World Water Day Promotes Conservation: Is Gov. Jerry Brown Listening?

On Sunday, World Water Day will be celebrated. The annual event is intended to help understand the vital role water plays in living a fulfilling life, and to plan for future water conservation. During Governor Jerry Brown’s two terms, California has shown a willingness to pass multi-million dollar legislation (this year Brown is looking at $1 billion in water programs) that throws money at the state’s grave and ongoing water shortages, but not to address the root cause – overpopulation.

Not even California’s four-year drought slows new home construction.

Brown’s curriculum vitae includes the following: University of California, Berkeley, B.A., 1961; Yale Law School, J.D., 1964; Mayor of Oakland, 1999-2007; California Attorney General, 2007-2011, and four-term California governor from 1975-1983 and again from 2011 to the present.

Surely anyone with such impressive academic and government credentials must understand that California’s natural resources are finite, and that there’s a direct relationship between increased population, and the depletion of those resources.

Yet housing development and office construction continues unimpeded. The California Homebuilding Foundation reported that local governments issued building permits for 85,000 new homes last year, about the same as 2013. New homes mean more water consumption – showers to take, dishes to wash, laundry to do, toilets to flush and, despite token and sporadically enforced restrictions, lawns to water.

Many of Brown’s public statements don’t give the slightest hint that he’s aware, much less concerned, that California is in the midst of a historic drought. NASA water expert Jay Famiglietti thinks that unless biblical amounts of rain fall soon, California may only have a year’s supply of water left. Restricting water served at restaurants and hotels, among Brown’s proposed solutions, will have little impact as long as population grows.

Despite the crying need for leadership that acknowledges and acts on the link between overpopulation and rapidly diminishing water reserves, within the last few months Brown has chided Californians for having too few children, invited all Mexicans, including illegal aliens, to move to the state, and scorned the 26 Republican governors and attorneys general who oppose President Obama’s amnesty as “at best troglodyte, and at worst un-Christian.” Obama’s executive action amnesty will encourage thousands of more aliens to come to California where they too will become water consumers.

Instead of sophomoric name calling, Brown should join the 26 sensible governors in the lawsuit to block Obama’s amnesty. More immigration means more people and less water, a disaster for parched California.

To understand what’s been lost to overpopulation and the future that’s at risk, watch Californians for Population Stabilization’s “Then and Now” video here.