Where's the water?

[printcraft]

Universal warming is melting the ice wall?
Is it too late to eat zee bugs?

Bugs ARE real.

 

[Leadeye]

It's tough to chart, explain, or predict the ups and downs of climate, just not enough accurate records to cover the amount of time climate has been here. I'm still unhappy about the dry fall putting a kink in my deer season this year, but who knows, next year may be very wet.

 

[nipprdog]

Where's the water? It's all in bottles in stores and warehouses everywhere

 

[BehindBlueI's]

Impossible. Only because if the earth were flat, cats would have pushed everything off the edge by now.

Ok, hear me out.

What if there's *two* flat earths, like an oreo cookie? Cats are transplants from one side to the other of the cookie earth sandwich. The reason they like to push things off edges is they are testing ways to get back to their correct side. Also why they always land on their feet, they are still attracted to the gravity of the correct cookie...err...earth they are from.

Cats on both sides push things over the edge, so the amount of things stays in equilibrium.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

It's tough to chart, explain, or predict the ups and downs of climate, just not enough accurate records to cover the amount of time climate has been here. I'm still unhappy about the dry fall putting a kink in my deer season this year, but who knows, next year may be very wet.

I think most of the issues in the OP's question aren't directly climate related as much as man made issues. We're draining rivers and aquifers for large population centers and agricultural needs in places that can't naturally support either that much population or that much water intensive farming.

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

You gotta look at the silver lining.

My crawlspace has never been drier.

 

[Lpherr]

With climate change, the Polar bears are thirstier and in turn are drinking all the water.

 

[Bugzilla]

I believe the Great Lake states formed some kind of contract several years ago when there was a push to ship our fresh water out west, to not have any part in this (at least until the correct palms are sufficiently greased.)

 

[printcraft]

With climate change, the Polar bears are thirstier and in turn are drinking all the water.

What the hell is wrong with Coke?

 

[jagee]

What the hell is wrong with Coke?

They don't have thumbs. Can't roll up the dollar bill to run a line.

 

[Leadeye]

I think most of the issues in the OP's question aren't directly climate related as much as man made issues. We're draining rivers and aquifers for large population centers and agricultural needs in places that can't naturally support either that much population or that much water intensive farming.

Ever read "Cadillac Desert" by Mark Reisner?

 

[Twangbanger]

I believe the Great Lake states formed some kind of contract several years ago when there was a push to ship our fresh water out west, to not have any part in this (at least until the correct palms are sufficiently greased.)

Yep, Indiana was one of the signatories, under Mitch Daniels.

 

[littletommy]

If everyone would stop buying and using refrigerators with water dispensers on the door, our water supply would be back to normal levels in 48 hours! Refrigerator door water comes straight from the aquifer, not from regular water pipes like your sink, which gets its water from the water company. I’m telling you all, kitchen appliances are killing the planet!

 

[phylodog]

I think most of the issues in the OP's question aren't directly climate related as much as man made issues. We're draining rivers and aquifers for large population centers and agricultural needs in places that can't naturally support either that much population or that much water intensive farming.

I suppose that's possible, I just have a hard time de-conflicting the different issues. If the climate is getting significantly warmer, intuition would tell me that those warmer temps would result in more evaporation and therefore more rain/moisture moving into the atmosphere and over land providing the needed rainfall to maintain levels near normal.

 

[ditcherman]

The water level in the Panama Canal is low. When I first read this earlier in the fall I was in disbelief because it's between two oceans!
But apparently it's source is a freshwater lake. Seems weird.

panama-canal-water-levels-historic-lows-restrictions-remain-2023-09-06

 

[actaeon277]

I think most of the issues in the OP's question aren't directly climate related as much as man made issues. We're draining rivers and aquifers for large population centers and agricultural needs in places that can't naturally support either that much population or that much water intensive farming.

So, we need to neutron bomb the cities...

 

[BehindBlueI's]

Ever read "Cadillac Desert" by Mark Reisner?

I don't think so. I've read a more recent book on water rights and an older one on the dust bowl, but I don't think I've read that one.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

I suppose that's possible, I just have a hard time de-conflicting the different issues. If the climate is getting significantly warmer, intuition would tell me that those warmer temps would result in more evaporation and therefore more rain/moisture moving into the atmosphere and over land providing the needed rainfall to maintain levels near normal.

Ok, well let's look at some facts I think we all agree on and see where it leads your intuition.

1) Aquifers, rivers, lakes, etc. have been drained faster than they can be replenished due to agriculture and population centers in areas that can't naturally support them.

2) Dry ground, all else being equal, will absorb more water and attempt to refill these below ground reservoirs.

3) The rate of absorption has an upper limit. If you get more rain than the top soil can absorb, you just get floods instead of more water seeping into underground pools.

4) All water eventually goes to the ocean.

5) Ocean levels are measurably higher than, say, 20 years ago.

6) Rain does not fall uniformly, especially on land.

So, would more rain necessarily equate to more surface water?

If ocean levels are rising, and the amount of water is constant, is some of that rise most likely at the expense of surface fresh water?

If human overuse is the main issue of such observable *rapid* change, are all the areas you're seeing supporting large scale human use, either directly or from sources such as springs, tributaries, etc?

Regardless of what you believe on climate change, a few degrees will in no way affect evaporation/rain fall cycles in such a direct and rapid way as how much water is being pumped to grow water intensive crops in a desert, support millions upon millions of people in an area that can't naturally support much more than lizards and insects without human engineering, etc.

 

[KittySlayer]

President Brandon is using the water to refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve he drained for political purposes. Gotta fill it up before China invades Taiwan. If citizens can’t tell the difference between boys and girls they won’t know the difference between oil and water.

 

[blain]

President Brandon is using the water to refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve he drained for political purposes. Gotta fill it up before China invades Taiwan. If citizens can’t tell the difference between boys and girls they won’t know the difference between oil and water.

Oil is lighter than water. So refilling it with water would push the oil layer higher, giving the impression that the whole SPR is being filled with oil.
How did I not see this one coming? By the time we draw down enough to discover this scheme, The Big Guy will be long gone. Then all we'll get from his party is... "What difference, at this point does it make?"