18 Comments

Your essays always seems so timely.

We’re in 5th month of almost no rain and still waiting and the influencer farmer and agri experts here in the Philippines are always pushing for using groundwater for growing crops. Look at what California managed to do they say. They don’t seem to see all the problems. Thanks so much for your good work Alpha.

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thank you

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I always enjoy your sketches. Much better than all the AI crap that other writers add

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The full picture begins to emerge

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yeah :)

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Thank you for writing about groundwater👍🏽

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Thanks yeah it needs to be written about more....

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Thank you for all your hard work. It makes me have faith again in science. Really astonishing and enjoyable !

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thank you, appreciate it.

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What an interesting point of view. Indeed, it is obvious now that it is put in plain view.

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yeah its not rocket science, its more of a perception shift.

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Alpha, do you know much about the current floods in Germany and how their treatment of aquifers there is contributing to the situation? Thank you!

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Do you have a reason why aquifers might affect floods? If the land can absorb more water, then the rain will go to fill up the aquifers....

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I have very little knowledge of what they have been doing to water courses generally, and thought you might know. Perhaps I shouldn't have asked specifically about aquifers?

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Don’t forget the role of soil in this!!!

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Instead of tapping into aquifers, we need to tap into the ocean of water beneath the Earth's crust which is our primary water source. This is where aquifers and springs come from! This was common knowledge until into the 20th century when the narrative was intentionally changed to create further controls on the people. Even municipalities and corporations hired water diviners with rods to find a water source where they were building. You can learn more at primarywater.org.

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Very interesting and once thought about very obvious in plain sight influence.

It would have been interesting to study the difference groundwater contributes to rainfall and temperature changes through evapotranspiration in California’s Central Valley on a historical basis, but alas sufficient records and studies don’t exist.

The current vector is through groundwater pumping and channelized canals from river runoff for agriculture crops as varied as almond orchards to table grape vines, each with very different root zones and after one hundred years plus of pumping, natural groundwater depths below the root zone. Thus, if no agricultural and fields left fallow, little or no evapotranspiration except from seasonal non-native weeds and grasses.

Prior to agriculture and the drainage of river runoff created wetlands and large shallow lakes, there was a much higher natural groundwater level, with tree and large shrub root zones extending into groundwater.

I believe studies conducted in Brazil have shown rainforest areas cleared for crop agriculture, primarily soybeans, have reduced the evapotranspiration rate, cloud creation and rainfall.

Other variables in the current conditions would include air quality effects from dust particles and air pollution particulates that didn’t exist one hundred years ago.

Obviously, the current condition is an artificial creation because groundwater has dropped too low to be a factor without agriculture. And more agriculture drops groundwater levels ever lower.

Could this be a scenario similar to deforestation (in this case wetlands and riparian trees) leading to eventual desertification, but artificially forestalled by groundwater pumping?

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Hi yes the depletion of groundwater in the Central Valley has probably lessened summer rain, I wonder if records could show how the rainfall has changed because of that. Brazilian clear cutting has affected rainfall. Francina Dominguez, mentioned in above article has studied that. She also put groundwater into her model for the Amazon. ... Yes it is a kind of desertification process, or rather a part of the path towards desertification.

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