Speaker 1: You crack open a doctor pepper. You know it'll only
Speaker 1: make you more thirsty in the long run, but you
Speaker 1: need some liquid in your mouth, and you're saving your
Speaker 1: remaining fifteen gallons for a quick shower. The ew hall
Speaker 1: is finally almost packed up. You may be able to
Speaker 1: make it down to San Francisco in time. Living in
Speaker 1: Redwood Valley has been nice the last few years. It's
Speaker 1: a beautiful place, but in August of twenty twenty two,
Speaker 1: the drought became too much. Late last year, California's new
Speaker 1: far right governor lifted all water restrictions on farmers. This
Speaker 1: sparked a new state wide race to use what water
Speaker 1: was available before it ran out. Lake Mendesino was already
Speaker 1: low at the beginning of the year, and for the
Speaker 1: first time in your memory, it is now completely empty.
Speaker 1: San Francisco isn't doing great either, but it's much better
Speaker 1: off than where you live. The Russian River Watershed relies
Speaker 1: almost entirely on rainfall and is isolated from state and
Speaker 1: federal aqueducts. After the governor lifted water restrictions, new almond
Speaker 1: and pot farms started sucking up ground water, and by
Speaker 1: the end of the summer, they'd started pumping from the
Speaker 1: river to feed their thirsty crops. By mid July, your
Speaker 1: town implemented a twenty five gallon limit per person per day.
Speaker 1: That's about as much water as you go through during
Speaker 1: a five minute shower. The first thing you sacrificed was
Speaker 1: your garden. Then you stopped flushing after you peid. These
Speaker 1: tweaks added up, though, and without water, the lifestyle you'd
Speaker 1: loved just stopped being possible. Your brother in San Francisco
Speaker 1: offered to let you move in with him. You weren't
Speaker 1: a fan of the big city, but at least you'd
Speaker 1: be able to shower again. And so you find yourself
Speaker 1: sipping an empty soda can and loading up your last
Speaker 1: few boxes into the U haul. You give your brother
Speaker 1: a quick call saying you're all packed up and about
Speaker 1: to head out. He sounds worried and mentions something about
Speaker 1: his school letting new teachers go do to budget cuts.
Speaker 1: You can't really afford to think about that. Now, you
Speaker 1: just need to leave. Since you're all sweaty from loading
Speaker 1: the U haul the last few days, you decide to
Speaker 1: hop into the shower one last time. You knew it
Speaker 1: wouldn't last long, but you still seemed surprised when the
Speaker 1: water turned off after what felt like only two minutes.
Speaker 1: You quickly dry off and grab some clean clothes from
Speaker 1: your backpack and throw your damp towel into the passage
Speaker 1: your seat of the truck. You say goodbye to your
Speaker 1: home of ten years and to your old succulent plants,
Speaker 1: and begin the three hour drive down to San Francisco.
Speaker 1: Water scarcity is a problem you're probably already familiar with,
Speaker 1: especially if you live in the Southwest. California has dealt
Speaker 1: with particularly brutal droughts over the last twenty years, and
Speaker 1: the Golden States water problems could be about to get
Speaker 1: much much worse, because in just a few days, California
Speaker 1: might find itself helmed by a far right governor with
Speaker 1: a near religious hatred of water conservation. Electoral politics are
Speaker 1: not generally a big focus on this show, but what's
Speaker 1: going on in the state of California could have serious
Speaker 1: implications for many people, including those outside the West Coast.
Speaker 1: The ongoing recall campaign against Governor Gavin Newsom started out
Speaker 1: in June of with Republican politicians and activists unhappy with
Speaker 1: Newsom's handling of the pandemic. Newsom's opposition to President Trump's
Speaker 1: cracked down on undocumented immigrants also played a role. This
Speaker 1: is actually the fifth recall attempt against Newsom since he
Speaker 1: took office in twenty nineteen, but it's the first one
Speaker 1: to gain traction. It's fueled in part by Newsom's own
Speaker 1: hypocrisy and hubris. On November six the recall effort gained
Speaker 1: court approval for a signature gathering extension, and later that night,
Speaker 1: Governor Newsom went to a birthday party for a Sacramento
Speaker 1: lobbyist and friend at French Laundry, a pricing Napa Valley restaurant.
Speaker 1: Soon after, photo surfaced of Newsom mingling maskless at the
Speaker 1: packed restaurant. He faced heavy criticism and apologized, but the
Speaker 1: damage was done. Republicans latched onto this as an opportunity
Speaker 1: to finally push the recall effort through. The recall petition,
Speaker 1: which had only fifty five thousand and five signatures on
Speaker 1: the day of the dinner, had nearly half a million
Speaker 1: a month after the November sixth incident. California's recall process
Speaker 1: is probably the least democratic one in the United States.
Speaker 1: Gathering signatures to authorize a recall election is a pretty
Speaker 1: standard thing, but California has among the lowest signature requirements
Speaker 1: and states that allow for the recall of an official.
Speaker 1: Most states require that the recall campaign must gather signatures
Speaker 1: equal to twenty five percent of the votes cast in
Speaker 1: the last election. California requires just twelve percent for executive officials.
Speaker 1: The li Times notes quote that might have been a
Speaker 1: high bar in nineteen eleven, when the population was scattered
Speaker 1: across the seven hundred and seventy mile length of the state,
Speaker 1: But is it too low in twenty one when petitions
Speaker 1: for ballot measures are gathered and moss by paid staff
Speaker 1: and parking lots. And that's not the only questionable aspect
Speaker 1: of California's recall process. On recall election day, voters will
Speaker 1: face two questions on the ballot. First, yes or no
Speaker 1: on whether to recall Governor Gavin Newsom from office. Second,
Speaker 1: and this one is technically optional, If so, who among
Speaker 1: the forty six candidates do you want to take his place?
Speaker 1: The first question is decided by a simple majority, just
Speaker 1: like other ballot measures, but when it comes to the
Speaker 1: second question, the percentage requirements change. The replacement candidate doesn't
Speaker 1: need more than fifty percent to win, So if more
Speaker 1: than fifty percent of the voters say yes on the
Speaker 1: recall question, Governor knew Some must step down, even if
Speaker 1: he has more overall support than any other individual challenger
Speaker 1: on the ballot. The replacement question is determined by who
Speaker 1: gets the most votes among the challengers on the ballot,
Speaker 1: which Newsom cannot be on. So forty nine point nine
Speaker 1: percent of the voters can back Mr Newsom and he
Speaker 1: can still lose to someone who is supported by only
Speaker 1: say of the electorate or even a smaller fraction. For
Speaker 1: other California elections, including special elections triggered by the death
Speaker 1: or resignation of an official, a candidate cannot win without
Speaker 1: the support of a majority of voters. If a candidate
Speaker 1: doesn't win over fifty outright, then the top to compete
Speaker 1: in a runoff election. Not the case for California's recall process.
Speaker 1: Organizers of the recall campaign submitted two point one million
Speaker 1: signatures by the March seventeenth filing deadline. One million, seven
Speaker 1: hundred nineteen thousand, nine hundred signatures were ultimately determined to
Speaker 1: have been valid, which was enough to trigger the recall.
Speaker 1: The deadline for casting your vote is September. If the
Speaker 1: recall succeeds, the new governor would be in office for
Speaker 1: the remainder of Mr. Newsom term through January, and that
Speaker 1: leaves a lot of time for executive factory, especially considering
Speaker 1: the new front runner. Far right radio talk show host
Speaker 1: and frequent Fox guest Larry Elder, has emerged as the
Speaker 1: likely candidate to replace Newsom in the event the recall
Speaker 1: goes through. Elder, who was sixty nine, jumped into the
Speaker 1: race relatively late in the game during mid July. At
Speaker 1: that time, it was more of a toss up between
Speaker 1: Republican candidates Kevin Falconer, a former San Diego mayor, and
Speaker 1: businessman John Cox, who lost badly to Newsom in the
Speaker 1: gubernatorial election. Assemblyman Kevin Kylie and former athlete in media
Speaker 1: personality Caton Jenner pulled less well. But as Larry Elder
Speaker 1: entered the race, he almost immediately became the front runner
Speaker 1: in polls and raised lots of money from small donors,
Speaker 1: and the three weeks after he announced his campaign raised
Speaker 1: nearly four and a half million dollars according to fundraising disclosures.
Speaker 1: That's more than every other Republican challenger sans multimillionaire businessman
Speaker 1: John Cox, who's largely funding his own campaign. Elder has
Speaker 1: been a central figurehead of the right wing radio talk
Speaker 1: show scene since the nineties, but has always been hesitant
Speaker 1: to run for public office, deeming the state of California
Speaker 1: ungovernable due to its liberal supermajority, But after talking with
Speaker 1: his friend and mentor Dennis Praeger of the neo fascist
Speaker 1: propaganda outlet Praeger You, he figured it might be worth
Speaker 1: a shot, and has expressed desire to use the emergency
Speaker 1: powers of the governor to push the state right words.
Speaker 1: Elder was born in Los Angeles, but moved to Cleveland
Speaker 1: to attend law school and opened his own firm in
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty. Elder's career began as a bit of an accident.
Speaker 1: He'd been invited on a Cleveland station as a guest.
Speaker 1: He did so well on air that when the regular
Speaker 1: host went on vacation the following week, the program director
Speaker 1: asked Elder to fill in. Soon enough, Elder had his
Speaker 1: own weekly time slot on the Cleveland station. In the
Speaker 1: early nineties, a guest most from Los Angeles, Dennis Prager,
Speaker 1: visited Cleveland. Elder quickly impressed Praeger with his on air
Speaker 1: wit and talent, coupled with the uniqueness of a black
Speaker 1: man openly expressing extreme conservative views. Praeger persuaded his home
Speaker 1: station KBC in Los Angeles to give Elder a shot.
Speaker 1: Quoting the l a Times, Elder returned to his hometown
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety four, two years after the civil unrest,
Speaker 1: following the acquittal of the officers who beat Rodney King,
Speaker 1: and in the midst of the O. J. Simpson murder case.
Speaker 1: The program director at rival k f I, David G. Hall,
Speaker 1: felt KBC made a creative move bringing on this guy
Speaker 1: from South Central who swung the other way on race.
Speaker 1: Almost from the beginning, the self proclaimed sage from South
Speaker 1: Central whipped up a fewer. He mixed sound bites from
Speaker 1: Representative Maxine Waters with a recording of a barking dog.
Speaker 1: He said, Blacks exaggerate the significance of racism, while women
Speaker 1: did the same in regards to sexism. For nearly four years,
Speaker 1: Elder has slapped many members of his own race in
Speaker 1: the face on radio, belittling them as whiners or losers,
Speaker 1: holding himself up as a model of African American excellence.
Speaker 1: He's become a darling of white listeners, who seemed to
Speaker 1: almost gush when they telephone him on k ABC Talk radio.
Speaker 1: They are astonished to find a black man who not
Speaker 1: only isn't going to chastise them, but who also often
Speaker 1: agreed with them, a black man who declared that race
Speaker 1: was no longer a significant factor in American society. Elder
Speaker 1: also doesn't believe that racial profiling exists. This is despite
Speaker 1: telling The Times editorial Board that police pulled him over
Speaker 1: between seventy five and a hundred times the first year
Speaker 1: he had his driver's license. Elder's regressive, provocative content angered
Speaker 1: mine Angelinos and black citizens of California led a boycott
Speaker 1: of advertisers on the show. It worked, and by the
Speaker 1: late nineties the show had begun losing millions in ad revenue.
Speaker 1: But thanks to syndication, changing networks, podcasts, and TV appearances,
Speaker 1: Elder has been able to remain a central figure of
Speaker 1: the right wing content sphere. He most recently starred in
Speaker 1: a video series for far right propaganda organization and literal cult,
Speaker 1: The Epoch Times. According to Elder's campaign, the central recall issues,
Speaker 1: he is focusing on our rampant crime rising homelessness, out
Speaker 1: of control costs of living, water shortages, disastrous wildfires, rolling
Speaker 1: brown outs, and repressive COVID restrictions. For this show, we'll
Speaker 1: be focusing on the last three as they relate to
Speaker 1: the rapidly shifting and hostile climate. For the past thirty years,
Speaker 1: Elder has been a classic conservative climate denier. He had
Speaker 1: a whole section of his website devoted to debunking the
Speaker 1: Gore bull warming myth like Al Gore bullshit warming myth. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a bad pun. In a CNN interview prior to
Speaker 1: the two thousand eight election, Elder called global warming a
Speaker 1: false myth, while disparaging and making fun of both John
Speaker 1: McCain and George W. Bush for discussing global warming is
Speaker 1: a serious issue. However, more recently, Elder has shifted his
Speaker 1: rhetoric around the climate. In an interview last month, he
Speaker 1: expressed belief that some warming is taking place, but by
Speaker 1: using old soft denialist talking points climate is always changing.
Speaker 1: Of course, the climate is changing. The question is what
Speaker 1: do we do about it? Do we deal with the
Speaker 1: effects of it, or do we force feed renewables based
Speaker 1: economy down the throats of people jacking up the price
Speaker 1: of energy a disproportionate pain for poor people. But of
Speaker 1: course there's climate change, and the climate is getting warmer,
Speaker 1: and maybe about a degree or so in the last
Speaker 1: several years, and it will likely continue. He adds, what
Speaker 1: I don't believe in is climate change alarmism. He also
Speaker 1: said that he was not sure whether climate change is
Speaker 1: making wildfires worse. Quote fires have gotten worse because the
Speaker 1: failure of this governor to engage in sensible fire suppression.
Speaker 1: Elder also blames California's rising housing costs on environmental extremists
Speaker 1: that jack up the cost of housing so that developers
Speaker 1: have to wait and wait and get sued over and over.
Speaker 1: Agains that finally, when the home is built, it's way
Speaker 1: more expensive than otherwise it would be without these environmental
Speaker 1: rules and regulations. Despite the slight back pedaling on climate
Speaker 1: for better media optics, his potential policies on the topic
Speaker 1: are just as horrendous as one might assume. In a
Speaker 1: recent video news conference, Elder declared that he would in
Speaker 1: the war on oil and gas and the attack on
Speaker 1: the logging industry, will also reducing regulation on fracking and
Speaker 1: stopping California's growing efforts to expand when in solar power,
Speaker 1: which he calls not very efficient. Elder did not men
Speaker 1: and climate change during his news conference. Water scarcity will
Speaker 1: be an increasingly severe concern for California in the coming years.
Speaker 1: Drought is already a major political talking point among voters
Speaker 1: and politicians, and it creates another rift between city folk
Speaker 1: and rural farmers. Farmers are having a harder time growing
Speaker 1: crops and feel threatened by water rationing. They're frustrated by
Speaker 1: the thought that the Democrats running cities will always prioritize
Speaker 1: pumping extra water into population dense areas. Meanwhile, people in
Speaker 1: cities are concerned they will be forced to cut back
Speaker 1: on personal water use, as almond farmers suck up tons
Speaker 1: of water to feed their droops. Just building more dams
Speaker 1: and water catchment systems or aquifers may seem like a
Speaker 1: solution and have done property. Some of those things might help,
Speaker 1: but they can't make up for a lack of rainfall
Speaker 1: and snow melt. Relying on river water has its own problems.
Speaker 1: Pulling too much from fresh water that flows through rivers
Speaker 1: allows for extra salt water to intrude from the bay
Speaker 1: and ocean salinity in the water negatively impacts local ecosystems
Speaker 1: and dirties what is supposed to be a freshwater source.
Speaker 1: Drought is simultaneously pushing migratory fish species like chinook salmon
Speaker 1: and steelhead trout closer to the brink of extinction. Large
Speaker 1: numbers of fish are dying off because the rivers they
Speaker 1: rely on as spawning habitats are too warm or too low.
Speaker 1: Anxiety around water, droughts, and crops as among the issues
Speaker 1: driving some people to vote yes on the recall. A
Speaker 1: poll conducted last July by the Public Policy Institute of
Speaker 1: California found that residents sited drought and water supply as
Speaker 1: their top environmental concern, with about twenty calling it their
Speaker 1: chief concern, which makes it pull well above the related
Speaker 1: problems of wildfires, air pollution, and climate change. Republican politicians
Speaker 1: have been using anxiety around drought to drum up support
Speaker 1: for the recall by blaming the current situation on Newsom.
Speaker 1: The original recall petition against Newsom from early warned that
Speaker 1: the governor quote seeks to impose additional burdens on our state,
Speaker 1: including rationing our water use. Last April, Governor Newsom did
Speaker 1: declare a drought emergency into northwest California counties. The order
Speaker 1: allowed state officials to restrict the amount of water diverted
Speaker 1: from the Russian River and authorized the relocation of fish
Speaker 1: stranded in drying puddles. The local county government asked residents
Speaker 1: to use no more than fifty gallons per day per person,
Speaker 1: but Newsom himself hasn't mandated water rationing for individual consumers,
Speaker 1: though he has asked Californians to voluntarily cut consumption by
Speaker 1: fifteen percent and has suggested that statewide restrictions could be
Speaker 1: on the table if conditions worsened heading into the fall,
Speaker 1: Newsom in the Department of Water Resources as a whole
Speaker 1: do have ideas in mind for tackling this issue. Last year,
Speaker 1: Newsom authorized an eleven billion dollar water infrastructure project building
Speaker 1: a single thirty mile tunnel under the Sacramento, San Joaque
Speaker 1: and River Delta. The project, which has been discussed for years,
Speaker 1: is being pushed forward in hopes that it will protect
Speaker 1: the delta's existing wetland ecosystem and supply enough fresh, clean
Speaker 1: water to be diverted south for the rest of the
Speaker 1: state eight but the tunnel concept has faced opposition both
Speaker 1: locally and from conservation minded folks. Some residents in the
Speaker 1: Delta regency it is just a water grab to meet
Speaker 1: the demands of southern California and the agriculture industry, while
Speaker 1: the needs of those up north are being ignored. Ecologically
Speaker 1: focused critics say it could still increase salinity in the
Speaker 1: Delta and result in notable harm for the ecosystem. Newsom
Speaker 1: has more recently discussed other action and legislation to help
Speaker 1: mitigate the continued drought, quoting the San Francisco Chronicle. In July,
Speaker 1: the governor signed a state budget that includes five point
Speaker 1: one billion dollars over four years for new water infrastructure
Speaker 1: and drought preparation projects, including money to repair delivery canals,
Speaker 1: help farmers irrigrate crops more efficiently, and start water recycling projects. Still,
Speaker 1: Newsom's recent actions have done little to quell anger among
Speaker 1: many farmers who stay the state's failure to plan for
Speaker 1: another major drought just a few years after it exited
Speaker 1: the last one has put them on the brink of ruin.
Speaker 1: Ernest Buddy Mendez, a lifelong farmer in Fresno County and
Speaker 1: Republican county supervisor, said he was forced to let hundreds
Speaker 1: of acres where he used to grow cotton and wheat
Speaker 1: dry up this year after his allotment of river water
Speaker 1: was slashed to zero. He's relying on groundwater pumped from
Speaker 1: wells to keep his grove of almond trees alive. Mendez
Speaker 1: said he hasn't decided whom to support as a replacement candidate,
Speaker 1: and the recall just that he will vote hell yeah
Speaker 1: to remove newsom. Let's face at Newsom. Damn is a
Speaker 1: four letter word, Mendez said, we haven't done anything in
Speaker 1: twenty years about building storage. California already does have one
Speaker 1: of the most extensive damn systems in the country, with
Speaker 1: nearly fifteen hundred reservoirs. Building new on river dams would
Speaker 1: cost billions of dollars if such efforts even survive legal challenges,
Speaker 1: which are all but guaranteed. Amid the struggle to save
Speaker 1: endangered fish species, there are not many areas left that
Speaker 1: would make sense or be sustainable to build a new
Speaker 1: large reservoir. One other, more cost effective solution could be
Speaker 1: to store more water collected during wet years and underground aquifers.
Speaker 1: One of the solutions to this problem is the same
Speaker 1: as the solution to a number of other climate related problems,
Speaker 1: which is that we simply have to cut the amount
Speaker 1: of resources we're consuming, whether that means using our energy
Speaker 1: use or cutting down on wasteful water use. You can
Speaker 1: only build so many dams. The trend of California farmers
Speaker 1: growing thirstier crops has made an existing problem much worse. Today,
Speaker 1: the state produces three times as many acres of almonds
Speaker 1: as it did twenty five years ago. With California most
Speaker 1: likely entering a third straight year of disappointing rainfall and
Speaker 1: snow melt, anxiety around drought and increased severity of water
Speaker 1: restrictions won't get any better, and if the Lenina weather
Speaker 1: pattern hits the West coast, as it's poised to, that
Speaker 1: would mean the western US will have a drier and
Speaker 1: hotter winter than average. Last August, water regulators made an
Speaker 1: unprecedented move to begin cracking down on water use in
Speaker 1: the sprawling Sacramento River in San Joaquin River watersheds, ordering farmers,
Speaker 1: water districts, and other landowners, including the City of San Francisco,
Speaker 1: to stop drawing water from the basins of the river
Speaker 1: or face penalties of up to ten thousand dollars a day.
Speaker 1: The city has enough water in its reservoirs to meet
Speaker 1: demand for at least a couple of years, and stored
Speaker 1: water is not affected by the state restrictions. Water agencies
Speaker 1: also can seek an exemption from curtailments of human health
Speaker 1: or safety or compromised. This does hit rural areas and
Speaker 1: agriculture the hardest because most cities have alternative supplies and
Speaker 1: stored water to tap into. Looking to attract voters, Larry
Speaker 1: Elder and other Republican challengers to NEWSOM have made it
Speaker 1: a recurring point to say that farmers should not have
Speaker 1: to endure such cuts, but they don't really give any
Speaker 1: perspective solutions to prevent rationing. When water levels at reservoirs, lakes,
Speaker 1: and wells are all plummeting. Larry Elder said drought is
Speaker 1: not inevitable and said he supports building more reservoirs and
Speaker 1: dams to store runoff, but he has also voice support
Speaker 1: for permitting to salinization projects. The salinization devastates ocean life,
Speaker 1: costs much more than other alternatives, and uses tons of energy. Also,
Speaker 1: soon it will be made obsolete by increasing focus on
Speaker 1: water recycling, explaining to salonization quickly ocean water is collected
Speaker 1: and run through pipes to remove the largest solids, and
Speaker 1: then pump through reverse osmosis filters to remove salt, while
Speaker 1: fish and other creatures die upon being sucked in or
Speaker 1: just from the four of the water flow. In a
Speaker 1: report studying it is salinization plant in the early two thousands,
Speaker 1: it was found that on average over a five year period,
Speaker 1: nineteen point four billion larva were caught up at intakes
Speaker 1: and about two point seven million fish, along with marine
Speaker 1: mammals and sea turtles, were killed by intake equipment. For
Speaker 1: every gallon of drinking water, desalinization leaves another gallon of
Speaker 1: salty brine behind. The plants then just mix that with
Speaker 1: two parts ocean water before pumping it back into the ocean.
Speaker 1: These measures can negatively impact the environment for this generation
Speaker 1: and generations to come. This type of resource extract of
Speaker 1: thinking reflects how we got into the problem in the
Speaker 1: first place. Battling over water allotments will only get us
Speaker 1: so far when dealing with lackluster rainfall. What can help
Speaker 1: is permaculture programs to help farmers learn ways to irrigate
Speaker 1: more effectively and cultivate healthier soils that retain water. Moving
Speaker 1: away from water heavy crops like almonds and towards more
Speaker 1: sustainable and moisture efficient crops must also be done if
Speaker 1: we want to stave off the worst effects. Putting Larry
Speaker 1: Elder in office won't make it rain, but it will
Speaker 1: put the state least another year further behind on taking
Speaker 1: the kind of action necessary to ensure California remains habitable.
Speaker 1: It could Happen here as a production of cool Zone Media.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website
Speaker 1: cool zone media dot com, or check us out on
Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to podcasts. You can find sources for It could
Speaker 1: Happen Here, updated monthly at cool zone Media dot com
Speaker 1: slash sources. Thanks for listening.