The Guardian. (2022, August 14). Drought in England could carry on into new year, experts warn. Retrieved January 29, 2023 from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/14/drought-in-england-could-carry-on-into-new-year-experts-warn
The article “Drought in England could carry on into the new year, experts warn” discusses how southeast England may enter a drought without significant rainfall. The article discusses how it is unlikely that there will be enough rainfall to stop the drought. Although this will affect a lot of people, it would especially affect farmers because less water will be diverted to them. It would also negatively affect the environment because the government prioritizes providing people with water.
This article was a little surprising to me because I think of England as very wet, so I did not expect them to have a drought. However, climate change is changing the weather in a lot of places, and I hope places that are not used to droughts and hot weather will still be able to deal with them. This article also made me think about how we decide who gets water, especially in places where there is not a long history of water struggles to establish precedent, but instead where it was assumed there would be enough water.
You can imagine the concern in England. At least in CA we are used to the drought. Water policy is obviously not just for CA. I wonder if there is a set of best practices that can be shared for what you identified as a need in your follow up paragraph- who gets the water? I think as the pop grows and the climate changes these conversations and future water policy is going to be absolutely necessary and as we can imagine, not easy. Do you think there should be restrictions on what farmers grow? Or what they export (considering exporting a crop is essentially exporting water) in times of drought? Or is that too restrictive on people’s freedom? Of course we can’t forget wildlife needs that water too… even in England.
Thanks for following your topic this year, Eva. We know this issue isn’t going away and I hope it kept you interested and you feel like you’ve become more informed because of this project.
Thanks for responding! I think that there should be restrictions on what farmers should grow. For example, farmers in the Central Valley grow a lot of almonds, which are very water-intensive. If the government restricted the amount of water-intensive crops that are grown, that water could be used elsewhere. Perhaps a system of water trading, similar to carbon-pricing proposals, would allow companies to trade amongst to grow what they want to while also decreasing the amount of water used. However, I don’t think putting restrictions on where farmers can sell their food would be viable, since so much of the economy of farming communities relies on exporting food, and other places rely on the food from these communities. And I did find this topic interesting, especially how it intersects with other parts of environmental science and other fields like politics, economics, and healthcare.
I agree that the article’s warning about a potential drought in southeast England due to minimal rainfall highlights the need to prioritize fair water distribution, especially in areas unprepared for droughts or areas that haven’t had big droughts before. How can authorities or the goverment ensure fair water distribution in regions unprepared for droughts?