DuBois column: Its Dry and Another Lockdown

 

Its Dry and Another Lockdown

Drought

The drought is officially here. Just now? Yes, according to the mainstream media. It arrived on June 20, for it was on that date that two national publications and one regional published major articles covering the drought in the West. The Washington Post brought us Severe Heat and Droughts the Hallmarks of a Changing West. CNN came with The American West is Drying Out. Things Will Get Ugly and the Albuquerque Journal says We’re Sounding the Alarm.

The Washington Post piece, while addressing west-wide issues, focuses primarily on California and Arizona.

 In Lake Oroville, California, little islands of land are appearing, larger boats can no longer be removed, and the launch ramp no longer reaches the water.

As a result of a poor snowpack and early seasonal heat causing evaporation of runoff, the onset of this year’s drought happened much quicker than those previous. Only twenty percent of the expected runoff made it to reservoirs. “I’ve seen it like this before, but only at the end of summer, never this early,” says one official. “This low will be historic.”

Each drought year is different according to Stanford University’s Felicia Marcus. “This one’s come on hot and quickly. And that has created an acceleration of the problems you might otherwise see, in part because our ecosystems, our forests, our groundwater resources haven’t recovered from the last one.”

The article says that last year’s wildfires burned up 4.3 million acres in California, the largest area ever in the history of the state, and that twenty-five percent of California residents now live in “high fire risk zones.”

California farmers have been notified that both federal and state water allotments will be curtailed and that due to low water levels future electricity production is threatened. California officials are preparing residents for a summer of rolling outages.

It further says that for California, Arizona and Utah, the period from June 2020 through May of 2021 has been the driest ever reported.

This appears to be another year where the famed California monsoon has not happened and residents are now referring to it as the “nonsoon”.

In Arizona they are most worried about implementation of restrictions on use of the Colorado River. Based upon a compact reached years ago, Arizona farmers will be among the first to have their water allotments cut. Stephanie Smallhouse, President of the Arizona Farm Bureau Federation, says, “They’ll likely…have to fallow up to 40 percent of what was growing before.” Smallhouse, a fifth-generation rancher, spends every daylight hour hauling water, along with her husband and son. The process, she says, is “physically exhausting. And mentally? It’s tough. Because you just don’t know what’s going to happen.”

CNN takes a different tact, using three different maps to demonstrate the severity of the droug0ht. They also focus on Lake Mead, which has fallen to depths not seen since it was filled during the construction in the 1930s of Hoover Dam. The entire town of St. Thomas, which the government bought and then flooded, has reappeared. The maps show 88 percent of the West in some shade of red, while the East is unaffected and Lake Mead has fallen more than 140 feet 0since 2000 and sits at no more than a third of its capacity.

CNN does show how the government differentiates between “extreme drought” and “exceptional drought”. The criteria is different for each state, but take a look at the criteria they use for “exceptional drought” in California:

·         Fields are left fallow; orchards are removed; vegetable yields are low; honey harvest is small

·         Fire season is very costly; number of fires and area burned are extensive

·         Many recreational activities are affected

·         Fish rescue and relocation begins; pine beetle infestation occurs; forest mortality is high; wetlands dry up; survival of native plants and animals is low; fewer wildflowers bloom; wildlife death is widespread; algae blooms appear

·         Policy change; agriculture unemployment is high, food aid is needed

·         Poor air quality affects health; greenhouse gas emissions increase as hydropower production decreases; West Nile Virus outbreaks rise

·         Water shortages are widespread; surface water is depleted; federal irrigation water deliveries are extremely low; junior water rights are curtailed; water prices are extremely high; wells are dry, more and deeper wells are drilled; water quality is poor

However you color it, that is an ugly picture.

The Albuquerque Journal, of course, looks at New Mexico, with a focus on the Rio Grande and Elephant Butte Dam. The dam was built from 1912-1916.

This year, farmers in the Elephant Butte Irrigation District (EBID) will only receive four inches of project water.  EBID manager Gary Esslinger says that is just enough for one irrigation cycle.

“If we get lucky and monsoons come in, we could extend our season past July 1,” Esslinger said. “But right now, we may be out of water by June 25.” Their season began June 1.

The feds estimate the dam is eight to ten percent full and could drop down to one percent of capacity after the irrigation season is complete.

Climate lockdown

Some are speculating we will have a Climate Lockdown in our future. On just what basis do they make this outlandish claim? They base it on an article written by an employee of the World Health Organization (WHO). Her name is Mariana Mazzucato. She is a professor of economics at University London, but also heads something called the Council on the Economics of Health for All, a division of the WHO. Here is what she wrote:

As COVID-19 spread […] governments introduced lockdowns in order to prevent a public-health emergency from spinning out of control. In the near future, the world may need to resort to lockdowns again – this time to tackle a climate emergency […] To avoid such a scenario, we must overhaul our economic structures and do capitalism differently.

Not only was the article published, it has been republished by the likes of Bill and Melinda Gates and a publication backed by George Soros. That is what has people worried.

I have a solution. Let’s Lockdown the Lockdowners. Flank’em high..three wraps and a hooey…and leave’em where they lay. If your pony spooks and drags them through the dirt a little bit, why that is okay too.

Until next time, be a nuisance to the devil and don’t forget to check that cinch.

Frank DuBois was the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003, is the author of a blog: The Westerner (www.thewesterner.blogspot.com) and is the founder of The DuBois Rodeo Scholarship and The DuBois Western Heritage Foundation

This column originally appeared in the July issues of the New Mexico Stockman and the Livestock Market Digest.