Letters: Water and politics don’t mix

Re “Obama brings good, bad news,” Feb. 15

Experts have been warning for years of the potential social and economic consequences attributable to climate change. Whether or not California’s current drought is the result of climate change, I fear the report on President Obama’s visit last week to the state’s agricultural heartland foreshadows things to come.

Californians have been fighting over water from the very beginning, and so differing opinions about its allocation today come as no surprise. What should be distressing is that this is playing out while Republicans and Democrats battle for national dominance.

California’s debate on water usage should be among Californians. No matter where we live in this great state or our political or social persuasions, we are all in this together; we have to deal with the problem ourselves. Injecting national politics into California’s debate can only make choosing the right path much more difficult.

John Trask

Thousand Oaks

Severe drought in California, unprecedented flooding across Britain and historic winter storms in much of the Southern and Eastern United States — global climate change due to the buildup of carbon in the atmosphere is the new reality.

Obama says it’s “going to get a lot worse.” But where is the strong push from the White House or new legislation in Congress for a revenue-neutral carbon fee?

Rather than use California’s drought to peel off more votes for one party or the other, it’s time for serious climate action. A leaked report soon to be released by a United Nations climate panel says we have 15 years to make necessary changes.

Before California dries up and we all get cooked, let’s start cooking up some meaningful legislation to stop carbon pollution. We owe it to the next generation if not to ourselves.

Christle Balvin

Pasadena

Central Valley farmer Joe Del Bosque is an “outspoken critic of delta regulations that divert water from farmers.” I think you have that backward: Farmers divert water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

Driving the 5 Freeway through much of the Central Valley is a demonstration of enormous water waste. On display during the summer are open-air aqueducts, above-ground watering systems and even cattle being doused by giant sprinklers.

Restructuring irrigation systems is expensive, so most of that $160 million in federal drought aid that Obama is promising should be used to subsidize more efficient watering systems rather than to feed farmers’ livestock, which is just a short-term handout that enables wasteful practices to continue.

Kathy Harty

Arcadia

Here’s an idea: Scrap the bullet train and focus our resources on coming up with ways to better store, preserve and deliver storm water runoff.

The train is a convenience at best, whereas water is our lifeline.

Michael Nelson

Porter Ranch

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