Impacts of the California Drought

Impacts of the California Drought In 2015, California was once more taking stock of its water supply, coming out of the winter season in its fourth year of drought. According to the National Drought Mitigation Center, the proportion of the state’s area in severe drought had not significantly changed since a year before, at 98%. However, the proportion classified as under exceptional drought conditions leaped from 22% to 40%. Much of the worst hit area is in the Central Valley, where the dominant land use is irrigation-dependent agriculture. Also included in the exceptional drought category are the Sierra Nevada Mountains and a large swath of the central and southern coasts. There was much hope that the winter 2014-2015 would bring El Nià ±o conditions, resulting in above normal rainfall across the state, and deep snow at high elevations. The encouraging predictions from earlier in the year did not materialize. In fact, in late March 2015, the southern and central Sierra Nevada snowpack was only at 10% of its long-term average water content and only at 7% in the northern Sierra Nevada. To top it off, spring temperatures were quite above average, with record high temperatures observed all over the West. So yes, California is really in a drought. How Is the Drought Affecting the Environment? Energy: About 15 percent of California’s electricity is provided by hydroelectric turbines operating on large water reservoirs. Those reservoirs are abnormally low, reducing hydropower’s contribution to the state’s energy portfolio. To compensate, the state needs to rely more on non-renewable sources like natural gas. Fortunately, in 2015 utility-scale solar power reached new heights, now at 5% of California’s energy portfolio.Wildfires: California’s grasslands, chaparral, and savannas are fire-adapted ecosystems, but this prolonged drought is keeping the vegetation tinder dry and vulnerable to intense wildfires. These wildfires create air pollution, displace and kill wildlife, and damage property.Wildlife: While much of the wildlife in California can weather temporary dry conditions, a prolonged drought can lead to increased mortality and reduced reproduction. Drought is an additional stressor affecting endangered species already burdened by habita t loss, invasive species, and other conservation problems. Many species of migratory fish are endangered in California, notably salmon. Low river flows due to the drought reduce access to spawning grounds. People will also feel the effects of the drought. Farmers in California are heavily dependent on irrigation to grow crops like alfalfa, rice, cotton, and many fruits and vegetables. California’s multi-billion dollar almond and walnut industry is particularly water intensive, with estimates that it takes 1 gallon of water to grow a single almond, over 4 gallons for a single walnut. Beef cattle and dairy cows are raised on forage crops like hay, alfalfa, and grains, and on vast pastures that require rainfall to be productive. Competition for water needed for agriculture, domestic use, and aquatic ecosystems, are leading to conflicts over water use. Compromises need to be made, and again this year large swaths of farmland will remain fallow, and the fields that are farmed will be producing less. This will lead to price increases for a wide variety of foods. Is There Some Relief in Sight? On March 5, 2015, meteorologists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration finally announced the return of El Nià ±o conditions. This large scale climate phenomenon usually is associated with wetter conditions for the western U.S., but due to its late spring timing, it did not provide enough moisture to relieve California from drought conditions. Global climate change throws a good measure of uncertainty in forecasts based on historical observations, but perhaps some comfort can be taken by looking at historical climate data: multi-year droughts have happened in the past, and all have eventually subsided. El Nià ±o conditions have subsided  during the 2016-17 winter, but a number of powerful storms are bringing a copious amount of moisture in the form of rain and snow. It wont be until later that we will really know if its enough to bring the state out of the drought. Sources: California Department of Water Resources. Statewide Summary of Snow Water Content. NIDIS. US Drought Portal.

Dolch Sight Words for Kindergarten to Third Grade

Dolch Sight Words for Kindergarten to Third Grade The Dolch Word Lists were developed by Edward W. Dolch. He researched English text he found published in the United States and found those words that show up the most in text. Some of those words are decodable, because they follow general phonemic and spelling rules for English. Many, however, are not decodable but instead are irregular, meaning they do not follow the rules of English. Over 50 - 75% of the most commonly used words are found in the Dolch List below. The Dolch Lists are among the most highly respected tools in the field of reading instruction, and are critical for creating meaning in text- using those common verbs, articles, and conjunctions to make words into language.   The Dolch lists are also valuable for word walls. Word walls provide a dictionary for emerging writers as well as readers, as they look to find the words they need to write. Dolch created a spiraling list of sight words that builds from grades to grades. You can add words from the lists to your word wall as you expand your students skills through appropriate pre-primer or primer decodable books, which will have many of the sight words. Then, you can encourage your students to use the word wall words in writing samples. Still, the goal should be to write to communicate, not write to meet some teachers requirements. Students with reading and language difficulties often dislike writing tasks- make them fun and make them about communicating their meaning and they will flex their writing muscles! How to Use the Dolch Words: Play games with them, cut the cards out and use them as flash cards.Use oral reading activities with the cards. Hold up the word, and use a sentence with a blank prompting the child to state the word. For instance: I liked that movie so much that I watched it _________ (again).Use and oral cloze activity, placing three cards, one that fills the cloze. You can have the child point to the correct word. This is especially good for children with reading skills but apraxia. i.e. John went to the park to (swim, and, the.)Shuffle the Dolch cards, turn them over one at a time and use them in a sentence.Have students go back and highlight (and correct, when necessary) the word wall words in their journal entries or free writing.   Daily routine use of the words will build reading confidence. For students with learning disabilities, these words can be learned developmentally, beginning with the pre-primer list.  There are five lists offering appropriate words for the  Pre-Primer,  Primer, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, and  3rd Grade  reading levels. Word cards for all 44 spelling sounds  are available and can be great additions to your spelling program and word walls.

Symbolism in Packer's Drinking Coffee Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Symbolism in Packer's Drinking Coffee - Essay Example ous efforts to distance herself from the pain-giving experiences of her life, like her devastating relationship with her Dad, grudging interview sessions with the psychiatrist imposed on her by the college administration, and suspicious interactions with counselors and study-buddies, take her to the portal of happiness? Dina’s cherished dreams do not fructify, she looks out for alternative avenues, to forget the pain. The mention of revolver as the inanimate object she’d most like go transform, on the eve of Yale University freshmen orientation, says a lot about her grudge against her past life and her future plans.(of revenge?) It is easy to say that life is to be lived in its trials, tribulations, duty and beauty. But when it comes to practical applications, the unforgettable incidents of the past continue to torture the inner core of an individual, who has faced the wrath of the society on many counts. Dina is one such individual, who has to cope up with lots of maladjustments. In the story â€Å"Drinking Coffee Elsewhere†, Packer provides enough homework for the reader’s imagination. She concludes the story without providing firm conclusions. The reader has to view the situation from own perspective. But her writing has the cordiality and grace to draw the reader to mainstream of the story. The ‘not so gentle’ gentleman with whom Dina has strained relationship is Dr. Raeburn. But one can not blame the Doctor. He is a psychiatrist and he is expected to do his professional job to treat the fresher. If the revolver is ‘triggered’ by Dina, he will be held responsible by the University authorities. He tries his best to probe the hidden layers within her mind and unearth the real Dina! When she expresses contempt for her father, the ‘shaken’ Doctor reaches out for a cigarette and Dina’s protests instantly. She says, â€Å"You can’t smoke in here.† She gives clever answers to his questions but the professional psychiatrist is able to isolate

Managerment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Managerment - Essay Example In South Africa, the private sector comprises of 2.7 million numbers of small enterprises. Majority of these employees are informal and micro enterprises. Only 12,000 of them are considered to be medium and large scale enterprises. 2.7 million enterprises in the country generate employment for 9.3 million people across the country. About three-fourth of these employees are engaged in the small and medium scale enterprises. These enterprises play a major role in uplifting the economic condition of the country, however their progress have remained substantially slow over the last few years. The employment generated according to the size of enterprises has been presented in the following diagram1. In fact the government of South Africa considers the development of small businesses as an important step towards strengthening the economy2. Small businesses are said to contribute significantly to the employment growth in Sub Saharan Africa. The small businesses have been able to absorb more than 40% of the labor force in the region. The most prominent improvements have been witnessed in the five countries, namely, Kenya, Malawi, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Swaziland. The increase in the number of start-ups specifically accounts for the improvement in the level of employment in the region. Only about 25% of these small businesses have grown substantially, but their contribution towards employment creation has is substantial. Only 1% of the start-ups has effectively transformed into the intermediate sized firms3. The small firms are said to the backbone of the sub Saharan economy. The size distribution among the firms existing in Africa is highly skewed with large number of small firms4. The small and medium enterprise sector in Nigeria comprises of 50% of the country’s employment and 50% of the country’s industrial output. The contribution of small economies to the economic growth of Africa is at par with the advanced nations of the

Discharged for Off-Duty Behavior Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Discharged for Off-Duty Behavior - Essay Example resources department has the responsibility to evoke such employees of the existence of such rules and make them available once needed by the employees. This paper discusses an example of an off-duty behavior of an employee of AEM company called John. Given the facts of this case, John did not receive a fair treatment. The HR manager was able to mention the existing code of conduct that stated that employee’s off-duty behavior should not affect the company, its employees, or sales of its educational materials. Existence of this code of conduct does not explicitly indicate that John knew about it. The code is quite extensive and has not narrowed in to what behaviors that would amount to breaching off-duty performance by an employee. According to Bohlander and Snell (2009), rules should be widely disseminated, widely known by all employees, reviewed periodically, and reasons for the rules explained. John is right that what he did in his personal life was â€Å"no obligation of the company† if the rules were not stipulated properly and explicitly explained to him not to handle pornographic materials. Besides, he explains the reason for the purchase of materials. It was not at will. Discharging an employee as a disciplinary measure is usually the last resort. From this case, John has no indiscipline records in his personal record for the last twelve years. We do not hear of any warnings prior to this scenario. According to Bohlander and Snell, the employee must know the rule, be notified of his breach of the rules, and be given reasonable warning before dismissal (Bohlander & Snell, 2009). Sales representatives of AEM can be held to a higher level of personal conduct than sales representatives of other companies. Despite the global employment laws that regulate businesses, organizations reviews their codes and guidelines yearly to suite their demands. This happens mostly in private companies where rules of conduct are given and explained to the sales

Charging and Discharging Capacitors Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Charging and Discharging Capacitors - Lab Report Example b) The value of the charging current at the same instant: Since, I = = = 0.42625 amps = 426.25 mille-amperes c) The time constant value of the circuit. As already calculated in (a) time constant: = RC = 40 x x F = .480 Question 2: . A 20 microfarads capacitor is charged to 400 volts. At t = 0, a resistor of 12 kilo-ohms is connected across the capacitor. a) Calculate the voltage remaining across the capacitor after 180 milliseconds. In this case the capacitor is being discharged and the voltage drops from the maximum at t=0 to almost 0 when the discharge is complete. The drop is exponential as per Kirchoff's Voltage Rule. This time the voltage at time t is = = {}(for a differentiating circuit). The time constant for this circuit is: = RC = 12 x x F = .240 Therefore, voltage across the capacitor after 180 milliseconds: = {} = 400{} = 400{.472} = 188.8 V d) Calculate the discharge current at 180 milliseconds. Since, I = = = 0.0176 amps = 17.6 mille-amperes e) Calculate the time taken for the voltage to fall to 36.8% of its initial value. From the initial relationship: = {} it is derived: = .368, or = .368 t = = .24s The time taken by the voltage to fall to 36.8 % of its initial value is the time constant itself. Question 3: A coil having an inductance of 2.5 henrys and a resistance of 40 ohms is switched on to a 60 volt d.c. supply at t = 0. a) Calculate the value of the steady state current ultimately reached. The time constant in this case for inductance is: = = = .0625 Therefore, I = {1 - }= {1 - } = x .9933 = 1.49 amps b) Calculate the value of the current when t = 30 mille-seconds. Therefore, for the same circuit, I = {1 - } = {1 - }= .57 amps c) Determine the current...This is also true of the current through the circuit. Ultimately, at full charge, the voltage, ideally, becomes equal to that of the charging battery. In the case of LR circuits, the same is true of the current that increases exponentially according to Kirchoff's Current Rule. Transiently, when the switch is put on, the change in current is opposed by the back emf (rate of opposition decreases exponentially) until, at 5 time constant values, at 1 % accuracy, the change stops and the current reaches steady state. (Multi-loop Circuits, 1999) = (for an integrating circuit), Here, is the time constant which represents the minimum time the system needs to make significant change in voltage, charge and current. It is also called the 'resistor decay' and has the value 'RC' where 'R' is the resistance value in the circuit and 'C' is the capacitance value. In this case the capacitor is being discharged and the voltage drops from the maximum at t=0 to almost 0 when the discharge is complete. The drop is exponential as per Kirchoff's Voltage Rule. This time the voltage at time t is = = {}(for a differentiating circuit). a) Draw to scale waveforms to show the growth and decay of the current in L and the voltages across the two components R and L when the switch is operated to the left at t = 0 seconds and returned to the right after 5 seconds. While rising the current tends towards the maximum o

The impact Advertising has on brand preference for consumers in the Essay

The impact Advertising has on brand preference for consumers in the mobile phone market - Essay Example While each component had its role in forming the marketing strategy, promotion essentially meant reaching out to the customer through advertising and media campaigns. In today's world 'promotion' field has been further widened by renaming it as marketing communication. Such a communication now forms a crucial part of managerial activities. This study is an effort towards analysing the mobile phone market in general and to what extent advertising or marketing communication activities help in building brands, creating brand loyalties, increase in sales, cutting costs etc. How customer perceptions have changed over the years towards going for a product which is seen all over the media space, fliers, signboards etc. will form the cornerstone of preparing marketing strategies for any company. Mobile phone market comprises of a range of brands offering a variety of features at affordable prices, depending upon the requirements of the customer, the market potential and other factors like, l ocal taxes, liberalisation policies etc. To what extent the customer's opinion gets influenced by running advertisement campaigns and how the balance is tilted by celebrity endorsement or the brand ambassadors will be studied through this paper. Technology is also a critical factor while reaching out to the customer. The advancements in technology has also come out with innovative ideas to reach out to the customer. ... The process of globalisation and liberalisation has resulted in uniformity of policies all around the globe, thus providing room for adopting the learning's from one type of market into another. The rapidly changing market dynamics though have kept the companies on their toes. Kotler (1974) termed marketing as a set of human activities directed at facilitating and consummating exchanges. Advertising helps in influencing the consumer behaviour. While on the one hand the competition helps the consumer in getting worth of the spending, and consumer has a range of alternatives to chose from, companies too have come out with innovative ideas to reach out to the consumer with their products and brands. While analysing the rapidly changing marketing scene, Peircy (2002) terms the emerging scenario as complex, confusing, and paradoxical. The mobile phone market is full of alternatives available with whole lot of features at attractive prices. This has led to a state where mobile phone compan ies are trying to include as many features into the small gadget and convert it into a workstation or computer which can be used for talking, listening radio programmes, watching movies, storing mp3 songs and of course in the form of a phone as well. At times, it appears the advertisements tend to confuse a general customer, with so many brands around. It is indeed a very difficult choice for an average consumer to be able to figure out his/her exact needs and look for the appropriate gadget. How advertising helps or complicates toward facilitating such choices is what matters for the ad-makers worldwide. 4. Aims and Objectives My project shall aim to test the following -