Water to Dust - My visual story of water and climate change in California, is an ongoing project that I began 3-years-ago, after seeing my lawn grow brown and die while California was in extreme drought. I wanted to understand what was going on around me.
It is estimated that California will have a new season within the next century above 95F, a season of heatwave conditions and that the Sierra snowpack that holds more than 70% of the California water supply, will be reduced by 48-65 %.
I have been photographing different communities that are within a days drive from where I live in Los Angeles, attempting to get a better understanding of the complexity of climate change:
The central valley of California, where 45 % of America’s food is produced, at the cost of low pay, to mostly Latino and immigrant communities living in substandard conditions. Poorer communities are disproportionately affected, with issues such as water contamination, land subsidence and loss of jobs- all connected to higher temperatures, lack of water and drought.
Owens Valley and the Sierra Nevada mountains, where after 5-years of recorded drought, the wettest winter on record took place and the flip side of climate change occurred- flooding- as record temperatures and a heat wave melted the snowpack at an accelerated speed.
In the Sierra Nevada mountains over 129 million trees have died from heat, lack of water and bark beetle outbreaks. Using forest management, prescribed burns help forests to be healthy, strong and burn less intensely.
The Thomas Fire, which broke out on December 4th, 2017, after record-breaking temperatures and high winds traveled across southern California. California has lost more acres than any other state to fires, with increasing temperatures they will become more frequent.
In Malibu, affluent communities ignore the water tightening restrictions and are willing to pay higher prices to still have their large swimming pools and green lawns.
The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta with its tributaries, is one of the most important water resources in the state, irrigating millions of acres of farmland and provide drinking water to 25 million people. The health of the fish population in the delta is an indicator of rising salinity levels. The protected delta smelt, a small fish, is often blamed by farmers further south for water restrictions.
