by Sandra Gillhouse

Created on: April 01, 2009   Last Updated: April 05, 2009

Perhaps a better question is what similarities link the two droughts in California and Argentina.

California is now in its third consecutive year of below average rainfall. Combined this with very low snow-melt runoff and you have a recipe for agricultural disaster. Restriction on water transfer and public use conservation has been applied in many communities across the state. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has lit a state of emergency bulb throughout most of California. He warns that the drought will create many other problems, such as extreme fire danger, threats to the economic picture for urban and rural communities, and a potential to corrupt water quality in some regions with substandard ground water seepage.

In contrast, Argentina National weather service spokesperson; Liliana Nunez, stated in a news broadcast in February, "There hasn't been this little rain in Argentina since 1971."

The nations agriculture sector stands to lose well over $5 billion dollars this year alone. Most of the farmers have given up on crops. "We simply want to save our livestock. It's all we have left," one local farmer said. President Cristina Fernandez is up in arms with huge overdue debt payments and would like to forego anymore suspension of taxes; which is unquestionably the only answer to the situation. While the once flourishing pampas turns into a dust bowl full of cow skeletons many agronomist are skeptical about Argentina's future soybean production. It will take as much as five years to replenish the soil if it were to rain today.

Geological comparison between the two droughts point to warming ocean temperatures in the Southern Atlantic which have fueled wind currents preventing colder, wet Pacific fronts. The necessary kind of fronts to bring the rain clouds. Sampling of these odd climatic conditions along the California coast has shed some light on historical conditions shared in the two droughts,although they lay at opposite geological range to the situation.

While the warming air also decreases snow in California's mountain region hence a serious runoff shortage in its season, that worsen the water levels along the All American Canal; a key landmark along the U.S. Mexico border. This important infrastructure has been a source of support to the agriculture in California for many years. In places like Imperial Valley it is the only source.

The canal requires constant attention to contain a continual seepage problem. Sand blown into the canal from the Algodone Dunes;of the southeastern california and the Baja area, that creates a critical flow problem if it isn't properly maintained.

Shifts due to seismic ocean activities, landslides and erosion along the California coastline are one of the major concerns sending many agronomist scrambling to find new ways to contain the wet seasons longer. A major overhaul of water conservation infrastructure has become a topic of concern in both California and Argentina this past year. Perhaps together the two could share complex ideas and find solution.

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