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Water is a crucial 
building block for life,

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for farming, for food, and for showers.

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Often water comes from far away.

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For example,
over half of Southern California's water

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is pumped out of
the Colorado River.

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It is then transported up
and over a mountain range

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to be used in cities and farms

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But as rainfall
and temperatures change,

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scientists are seeing
a megadrought

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emerging the American West.

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And much of that long-term drought

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is centered right over
the Colorado River.

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Which means giant cities like L.A.

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and rural farms alike
could see a strain

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on their water supply.

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In this episode, we'll learn
why this drought is so bad

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and find out what lessons
we can learn

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from people who have
lived in the Southwest

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for thousands of years.

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A drainage basin is an area

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where precipitation collects

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and runs into
a particular body of water.

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The basin in the Colorado River

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spans seven States
and two countries.

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40 million people
count on it's water

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but what happens when rivers dry up

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and the water you're counting on 
doesn't come.

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To understand, I first asked

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water and drought scientist,
Brad Udall, what's going on.

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In 2000, a drought began
that now 20 years later

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is the most severe drought

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since gauges were
installed on the river

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in 1906 in some places.

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The flow is down about 20%.

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Drought is usually defined

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as a period of 
abnormally low rainfall

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leading to a shortage of water.

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But Brad told me
that this drought is a bit different.

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That's because while rain is down,

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that doesn't fully 
account for the low water levels

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We now actually have a new
term for this

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it's a hot drought.

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So higher temperatures dry out the earth.

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And what we're finding is
that higher temperatures

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lead to greater evaporation
in all its forms.

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And that evaporation is the
cause of this decline in flow.

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In other words, as temperatures
increase over time,

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the process of evaporation

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takes more water away from rivers, lakes

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and snow-capped mountains.

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This helps explain why river flow

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in the Colorado basin is down 20%

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despite precipitation only
being down by 5%.

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And droughts do end,

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but according to many scientists

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waiting for rain in this case
is probably not a good idea.

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The term "drought" implies

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some kind of return
to normal at some point.

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Drought implies temporary,

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and most scientists nowadays 
have started talking

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about the aridification of the West,

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meaning a more permanent
move to a dry state.

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(car engine roaring)

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Few people understand

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the threat of drought
better than Nancy Caywood.

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She's a fifth generation
farmer in Pinal County

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where water either comes
from the Colorado River

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through the Central Arizona Project canals

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or from other rivers and canals
in the Colorado basin.

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This represents liquid gold.

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This is our water supply right here.

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We take it out, there's a gate right there

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and it goes down a little lateral canal

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that takes it right to our farm.

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I'm gonna open up this gate,

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we have the gate open,

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we'll open four of them,
allow the water to flow in.

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We have about 135 acres of alfalfa.

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This is an example of flood irrigation,

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one of the oldest and most
common irrigation methods

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which distributes water over the soil

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by allowing it to flow
downhill with gravity.

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There's a beautiful simplicity to it,

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but it's actually the least
efficient way to irrigate

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as much of the water
either evaporates away

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or seeps into the soil out of
reach of the plants' roots.

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And on top of that, alfalfa
is a very thirsty crop,

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which means the beef that comes
from the cattle it feeds

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is the highest water use
food commonly available.

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Drip and sprinkler irrigation
can be much more efficient,

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but Nancy told us she's not been able

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to get the permits needed

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to change the irrigation
style on the farm.

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And the Caywood alfalfa
fields are in good company.

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60% of farmland in the Colorado basin

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is used to grow feed crops.

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Combine all that demand,
and here in Pinal County

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is where the drought hits home.

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The last time the reservoir
was full was in 1992.

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One year, we had nothing
planted on this farm at all.

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In 2019 water in Lake Mead,

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the nation's largest
reservoir, dropped so low

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it triggered the first cutbacks

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in water allocations ever in the basin.

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Pinal County farmers were the first

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to have their water reduced.

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Fields lay fallow, prepped
and ready, but unplanted.

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This is a fallow field

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and we just didn't have
enough water to plant it.

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We have 120 acres of fallow land.

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Good news here is, since about 1980

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American water use has actually gone down.

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Even in growing American
cities in the South West,

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total consumption has gone down

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despite pretty big
increases in population.

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But worldwide irrigated agriculture

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uses upwards of 70% of water in rivers

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and municipalities use much,
much less, 20% or less.

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That's partially due

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to household water conservation efforts,

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but it's mainly due to the way
cities and homes use water.

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When you shower, wash dishes
or even flush the toilet,

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that water is treated and returned 
to surface or groundwater

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rather than evaporating.

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The same goes for some industrial uses.

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But the largest opportunity and challenge

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to reduce water use
is in the agricultural sector.

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That's because water used for farming

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either becomes part of the growing plants

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or it's lost to evaporation,

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meaning it doesn't return
to the hydrologic cycle

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for a very long time.

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Scientists say this is 
the worst drought in 1200 years,

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but the Hopi you have lived in this area

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for over 2000 years and have
grown food through it all.

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We met up with Max Taylor,
a Hopi Water Resources technician

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to find out if lessons
from one of the oldest communities

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in the United States can
be applied to modern life

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in the drying Colorado basin.

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The Hopi's been known
to use the least amount of water,

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than people throughout
the whole United States,

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it's just because we live in the desert,

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here we are more aware of how much you use.

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And so the use is very little.

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So we're down at my field.

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This is my blue corn, they're planted here.

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All of these are dry farmed.

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I don't do any irrigation.

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And the technique we use
is you clear off an area.

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You'll dig a hole down about
maybe eight to 10 inches deep,

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get maybe eight or 10 kernels of corn

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and toss in there.

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The wet moisture that you've taken up,

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you push them back in,

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then you cover it with dry soil.

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And that's dry farming.

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His garden is planted in a low lying area

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to collect the little
moisture that falls each year.

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And his crops are extremely
adapted to the region.

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They're planted far apart to
avoid competition for water,

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and they grow very deep roots
that tap into groundwater.

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Right now we're in September.

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You can still feel a little bit of moisture

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in the ground, see that?

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Not much, but just enough that
it's still keeping them going

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Amazingly Max uses seeds for
his own farming consumption

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that produces crops in
what seems like dust

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with no irrigation.

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He's never watered this field.

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We have seeds that are being passed on

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from generation to generation.

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So they're adapted to this dry climate.

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The corn's been with the Hopi

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at least several thousand years.

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I think the lesson to learn

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is that you have to live
within your environment.

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And I think that's how the natives

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have survived in these areas
because they were sustainable.

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And we know this country.

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Shifting towards crops appropriate for

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and adapted to their environment

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provides a vast opportunity
for water conservation.

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That shift can happen
on farms or in cities

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when we choose to eat foods
that need less water to grow.

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On paper, a shift from feed
crops and cattle makes sense.

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But if we wanna adapt

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to our warming climate in an equitable way,

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we can't write off farmers

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like Nancy and the families

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that have fed us for generations.

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We would like to continue farming.

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We don't plan on giving up this farm.

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We are looking into alternatives,

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we're looking into alternative crops,

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we're looking at water
conservation irrigation techniques.

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Alfalfa takes seven to nine acre feet

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of water a year to grow it.

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Olives would take about one
and a half acre feet of water.

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But if we were to get into say olives,

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there'd be a lot of soil preparation.

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So it costs us a lot money to get started.

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But the question is, can
we come together as a country

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and implement techniques to reduce the strain

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on our water supply before
they're even more shortages?

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We need to be ready

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for some really big changes coming at us

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that are frankly outside
of our comprehension.

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This is how we make the
best out of a bad situation

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and stand by those

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who end up facing the biggest
changes and challenges.

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And while we focus

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on the American Southwest in this episode,

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drought does affect almost
every part of the country.

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So practicing water conservation

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as a part of your daily life can help you prepare

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for when water supplies run low in your region.

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Some of the most effective
things you can do today

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are not that hard.

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For example, never leave a faucet running

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when it's not being used,

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like when brushing your teeth or washing dishes.

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Make sure to fix leaky faucets

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and choose energy and water efficient appliances.

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If you want to get more involved,

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you can place a brick in the tank of your toilet

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so it uses less water for each flush,

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or convert your lawn to a beautiful landscape

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that doesn't need irrigation.

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Or even install a rainwater catchment system.

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Of course, there's another thing we can all do,

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and that's to fight

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the underlying cause of this drought, climate change.

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The future of this drought is unwritten

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and the less warming we create

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the brighter our water future will be.

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So check out the excellent show, Hot Mess

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for more ideas about what can be done.

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And of course, subscribe

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to keep up with all of our episodes of Weathered.

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(soft music)