Like many another American, I worry about California, and wonder if it is worth saving...

And then I think, as an Oregonian, and a graduate of the University of Oregon (Magna cum Laude) and a Duck, after all,  that I can save it, so perhaps I should--though with many reservations, conditional stipulations and peculiar terms of repayment to be fulfilled presently and in future. The first part, saving California, is absurdly simple:  Pump fresh water (eight billion gallons a day) from, say, 100 miles before the mouth of the Columbia River (so that it be not contaminated with salt water), north to south, across the state of Oregon to California.  Eight billion gallons of water a day, from an outflow of the Columbia River at the mouth of 265,000 cubic feet per second, would scarcely be felt at the origin, and would forever solve all the water/drought problems of the cities and the agriculture of California.  Simple indeed.

Half the costs of pumps and aqueducts should, of course, be borne by the State of California.  But more than that, there are several things about California that must change if Oregon is to share its water with the Golden State.  California's semi-privatized prison system is on many counts iniquitous,  as is its barbaric militarized police force.  I would give the Powers That Are and Vested Interests in California this ultimatum:  You want our water?--Release from detention all those convicted of non-violent crimes.  Cease forthwith the custom of handcuffing non-violent offenders when placing them under arrest.  Utterly goddamnit stop cutting down redwoods and the clearcutting of forests. As of now switch from wood pulp to hemp fiber pulp in the making of paper; likewise, where at all feasible, replace the cultivation of cotton with hemp, and change from the manufacture of cotton and synthetic textiles to the making of hemp cloth.

You have a year, in the opinion of most climatologists,

before the current drought destroys you.  Get cracking.