1st Gen Lunchtable Thread - General Discussion

that looks more official name than 'door stop limiter'

 

It's temporary.

For the last decade we've basically been in a continuous drought, with a wet year or 2 in between.

Drought IS the new normal, and anyone who denies that simply because it's raining right now isn't seeing the whole picture.

Technically I'm a geophysicist, but I work mostly on groundwater and water use.

 

Damn man, I leave for the weekend and y'all are talking about me.

But you basically got this right.

 

100% agree. Anyone who thinks its ok to not practice conservation each and every day...

 

Yep, at least in the west where farming is the #1 water user, when there isn't surface water (which in of itself is an absurdly complicated legal battle) some farmers switch to groundwater which creates its own set of problems.

It was only a few years ago that CA decided to start (trying to) regulate groundwater extraction like everyone else does. Even now, though, farms pump as much water as they can, and while that water is used to grow food crops, more and more of those crops are being converted to cash crops like almonds and pistachios, rather than staple crops like corn or tomatoes.

The farm loby tries to tell us things like "almonds don't use any more water than a tomato crop" and "is growing food wasting water?"

While the first part is technically (at least partially) true, there's a catch: you can't fallow a nut crop when there's a water shortage like you can with tomatoes. As for the 2nd part, pistachios are technically food, but not exactly something you can live off of, and besides, 80% of them go to china anyway...

And I haven't even touched what GW extraction does to surface infrastructure, lol...

Damnit, there you got me going again, maybe I should just link to our pubs, lol...

 

That's a very expensive, but important alternative that needs to be explored, for sure.

My agency isn't in the business of making policy recommendations, but my personal opinion is that conservation is always free and should always be #1 on the list.

Also taking a good hard look at what the water is used for and why. Like the whole pistachio thing. Don't get me wrong, pistachios are delicious, I have a large bag of them at home (I see it as job security for me, lol). Personally, I'd be much more willing to deal with the infrastructure issues from groundwater pumping if that damage was from growing staple foods for our own popululation. Unfortunately what we have now is many (corporate) farmers growing a lot of pistachios because they are very lucrative, but are selling most of them to china.

We're essentially damaging our aquifers so people in china can eat green nuts...

 

“Door Stay” or “Door Check” in Toyota Speak

 

Is that thing supposed to hold our doors open so they don't close on their own? Ever since I got my truck both doors swing open/shut freely and don't stay open unless I hold them, I just figured it was normal and they weren't designed to stay open on their own (annoying but livable).

 

I guess what I'm asking is, should I replace that part? Because if the doors can stay open on their own then I'll replace it...one of those things that gets really irritating if you're parked on any sort of hill.

 

ha!

Just for some perspective, let's play with a few numbers here:

https://owi.usgs.gov/vizlab/water-u...term=stateaccount#view=CA&category=industrial

In 2015, CA used almost 19 billion gallons per day for farm irrigation (~60% of the state total). It used approximately 5 billion gallons per day for public supply.

Compared to 2010, those values were 23 billion and 6.2 billion, respectively.

 

I pee in the sink to save water

But seriously, I do my best...we may have finally gotten the rain we so desperately needed but we're still a long ways away from undoing the harm the drought has caused this state over the last several years.

 

Is the earth flat?

 

I am not permitted to answer that question. The Big Sphere is monitoring my communications.

 

This makes total sense

 

Only if you ate a lot of lead paint as a kid. And I mean a LOT of lead paint.

 

If you replace it they'll stay open for a time... then they'll get weak again haha

 

Although Cali is officially out of drought status, and WA is in the beginning stages

 

The southeast has had more rain in the last 5 months than Washington averages in a normal year. Kinda crazy, and hurricane season is yet to come.

 

When you're super into stance

 

Yeah, mine holds the door open. The 5-lug doesn’t because it’s so old and worn.