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Rare agreement statewide: Drought is ‘serious’ concern

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Virtually all Californians say the drought is serious. The results of a new Field Poll released Thursday found that the water shortage and supply is the top concern statewide as the drought enters its fourth year.

That concern about the water shortage/supply was a prime reason, the poll revealed, why voters passed last November’s Proposition 1, a $7.5 billion bond measure for new water projects.

“There are certain trade-offs that voters support—and some they are reluctant to support—such as mandatory rationing,” said Mark DiCamillo, director of the Field Poll. “What they support is trying to expand the water storage and supply facilities on government property.”

The survey questioned 1,241 registered Californian voters in six languages.

“One silver lining of this severe drought is that it has raised Californians’ awareness of the importance of our water supplies,” said Ellen Hanak of the Public Policy Institute of California. Hanak explained that passage of the state bond measure means that “funds will support more conservation, more use of treated wastewater and stormwater, and more effective storage” both above and below ground. “We can make these investments in ways that protect California’s economy, society and environment,” she said.

The poll also found that Bay Area voters were more likely to view the drought as “serious,” with 73 percent saying urgent measures are required compared to 63 percent in Los Angeles County believing the drought is a “serious” concern. Southern Californians, the poll revealed, generally reject mandated water restrictions, with support ranging from 31 percent to 35 percent in L.A. County and other parts of Southern California and the Central Valley.

The “Ridiculously Resilient Ridge” is back. Daniel Swain of Stanford University’s Department of Environmental Earth Science said the atmospheric phenomenon is forcing Pacific storm systems to veer sharply northward, thereby directing warm, moist air toward Canada and Alaska.

“There’s a bright side to this,” Swain noted, “because the ridge is slightly further east than last winter; California has occasionally benefited from the northward stream of moisture.”

In addition to all the other effects of the weather, officials with the California Climate Change and Public Health Project announced on Thursday that, without “drought-adaptation” planning, the continuing warming climate could have disastrous effects on public health and infectious diseases. These effects, researchers contend, may include rising food costs and diabetes rates, increased respiratory disease and loss of drinking water in rural communities, all health risks which are reportedly being exacerbated by the drought.

“There’s a need to build awareness that climate change is not just about polar bears, but it’s about us and our kids and our grandchildren,” said Linda Rudolph, co-director of the state Health Project. “Americans are generally unaware of the potential health consequences of global warming, with only about one in four able to name one health problem related to climate change.”

Rudolph said another alarming affect of the extreme weather events is the inability of impoverished communities to react, including people with illness who may struggle when their health care is disrupted during storms.

“Climate change disproportionately impacts people of color and low-income communities, and thus serves to make worse already unacceptable health inequities,” she said.

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