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| Lake Mendocino, California |
Once considered an American paradise, the state of California is looking increasingly like a wasteland these days as a major drought that's plagued the southwest for the past four years is drying up that state.
Thus, the old song; It Never Rains In Southern California can now be applied to Central and Northern California because it rarely rains anywhere in the Golden State these days.
How bad is it getting? According to telegraph.co.uk: It's bad. It's in California so there is inevitably some hyperbole, with Governor Jerry Brown calling it "epochal" and some scientists claiming it's the worst since the 16th century. But data back up these concerns. The US Drought Monitor has four stages of drought - moderate, severe, extreme and exceptional. 100 per cent of California is in some sort of drought and 58 per cent of it is in the worst category, exceptional.
How bad is it getting? According to telegraph.co.uk: It's bad. It's in California so there is inevitably some hyperbole, with Governor Jerry Brown calling it "epochal" and some scientists claiming it's the worst since the 16th century. But data back up these concerns. The US Drought Monitor has four stages of drought - moderate, severe, extreme and exceptional. 100 per cent of California is in some sort of drought and 58 per cent of it is in the worst category, exceptional.
Many people revile California because of its radical political culture and its ostentatious, opulent materialism. And they couldn't care less that the Golden State's burning up from the chronic drought. However, they shouldn't revile California because that state supplies the United States with a significant amount of its produce and almonds. The severe drought's destroying the Golden State's crops and forcing food suppliers to go elsewhere and pay higher prices for produce.
More from the Telegraph: The biggest effect isn't on city dwellers but on farmers, and that affects the whole US. California's Central Valley is the "bread basket of America," a vast agricultural area the size of Scotland. The amount of food it produces is extraordinary. In all, more than 50 per cent of US fruit, vegetables and nuts are grown in the state. That includes more than 90 per cent of America's strawberries, olives, celery, broccoli, nectarines, garlic, canned tomatoes, cauliflower and pistachio nuts.
The area also produces 90 per cent of the world's almonds. Last year some parts of the Central Valley got only a fifth of their usual rainfall. Farmers say a slow motion disaster is unfolding. The cost to the economy this year alone is estimated at $2.2 billion and 500,000 acres have been left fallow. They warn of soaring costs in supermarkets across the country. Thousands of withered almond trees have been bulldozed.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11192081/How-bad-is-the-California-drought.html
Naturally, those who promote the Climate Change crisis are blaming California's predicament on global warming, as if droughts never occurred before the advent of the industrial age. But they did and they'll continue to occur until the end of the current age.
Could California's drought be divine judgment against the state for its rebellion against God. It could and it likely is. Droughts are a curse brought by God against sinful, rebellious people who mock His laws and violate his commandments. During the time of the ancient prophet Haggai (500 B.C.), the Lord pronounced a curse against Israel for her wanton disregard for His laws and statutes: "You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?" declares the Lord Almighty. "Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house. Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil and everything else the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands." (Haggai 1:9-11)
Certainly, California isn't the only place where sin and rebellion against God exist. It exists everywhere. However, droughts are a stern warning to people from heaven that the wickedness in their part of the world is excessive. After Solomon had dedicated the Jewish Temple to the Lord (1,000 B.C.), the Lord appeared to him and gave him this message: "When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land." (2 Chronicles 7:13-14)
That's the antidote for drought-stricken California. If Californians want an end to their terrible drought, then they need to study the Lord's message to Solomon and apply that message to themselves. Otherwise, the state will continue to pay the price, and that price will be felt in America's 49 other states as well.
More from the Telegraph: The biggest effect isn't on city dwellers but on farmers, and that affects the whole US. California's Central Valley is the "bread basket of America," a vast agricultural area the size of Scotland. The amount of food it produces is extraordinary. In all, more than 50 per cent of US fruit, vegetables and nuts are grown in the state. That includes more than 90 per cent of America's strawberries, olives, celery, broccoli, nectarines, garlic, canned tomatoes, cauliflower and pistachio nuts.
The area also produces 90 per cent of the world's almonds. Last year some parts of the Central Valley got only a fifth of their usual rainfall. Farmers say a slow motion disaster is unfolding. The cost to the economy this year alone is estimated at $2.2 billion and 500,000 acres have been left fallow. They warn of soaring costs in supermarkets across the country. Thousands of withered almond trees have been bulldozed.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11192081/How-bad-is-the-California-drought.html
Naturally, those who promote the Climate Change crisis are blaming California's predicament on global warming, as if droughts never occurred before the advent of the industrial age. But they did and they'll continue to occur until the end of the current age.
Could California's drought be divine judgment against the state for its rebellion against God. It could and it likely is. Droughts are a curse brought by God against sinful, rebellious people who mock His laws and violate his commandments. During the time of the ancient prophet Haggai (500 B.C.), the Lord pronounced a curse against Israel for her wanton disregard for His laws and statutes: "You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?" declares the Lord Almighty. "Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house. Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil and everything else the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands." (Haggai 1:9-11)
Certainly, California isn't the only place where sin and rebellion against God exist. It exists everywhere. However, droughts are a stern warning to people from heaven that the wickedness in their part of the world is excessive. After Solomon had dedicated the Jewish Temple to the Lord (1,000 B.C.), the Lord appeared to him and gave him this message: "When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land." (2 Chronicles 7:13-14)
That's the antidote for drought-stricken California. If Californians want an end to their terrible drought, then they need to study the Lord's message to Solomon and apply that message to themselves. Otherwise, the state will continue to pay the price, and that price will be felt in America's 49 other states as well.
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