{"id":13489,"date":"2011-06-16T06:05:44","date_gmt":"2011-06-16T13:05:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/?p=13489"},"modified":"2018-02-02T00:30:08","modified_gmt":"2018-02-02T00:30:08","slug":"deconstructing-the-drought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2011\/06\/16\/deconstructing-the-drought\/","title":{"rendered":"Deconstructing the Drought"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new report disputes some alleged impacts to the Central Valley from water restrictions, reveals others
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
(Photo: Craig Miller)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Blame the housing recession, not water restrictions. That’s the conclusion of a new report from the Oakland-based Pacific Institute<\/a>, which scrutinizes the connection between cutbacks in farm water deliveries and Central Valley job losses during California’s recent three-year drought.<\/p>\n

Impacts of the 2007-2009 California Drought: What Really Happened?<\/a><\/em> is described by its authors as a “nine-month assessment of new data from California\u2019s agricultural, energy, and environmental sectors.”<\/p>\n

Its main finding, that “Farm job losses were largely unrelated to water constraints,” appears to be a direct refutation of claims<\/a> by Congressman Devin Nunes (R-Fresno), and others, that regulatory and court-ordered restrictions on water deliveries have caused “massive unemployment” in the San Joaquin Valley.<\/p>\n

On the contrary, the Pacific Institute study concludes that during the drought:<\/p>\n

“California\u2019s agricultural community proved flexible and resilient, generating agricultural revenues in 2007, 2008, and 2009 that were the highest on record. And agriculture-related occupations remained a stable portion of total jobs available in areas directly impacted by water supply restrictions.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The authors say collapse of the home construction industry has been a far bigger culprit in Valley unemployment, citing figures from the Great Valley Center noting “a 2% gain in agriculture-related jobs between 2003 and 2009, but a 44% reduction in construction-related jobs over that same time.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Part of the “Stairway of Power” on the Feather River. California’s hydroelectric plants slowed down during the drought. (Photo: Craig Miller)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The 107-page report goes on to say that riparian ecosystems and the commercial and recreational salmon fisheries have suffered more drought-related damage than the farm economy. But the authors say they’re not trivializing economic suffering in rural California. The lead author of the report, Juliet Christian-Smith, stressed that while the report is a statewide picture, even areas that saw the most severe cutbacks, such as the west side of Fresno County, farm-related jobs “maintained their portion of total jobs” during the drought. “It’s very important to discover the real drivers of why this area has sustained long-term suffering and unemployment for decades, said Christian-Smith, “and think about how we’re going to make these systems more resilient in future droughts.”<\/p>\n

One of the more obscure — but fascinating — findings was the drought’s impact on our electric bills. Christian-Smith says that as stream flow declined through the state’s hydroelectric plants, electric utilities were forced to substitute power from natural gas-fired plants, creating more carbon dioxide emissions and costing customers more than a billion dollars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new report disputes some alleged impacts to the Central Valley from water restrictions but uncovers others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":221,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[180,412,494],"coauthors":[],"series":[],"affiliates":[],"programs":[],"collections":[],"interests":[],"class_list":["post-13489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-business","category-water","tag-economy","tag-pacific-institute","tag-san-joaquin-valley"],"acf":{"template_type":"standard","featured_image_type":"standard","is_audio_post":false},"yoast_head":"\nDeconstructing the Drought | Climate Watch<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2011\/06\/16\/deconstructing-the-drought\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Deconstructing the Drought | Climate Watch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A new report disputes some alleged impacts to the Central Valley from water restrictions but uncovers others.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2011\/06\/16\/deconstructing-the-drought\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Climate Watch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-06-16T13:05:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-02-02T00:30:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2011\/06\/Ag_0799_blog.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Craig Miller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@voxterra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Craig Miller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2011\/06\/16\/deconstructing-the-drought\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2011\/06\/16\/deconstructing-the-drought\/\",\"name\":\"Deconstructing the Drought | Climate Watch\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-06-16T13:05:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-02-02T00:30:08+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#\/schema\/person\/f7222c517400a6c4b0336fca3652c323\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2011\/06\/16\/deconstructing-the-drought\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2011\/06\/16\/deconstructing-the-drought\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2011\/06\/16\/deconstructing-the-drought\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Deconstructing the Drought\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/\",\"name\":\"Climate Watch\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#\/schema\/person\/f7222c517400a6c4b0336fca3652c323\",\"name\":\"Craig Miller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/dd8f4f4f978df3faac9db4c510939ea0\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b91661df645e001a9cafe0861fa685f9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b91661df645e001a9cafe0861fa685f9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Craig Miller\"},\"description\":\"Craig is a former KQED Science editor, specializing in weather, climate, water & energy issues, with a little seismology thrown in just to shake things up. Prior to that, he launched and led the station's award-winning multimedia project, Climate Watch. Craig is also an accomplished writer\/producer of television documentaries, with a focus on natural resource issues.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/voxterra\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/author\/cmiller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Deconstructing the Drought | Climate Watch","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2011\/06\/16\/deconstructing-the-drought\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Deconstructing the Drought | Climate Watch","og_description":"A new report disputes some alleged impacts to the Central Valley from water restrictions but uncovers others.","og_url":"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2011\/06\/16\/deconstructing-the-drought\/","og_site_name":"Climate Watch","article_published_time":"2011-06-16T13:05:44+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-02-02T00:30:08+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2011\/06\/Ag_0799_blog.jpg"}],"author":"Craig Miller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@voxterra","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Craig Miller","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2011\/06\/16\/deconstructing-the-drought\/","url":"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2011\/06\/16\/deconstructing-the-drought\/","name":"Deconstructing the Drought | Climate Watch","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-06-16T13:05:44+00:00","dateModified":"2018-02-02T00:30:08+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#\/schema\/person\/f7222c517400a6c4b0336fca3652c323"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2011\/06\/16\/deconstructing-the-drought\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2011\/06\/16\/deconstructing-the-drought\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2011\/06\/16\/deconstructing-the-drought\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Deconstructing the Drought"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/","name":"Climate Watch","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#\/schema\/person\/f7222c517400a6c4b0336fca3652c323","name":"Craig Miller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/dd8f4f4f978df3faac9db4c510939ea0","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b91661df645e001a9cafe0861fa685f9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b91661df645e001a9cafe0861fa685f9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Craig Miller"},"description":"Craig is a former KQED Science editor, specializing in weather, climate, water & energy issues, with a little seismology thrown in just to shake things up. Prior to that, he launched and led the station's award-winning multimedia project, Climate Watch. Craig is also an accomplished writer\/producer of television documentaries, with a focus on natural resource issues.","sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/voxterra"],"url":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/author\/cmiller\/"}]}},"template_type":null,"featured_image_type":null,"is_audio_post":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13489"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24706,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13489\/revisions\/24706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13489"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=13489"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=13489"},{"taxonomy":"affiliates","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/affiliates?post=13489"},{"taxonomy":"programs","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/programs?post=13489"},{"taxonomy":"collections","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collections?post=13489"},{"taxonomy":"interests","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/interests?post=13489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}