One of the largest economies in the world out of water.
Southern California is out of water. The AP reported that Metropolitan Water District has announced water cuts next year. Is it time to change the way we think about and use water?
Or will we just start forking out more and more money to keep that nice piece of lawn out front of our house to show off with? It seems that is what has been happening with the electricity out here. People just decide that it is going to be Ok to spend $1000 a month for electricity so that they can keep the house nice and cool while they are out swimming in the pool.
Friends of mine at Path To Freedom believe that it is better to have a yard that produces something for you like vegetables and edible flowers. Their front yard is all planted to provide for them. Are there other ideas that might make sense now? What about Gray water systems to water the yard? California has a grey water standard but it is quite complicated. What about harvesting water off of your roof from the few times that it does rain and using that to water the grass?
What about just getting rid of the yard and putting in fake grass? I was just at the Southern California Fair and there was a vendor selling three or four different types of fake grass, you may never have to mow again. Since it is SoCal the land of the fake everything else, I assume that there will be more of this type of lawn soon, but some home owners associations have already outlawed it as being too perfect.
What ever the choices are they will soon be impacting everyone. Either the guy who chooses to spend lots of money to keep his real grass looking like the fake grass next door, or the family down the street who decides to grow carrots in their yard instead of grass. We all will be impacted in one way of another with the lack of water.
Sean @ October 10, 2007