Who's really using up the water in the American West?

No, just do what Israel does and desalinate ocean water then we don't have to worry and we can also eat less beef.

Go vegan

I eat beef like 6 times a year. I'm a huge chicken. Eater. I don't really eat any other meat other than chicken and beef. So I love cheese! Love love love it.but I love my vegan butter better then milk butter. I think it's easy to eat less beef and more birds because birds are yummy and small.

There's another water waste that might be worth looking into. Evaporation.

The truth of the matter is, certain land geometries reduce evaporation.

It's like if you get a towel soaking and just throw it on the floor in a mound. It'll stay wet, particularly in the middle for quite a while.

Compare that to laying a wet towel on the floor... it'll stay wet quite a bit longer, but since it's right up against the floor, the bottom tends to stay wet (since there isn't great air circulation under the towel).

Compare that to hanging the towel on the line, and it will dry EXTREMELY fast. It's got both sides of the towel exposed to air, and the air is free flowing.

So how can this be done in the West to conserve water? Well, you want to somehow do 2 things.

1. You want to get the water from where it falls to where it pools as quickly and efficiently as possible.
2. You want to reduce the air flow as much as possible.

One way you can do this is by planning farms runoff better. They need their rainfall, of course... there's no getting around that, but much of their rainfall just evaporates anyway. If you strategized channels to drain to the nearest aquifer as quickly as possible, you will not only save evaporation and replentish aquifers, but you will also potentially have an underground well to pump from and water your plants more regularly.

Go vegan :)

California is NOT a good example to take from, it sounds like a good idea however in reality it probably won’t work out.

I think it is ridiculous to grow nuts like pistachios and almonds. Just exporting the water to grow them out of the state. I love the taste of both, but if I never ate another one I would not starve to death. They are a luxury in a water short world.

Not that hard really you're overthinking it. Since the farmers use the water charge them for the water. it's that easy. Start at $0.10 a gallon and go up until the problem is solved

This video brought to you by Bill Gates, NATO, WHO and the CCP buying farm land. You're welcome.

I am happy that i am vegetarian
Atleast i am not involved in killing our planet

The other remedy is not to let the most fresh water run off into the ocean to save a little fish, also don't geoengineer drought to cause a shortage of water.

LESS PEOPLE is the answer...

So here's why this is all true, but completely meaningless: MONEY. It's like when California was literally having to consider shutting off water supply to areas due to the drought, but still allowed almond farmers to irrigate the highest water consuming nut crop: because that crop contributes to the state budget. Like everything else humans touch, this won't improve in anything more than increments until the water is gone and we have no other choice but to act.

Awesome use of props 😂🎉

This is a fear mongering trash video. The west has ALWAYS been dry! Now its just a little dryer, imagine that! Millions of people move in and theres a little less water, who could have ever guessed?

Now can we talk about how the Saudis bought up all the water rights in Blythe, California...so they can grow alfalfa for their own cattle and race horses back home??

Using the wrong fear term! Its not global warming anymore.... climate change! Problem is.... nothing has changed yet!

Build no water dams in the mountains to store excess water cause a few nuclear power plants and pumping stations you’re welcome

Surely there is no vegan push behind this, surely...

Too many people...that's the MAIN PROBLEM.

do you want a solution? ban alfalfa before your Colorado river dries up

Yeah it's animal products.. Go vegan. It's not hard.

How about we tax those countries on the hay ? It could help, though maybe not a complete solution.

Brilliantly illustrated

They're in a pretty weird situation. Because the water out there flows in from a different region of the country.

It's not an unlimited resource.

So not eating meat is the best thing you can do to save water?

Why not stop eating meat? Why are cheeseburgers THAT important? Meat, dairy and eggs are the biggest evils this world has ever seen.

what if... here me out... we didn't try to grow stuff in the desert

I don't know why we're telling ourselfs to not eat. 32% is something but we all need to eat. What about the other about 60% and why are we not talking about it?

So the problem is clear, and the solution is clear (with many other benefits), but I don't want to do that. 🤦‍♂️

When talking about water, everybody likes to shame Nestle for stealing the water.
So let's compare the annual amount of bottled water worldwide. That's 33 Billion Gallons, Nestles share is 5.6 Billion Gallons (worldwide!). That's 0.03 % of the water used in the American west (22 Trillion Gallons).

So.... why do they grow crops in the desert? Surely there are better places to grow crops.

Who would ever have guessed that using flood irrigation in a desert, to grow water-heavy crops, could ever have such dire consequences?
So unlucky!

Really, what's going on is the California Agriculture wants to expand beyond its natural water reserves, so it imports water from other states. Not just in the Pacific watershed, either, but also across the Rockies. It's unsustainable.

who’s here from tiktok?

It’s unfortunate they barely even mention how helpful it would be for everyone to reduce the amount of meat they consume. I stopped eating meat almost exactly one year ago after 42 years of eating meat daily. My diet now is diverse and delicious, I’ve lost 70 pounds and am now at my ideal weight, and have eliminated every health issue I had. I was scared to stop eating meat and thought it would be impossible. It took me months to even start trying. But it’s literally the best thing I’ve done for myself in my entire life, and I know it’s better for our planet too. Watch the documentary Forks Over Knives and if nothing else, consider making the change for your own benefit.

Don't eat beef or dairy.

Water is a resource. Farmers should pay the same rate as anyone else.

What everyone forgets is that these irrigated farms are still using every drop they are allotted bc of use it or lose it policies and they’re using flood irrigating still. If we just promoted better irrigation we could save 10-15% of that water

it sceams like the solution is forceing farms to downsize to a model where 90% of the feed goes to US cows and find another place to grow feed.

Another important aspect is how inefficient current watering practices for a lot of crops are. Such as center pivot, one of the methods shown in the video, is terribly inefficient. This method allows good portion to not actually water the plant bc of evaporation and other factors. Drip irrigation is much more efficient but more expensive but I’d rather spend a bit more on the system than have no water at all. Like y’all said, It’s gonna be a hard sell to have people change their diets but improving the systems of how we grow it could make a big difference.

This is amazing. I would have loved to see golf courses split out. Numbers vary but one golf course might use 200 million gallons of water per year for irrigation.

EAT TOFU

Humans can also change their diets to consume more chicken than beef as well. Chickens require a lot less water to farm.

Well before alfalfa becomes alfalfa harvest alfalfa sprouts and now humans have food to eat for less water consumed then make the cows eat something else. Problem solved. Or at least part of the problem. The "use it or lose it" water rights laws of the west need to be banned. So much water is wasted or left to go into the ocean just so companies don't lose their water rights.

Man can survive without livestock but will perish without water. Make water more expensive than alfalfa to fix this problem. Alfalfa should not be made profitable. Our water is way more valuable than stock feed. It is priceless.

In California 80% of our water goes toward polluting Factory farms owned by Big Agribusiness and 20% of that goes to tree nuts. Saudi Arabia consumes a massive amount of CA & NM water for their crops. The Fossil Fuel Industry pollutes and waste massive amount of water from California every year. Go ahead take three showers a day flush the toilet 20 times a day is not going to make a difference

Plant seaweed instead i guess