The Worst Drought in 1200 Years: What Does it Mean for Your Food?

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The Colorado Basin provides water to over 40 million people in 7 US states and it is currently experiencing its worst drought in 1200 years! But unlike other droughts, our actions may have real impacts on the outcome and it’s very likely that we can make things better.

Based on current projections scientists are using terms like “aridification” to describe it, meaning that, if we don’t change course things may not go back to normal for a very long time. How is this “hot drought” different from those that have visited the region before? How are climate change and warming temperatures driving these changes? And what can we do to adapt? Watch this episode of Weathered to find out.

Weathered is a show hosted by meteorologist Maiya May and produced by Balance Media that helps explain the most common natural disasters, what causes them, how they’re changing, and what we can do to prepare.

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Water is a crucial
building block for life,

for farming, for food, and for showers.

Often water comes from far away.

For example,
over half of Southern California's water

is pumped out of
the Colorado River.

It is then transported up
and over a mountain range

to be used in cities and farms

But as rainfall
and temperatures change,

scientists are seeing
a megadrought

emerging the American West.

And much of that long-term drought

is centered right over
the Colorado River.

Which means giant cities like L.A.

and rural farms alike
could see a strain

on their water supply.

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

and find out what lessons
we can learn

from people who have
lived in the Southwest

for thousands of years.

A drainage basin is an area

where precipitation collects

and runs into
a particular body of water.

The basin in the Colorado River

spans seven States
and two countries.

40 million people
count on it's water

but what happens when rivers dry up

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

To understand, I first asked

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

In 2000, a drought began
that now 20 years later

is the most severe drought

since gauges were
installed on the river

in 1906 in some places.

The flow is down about 20%.

Drought is usually defined

as a period of
abnormally low rainfall

leading to a shortage of water.

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

That's because while rain is down,

that doesn't fully
account for the low water levels

We now actually have a new
term for this

it's a hot drought.

So higher temperatures dry out the earth.

And what we're finding is
that higher temperatures

lead to greater evaporation
in all its forms.

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

In other words, as temperatures
increase over time,

the process of evaporation

takes more water away from rivers, lakes

and snow-capped mountains.

This helps explain why river flow

in the Colorado basin is down 20%

despite precipitation only
being down by 5%.

And droughts do end,

but according to many scientists

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

The term "drought" implies

some kind of return
to normal at some point.

Drought implies temporary,

and most scientists nowadays
have started talking

about the aridification of the West,

meaning a more permanent
move to a dry state.

(car engine roaring)

Few people understand

the threat of drought
better than Nancy Caywood.

She's a fifth generation
farmer in Pinal County

where water either comes
from the Colorado River

through the Central Arizona Project canals

or from other rivers and canals
in the Colorado basin.

This represents liquid gold.

This is our water supply right here.

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

and it goes down a little lateral canal

that takes it right to our farm.

I'm gonna open up this gate,

we have the gate open,

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

We have about 135 acres of alfalfa.

This is an example of flood irrigation,

one of the oldest and most
common irrigation methods

which distributes water over the soil

by allowing it to flow
downhill with gravity.

There's a beautiful simplicity to it,

but it's actually the least
efficient way to irrigate

as much of the water
either evaporates away

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

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

which means the beef that comes
from the cattle it feeds

is the highest water use
food commonly available.

Drip and sprinkler irrigation
can be much more efficient,

but Nancy told us she's not been able

to get the permits needed

to change the irrigation
style on the farm.

And the Caywood alfalfa
fields are in good company.

60% of farmland in the Colorado basin

is used to grow feed crops.

Combine all that demand,
and here in Pinal County

is where the drought hits home.

The last time the reservoir
was full was in 1992.

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

In 2019 water in Lake Mead,

the nation's largest
reservoir, dropped so low

it triggered the first cutbacks

in water allocations ever in the basin.

Pinal County farmers were the first

to have their water reduced.

Fields lay fallow, prepped
and ready, but unplanted.

This is a fallow field

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

We have 120 acres of fallow land.

Good news here is, since about 1980

American water use has actually gone down.

Even in growing American
cities in the South West,

total consumption has gone down

despite pretty big
increases in population.

But worldwide irrigated agriculture

uses upwards of 70% of water in rivers

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

That's partially due

to household water conservation efforts,

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

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

that water is treated and returned
to surface or groundwater

rather than evaporating.

The same goes for some industrial uses.

But the largest opportunity and challenge

to reduce water use
is in the agricultural sector.

That's because water used for farming

either becomes part of the growing plants

or it's lost to evaporation,

meaning it doesn't return
to the hydrologic cycle

for a very long time.

Scientists say this is
the worst drought in 1200 years,

but the Hopi you have lived in this area

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

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

to find out if lessons
from one of the oldest communities

in the United States can
be applied to modern life

in the drying Colorado basin.

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

than people throughout
the whole United States,

it's just because we live in the desert,

here we are more aware
of how much you use.

And so the use is very little.

So we're down at my field.

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

All of these are dry farmed.

I don't do any irrigation.

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

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

get maybe eight or 10 kernels of corn

and toss in there.

The wet moisture that you've taken up,

you push them back in,

then you cover it with dry soil.

And that's dry farming.

His garden is planted in a low lying area

to collect the little
moisture that falls each year.

And his crops are extremely
adapted to the region.

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

and they grow very deep roots
that tap into groundwater.

Right now we're in September.

You can still feel
a little bit of moisture

in the ground, see that?

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

Amazingly Max uses seeds for
his own farming consumption

that produces crops in
what seems like dust

with no irrigation.

He's never watered this field.

We have seeds that are being passed on

from generation to generation.

So they're adapted to this dry climate.

The corn's been with the Hopi

at least several thousand years.

I think the lesson to learn

is that you have to live
within your environment.

And I think that's how the natives

have survived in these areas
because they were sustainable.

And we know this country.

Shifting towards crops appropriate for

and adapted to their environment

provides a vast opportunity
for water conservation.

That shift can happen
on farms or in cities

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

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

But if we wanna adapt

to our warming climate in an equitable way,

we can't write off farmers

like Nancy and the families

that have fed us for generations.

We would like to continue farming.

We don't plan on giving up this farm.

We are looking into alternatives,

we're looking into alternative crops,

we're looking at water
conservation irrigation techniques.

Alfalfa takes seven to nine acre feet

of water a year to grow it.

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

But if we were to get into say olives,

there'd be a lot of soil preparation.

So it costs us a lot money to get started.

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

and implement techniques
to reduce the strain

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

We need to be ready

for some really big changes coming at us

that are frankly outside
of our comprehension.

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

and stand by those

who end up facing the biggest
changes and challenges.

And while we focus

on the American Southwest in this episode,

drought does affect almost
every part of the country.

So practicing water conservation

as a part of your daily life
can help you prepare

for when water supplies
run low in your region.

Some of the most effective
things you can do today

are not that hard.

For example, never leave a faucet running

when it's not being used,

like when brushing your teeth or washing dishes.

Make sure to fix leaky faucets

and choose energy and water
efficient appliances.

If you want to get more involved,

you can place a brick in the tank of your toilet

so it uses less water for each flush,

or convert your lawn
to a beautiful landscape

that doesn't need irrigation.

Or even install a rainwater
catchment system.

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

and that's to fight

the underlying cause
of this drought, climate change.

The future of this drought is unwritten

and the less warming we create

the brighter our water future will be.

So check out the excellent show, Hot Mess

for more ideas about what can be done.

And of course, subscribe

to keep up with all of our
episodes of Weathered.

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