“At first, when California started winning its water lawsuits and shutting off cities, the displaced people just followed the water-right to California. It took a little while before the bureaucrats realized what was going on, but finally someone with a sharp pencil did the math and realized that taking in people along with their water didn't solve a water shortage.” PeopleFirstsLittlesWinningWaterCitiesSolveMathCaliforniaPencilsShortageBureaucratsLawsuitSharp Pencils Book:Pump Six and Other Stories Source: Pump Six and Other Stories
“In California today, you may save more water by not eating a pound of beef than you would by not showering for six entire months.” MayTodayWaterMonthsSixEatingClimate ChangeCaliforniaPoundsBeef Book:The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our World Source: The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our World
“We can decide that the presence of cancer-causing substances in our air, water, and food is too expensive. A 2009 study, for example, has found that coal miners in Appalachia costs the region five times more in premature deaths, including from cancer, than it provides to the region in jobs, taxes, and economic benefits. In California, the production and use of hazardous chemicals cost the state $2.6 billion in 2004 alone in lost wages and health-care expenses to treat workers and children with pollution-linked diseases.” ChildrenStatesUseCareJobsFoundLostWaterStudyFiveAirEconomicExampleCostTaxesDiseaseBenefitsTreatsEnvironmentalWorkersIncludingCancerProductionsBillionsHealth CareSubstanceCaliforniaExpensiveRegionsExpensesChemicalsPollutionWagesCoalLinkedPrematureMinersAppalachiaCoal MinersPremature Death Author:Sandra Steingraber
“I've been surfing for a couple years, in the offseason in California and in Hawaii. I'm not very good, but it's just something that to be out there in the water, no cell phone, no music... very few sports are as pure as that.” YearsSportsWaterCouplePureVery GoodPhonesCellsCaliforniaHawaiiSurfingCell PhoneOffseason Author:Troy Polamalu
“With irrigation channels and rivers running dry and municipal water storage dams reaching record lows, California's politicians are getting desperate for solutions to a drought that seemingly has no end.” EndsRunningWaterRecordsPoliticianSolutionsLowsRiversCaliforniaDryDesperateReachingDroughtStorageDamsIrrigation Author:Marc Levine