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Momoselfie t1_iudr4xm wrote

Reply to comment by aukir in U.S. Streams Are Drying Up. Data showed that in the South and West, streamflow droughts got longer between 1951 and 2020, regardless of threshold. Worse yet, droughts in these regions are becoming more intense by Wagamaga

That actually makes up a very small portion of our water usage. A huge amount is spent feeding the meat industry.

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SoupaSoka t1_iudtbj0 wrote

And, people don't have to go 100% vegan to have an impact. We'd see huge reductions in water usage if every citizen in developed countries went meatless just a few extra days or even meals a week.

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Lord_Montague t1_iudv8t6 wrote

Already have due to meat prices right now.

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SoupaSoka t1_iudvoig wrote

I don't think it'll singlehandedly solve issues we're facing, but as climate change and water shortages worsen, costs of foods and goods will go up so much that it wouldn't surprise me if our water, land, and energy use drops significantly. Almost a "self-correcting" problem if you toss on top of it the amount of people that will die and the reduction in birth rates. Note that I hope we can find better routes that don't result in widespread death or famine.

So what you're experiencing is probably going to be true for many people and amplified as things worsen.

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runtheplacered t1_iudtdq3 wrote

I'd be curious for someone actually knowledgeable to check in with this. This feels like a very misleading statistic to me. It seems like the water used for agriculture, while technically greater, would still cause less of a localized disruption than a municipal water supply being hit by landscape irrigation.

In other words, I think this understates how much of an impact it would have if everybody stopped watering their lawns, considering landscape irrigation accounts for 50% of all annual residential water usage. Or at the very least stopped over watering it, which is typically what happens anyway.

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Momoselfie t1_iue1t3r wrote

I don't know about other states, but here in AZ, agriculture makes uo 72% of our total water usage.

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Bajabound4surf t1_iuf401v wrote

I'm down here for the first time near Yuma and I cannot believe the water waste by the farmers. It's 82 degrees out, full sun and literally a hundred yards from my van they are watering a lettuce field.

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