DeVliegendeHollander comments on California Drought thread - Less Wrong

3 Post author: SanguineEmpiricist 07 May 2015 06:44PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (90)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: [deleted] 08 May 2015 02:10:14PM 1 point [-]

That makes sense on the object level (although I was more interested in the meta, as in how to think beyond econ 101, beyond the supply-demand curve).

I should add that there are grass fields here (Vienna, Austria) that nobody waters and they are green enough - granted, there is far more natural precipitation than in California, granted, they don't look as nice as really "manicured" lawns, but they still look kinda grassy enough. The point is - probably it would be possible to find a different species of lawn grass that looks 80% as good but takes like 30% of the water. I suspect British lawn species may have been imported to Cali and that may not be such a good idea.

Comment author: bogus 10 May 2015 11:08:20PM 3 points [-]

The point is - probably it would be possible to find a different species of lawn grass that looks 80% as good but takes like 30% of the water.

Good news - such a species does exist! It's called "Astroturf", and it requires even less than 30%.

Comment author: VoiceOfRa 09 May 2015 01:34:31AM 0 points [-]

Why is it some Europeans have a hard time imagining that not every place has the same climate as Europe?

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 09 May 2015 05:50:46PM 3 points [-]

Because they're human, and humans have a hard time imagining how very different conditions can be.

I know someone who had a hard time raising basil, which mystified me. What could possibly be hard about raising basil? You put it in a pot on a windowsill and water it when it's looking a little limp and it grows.

My friend was living in Wales. Basil needs more sunlight than occurs naturally there.

Left to myself, I never would have believed that water boils at different temperatures in different places. It sounds like a practical joke, but there's good physics behind.