5 Ways Californians Have Changed Their Behavior Because of Drought

With California experiencing its third year of a devastating drought, the state has come up with several ways to conserve this precious resource, from mild (conservation programs, rebates for high-efficiency appliances) to drastic (mandatory rationing in some areas). Encouragingly, individual residents are also taking part in this statewide effort.
The Golden State is now seeing improvement in water conservation: urban residents as a whole have lessened water usage by about 10 percent last month (short, however, of Gov. Jerry Brown’s request of 20 percent savings in January). In August, Californians used 27 billion fewer gallons of water compared to the same time last year  — an amount that would fill 41,000 Olympic swimming pools, the San Jose Mercury News notes.
Here are some of the ways that residents are conserving H2O:
1. Waving bye-bye to lawns
With its constant watering, weeding and fertilizing, lawns are no-good for the parched state (citizens can be fined up to $500 for using the scarce resource to shower grass or wash driveways). That’s why Los Angeles residents like Rosemary Plano ripped up her yard for a “low-maintenance desertscape of succulents, heather, and gravel” that’s maintained by drip irrigation, the Christian Science Monitor reports. Many Californian cities, Los Angeles included, pay residents money for tearing up their blades with “Cash for Grass” programs.
2. Not washing cars
California State University, Los Angeles student Heidi Cuett started a small movement in her classroom school after showing up with a dirt-encrusted Prius with a bumper sticker reading “Go Dirty for the Drought,” the Christian Science Monitor reports, inspiring 20 to 30 percent of her classmates to take part in the 60-day #DirtyCarPledge. The campaign, started by LA Waterkeeper, says that if 10,000 Southern Californians who normally wash their cars every two weeks took the two-month pledge to forgo car washes, they’d save about 3 million gallons of water.
3. From tub to landscape
With record-low rainfall, residents are using greywater to support flushing and watering plants. Brooktrails resident Stephanie Willcutt waters her indoor plants with the cold bath water she captures before it turns hot, USA TODAY writes. (In fact, the publication reports that the whole Willcutt family has made conservation efforts such as cutting shower time, and wearing pants a few times before washing, etc, dropping from using 220 gallons daily to just 66 to 96 gallons a day).
4. Drought watch
Yes, it might sound a little Big Brother, but residents can now report on their neighbors for incidents of water waste. There are apps that let residents upload and send photos of their neighbor’s overflown lawn, for example. And in San Jose, the East Bay Municipal Utility District has a website that allows users to report water violators.
5. Changing diets 
The water we use isn’t always in plain sight — it takes about 1.1 gallons of water to produce a single almond, for example. Meat production is much worse: the average meat-eating American uses up to 1,000 gallons of water per day. U.S. Rep. Tony Cárdenas (D-San Fernando Valley) wrote in an editorial that he and his staff are now taking part in Meatless Mondays to reduce their water footprint. “While we all must reduce our water usage at home to help the state survive the drought, we can also make small, but important lifestyle changes that will help,” he wrote. “I am talking about making a conscious decision to compare the large amount of water it takes to produce that steak or pork chop you’re eating, with the likely smaller amount of water needed to produce delicious meatless options.”
DON’T MISS: What’s Your Water Footprint? Find Out Here

Will California’s New Kill Switch Policy Reduce Phone Theft?

From family photos, banking information and all our correspondence (both text and email), we keep just about everything stored on our smartphones these days. So if yours is stolen, it can be very traumatic knowing that all your information is in the hands of a criminal. (Not to mention the amount money it’ll cost you to replace your phone.)
In an effort to prevent phone theft, Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill into law that requires smartphone manufacturers to include a default kill switch on all phones sold across the state (after July 1, 2015), which allows individuals to remotely disable a phone after it’s been reported stolen. Only an owner can reactivate the phone with a password or personal identification number — meaning a phone becomes useless after it’s taken.
Introduced by state senator Mark Leno and sponsored by San Francisco district attorney George Gascón, the bill is the first of its kind. Though Minnesota became the first state to require the anti-theft technology on phones in May, California’s new policy requires manufacturers to turn on the switch by default.
“California has just put smartphone thieves on notice,” Leno says in a statement. “Starting next year, all smartphones sold in California, and most likely every other state in the union, will come equipped with theft deterrent technology when they purchase new phones. Our efforts will effectively wipe out the incentive to steal smartphones and curb this crime of convenience, which is fueling street crime and violence within our communities.”
Indeed, 2,400 cellphones were taken last year in San Francisco, the New York Times reports. More than 65 percent of all robberies in the City by the Bay involved stolen phones, while in Oakland, cell phone theft accounted for 75 percent of crimes, according to Time. In total, an estimated 3.1 million devices in the U.S. were taken in 2013, nearly double the number in 2012, Consumer Reports finds.
“Soon, stealing a smartphone won’t be worth the trouble, and these violent street crimes will be a thing of the past,” Gascón says in a statement. “The devices we use every day will no longer make us targets for violent criminals.”
But does the new law have the potential to prevent phone theft nationwide? California lawmakers are hoping that by requiring the feature in one of the nation’s biggest states, companies like Apple, Samsung or Google will begin adding the default feature to all phones ahead of potential legislation in other states.
While the default feature is a new development, earlier this year big brands like Nokia, Motorola and Samsung agreed to voluntarily include a kill-switch for users to opt-in after July 2015.
Apple has included a similar feature since September. In fact, recent reports from police in major urban areas like San Francisco and London reveal that theft of Apple devices has dropped in the wake of the company’s introduction of its anti-theft feature.
But not all are in favor of the new ruling. CTIA, the wireless industry’s trade organization, has railed against the proposal as detrimental to technology innovation.

The “action was unnecessary given the breadth of action the industry has taken,” says CTIA vice president Jamie Hastings. “Uniformity in the wireless industry created tremendous benefits for wireless consumers, including lower costs and phenomenal innovation. State-by-state technology mandates, such as this one, stifle those benefits and are detrimental to wireless consumers.”

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