11.4: Environmental Issues

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Page ID: 36146

Jeremy Patrich
College of the Canyons

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Environmental issues are effects of human activity on the biophysical environment, most often of which are harmful effects that cause environmental degradation. Due to the dynamic range of environments found in California, environmentalism has been an important part of California's history since it became a US state. However, this history is more complex than you might expect. While California is home to abundant resources noted for their pristine quality, the resources must support the most populous state in the US. The struggle between respecting the natural beauty of the state and providing for the basic needs of its inhabitants has defined a great amount of California's past, just as it still defines California and likely will far into the future. Environment destruction caused by humans is a global, ongoing problem. Major current environmental issues may include climate change, drought, pollution, environmental degradation, and resource depletion.

Drought

Although drought is a common feature in a natural Mediterranean Climate, data shows that California can has had some very extreme droughts. Out of the past twenty-two years, California has experienced significant drought conditions for thirteen years. From 2000 to 2018 was the second driest period that California has ever experienced. The driest three-year period ever in California was from 2012 to 2014. Three-quarters of the state of California experienced extreme drought conditions. There are also multiple types of droughts such as agricultural droughts, meteorological droughts, snow droughts, and hydrological droughts. All these affect California in different ways. Droughts can damage forests and can worsen wildfires by drying the trees, which become fuel for fires. Dead trees result in wildfires. The U.S. drought monitor is released every Thursday, showing which parts of the U.S. are in a drought. It started in 2000, and since then the longest duration of a drought in California lasted a total of 376 weeks. It started on December 11, 2011 and ended on March 5, 2019. The most intense period captured on the drought monitor was on the week of July 29, 2014. It showed that 58.41% of California's land was affected by a drought. In 2014–2015, farm-related losses in California totaled $5 billion and 20,000 farmers also lost their jobs.

In May 2021, water levels of Lake Oroville dropped to 38% of capacity. The boats are dwarfed by the exposed banks while California is headed into another drought year. — Figure 11.15: Lake Oroville Water Level Dropped 38% of Capacity. May 2021. Image is in the public domain.

Air Pollution

Air pollution is a growing problem that affects all the citizens in the Central Valley. Some reasons of poor air pollution in the Central Valley are due to agriculture and its geographical features.

Since the Central Valley consists mostly of farming land, a wide, flat valley, the emissions from the soil that is used for growing produce are released into the air. The soil exudes nitrous oxide, an odorless and colorless gas that can be harmful when exposed to it for a long period of time, and incorporates itself into the ozone layer located at ground level. Production of nitrous oxide in California has shown that the addition of soil and fertilization can emit about 161,100 metric tons per year. Long term effects that nitrous oxide can have on a human being is loss of blood pressure, fainting, anemia, or lung cancer.

The physical geographical attributes can also contribute to the air pollution quality. The Central Valley is surrounded by mountain ranges which can capture the pollution coming from the agricultural farming, preventing it from dispersing from the other areas in California.

The Central Valley is also expanding in the number of people that coincide in that area, so it increases the number of cars which can also contribute to the amount of emission that is in the air.

Health Geography

The valley gives its name to Valley Fever, which is primarily a disease of the lungs that is common in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. It is caused by the fungus Coccidioides immitis, which grows in soils in areas of low rainfall, high summer temperatures, and moderate winter temperatures. These fungal spores become airborne when the soil is disturbed by winds, construction, farming, or earthquakes. This illness frequently takes weeks or months to resolve. Occasionally Valley Fever is life-threatening or even fatal. Due to the agricultural industry's significant presence in the Valley, pesticide drift and leaching have become concerns. Residents risk contamination when living in proximity to application sites.

Economic Geography - Agriculture

The Central Valley is one of the world's most productive agricultural regions. More than 230 crops are grown there. On less than 1 percent of the total farmland in the United States, the Central Valley produces 8 percent of the nation's agricultural output by value: US$43.5 billion in 2013. California's farms and ranches earned almost $50 billion in 2018. The valley's productivity relies on irrigation from surface water and badly depleted underground aquifers. About one-sixth of the US' irrigated land is in the Central Valley.

Virtually all non-tropical crops are grown in the Central Valley, which is the primary source for produce throughout the United States, including tomatoes, grapes, cotton, apricots, and asparagus. Six thousand almond growers produced more than 600 million pounds (in 2000, about 70 percent of the world's supply and nearly 100 percent of domestic production.

The US' top four counties in agricultural sales are in the Central Valley

Fresno County - $3.7 Billion
Tulare County - $3.3 Billion
Kern County - $3.2 Billion
Merced County - $2.3 Billion

Almonds maturing in California's Central San Joaquin Valley — Figure 11.16: Almonds Maturing in the Central Valley. Image is in the public domain.

Early farming was concentrated close to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, where the water table was high year-round and water transport was readily available. Subsequent irrigation projects brought many more parts of the valley into productive use. The even larger California State Water Project was formed in the 1950s and construction continued over the following decades.

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