JPL Scientists Want To Talk To You About What Is Really Going On With The Planet’s Water Supply

Think all the recent rain in Northern California solved our water crisis? Heard that the state is reducing Pasadena’s water savings requirements because water supplies are much better again? Sighing in relief? Two JPL scientists say “not so fast” and they’ll tell you why at a public forum Thursday morning.

“Even if the drought were to end tomorrow, California would still not have enough water to do all the things that it wants to do,” says Jay Famiglietti, Senior Water Scientist at JPL and Professor of Earth System Science at UC Irvine. “We will discuss human vulnerabilities to coastal inundation and to water scarcity, which should be of great concern to everyone.”

Famiglietti is a science rockstar in his own right and no stranger to filling in the world on what is going on with our water, often being the face and voice for media outlets’ coverage of issues pertaining to water crises and climate change. The forum will be a rare opportunity for the general public to converse with leading experts about the state and future of water and the planet.

Accompanied by fellow JPL Climate Scientist Dr. Ian Fenty, Famiglietti will talk about JPL’s incredible advances in technology which have given scientists unprecedented capability to understand what’s really going on with that most essential resource for human life: water.

The pair will discuss some of the most rapidly changing components of Earth’s climate system, namely, changes to global freshwater availability and sea level rise.

Famiglietti said Tuesday that satellites were employed to monitor the fluctuation of water levels on land and in the oceans which are constantly changing.

“We use a NASA mission called the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, or GRACE, to monitor the how the large aquifers and river basins of the world that are gaining or losing water on a monthly basis,” explained Famiglietti.

According to Famiglietti, GRACE functions like a “scale in the sky” since the changing amounts of water on the ground exert a changing gravitational tug on the satellites, pulling them just a little closer to Earth when there is more water on the ground, and pulling them less when there is less water on the ground.

By keeping track of the satellites’ positions, GRACE allows his team to map out how water storage is changing all over the world. From these measurements, he can determine the rate of water depletion in the world’s largest aquifer — including the Central Valley Aquifer in California.

“I think that most people don’t realize that water and climate change are intimately linked. Most of what we think about when we think about changing climate is ‘Is it going to snow more? Is it going to rain more? Will there be more flooding, or more drought?’. Most of that is water related,” explained Famiglietti.

Additionally Dr. Ian Fenty will provide his findings that detail the alarming rise in sea levels in recent years and will also be unveiling a new program designed to measure the rate of ice loss in Greenland, in which sea level rise is a part of the global water cycle.

These correlations and changes are happening right here in So Cal just as they are around the world in parts far away. For instance, some areas in California are subsiding 1.5 meters per year.

For scientists like Fenty and Famiglietti, this topic is something that tends to be overlooked by the masses and simply associate with occurring in another lifetime when in fact, these concerns continue to grow into plausible catastrophic events that must surface as a priority.

“I hope that I deliver a very clear message that over half of the world’s major aquifers are past sustainability tipping points, meaning that they are being steadily depleted. Growing food for an increasing population, in the face of changing climate, will become incredibly challenging in the coming decades. Both our water and food security are at risk,” explained Famiglietti.

For all of the science lovers, curious types or concerned citizens of the earth, “Rising Seas and Falling Aquifers” is a free public forum hosted by the League of Women Voters, Pasadena Area. The forum is May 5 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Women’s City Club located at 160 N. Oakland Ave.

Reservations are required with an additional fee of $25 for an optional lunch. To RSVP and learn more about this event, www.lwv-pa.org.