California has a long-standing history of water scarcity and drought. The current drought afflicting California is very worrisome and should be taken very seriously; however, it is not because of the overall precipitation levels. Many studies actually show that the current drought is not exceptional given the natural variations in precipitation of the past seven centuries(YALE). This drought should indeed be considered historic for three reasons: continued depletion of fresh groundwater supplies, rise in the average temperature, and increased evaporation rates. Many changes need to be made in order to ensure the efficacy of California’s water supply and change their current future of continued historic droughts. Figure(1). Increased reliance on groundwater has been a solution for California during past droughts. This has led to the hard truth that the state’s groundwater resources are heading towards unsustainability. Agriculture and domestic extraction has caused the water table to fall by up to one hundred feet in some areas and the deep aquifer water level to decline by even greater numbers in parts of …show more content…
What the people in California are experiencing today is indeed a perfect drought. This drought is a discrete event that will come to a close sooner or later. However, it should also be noted that this drought has changed the context in which future droughts will occur. The rising temperatures will year-by-year increase the demands for water, particularly in our agricultural sector, which accounts for about eighty percent of the applied water in the state. Due to the ever-increasing rates of evaporation, each future drought will have a deeper bite than the previous