California's
water crisis is the disaster everybody saw coming but nobody had the political
will to stop. It's the byproduct of a broken system that's dominated by
self-serving elites and misguided ideologues. Or so says Joel Kotkin, a
distinguished professor at Chapman University, who writes frequently about
Golden State politics.
Kotkin says the drought could have been avoided
through a combination of tactics, such as making farmers pay closer to a market
rate on the water they use, or by allowing desalinization, a process in which
the salt is removed from ocean water. But California's political leaders
couldn't get it together to enact the policies that would have averted the water
crisis.
If the Golden State can't fix its water problems, Kotkin argues,
many industries will have to leave the state, destroying opportunities for
poorer Californians, and exacerbating the growing class divide.
About 3.5
minutes
Produced by Alex Manning. Camera by Alexis Garcia.
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