Climate Change not among the top priorities per California voters.
From the California Water Foundation:
Californians believe this year’s record drought is the “new normal” and favor investments in long-term solutions over short-term fixes, according to a poll released today by the California Water Foundation.
The poll, conducted by a bipartisan team of pollsters — the Democratic polling firm Fairbanks, Maslin, Maullin, Metz and Associates of Oakland, Calif. and Republican firm Public Opinion Strategies of Washington, D.C., found that Californians blame the drought on a variety of causes but more than three in five point to population growth, and waste of water as “major causes.” Some 85% of Californians continue to view the drought as a “very serious” or “serious” problem, with 48 percent considering it a “serious crisis” — more than triple the number that said that in a 2011 poll.
At the same time, sizable majorities recognize that California’s water supply problems are long-term, and will not be resolved by additional rain. In fact, more than three in five label drought conditions “the new normal.”
However, there is a major partisan divide on the role that climate change plays in the current drought. Some 55% percent of Democrats pin part of the blame on climate change; just 35% of Republicans do.
Protecting and regulating groundwater — a key issue facing the Legislature this year — is overwhelmingly favored by Californians. Some 94 percent say it needs to be considered in managing future droughts.
“Californians want both immediate actions in response to the current drought and a plan for the future that addresses the “new normal” of chronic water shortages” said California Water Foundation Executive Director Lester Snow. “This poll shows that Californians are united in thinking that we need to employ all the tools we have to manage water more efficiently and to make investments now that squeeze the most out of the water supplies we have.”
Voters, for the most part, are far less likely to say they personally have been impacted by the drought, but they believe that others have been significantly affected. Farmers were viewed as the most impacted, with 56% of Californians citing Central Valley farmers as being among the most affected by the drought. Significant numbers also recognized that fish and wildlife are suffering from the lack of water in the state.
More than nine in ten voters agree that California should employ a wide range of potential solutions, from conservation to water storage to recycling. In contrast, voters are divided on rolling back environmental regulations.
Governor Brown is given a vote of confidence in dealing with the drought. Some 56 percent of Californians say he is doing a good job on the issue.
Voters are split on the proper scale of action. Democrats, Latinos, and Southern Californians favor a statewide solution while GOP voters, independents and northern Californians prefer a regional approach.
A majority would be willing to pay a water fee of as much as four dollars a month to address water supply problems – and even larger proportions express support for smaller amounts.
The poll was conducted from May 29 to June 4 with 800 California voters. Its margin of error is 3.5%.
Link to the poll summary: http://californiawaterfoundation.org/uploads/1403027017-CAVotersandDrought-CWFSurveySummary(00254161-2xA1C15).pdf
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Unless I just missed it, I didn’t see desalinization on the list of solutions. I guess it’s because California is too far from any large body of water which could be used in desalinization.
His name is Les Snow? wow. The child of prophets….
Lots of people, pools , car washes , showers , baths etc etc in an area not know for its rain.
Well guess what , water becomes a problem as it does every time you get this combination , frack all to do with AGW
Only 55% of Democrats blame global waming? I had always assumed the pecentage of ignorants in that party was far higher. So what happened to the majority, the Independent voters? They weren’t polled?
Suggestion/ Possible Solution: Stop frittering away tax dollars on this lie called global warming, and begin construction of multiple desalination plants along the California coast. Yes, extremely costly, but consider the federal and state money wasted on Mr. Gore’s fallacy.
California’s drought is being brought on, at least in part, by environmentalists.
Exhibit 1- No new dam has been built in 35 years. Dams are needed to store water, especially as California’s population has DOUBLED in 35 years.
Exhibit 2 – nearly 2 million acre feet of water per year is NOT being used to irrigate farms, but instead is being used to ‘protect’ delta smelt (a 3 inch fish). This is enough water for over 3 million families.
Treating waste water for reuse would be much less expensive than desalination.
Bottom line is that people intuitively know that the AGW scare is bogus, despite what the politicians say.
Redistribution of other peoples wealth is the number one goal of Calf. voters and they have reached for more than possible, thus the fact of a shortage of U-Haul Trucks in Calf..
Gone to Texas says the recipt slips left on the U-Haul check out counter.
What people “believe” is neither here nor there. What has the drought got to do with man?
US droughts and mega-droughts during the Holocene. Here is a sample from the list.
A few years of drought and people scream UNPRECEDENTED! It’s worse than we thought! We must fight and fight hard for a stable, unchanging climate.
California is in drought due to weather well within historical variations.
California has a water shortage due to unprecedented political dysfunction.
Actually, I was expecting an 90-30 split (on the “major divide”) so only a 20 point swing is close to normal. IN other words, barely half of democrats (and by implication, less than half of all) blame Global warming.
But I fear their anger is going to be turned inward. And the central valley is going to suffer from it. City folks just do not understand that crops need water to grow.
Here are some of the effects of the Little Ice Age on parts of the USA.
Did you know you can export ‘water’? Let’s ‘make hay’ with California’s valuable water resources. We must act now on climate change and the causes of hay growth.
The blame for global warming is inflated. If it had bothered to mention human-caused global warming as in the type specifically underlying the carbon taxes in CA, the attribution by the respondents would have been much less. It is misleading on the part of pollsters to not distinguish human caused versus natural cycle-caused since natural cycles do come back down and human-induced are projected to be either linear or exponential increases with no relief short of massive adjustment. It is professionally defunct survey design.
“Californians believe this year’s record drought is the “new normal””
Almost half the state of California is officially considered desert. Drought was the “old normal” too.
They will all be George Clooney’s problems soon enough. He can blame them on Arnie.
Most Californians haven’t the slightest idea of what normal is. The state had above average rainfall in 2012 (http://ggweather.com/ca2011rain.htm) , the lakes and reservoirs were full, and it will likely return to normal in 2015. No need even to build more reservoirs, just cut the water going to sea after a year of below normal rainfall.
But this state is governed by courts not reason. They’ve completely botched it. If we have another winter like the last, watch this state implode. It will become a complete disaster.
Meanwhile, California fish and game continue to do fish kills to rid waterways of non indigenous species, but the courts mandate a certain amount of water to be sent downstream to protect the Smelt fish, which is a non native species to California.
Is fresh water running out in California? Well, good news to anyone who’s Xmas Greenpeace spoiled last December with their North Pole snow forecasts. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INjjEzSTfIg. There is plenty of fresh water in the suitable format, further south, now, right on time for the mid-summer night festivities. http://yle.fi/uutiset/coldest_june_night_in_50_years_brings_summertime_snow/7304434.
CA needs some dam solutions…
Didn’t mean to be “flippant” about dams:
http://www.kqed.org/news/science/climatewatch/waterandpower/map.jsp
There seems to be enough in numbers of dams, but management of the resources seems lacking.
Maybe you have to sacrifice a few fish to insure the water supply. I’m not saying to dam up Yosemite Park, but maybe there are some other places which could be dammed for large reservoirs. You can’t keep all of California as a national park or monument. (Like Alaska is assumed to be a National Park, rather than a state by the Greens)
“”Favors long term solutions over short term fixes””….That is exactly why California is going to spend a billion, whoops make that 2 billion now without including further cost increases to come, on high speed rail down south. This will allow the state to rapidly move vast quantities of bottled water where ever needed, once the project reaches completion in x/years.
Too bad we are losing so many of our folks from the dust bowl era. Now that event put the dr in drought.
Here is California’s precipitation during El Nino years.
http://stream1.cma.gov.cn/cmatcvod/09/calmet/climate/Introduction_to_Statistics_for_Climatology/media/el-nino_likely.gif
More or less opposite during La Nina.
Wait till the Fall to see how many local authorities were caught completely off-guard by flooding.
Chris4692 says:
June 17, 2014 at 12:28 pm
“Treating waste water for reuse would be much less expensive than desalination.”
Perhaps, but have you ever lived down wind from on of those treatment plants?