San Diego, California & H2O

San Diego is located in the desert therefore has a desert climate. San Diego gets most of its water by importing from the State Water Project and the Colorado River. We only get 20% of our water via local sources, everything else is imported.

Since San Diego is so dependent on importing water, it is not a foolproof way and may become unreliable in the future. Thus, San Diego has established a plan to supply the city with water in 2050. The way we plan on getting water in 2050 is by increasing water production locally, through desalination, recycling water, and getting more water from the ground and surface.

The reason that San Diego is preparing for a water shortage is because San Diego imports most of its water, meaning that it doesn't produce it locally and in the future the water supply may be compromised by being unable to get water from outside sources. The population would grow along with the demand for water, while we would either get the same amount of water as now and be unable to buy any, or get even less water. The only way to ensure a fix to this problem, San Diego has created this plan to increase water production in the future, allowing it to be more water efficient and less dependent on non-local sources.

The San Diego County plans to meet the demands of the future through an increase in water production locally, rather than importing more and more from outside sources.

We were given a handout with a graph, this graph showed us what will happen to San Diego's water supply in 2050 if we leave it as is. The third and fourth estimated water needs predict what we will need, and what we will have. Their will be an increase in water demand due to population growth, but there will not be enough water to fulfill the public's needs. The fourth graph estimates how much we will have in 2050, with some parts missing conveying that there will be a large shortage of water in 2050 and we will have no way of getting more.
       AnExample of a home made rain barrel garden
gardenwatersaver.com
There are actually many ways that San Diego can save water. A few of the ways that San Diego can conserve water is through use of rain barrels, High Efficiency Washing Machines(HEW), High Efficiency toilets(HET), and various other sources. Using rain barrels, you can save hundreds of gallons  by storing free water that decreases the need to use tap water while giving you water you can use for non-drinking purposes, such as washing a car or watering your plants. The other two options are self-explanatory, they're more efficient versions of the original.

Since saving water is being supported as of late, people can earn rebates from following these steps to save water, by buying and using rain barrels, you can earn up to 75$ in rebates, but only up to four per home. By using more efficient versions of everyday products, you can save more money by needing to use less water and power, reducing costs overall as well saving you water. San Diego hasn't been self-sustaining 1947, having to depend on other sources as a reliable way to get water.
          www.metaefficient.com
            A picture showing how a toilet works

Extinction of the Dinosaurs

In the New York Times article titled The Death of the Dinosaurs by  Peter Brannen, published on January 31, 2015, detailed two theories about how the dinosaurs became extinct. One of the theories tells about how "a colossal fireball from heaven" crashing into Earth destroying everything while the other theory details of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes causing the end of the dinosaurs, as an alternate theory to the meteor theory (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/01/opinion/sunday/the-death-of-the-dinosaurs.html)

Gerta Keller, otherwise known as Dr. Keller, is a geologist that proposed that dinosaurs' mass extinction was not caused by a large meteor striking Earth, but by volatile gases, global warming, acid rain and acidic oceans caused by an abnormally high amount of volcanic activity.

The other theory, the most known and generally accepted by the majority of society, was proposed by a father-son team of Luis and Walter Alvarez where they presented evidence and explained how the dinosaurs became extinct, by an extremely large meteor that crashed into Earth and caused a day of extreme heat and meteor showers, immediately followed by darkness as the sun was blotted out by the dust and smoke that resulted from the meteor's crash landing on Earth.

Earth has already gone through five major mass extinctions, commonly called the Big Five, where most of the life on Earth was put down and left for dead in "a geologic eye blink." Some of them were even worse than the dinosaur's extinction, such as the End-Permian mass extinction that occurred 252 million years ago. I feel like mass extinctions halt the growth of so many types of life, and that makes me sad. At the same time though, life is given another chance at life and does things just a little bit differently than before which makes me happy.

Dr. Keller hypothesized her theory after finding evidence linking massive lava flows to mass extinctions within rocks located in Texas, Tunisia. These rocks indicate that there were warming episodes of up to 7 degrees Fahrenheit in the last 10,000 years, in which there were also acidifying oceans killing off everything with the exception of the hardiest of creatures of which ended up thriving for millenniums.

I believe that both of the hypotheses were both correct, hitting the dinosaurs at the same time, making it nearly impossible for anything to survive this mass extinction. There is evidence proving that both are possible and very likely have happened, so why can't both of them be right? "...the Alvarezes pointed to traces of extraterrestrial dust in the geologic record coincident with the extinction, a finding that was later buoyed by the discovery of a 110-mile impact crater centered in Chicxulub, Mexico." This quote practically proves the meteor theory while "...dated the Indian lava flows with the same precise radiometric dating techniques that have recently tied other massive lava flows to mass extinctions. The most destructive phase of volcanism, the scientists found, took place over less than 750,000 years, a geologically brief span, and overlapped the extinction." enforces the other theory.