight to the ocean between 2016-2018. That is 82.2% straight through the delta to flush the filth that the bay area creates and dumps straight into the ocean. Basically the government is using the delta smelt, a NON native fish species, as an excuse so that they can have enough water to flush its own giant toilet, but you won't hear about that. The rate of marine life that has died or been sickened in the bay area has risen astronomically in recent years, but you won't hear about that. Nor will you hear that the Banks and Jones Pumps were only allowed to capture and store just 15.3% of the water flow, to then be SHARED by families, businesses and agriculture combined. But you won't hear about that either. This is a rabbit hole that is deeper than any well could ever be. You and your ilk need to stop placing blame on farmers for the state's water woes.
Gary Yencich - Not exactly true. You are combining the urban use with the industrial use such as oil manufacturing. California's ag industry accounts for 80% of the water used in the state. The other industrial use is 10% adding up to a total of 90% before any of the people in the state get to use any water for themselves. All the people in the state, both urban and rural, use only 10% of the water for everything, this includes the obvious like drinking water, showers, watering lawns, but also car washes, golf courses, swimming pools, laundromats, everything the people use is just 10%. Californians don't have enough water because 90% of it goes to making products for the other 49 states.
Dang! I wished I watched this video before submitting one of my assignments for the geography class I'm in! LOL I grew up in California and have lived here for many years. After traveling all over the state and now being stationed here, some of the environmental concerns this state has are more meaningful now than when I was a kid. Roughly four hours east of Sacramento, on the Eastern portion of California, lies the mighty Sierra Nevada mountain range. Stretching north to south approximately 400 miles long is the biggest mountain range in California. It is also home to the tallest mountain; Mt. Whitney at 14,505 ft. During winter months the Sierra’s collect heavy amounts of snowfall which are discharged in certain directions. Some of the watershed is dispersed to major areas such as San Francisco, the Pacific Ocean, San Joaquin River, as well as Western Nevada. Being that California has the biggest population and economy in the United States, a lot of it is driven through the agricultural community. When snow falls, it creates frozen reservoirs which hold it for months, only until warmer temperatures in the summer months cause it to melt and run off into sustainable storage systems. From here the water is collected and dispersed where it is needed. Due to the fact that 60% of the states’ fresh water comes from the Sierras, it is not lost on anyone that they play a major role in the water resource that is pivotal for Californian’s. As greenhouse gas emissions rise, the problem now is that the temperature increases are speeding up snowmelt runoff, causing a severe imbalance in collecting and storing the water flow in reservoirs, which is also producing a flooding risk to local facilities. By the end of the 21st century, experts are predicting a seven to ten degree increase in temperature. While some may think extra water isn’t bad throughout the region, collecting it and using it is to places that need it is more meaningful. Some solutions to brainstorm for this issue could be to find more adaptive ways to collect the runoff, such as underground aquifers that can be easily supplied to nearby agricultural developments. A good sign now is that companies are already getting ahead of the problem by responding to greenhouse emissions. Knowing that we have almost zero control of mother nature, we as people can help stop these climate change impacts by simply being conservative at saving water at home, using alternative methods for transportation or car-pooling, as well as incorporating more modern homes with rain-capturing system to preserve water use.
Seriously, the powers that be are only NOW in 2021, considering using "recycled" water on golf courses instead of drinking water! What the actual f***???
@@AntonioSanchez-op8bu I agree with you in that cities and agriculture use huge amounts of water, but it all boils down to the point that private corporations have a much greater footprint and are far more wasteful than your average person.
Most golf courses in the US use a blend of waste water which is not the same as drinkable water (you would not want to drink this). Your point is still valid, but aim that for the farmers who chose to farm in a desert lol
I read somewhere where rather than build more water storage Newsome wants to eliminate one because of something to do with a fish and tribal issues. Not to mention all the rain we get in our rain gutters ends up in the bay.
Southern California was conquered and settled by people from the Northeast and Midwest with a historical ancestry from North West Europe, they are not a desert people. Humans transform the environment to suit them according to their resources, and the Anglo settlers of California in the early 20th century had a lot of resources. However, this is a tale as old as civilization, going back to the irrigation canals of ancient Sumer. It's a good thing, it is what separates us from animals.
Saphhiregriffin Very few people in California live in the desert. Los Angeles is NOT a desert. It's a semi-arrid mediterranean climate. California also gets a lot of water from the mountains, there is plenty for all the people that live there. 40 million people. To put that in perspective, the 5th most populous state is Illinois with only 14 million people. Yet the 40 million people in California only use 10% of its water. 90% of California's water goes to industries like agriculture and oil refineries making products for the other 49 states.
I live on the Oregon coast. In our state, we don’t tan... we rust lol. Plus my house is walking distance to the ocean (less than half a mile). But I’ve lived here off and on for 30 years. It’s definitely dryer in this area than it was in the mid 80’s. These shows are important to watch but they are pretty depressing. Water is the most precious resource by far and we ignore it’s importance (for our future) WAYYY TOO MUCH out of greed and necessity to maintain a huge population that cannot maintain itself (long term). I hope the generation of people on this planet 500 years for now can forgive us. 😢
A few other projects worth mentioning is the Hetchy Hetchy and Mokelumne aqueducts that bring water from Sierra Nevada to the Bay Area and the Klamath Mountains projects that diverts water from the water basin above the Sacramento River into the Sacramento River basin, which then flows down the river to the catchment areas in the delta.
The biggest idea I am trying to express is tunneling aqueducts from the coast, in this case the west coast of the USA inland to feed combination geothermal power and sea water desalination plants. The idea seems to be so big that no one has considered it possible but I believe it is not only possible but it is necessary. For over a century the fossil water contained in aquifers has been pumped out to feed agriculture, industry and municipal water needs. The natural water cycle cant refill fossil water deposits that were filled 10,000 years ago when the glaciers melted after the last ice age. Without refilling these aquifers there is not much of a future for the region of the United states. As a result ground levels in some areas of the San Joaquin Valley have subsided by more than 30 feet. Similar fossil water depletion is happening in other regions all around the world. TBM and tunneling technology has matured and further developments in the industry are poised to speed up the tunneling process and it's these tunnels that are the only way to move large volumes of water from the ocean inland. The water is moved inland to areas where it can be desalinated in geothermal plants producing clean water and power. In many cases the water will recharge surface reservoirs where it will be used first to make more hydro power before being released into rivers and canal systems. It's very important however to not stop tunneling at these first stops but to continue several legs until the water has traveled from the ocean under mountain ranges to interior states. Along the way water will flow down grade through tunnels and rise in geothermal loops to fill mountain top pumped hydro batteries several times before eventually recharging several major aquifers. What I am proposing is essentially reversing the flow of the Colorado River Compact. Bringing water from the coast of California first to mountaintop reservoirs then to the deserts of Nevada and Arizona and on to Utah, New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming. This big idea looks past any individual city or states problems and looks at the whole and by using first principles identifies the actual problem and only solution. Thank you for your time, I would like the opportunity to explain in further detail and answer any questions
@@sonicvenom8292 As if California water canal system (especially in Los Angeles, and overall South California) is archaic and built so to flush flooding water out into the seas, as fast as possible. When instead, all the water could be directed into the inland desert. Its simple outdated for modern context, and now needs to be redesigned.
@@niilespunkari8832 That would be awesome and the best way to go, I don't know why they haven't decided on something like that, shit they can even make modern day Chinampa with that kind of flooding in addition biodiversity would flourish. Also nuclear or solar desalination would have saved us from this water problem for city usage.
Seawater desalination is actually really bad as it pumps very salty water back into the oceans raising the salt percentage. If oceans get more salty, marine life will die, and it can actually cause more storms/droughts because the currents will start shifting.
During the big drought, people in my neighborhood stopped watering their lawns and put up a sign saying "Brown is the new Green" and then promptly started watering them after water prices went back down.
There is no water problem in California. We have a political problem. Nearly 51% of California's annual water run off, according to state resources, is allowed to flow to the ocean. The powers that be will not allow more dams to be built to save water, yet communities all over are allowing homes and businesses to be built which exceed our available water resources. My community (Fresno / Clovis) saves water run off and recycles the water for common areas, but many communities do not. We need new leadership, but that isn't going to happen anytime soon.
I live in the SFV and a lot of people still have lawns which require lot's of water, however I have a neighbor with a "desert lawn" and imo it's way more beautiful than any grass lawn.
AYE!!!! I worked as an intern for the LA river eco restoration project. The plan is to make the catch fields along the banks of the river after they remove the artificial water walls in low risk locations. This could feed the LA basin for a big percentage of the water needed. we wouldnt need to pay for NoCal water :)
As a foreign who lived one year in the US, is easy to see the problem, watering laws even in times with rains, the toilets in LAX are gigantic, filled with water close to the top, if the rest of the city is the same, it's just a matter of time to be no more water in CA.
@@sonofsisyphus5742 I know that agriculture in any part of the world consumes lots of water, especially meat farm (people should stop asap). However, this isn't a reason for people wasting water in their homes, especially gigantic cities located in places without much rain in their watersheds.
Didn’t mention this stark fact: Only 10% of water is used by cities in CA, a whopping 80% is used in agriculture to grow almonds and rice patties in the desert.
Maybe, but that food industry is an important part of the economy! And, if you didn't get your lettuce and other produce from California, I guess you'd be paying a whole lot more for fresh food! And, as I grew up in California, I can tell you that all those well manicured lawns, landscaping, and swimming pools, are a total waste of water ... so your point is?
Very interesting. One thing that was left out, the population explosion in CA. Since the early 70's CA has gone from some 20 million people to about 40 million. What has not happened in that time? There have been no new large water storage projects. No new dams and reservoirs. It does not matter how much rain we get, without the ability to capture and hold double the amount of water we can right now CA will always have a water problem.
California's water problem is from poor governance, look at decade, drought and fire then abundance of rain and dump it into ocean, then again drought and fires. When will it learn !
Conversely, it was private development and interests (as well as PROFITS PROFITS PROFITS !!) that spawned Mahallond's incentive to create the Los Angeles Aqueduct to make enormous profits selling the water rights to farmers in the valley at a gauging-lee high rate that he secretly acquired thru obtaining Owens lake water. We should be beyond debating this, so long as we operate our society's economy using a monetary system, corruption and greed will take a foot hold at every corner, whether its government, or if its some CEO or board of directors. BTW this statement has nothing to do with capitalism, which is nothing but a variant of the monetary system, ANY of the monetary systems variants whether it be capitalism, socialism, communism, fascism, they ALL still operate under the context of currency; they are ALL basically the same; they are ALL corrupt
@@austinharding9734 Austin, you think that has stopped? The farmers agreed to pay for water from the California Aqueduct at very high profits for the state and MORE PARTICULARLY the banks that backed construction BONDS. Well now for some years the state has not delivered the water because of some variety of minnow in the North and the droughts while demanding that the farmer continue to pay for water that is not being delivered. I do take issue with you comments saying that fascism is a monetary system. It is not. look up the definition, it is totally a government system, as is Communism although Communism as we see it in this days world is exactly the opposite of Capitalism. With Communism the government owns everything and the individual is totally at the mercy of government for his very existence. There is no such thing as a CEO because everything is done under the management of a Government Bureaucracy. Even the USSR discovered that it does not work and it destroyed that band of nations just like Socialism is destroying the U.S.A.
If California had an electoral college system or some system which allowed the minority of voters who lived on the land with the water to have a say on how the water was distributed, they would have avoided most of the problems.
I just subscribed to your channel Neo. I was hooked immediately once you started talking about how bad the water problem is in California. I knew it was bad but I didn't think it was that bad but it is. You did such a great job making this video.
was very glad to see the change in approach to lawns over the last 8 years of drought in our state. i know in norcal the impetus of having a green lawn just isn't there anymore. most people let the seasons work the way they should, with zeroscape and native fauna in most people's yards. mediterranean plants are far more beautiful than simple grass anyway. we need to learn to work with our climate and natural environment, not create monoscapes!
v h been to Virginia and it was humid, is it humid in Carolina? Like this is how California works, the temperature is like 130 but feels like 70 and in Virginia, 80 felt like 140
@@krane15 the problem is ideological. Californians, and usonians in general are very conservative. They can't conceive a public project that will help everybody if they do their part. That's what's happening with the HSR.
@@akapilka Agreed. but we need to break out of that mindset or we're all doomed. The environment cannot sustain our current rate of depletion and if we don't come up with a better solution it well eventually fail. We should have started construction this 50 years ago, after the first oil crisis of the early 1970s. Imagine where we'd be today. Instead, nearly 50 years later we're still totally dependent on foreign oil.
@@TanJulia silly comment. Thats not even part of the discussion. California is a corrupt shit state, it needs to get it's act together and build more desalination plans.
75% of rainfall is in Northern California, 75% of the water usage is in Southern California.
I mean that is where the population is? Or is NorCal more populated?
Most of the water is used by agriculture 80%. The rest is used by people. most of the farms are in central and northern california. If you ever drove the 5 in summer. They spray water in 110 degree heat in 24/7. most evaporate in the heat. wasted water. Most of the food is eaten by the other 290 million Americans who dont grow fruits veggies and nuts Instead they grow corn. and wheat.
@@saybanana 100% correct. Drove up north and that's what we saw.
@@saybanana ???????? Are you sure ? I live in san joaquin county, the farm isn using 24/7, dont make the narration if you are not live close to farm, there is no water evaporated at all, come drive 12/99/180/122. Come now to see it your self, you just drive i5, i5 is highway and you see the dried one😅
I see these comments but i live in san Diego and in the city im from if you go more up you see mountains and green and really pretty I've never really realized the problem we have with water ⛰.
As a Californian I was almost too afraid to watch this video
As a fellow Californian I gotta say, so was I. SoCal right now has reached its hottest since like 1950
What the hell, same I was worried to watch it
Same here and I work for a water company here lol
LT. Mustache That was just a random heatwave, this summer has been cancelled be of the coolest in recent years
They divert water away to save a specific fish species. There's plenty of water they are just keeping it from the residents. And they get away with over charging you guys because you put up with it and keep voting these thieves into office.
The 2012 to 2016 droughts were so horrible, there was this huge lake behind my high school and in those few years that lake went from being full of water to looking like dried desert land.
The 3D aerial CGI map is awesome! Nice drone coverage too! Gives a different and unique perspective while also being educational. Cool video. Thank you.
It's not about illustration or coolness, here! It's about the content.
It's by Microsoft
Lived in LA my whole life. Private landscaping is a huge water waster. Additionally, if LA found a way to capture its seasonal rains and didn’t let it flow to the ocean, that would solve the entire regions problems.
Yes stop draining our dams to the ocean then tell us we have a drought
No rainwater catchment system in California ? Everyone should have one,
Theresa Dailey Local legislation has passed recently but heretofore you needed to get special permits to have rainwater capture devices on your property.
My family ditched our lawn in Ventura County 2 droughts ago. Now we have the native, drought tolerant landscape known as dirt.
@@Tylar571 Hope you don't live on a beach cliffside, or you'll soon find that solution eroding away
I used to drive home to Sacramento from LA every holiday, and the drive is 7 hours long, and that aqueduct will still never leave your sight. That thing's the height of Germany practically
Further than that, go up to Oroville and see the dam there, that controls some flow down Feather River, which leads directly to the Sacremento River, which of course empties to the delta that los Angeles draws from for the main aqueduct. And that Oroville dam is supplied by the way up north Sierra Nevadas.
CLEAN, SOBER, HEALTHY AND PROSPEROUS CALIFORNIA
@@sanbruno3606 that was clever
Climate change is a joke. It will rain when the atmosphere is ready to rain. Climate change is BULLCRAP.
@@walteryew9487 The rain/snow just happened to miss particular areas for given stretch of time. Meanwhile other areas are flooded.
I remember asking my Mom when I was a kid, "Why am I watering the lawn when we live in a desert?" Our house had both a front and back lawn which took quite some time to water and it seemed to be a waste of water to me when I was young.
Square donut
It was a waste of water when I had to mow the grass.
It was worthy use of water when we played on the grass.
It is a waste. Ive gone artificial grass and It feels awesome
Same here, it was mandatory to maintain the lawn green in the city I grew up in
I live in the central valley and I hate how everyone has lawns. Its a massive waste of water.
I had a really beautiful green lawn when I used to live in California but it was mostly thanks to the septic tank that had it's water outflow placed across the lawn. Never had to water once and had to cut it weekly because it would turn into a jungle xD
“Many Native American tribal lands have been flooded in the past in favor of dam projects”
Those damn projects.
@@arya3528 bukan
@@arya3528 rwhoosh
Arya Respati it's part of the joke
PEACE LOVE UNITY PROSPERITY CALM WISDOM HAPPINESS HONESTY
What I was just gonna write.
They told us to conserve water and when we did they raised our water rates because we weren't using enough.
Same with electricity.
@@olderbutyoung7959 that’s what happens when you “green” yourself into poverty voting in socialists , leftists and first generation Californians raised by migrant parents that refuse to assimilate into the system by walking away from the values that pushed them out of their original countries , this explains why the exodus of people leaving California are welcomed elsewhere so long as they leave their failed California ideologies IN CALIFORNIA
@@leefithian3704 truth
@@leefithian3704 and what values are those?
The values negative enough in practice to push people to move , sometimes at great danger and personal costs
Don’t you mean “Water’s California problem”
Ha ha well said
Death to humanity.
Internet Azzhole bruh
@@eshwarkumar8138 no youre the bruh
@@internetazzhole7592 humans love procreating
Always thought it was crazy that the highest point and the lowest point in the lower 48 were less than 100 miles apart.
Mt Whitney is only one of 3 almost same height mountains in the lower 48.
Mt rainier and Mt Elbert are almost the same height.
But yeah, it is not that rare that very high and very low points are near to each other
Geographically California is just like nepal high mountains and plane land arranged in parallel 😅
California has the whole world in one state, geographically, culturally, financially
@@Sci-Filip almost the same height. But not. It is very interesting that the highest and lowest points be in the same geographic location.
Tion David we’ve got everything but water and nice, rational people.
Just as an extra, San Diego County is home to the largest desalination plant in the world.
They need to build more
And the people are still salty af
As a Californian from the Central Valley it’s very easy to see that we could be big trouble if droughts continue to happen. Last year it didn’t rain to much here. Hopefully we have some decent rain. The more rain the more snow up in the mountains means more water in the spring time.
The biggest idea I am trying to express is tunneling aqueducts from the coast, in this case the west coast of the USA inland to feed combination geothermal power and sea water desalination plants. The idea seems to be so big that no one has considered it possible but I believe it is not only possible but it is necessary. For over a century the fossil water contained in aquifers has been pumped out to feed agriculture, industry and municipal water needs. The natural water cycle cant refill fossil water deposits that were filled 10,000 years ago when the glaciers melted after the last ice age. Without refilling these aquifers there is not much of a future for the region of the United states. As a result ground levels in some areas of the San Joaquin Valley have subsided by more than 30 feet. Similar fossil water depletion is happening in other regions all around the world. TBM and tunneling technology has matured and further developments in the industry are poised to speed up the tunneling process and it's these tunnels that are the only way to move large volumes of water from the ocean inland. The water is moved inland to areas where it can be desalinated in geothermal plants producing clean water and power. In many cases the water will recharge surface reservoirs where it will be used first to make more hydro power before being released into rivers and canal systems. It's very important however to not stop tunneling at these first stops but to continue several legs until the water has traveled from the ocean under mountain ranges to interior states. Along the way water will flow down grade through tunnels and rise in geothermal loops to fill mountain top pumped hydro batteries several times before eventually recharging several major aquifers. What I am proposing is essentially reversing the flow of the Colorado River Compact. Bringing water from the coast of California first to mountaintop reservoirs then to the deserts of Nevada and Arizona and on to Utah, New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming. This big idea looks past any individual city or states problems and looks at the whole and by using first principles identifies the actual problem and only solution.
Thank you for your time, I would like the opportunity to explain in further detail and answer any questions
As someone from the Central Valley, this was very interesting to watch
Kern county here
Kern county here too lol
Alameda county in Bay Area here
Stanislaus here
San Joaquin County here 😊
Seeing people in California watering their lawn gets me low key heated
That is nothing compared to san Diego sharing water with Tijuana Mexico..that gets me angry
What gets me high key heated is it's 110 degrees out right now and they want me to let my lawn, shrubs and trees die. Meanwhile, their running water to the desert farmers on the west side of the Central Valley in an unlined ditch that runs right by my property. A couple of years ago after a 6 year drought, we had a super wet winter that filled all the dams in the state. Instead of pumping it down injection wells to the aquafer like they're required to, they drained the dams off to the farmers without a thought to residential use. It's all about priorities.
Wtf?! Is this right?
@@sophiewallace8662 maybe if you Americans would stop visiting Tijuana y’all won’t have to share
@@sophiewallace8662 bro we fucking suck the Colorado so dry that it doesn't even reach mexico anymore. The least we should do is share
I often piss in my backyard instead of the toilet so that the water will be absorbed and filtered by the multilayer of rocks and dirt
Ha me to lol
Ew
@@declannewton2556 yeah lol thats gross
Who are you, who is so wise in the ways of science?
doing this will make the grass green and its actually what everyone needs to do. no joke.
The production and processing of cotton uses large amounts of water, yet we continue to grow it here in California. California ranks 2nd in rice production in the U.S. You can travel for miles through the Sacramento Valley and see nothing but fields flooded with precious water for the growing of rice. Most of that rice goes to Asian Countries. Were almost always in a water crisis her in California, why is big agriculture allowed to grow some of the worlds most thirsty crops? Why not grow more olive groves? Some of the best Olive oil I have tasted I got in Corning CA. Love seeing those trees driving up the 5 freeway knowing they give us so much in the way of good health, and demand so little water.
You are right. Crops should be related to geography.
@Russ Gallagher chutiye jab dimag na ho to bat mat kiya kar! Gandu Admi
@@prasammehta1546 Cali grows a lot of produce mostly due to the warm climate which allows multiple growing season in a year and fertile soil.
This is the same in Australia. We grow cotton and rice in dry areas completely unsuited to water intensive cropping, and as a result our great but fragile Murray-Darling River system is in great stress, particularly in times of drought.
And, if the olive trees are drought-stressed, the quality of the oil produced is even better. It's one reason why Moroccan olive oil is some of the finest produced. As someone else said, crops should match the growing conditions.
That topographic map was excellent. Seeing all the rivers and aqueducts laid out in relation to each other shows how vast these project really are. And this was just California, I have to remind myself that there are seven states which share Colorado River water. I understand that we now put so much demand on it that it no longer reaches the Gulf of California in Mexico. It sure makes me want to redouble my conservation efforts.
"Let's farm in the desert, what could go wrong?"
@Bergelicious75 The San Jaoquin valley is only partly a desert, and used to have a bunch of lakes. The question you really have to ask is why there's any agriculture at all in places like the Cochaella valley. The Salton Sea is fed solely by irrigation runoff. Just water piped in and evaporating in the desert for no reason.
@@umaryusuf537 that’s true but we do have a desert climate, but yea not a desert.
The Southern Valley wasn't even a valley, it was a series of lakes and marshlands home to Native American tribes and wetland ecosystems that all got filled in for the sake of farming. Now, heavy water extraction not only caused the land to become dry and crusty, but but caused it to sink.
It might lead to more desert if it goes wrong
I just went on flight recently over the state and it is definetly a desert
So Cal: You guys are lame
Nor cal: Get your own water lol
So cal: get your own food lol
Eric You alright? NorCal + Central Cal account for over a third of the nation’s fruits and veggies bc of its geography. Y’all are mainly a desert, what do you grow lol
@@cia1998 Cen Cal? It's north or south, mate. All about perspective I guess.
@@Eric-469 cen cal provides produce and wine to the entire state in except for napa valley and sonoma. Itd also a provider to the rest of the country
@@kingeleven3820 yes I'm aware lol. I was making the point that there's really no "Cen Cal". The central valley either belongs to the north or south.
Very nice summary of water issues in general in California! Thank you!
Patrolling the mojave almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter
Yeah dude I also browse Reddit, nice copy pasting that comment you unoriginal turd
@@spongebobspuarepants426 copy it from what? It's just a video game quote
Fallout is a wonderful series!!! Same quote went through my skull watching this.
@@spongebobspuarepants426 no one cares
Canada Riots imagine that AND getting so upset about something like this!
it always bothers me to see people running their sprinklers at night just to water their sidewalk.
so many people take the water we have for granted. i love california, but some of the people that live and move here are not the brightest. it’s a shame to see this beautiful state be abused.
That’s reclaimed water... for the most part
Seconding Sammy C. That water is gray water - water that’s been used for plumbing in households. That water will go back into the local water table.
Better than running your sprinklers at night when you risk boiling the roots or let 50% of the water blow away in the wind and evaporate.
Yeah, but what about the sidewalk. I hear that in Texas concrete must be watered so that it does not subside and become un-even. That practice is not only for sidewalks in Texas.
John Montgomery theres the same amount of water on earth that there’s always been.
This video was done very well. Excellent maps and visual references and explained in an understandable way.
During the last drought we were on the verge of investing into desalination plants. The support for these plants has diminished since the end of the drought, but I think that is a mistake and we should start building them now while we can.
Nah, It'll be fine. Just don't move out of California please.
Yea, I wouldn't mind that. Just find a way to NOT throw all the chemical infused water that was use for desalination back into the ocean. I swear, that is one of the reasons why there was protest against.
Fred Jansen theyre learning,some people are stubborn but others are getting with the program
When I saw Wilson I was reminded of how he allowed Nestle to empty one of our reservoirs for company projects.
Most folks don’t understand that water bottles, that take a tremendous about if water to create and cause issues in drains and other water systems, are often just tap water. We would save money if each person put the money they spent on water bottles into updating local pipes and leaks, and would I hear less arsenic, plastic, and other chemicals found in the water in water bottles.
I’m guessing the amount of lead in water is rising everywhere because we simply aren’t updating our symptoms enough. I’d love any professional’s opinion on this.
Wishing everyone safety as we shift too quickly towards global instability like we’ve never seen.
California's population should never have gotten this large.
Its filled with mexicans
Benjamin Miranda yup
@@XavierbTM1221 n filled with white peoples
California is genuinely not that populated for being that massive. It should have never sprawled out that much.
@@XavierbTM1221 whats your point? What about everybody else? Are they more entitled?
Neo:*Talk about california geography*
Me: please say the salton sea please say the salton sea
Neo:*Skips kit*
Me: -_-
Once you've escaped from, er, been to the Salton Sea, you never forget it.
Hahah worked near there and had to quit within a month. They dump potassium permanganate at the fish farms around there too. City drives in and doesnt even care since I guess that's one "medication" aka ocean pollutant for fish parasites. The hidden hands, the nephilim have no limits it seems.
I’m surprised he didn’t talk about the agriculture around there which is the largest in alfalfa production
They produce the most Vegetables in all of California too
I have never been to such an apocalyptic setting...
near Bombay beach, got as far as Jeep could go then started walking out to shore... To my horror I looked down and I realized I wasn’t walking on sand, I was walking on fish bones and shells.
Me living in South Africa with frequent droughts
yes i have seen that in world news
Wasn't that way when the whites were in charge.
@@JB-yb4wn i guess the right take is that nobody cared when the black population lacked accessible water when the whites were in charge
@@juch3
No, I would say that once the whites were booted out of government, that the corrupt and inept gentlemen of the ANC never bothered to maintain the system they had and instead stole the money from the infrastructure to line their pockets.
@@JB-yb4wn in the 80's we had water restrictions in Johannesburg. Can you tell me why?
Meanwhile, HOA in LA: fines for yellowing grass
Paint it green
Kalifornia hasn’t built a water storage project since the 1950’s, yet they keep on building in places where there is no water. Don’t get me started on electricity.
That's not entirely true. California is built in many, many groundwater storage projects.
I know it is small in scale and needs to be expanded- Carlsbad passes a bond a few years ago to build a desalination plant, Huntington Beach has a sewage treatment facility that is used to help recharge the O.C. aquifer- these are newer projects so there is hope. This problem isn't going to be solved at the state level, for certain. As for electricity, losing San Onofre was a big hit. Diablo Canyon will be closed soon, maximum production from wind & solar doesn't align with peak demand. Battery storage has limitations and NIMBYs don't like "peaker" generation. People living in So Cal need to modify our expectations and start building infrastructure again.
@Russ Gallagher how is there a Robert Gallagher AND A RUSS GALLAGHER commenting in the same thread. Whooa
@Russ Gallagher and also, all these projects factored in some sort of population projections at their design.
THIS
Environmental conservation is a big priority... until it gets in the way of water supply for those advocating for it.
I mean, 25 million people live in the city... u want them to drink salt water?
@@emmanuelaguado9740 "I'm praying for rain. I'm praying for tidal waves. I wanna see the ground give way, I wanna watch it all go down"
- Tool, Ænima
One can really hope for the St Andreas fault to do its job sooner than later
They border the largest ocean on Earth: If California was truly serious and prioritized environmental protection and water conservation, then they would desalinate on a massive scale.
@@emmanuelaguado9740 It has been known for a long time that the LA area has water problems and should not have had settlements of that size. It ties back to the gold rush, as with many things in California history, and once people became established and entrenched in the area, bringing water there became more politically expedient than limiting how many people can live there.
@@Wasserkaktus To be fair, they already do desalinate a lot, and it causes issue with making the areas they draw from oversalinated with brine when it is pumped back into the sea, damaging ecosystems. Though, that damage is more close to home than the damage out in the mountains, for the coastal city-dwellers, which is the same sort of dilemma as previously mentioned. There definitely could be more effort to desalinate, either in CA or elsewhere, funded by CA money, and powered by the excess solar energy they have from the massive-scale projects they embarked upon, but lack the capacity to store the excess of.
why does this feel like I'm a human from the future reading about ancient technology before the dark age of global civilization and marvelling at how well-engineered things were like reading about aqueducts in Ancient Rome...
Exactly
imagine having water shortages in the desert while also having tons of rivers and snow
this comment was made by Saudi Arabia gang.
California has more people in much smaller land area than Saudi Arabia. Not to mention the best agriculture in the world.
last time I checked Saudi Arabia is the only large country with no permanent water sources, only seasonal streams along the western mountain ranges....is that right?
@@iyobyulius7355 they filter sea water.
@@seanthe100 True. But compared to other countries like Switzerland, California has not even close to half of their population density, and yet they manage to be sustainable by making use of a similar mountain profile.
@@Zifti21 California is nothing like Switzerland. Death valley is in California and it just hit the hottest temps on the entire planet in 107 years. California's agricultural industry again is the main culprit and lack of rainfall.
We have a huge wetlands restoration project going on along Highway 37. That place is a fairly good indicator for CA’s current precipitation level by how dry that area is.
Who else found one if neos vids in their reccomended and have been watching him for like 2hrs
Neo > Vox
Anytime >
Darren Dube Vox is a left leaning political bullshit that thinks it’s viewers are dumb. Neo is at the very least factually correct and doesn’t get involved in politics.
@@glebsokolov9959 Neo Geographical > Vox Political
Jonathan de Kock I’m conservative but with this government Donald Trump I realise that this is dumb
@@glebsokolov9959 oh I spotted the salty conservative.
Israel has 6 or more desalinization plants, They sell its excess water to Jordan. California can do this AND sell and supply Arizona and Nevada and possibly Mexico more water to help offset costs
Or we can just conserve water everyone wastes so much water it needs to cost more and then ppl will conserve it
That would be a simple solution if we didn't get constant push back from environmentalists who believe they are bad for fish populations because they believe that the plants shift the salt content in the water so much that it would affect them when in reality the salt content equalizes with the environment.
@@Ohioboi93 yes, over time, but if too close to shore then it creates a deadzone. The real issue is money if course. The concentrated brine could be piped miles out to sea and then the volume of the ocean, along with some sort of dispersal mechanism could mitigate the deleterious environmental effects. But that would add even more $$$ to the pricetag. Our collective Walmart mentality wouldn't pay. But yes, we could make it work. Conservation will never be enough as long as the constant growth mindset is our norm
@@Andras_Schiff I agree with your ocean statement, but I gotta say I believe there is NO WAY IN HELL Alaska is gonna have a water problem, at least not for the next 70-100 years
Desalination is extremely expensive, not very efficient, and has harsh environmental impacts.
I just moved out of california after living there my whole life. I lived in San Luis Obispo, and we couldn’t go over a certain amount of water usage without being fined crazy amounts. Showers always had to be 5 minutes or less, and at one point in the big drought it got so bad we could only shower once every few days, along other things. I’m glad I’m gone, but it’s sad to see how my hometown on the beach is slowly becoming to look like a desert.
Things to look forward to...?
Wtf I live in la and never heard of these rules or any one that had to use them
@@luism8612 Big metro cities don’t have the same restrictions because they are economic centers and the bulk of water usage in the state is from agriculture.
@@Pyrrhic. but that doesnt make sense. He said he would be fined for home water usage e.g showers, sinks etc. Thats not for agriculture that means it should have been applied to metro areas too following the same logic??
It’s really sad seeing your once green home start to become a desert
The water tables in the Central Valley are depleting and the ground has been sinking for years.
I was surprised this wasn't mentioned! Just google "california land subsidence" and you see insane pictures of how much the ground has been sinking. This can release arsenic from compressed mud into the system. Not to mention that the aquifers aren't getting enough recharge time which leads to more overdrawing
Finally a youtuber who measures city population by metro area instead of city proper! Respect.
I lived in Northern California for the first thirty years of my life, and I have watched MANY drought cycles. Every one of them ended with a bang, rather than with a whimper. The most memorable one was 1975-1976. Meager snowpack and little rain. Lake levels dropped to approximately the levels where they are now. We didn't have water meters in Sacramento in those days, but everybody pitched in and self-rationed.
I remember hearing the "experts" announce that we would never see the lakes full again. That was in January, 1976. It began to rain, and by April, they couldn't turn the water loose fast enough. They had to blow the levees and flood the bypasses.
Mother Nature LOVES to make fools of such arrogant people. Here's hoping she will repeat her work.
I agree there was a bad drought in the 80s in Shasta Lake got really low parts of the crane that used to build the dam we're now visible for the first time. That just happened again. Anyway they said it would take 7 years of normal rainfall to fill it the next year was El Nino and it rain like hell and filled up everything including the lake in one year
Yeah, water in CA has always been feast or famine, but what's happening now is more longer, more frequent and more intense drought coupled by massive heatwaves.
Me living in Canada with countless lakes and rivers
I watch someone's video about water crisis in Vancouver
ya but canada sucks!
No one from Cali wants to ever live in Canada.
@@chrisryan7243 I'm sure you just relieved a lot of Canadians with that comment.
Yo, you guys could make hella money selling water to us.💧
This should be called "Los Angeles' Water Problem."
Central Valley and the rest of Southern California are not Los Angeles
Phil Rubio -- This should be called "America's food problem"
Phil Rubio
Take a look at the rapidly depleting groundwater underlying much of the midwest farm belt. Sufficient fresh water is a national, indeed global problem.
@@zonaryorange8734 But Los Angeles is sucking all the water from them (and other states).
@@tycarlisle7436 How about the worlds food problem!
Imagine building a state in the desert and having water problems
The starting introduction tune is so satisfying to listen. Another brilliant video!
Yeah as well as the graphics
He is Pro
I don't know how to express my thanks but thank you so much, I have watched your videos before and especially subscribed this morning and its a coincidence that you've uploaded a video on the same day, please continue making videos and ill make sure to watch them all
In the old West there were Water Wars, they were so bad that that the cowboys used to say “Whiskey is for drinking...Water is for Fighting!”
“It’s ChinaTown Jake ! China Town !”
They must have reached an agreement. A compromise, since all of my whiskey is 50 to 60% water.
Thank you for including the music in the description!
Water desalination is an interested topic which I wish was covered a bit more. Solar powered desalination just kinda makes sense in my mind - peak drought, peak output.
Yeah that would be a good idea
Water desalination requires an enormous amount of energy and results in a huge pile of contaminated salt that is difficult to process into anything useful. So if we want to talk widespread desalination, we need to think nuclear energy. Solar will not be enough, fossil fuels--how many plants do we want? Each plant only produces a small amount of product... Also think what will happen to the coastlines of CA, they will not get prettier because we will need alot of desalination plants. Desalination is an expensive and not particularly efficient undertaking that belongs to measures of last resort and therefore is not much talked about.
Where do we put all that super-saline brine though. California's cold oceans are also rich fishing grounds, and such drastic changes in salinity destroys the vibrant ecosystem.
I remember one being built in Santa Barbara but they shut it off because its water was more expensive than standard sources. The problem of California's water isn't that there isn't enough on average, it's that it's feast or famine. When you feast desalination plants don't make financial sense. When you famine they do.
Why are you adding common sense to this
When I was in 6th grade they taught us how to conserve water and they had people come in from the local water company talk to us about conserving water.
Since you were in 6 the grade the population has probably doubled
Less than 4% of water is consumed by civilian use. I love how they tell us to use less, so there is even more for fracking, industry and farming.
Nobody:
Absolutely no one:
California: chicken avocado soup
Don't forget adding chia and poppy seed as well
Yep that sounds like something that'll be out here.
Lets not forget tri tip (which is acually quite nice)
*Almond milk has joined the chat*
The graphics and editing are amazing
Thanks for your honesty
It's time for California to recycle it's waste water, all of it's water.
If they don’t we should just deport the officials that keep wasting water......
Yes dear
Southern Calif. DOES recycle it's waste water. Some of it goes to watering landscaping while a large part of waste water is pumped upstream and allowed to drain into the underground aquafers. And, the condensate from the central air conditioning systems in buildings drains into the sewer systems allowing it to be recycled (Note: a single family dwelling can produce 10 gallons of condensate/water in one day during extreme humidity and warm weather).
Just let it run into the ocean like you've been doing for the past century. No wonder the ocean off the coast is black.
@@clydebutler6487 Brown/gray water is recycled, but any run off goes straight to the ocean. It would be better to capture the run off for dual purpose of re-using it and to clean it.
As someone who lives in Northern California, it pisses me off seeing people in Southern california waste water.
You do know they pay millions to Northern agencies for that water.
Tell me all about it. We up here rationing water during the droughts and the southerners enjoying their swimming pools and green lawns. Not fair. But we've tried seceding to no avail.
@@ufosrus lol
@@bobdol8398 lol
People in NorCal are the same. They waste water too. So just look in the mirror if you need someone to blame.
Should be retitled as Southern California’s water problem, as they take all of our water from up north :)
big ag is the one using all the water. they drained tulare lake and use 80 percent of the water on the most water intensive crops
@@music4thedeaf thank you for pointing that out
Almost half of California’s water supply simply flows out to sea. About 40% is used by agricultural, growing high value crops on land that really can’t support it and paying very low rates. Almonds come to mind. Only 10% is use by urban areas paying very high rates. Thus the corporate mega-farms profit, using what is essentially subsidized water. And no mention at all about the pumping of ancient water out of the Central Valley aquifer at unsustainable rates and ground subsidence issues. This video while an honest attempt, barely scratched the surface of a complex issue.
Gary Yencich ...So very true sir! I watched a documentary about the massive amounts of water being used by almond, cashew and other nut “farms”...they are essentially stealing water from the residents in the area. There’s no sustainability at these rates and I don’t see them slowing down anytime soon.
Half the water does flow to the sea. Via a very essential delta that requires fresh supplies to sustain vast amounts of animal life. Reducing this flow also allows for seawater intrusion and further pollution of the already stressed aquifers.
Eric True! As I said, it’s complex.
If you dont like where they are grown, dont eat them. They grow in warm, Mediterranean climates, hence your "land that can't really sustain it". Water for growing has been reduced by 33%. Any company can become a corporation, so quit using that word like it's evil. Over 90% of almond farms are family owned. One of the biggest reasons the aquifers are being drained is because ca outlawed flood irrigation which naturally replenished the aquifers. Farmers pay out the nose for water, and many of them do not even recieve what's been contracted for and even paid for. If ca would have been investing into water storage like the dozens of bonds that have been passed since the seventies by the vote of the people, we would not be having this discussion. A years worth of water for 462,207,200 people went straight to the ocean between 2016-2018. That is 82.2% straight through the delta to flush the filth that the bay area creates and dumps straight into the ocean. Basically the government is using the delta smelt, a NON native fish species, as an excuse so that they can have enough water to flush its own giant toilet, but you won't hear about that. The rate of marine life that has died or been sickened in the bay area has risen astronomically in recent years, but you won't hear about that. Nor will you hear that the Banks and Jones Pumps were only allowed to capture and store just 15.3% of the water flow, to then be SHARED by families, businesses and agriculture combined. But you won't hear about that either. This is a rabbit hole that is deeper than any well could ever be. You and your ilk need to stop placing blame on farmers for the state's water woes.
Gary Yencich - Not exactly true. You are combining the urban use with the industrial use such as oil manufacturing. California's ag industry accounts for 80% of the water used in the state. The other industrial use is 10% adding up to a total of 90% before any of the people in the state get to use any water for themselves. All the people in the state, both urban and rural, use only 10% of the water for everything, this includes the obvious like drinking water, showers, watering lawns, but also car washes, golf courses, swimming pools, laundromats, everything the people use is just 10%. Californians don't have enough water because 90% of it goes to making products for the other 49 states.
this channel is like aperture and lemmino, great editing and great narrating.
A really well produced piece. Thank you.
Dang! I wished I watched this video before submitting one of my assignments for the geography class I'm in! LOL
I grew up in California and have lived here for many years. After traveling all over the state and now being stationed here, some of the environmental concerns this state has are more meaningful now than when I was a kid.
Roughly four hours east of Sacramento, on the Eastern portion of California, lies the mighty Sierra Nevada mountain range. Stretching north to south approximately 400 miles long is the biggest mountain range in California. It is also home to the tallest mountain; Mt. Whitney at 14,505 ft. During winter months the Sierra’s collect heavy amounts of snowfall which are discharged in certain directions. Some of the watershed is dispersed to major areas such as San Francisco, the Pacific Ocean, San Joaquin River, as well as Western Nevada. Being that California has the biggest population and economy in the United States, a lot of it is driven through the agricultural community. When snow falls, it creates frozen reservoirs which hold it for months, only until warmer temperatures in the summer months cause it to melt and run off into sustainable storage systems. From here the water is collected and dispersed where it is needed. Due to the fact that 60% of the states’ fresh water comes from the Sierras, it is not lost on anyone that they play a major role in the water resource that is pivotal for Californian’s.
As greenhouse gas emissions rise, the problem now is that the temperature increases are speeding up snowmelt runoff, causing a severe imbalance in collecting and storing the water flow in reservoirs, which is also producing a flooding risk to local facilities. By the end of the 21st century, experts are predicting a seven to ten degree increase in temperature. While some may think extra water isn’t bad throughout the region, collecting it and using it is to places that need it is more meaningful.
Some solutions to brainstorm for this issue could be to find more adaptive ways to collect the runoff, such as underground aquifers that can be easily supplied to nearby agricultural developments. A good sign now is that companies are already getting ahead of the problem by responding to greenhouse emissions. Knowing that we have almost zero control of mother nature, we as people can help stop these climate change impacts by simply being conservative at saving water at home, using alternative methods for transportation or car-pooling, as well as incorporating more modern homes with rain-capturing system to preserve water use.
well said!
Your intro always gives me chills! Just as amazing as your content!
If we just turn off the water on all the private golf clubs in California, I promise y’all we would be fine.
Seriously, the powers that be are only NOW in 2021, considering using "recycled" water on golf courses instead of drinking water! What the actual f***???
that is such a false statement, and does not take into consideration the massive water demand of cities and agriculture.
@@AntonioSanchez-op8bu I agree with you in that cities and agriculture use huge amounts of water, but it all boils down to the point that private corporations have a much greater footprint and are far more wasteful than your average person.
Saudia Arabia is building golf courses all over the Saraha. I promise if you voted for Republicans they would show you how to desalinitize water.
Most golf courses in the US use a blend of waste water which is not the same as drinkable water (you would not want to drink this). Your point is still valid, but aim that for the farmers who chose to farm in a desert lol
Love this channel!
I read somewhere where rather than build more water storage Newsome wants to eliminate one because of something to do with a fish and tribal issues.
Not to mention all the rain we get in our rain gutters ends up in the bay.
Amazing description about this
Thanks for. Your channel so interesting
You'd think people would try to live like desert people when living in the desert...
Southern California is a Mediterranean climate
Southern California was conquered and settled by people from the Northeast and Midwest with a historical ancestry from North West Europe, they are not a desert people.
Humans transform the environment to suit them according to their resources, and the Anglo settlers of California in the early 20th century had a lot of resources.
However, this is a tale as old as civilization, going back to the irrigation canals of ancient Sumer. It's a good thing, it is what separates us from animals.
See a documentary called "Inventing LA: the Chandeliers and their Times". It's all online.
Saphhiregriffin Very few people in California live in the desert. Los Angeles is NOT a desert. It's a semi-arrid mediterranean climate. California also gets a lot of water from the mountains, there is plenty for all the people that live there. 40 million people. To put that in perspective, the 5th most populous state is Illinois with only 14 million people. Yet the 40 million people in California only use 10% of its water. 90% of California's water goes to industries like agriculture and oil refineries making products for the other 49 states.
@pkmnrgby 9698 probably like California north of Sacramento.
*Me watching from a Great Lake state* : States actually have water problems... 😲😲😲
I live in Minnesota I can't drive five miles without seeing water
@Bergelicious75 so is this true?. My translation is bad.
@Bergelicious75 in Vietnam we have Rain
I live on the Oregon coast. In our state, we don’t tan... we rust lol.
Plus my house is walking distance to the ocean (less than half a mile).
But I’ve lived here off and on for 30 years. It’s definitely dryer in this area than it was in the mid 80’s.
These shows are important to watch but they are pretty depressing.
Water is the most precious resource by far and we ignore it’s importance (for our future) WAYYY TOO MUCH out of greed and necessity to maintain a huge population that cannot maintain itself (long term).
I hope the generation of people on this planet 500 years for now can forgive us. 😢
Lmao except for Flint
Extremely well made the best I've seen yet
A few other projects worth mentioning is the Hetchy Hetchy and Mokelumne aqueducts that bring water from Sierra Nevada to the Bay Area and the Klamath Mountains projects that diverts water from the water basin above the Sacramento River into the Sacramento River basin, which then flows down the river to the catchment areas in the delta.
The biggest idea I am trying to express is tunneling aqueducts from the coast, in this case the west coast of the USA inland to feed combination geothermal power and sea water desalination plants. The idea seems to be so big that no one has considered it possible but I believe it is not only possible but it is necessary. For over a century the fossil water contained in aquifers has been pumped out to feed agriculture, industry and municipal water needs. The natural water cycle cant refill fossil water deposits that were filled 10,000 years ago when the glaciers melted after the last ice age. Without refilling these aquifers there is not much of a future for the region of the United states. As a result ground levels in some areas of the San Joaquin Valley have subsided by more than 30 feet. Similar fossil water depletion is happening in other regions all around the world. TBM and tunneling technology has matured and further developments in the industry are poised to speed up the tunneling process and it's these tunnels that are the only way to move large volumes of water from the ocean inland. The water is moved inland to areas where it can be desalinated in geothermal plants producing clean water and power. In many cases the water will recharge surface reservoirs where it will be used first to make more hydro power before being released into rivers and canal systems. It's very important however to not stop tunneling at these first stops but to continue several legs until the water has traveled from the ocean under mountain ranges to interior states. Along the way water will flow down grade through tunnels and rise in geothermal loops to fill mountain top pumped hydro batteries several times before eventually recharging several major aquifers. What I am proposing is essentially reversing the flow of the Colorado River Compact. Bringing water from the coast of California first to mountaintop reservoirs then to the deserts of Nevada and Arizona and on to Utah, New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming. This big idea looks past any individual city or states problems and looks at the whole and by using first principles identifies the actual problem and only solution.
Thank you for your time, I would like the opportunity to explain in further detail and answer any questions
7:15 Imagine being salty enough to go back into the river when you're already in the ocean lmao
U know what a big waste of water is? Golf courses for the rich.
Its definitely time for a severe assessment of how we treat such a valuable resource and step up to create some viable solutions...
I never knew this. Owens Lake must've been beautiful before we messed it up. It honestly upset me seeing that. :(
Most of California's water ends up in the Pacific Ocean. There would be no water shortage if the State would manage the water properly.
So much energy used to move water, one wonders when seawater desalination becomes more economical?
For some inland cities, it’s also quite hard, since they’re offset from the coast by a sizable distance.
@@sonicvenom8292 As if California water canal system (especially in Los Angeles, and overall South California) is archaic and built so to flush flooding water out into the seas, as fast as possible. When instead, all the water could be directed into the inland desert. Its simple outdated for modern context, and now needs to be redesigned.
@@niilespunkari8832 That would be awesome and the best way to go, I don't know why they haven't decided on something like that, shit they can even make modern day Chinampa with that kind of flooding in addition biodiversity would flourish. Also nuclear or solar desalination would have saved us from this water problem for city usage.
They have a desal plant in san deigo.
Seawater desalination is actually really bad as it pumps very salty water back into the oceans raising the salt percentage. If oceans get more salty, marine life will die, and it can actually cause more storms/droughts because the currents will start shifting.
All those lawns will be the doom of California.
Edit. Another great quality video.
During the big drought, people in my neighborhood stopped watering their lawns and put up a sign saying "Brown is the new Green" and then promptly started watering them after water prices went back down.
There is no water problem in California. We have a political problem. Nearly 51% of California's annual water run off, according to state resources, is allowed to flow to the ocean. The powers that be will not allow more dams to be built to save water, yet communities all over are allowing homes and businesses to be built which exceed our available water resources. My community (Fresno / Clovis) saves water run off and recycles the water for common areas, but many communities do not. We need new leadership, but that isn't going to happen anytime soon.
why did you elect jo?
I live in the SFV and a lot of people still have lawns which require lot's of water, however I have a neighbor with a "desert lawn" and imo it's way more beautiful than any grass lawn.
3:37 is pretty much how the entire central valley looks outside of fresno and sac
AYE!!!! I worked as an intern for the LA river eco restoration project. The plan is to make the catch fields along the banks of the river after they remove the artificial water walls in low risk locations. This could feed the LA basin for a big percentage of the water needed. we wouldnt need to pay for NoCal water :)
@5:46: Tehachapi Mountains (Teh-hatch-cha-pee)
Solid video. As a Californian, these water struggles ARE very real.
As a foreign who lived one year in the US, is easy to see the problem, watering laws even in times with rains, the toilets in LAX are gigantic, filled with water close to the top, if the rest of the city is the same, it's just a matter of time to be no more water in CA.
The overwhelming majority of water consumption comes from Californian Agriculture. This state provides food to the rest of the country.
@@sonofsisyphus5742 I know that agriculture in any part of the world consumes lots of water, especially meat farm (people should stop asap). However, this isn't a reason for people wasting water in their homes, especially gigantic cities located in places without much rain in their watersheds.
Its been like this for a long time and I lived here my whole life
Luiz Renaudin so meat farms should stop? Yeah good luck!
@@ultragamer4960 For the world growing population be able to eat and have drinkable water, yes.
Nice video about California geography and California water supply. It is amazing that California is the fifth economy in the world in front of India.
Didn’t mention this stark fact:
Only 10% of water is used by cities in CA, a whopping 80% is used in agriculture to grow almonds and rice patties in the desert.
What about the other 10%
@@novamike7121 celebrities' pools
Maybe, but that food industry is an important part of the economy! And, if you didn't get your lettuce and other produce from California, I guess you'd be paying a whole lot more for fresh food! And, as I grew up in California, I can tell you that all those well manicured lawns, landscaping, and swimming pools, are a total waste of water ... so your point is?
Nova Mike The remaining 10% is commercial/industrial and residential use not located in major cities
Very interesting. One thing that was left out, the population explosion in CA. Since the early 70's CA has gone from some 20 million people to about 40 million. What has not happened in that time? There have been no new large water storage projects. No new dams and reservoirs. It does not matter how much rain we get, without the ability to capture and hold double the amount of water we can right now CA will always have a water problem.
I like your intro and bringing map footages from Cairo and Aswan in Egypt
California's water problem is from poor governance, look at decade, drought and fire then abundance of rain and dump it into ocean, then again drought and fires. When will it learn !
Conversely, it was private development and interests (as well as PROFITS PROFITS PROFITS !!) that spawned Mahallond's incentive to create the Los Angeles Aqueduct to make enormous profits selling the water rights to farmers in the valley at a gauging-lee high rate that he secretly acquired thru obtaining Owens lake water.
We should be beyond debating this, so long as we operate our society's economy using a monetary system, corruption and greed will take a foot hold at every corner, whether its government, or if its some CEO or board of directors. BTW this statement has nothing to do with capitalism, which is nothing but a variant of the monetary system, ANY of the monetary systems variants whether it be capitalism, socialism, communism, fascism, they ALL still operate under the context of currency; they are ALL basically the same; they are ALL corrupt
So why do you keep electing the same crooked politicians over and over again? Seems like a voter problem to me.
@@austinharding9734 Austin, you think that has stopped? The farmers agreed to pay for water from the California Aqueduct at very high profits for the state and MORE PARTICULARLY the banks that backed construction BONDS. Well now for some years the state has not delivered the water because of some variety of minnow in the North and the droughts while demanding that the farmer continue to pay for water that is not being delivered.
I do take issue with you comments saying that fascism is a monetary system. It is not. look up the definition, it is totally a government system, as is Communism although Communism as we see it in this days world is exactly the opposite of Capitalism. With Communism the government owns everything and the individual is totally at the mercy of government for his very existence. There is no such thing as a CEO because everything is done under the management of a Government Bureaucracy. Even the USSR discovered that it does not work and it destroyed that band of nations just like Socialism is destroying the U.S.A.
Commiefornia
If California had an electoral college system or some system which allowed the minority of voters who lived on the land with the water to have a say on how the water was distributed, they would have avoided most of the problems.
I just subscribed to your channel Neo. I was hooked immediately once you started talking about how bad the water problem is in California. I knew it was bad but I didn't think it was that bad but it is. You did such a great job making this video.
2.5 million people get drinking water. “BuT wHaT aBoUt ThE bIrDs!?”
was very glad to see the change in approach to lawns over the last 8 years of drought in our state. i know in norcal the impetus of having a green lawn just isn't there anymore. most people let the seasons work the way they should, with zeroscape and native fauna in most people's yards. mediterranean plants are far more beautiful than simple grass anyway. we need to learn to work with our climate and natural environment, not create monoscapes!
I live in Folsom and always cool to see pics of things form there :) i.e. Folsom Dam @00:57 also I love the fun facts about Cali that you point out
This channel is fantastic 👏
The Forbidden Zone was once a paradise. Your breed made a desert of it, ages ago."
―Zaius.
“Damn you all to Hell!”
In the winter you’ll actually hear the news talk about our “snowpack.” Always thought that was interesting
I live in the east coast in the Carolinas. I always love to hear about California it's so beautiful
v h been to Virginia and it was humid, is it humid in Carolina? Like this is how California works, the temperature is like 130 but feels like 70 and in Virginia, 80 felt like 140
“This place has so little water and is a mostly a desert, let’s divert water and build dams.”
Israel is a good role-model for California in water issues.
Except it wouldn't work at this level. At least not economically, and not under our capitalistic system.
@@krane15 the problem is ideological. Californians, and usonians in general are very conservative. They can't conceive a public project that will help everybody if they do their part. That's what's happening with the HSR.
@@akapilka Agreed. but we need to break out of that mindset or we're all doomed. The environment cannot sustain our current rate of depletion and if we don't come up with a better solution it well eventually fail. We should have started construction this 50 years ago, after the first oil crisis of the early 1970s. Imagine where we'd be today. Instead, nearly 50 years later we're still totally dependent on foreign oil.
Push people of the land for more water?
@@TanJulia silly comment. Thats not even part of the discussion. California is a corrupt shit state, it needs to get it's act together and build more desalination plans.
"LA's water problem"
Exactly lol, the rest of us are fine
Absolutely correct.norther California is beautiful and full of water.we need to cut down south off.
Wheres our bullet train and wheres our water.thank our governors
Central Valley and the Rest of Southern California are not Los Angeles
I hope this excellent video is shown in all schools. Well done.
You pronounced it incorrectly: Tehachapi - teh, Hatch, apee
type85 yessss! I got so confused when he said that.
Worst narrator...ever.
He pronounces everything wrong, hes got a speech impediment
Julian YUP 🤣 only the people that live in the Central Valley actually know how to pronounce the names correctly.
@@thejesus95 probably the worst person to have as a narrator