San Diego, California & H2O

This is a photo of a California resovoir 

San Diego has 146 sunny days in a year. Every year San Diego consumes a huge amount of water due to increased population and hot weather. Most of the water used comes from far away places, 63% comes from the Colorado River, 20% comes from the state water project, and 17% comes from local sources.

San Diego County plans to meet the demands in the future by re-using water and conserve it more. 

This is a photo of the recycle symbol

The main reasons for the increase demands and lower supply is because of higher population, record heat, and reduction of existing water sources.

The graph is trying to tell us that over time as population keeps growing the water supply for San Diegans is decreasing. This shows we need to find new ways of conserving our water. An option for drinking water is to go through the process of desalination which essentially is extracting the salt from sea water. An option for non-drinking water is using recycled water, this water can be used for filling lakes, ponds, ornamental fountains, school athletic fields, golf courses, etc. 

5 new ways of conserving San Diego's water is through grass replacement, laundry, toilets, rain barrels, and landscape replacement. Grass replacement can reduce the water usage because turf doesn't need to be watered. Turf may be expensive but it's assured that it's a long term investment. High-Efficiency Washers use 30% less energy and 55% less water, you also get a rebate of $85. In a house, 30% of the water consumption comes from toilets. Recent advancements can allow you to use 1.28 gallons rather than 3 gallons using the new High-Efficiency Toilets. When you buy these HET toilets you can get a rebate of $100 per toilet. Rain barrels collect rain water through barrels that can be reused for non-drinking necessities. When you resort to rain barrels you can get a $75 rebate. The last form of conserving water is by landscape replacement which is essentially replacing things in the lawn like grass with turf, watering grass at night to avoid the water being absorbed by the sun during the day, using plants that don't need daily watering like cactus plants for instance, and not to use too much water when watering plants because that could lead to drowning and killing the plant and you also wasted water that could have been used for something else.

Extinction of the Dinosaurs

               In the New York Times article, "The Death of the Dinosaurs" was written by Peter Brannen published on January 31, 2015, Brannen argues that mass extinction caused by climate change and volcanoes is a better explanation to how things happened rather than saying it was caused by a "colossal fireball from heaven."
The Death of the Dinosaurs Article


               Dr. Gerta Keller, a geologist from Princeton University, developed a hypothesis that explains the mass extinction of dinosaurs among other animals from that era. Essentially, Dr.Keller's hypothesis conveys the idea that mass extinction was caused by the change of climate and volcanic eruptions. She has found evidence in Texas and Tunisa to support her hypothesis.


               The Alvarez's are made up of two men, Luis and Walter Alvarez who are a team of father and son scientists. The Alvarez hypothesis says that mass extinction was caused by a massive fireball that was sent from "heaven."


               Mass extinction is when deadly force of nature kills one or more species, the earth has endured 5 of these. This makes me feel nervous because the sixth mass extinction could be coming up in the next hundreds of thousands of years which I supposed would be terrifying seeing the world on fire and just be torn apart ending all life on earth.


                Dr. Keller found evidence inside rocks from Texas and Tunisa, "that indicate the warming episodes of at least 7 degrees Fahrenheit in under 10,000 years, with acidifying oceans that killed all but the hardest life-forms, which then thrived for millenniums." She also discovered evidence that the India lava flooding overlaps the dinosaur extinction.


               In my opinion, the hypothesis that is the best is the one Dr. Keller came up with. I believe this because there's a lot more solid evidence supporting it and it makes more sense.