Living Well Etc.

How the Drought of the '70s Compare to Today's Mega-Drought As a life-long Californian, I’ve lived through the great drought of the ‘70s and many record-breaking hot-summer days, which resulted in energy usage restrictions. During our last drought—only a few years ago—we had numerous brownouts and blackouts.  It appears that this ongoing drought may cause more of those same issues, as a headline in the Guardian recently read: “Less water means more gas: how drought will test California’s stressed power grid.” For the most part, Californians are typically requested to conserve energy during our hot summers when usage peaks due to ever-running air conditioners anyway.  However, if this continues, we may not have enough of our natural gas supply and our wind and solar doesn’t produce enough yet either.   Additionally, according to the website, California Department of Water Resources, 11 out of the 12 largest reservoirs are well below historical levels, which l...