来源：《洛杉矶时报》
原文刊登日期：2021年10月19日
It can’t be because everything else was going so well. It can’t be because the rain gods thought we had it too good, or that there were too few flames burning too few trees and homes, or that the summer wasn’t hot enough or there was too little violent crime or not enough deadly disease.
不可能是因为其他一切都很顺利。不可能是因为雨神认为我们过得太好了，也不可能是因为太少的火焰在烧着太少的树木和房屋，也不可能是因为夏天不够热，也不可能是因为暴力犯罪太少，也不可能是因为致命疾病太少。
In fact, we may never know the reason why last year was not only dry, but was California’s second-driest year on record, according to the state Department of Water Resources. What can California residents do, individually, to cope with the lack of rain and snow, and the shortness of our water supplies?
事实上，根据州水资源部的数据，我们可能永远也不知道为什么去年不仅干旱，而且是加利福尼亚有记录以来第二干旱的年份。加州居民个人能做些什么来应对雨雪稀少和水资源短缺？
Let’s be blunt: Not a lot. We can pull out our lawns, dig swales in our yards, take shorter showers, install low-flow toilets, grow water-wise gardens and do all the other things we’ve been telling each other to do, and have been actually doing, for decades now. Those are all the right and responsible steps to take. Every little bit helps. But they are indeed just little bits.
坦率地说，能做的不是很多。我们可以拔掉草坪，在院子里挖洼地，缩短淋浴时间，安装低流量厕所，种植节水型花园，做所有其他我们一直告诉彼此去做的事情，以及几十年来一直在做的事情。这些都是应该采取的正确和负责任的措施。每一点都有帮助。但它们确实只是一点点帮助。
Deep discounts for using less than the average daily residential consumption level might provide additional incentives to save, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that water we don’t use in the shower today will just be consumed by the almond grower up the state.
如果用水量低于平均每日居民消费水平，就可以享受大幅折扣，这可能会给人们提供额外的节水动机，但很难摆脱这样一种感觉：我们今天洗澡不用的水，会被加州内的杏树种植者消耗掉。
Steep fines for overuse are limited by Proposition 218, a quarter-century-old ballot measure that sharply limits use of price incentives to manage supplies. By law, water is priced not according to the laws of supply and demand but by the cost to deliver it, as though it were as inexhaustible as air.
218号修正案限制过度使用高额罚款，这是一项有25年历史的公投议案，严格限制了使用价格激励来管理供应。根据该法律，水的定价不是根据供需规律，而是根据运输成本，就好像水和空气一样是取之不尽，用之不竭的。
This state’s water challenge is double-sided. We have to cope with periodic emergency shortages, brought on by streaks of dry years. And at the same time we have to deal with our long-term supply by finding a way to replace the once-reliable Sierra Nevada snowcap, which no longer predictably releases water to mountain streams during the spring and summer months, to fill rivers, supply reservoirs, irrigate farm fields and flow through our taps.
加州的水资源挑战是双重的。我们必须应对连年干旱带来的周期性紧急短缺。同时，我们必须解决我们的长期供应问题，找到一种方法来取代曾经可靠的内华达山脉雪盖，它在春夏季节不再向山间溪流放水，以填充河流、供应水库、灌溉农田并流经我们的水龙头。
Californians are a resilient bunch, having weathered numerous droughts with a sense of duty. But after we’ve changed out our toilets to reduce water use and installed gray-water systems to keep our shade trees alive, none of us alone has the ability to rewrite the dated system of water rights and regulations. These are tasks that necessarily must be performed on a larger scale and that we entrust to our elected leaders and lawmakers.
加利福尼亚人是一个有韧性的群体，他们带着责任感经受了无数的干旱。但是，在我们更换了厕所以减少用水，安装了灰水系统以保持遮荫树木的活力之后，我们当中没有人有能力重写过时的用水权利和法规体系。这些任务必须以更大的规模来完成，我们将这些任务委托给我们选出的领导人和立法者。
Agriculture is the state’s largest consumer of water. Yet in recent years more land has been converted to thirsty nut crops. We remove our lawns but scratch our heads at the sight of alfalfa being irrigated and exported.
农业是加州最大的用水部门。然而近年来，越来越多的土地被改种干渴的坚果作物。我们移走了草坪，但一看到苜蓿被灌溉和出口，我们就挠头。
So as we plant the xeriscape in the front yard and let our cars stay dirty for a little while longer, we wonder about the plan going forward into the dry 21st century.
所以，当我们在前院种下旱生植物，让我们的汽车再脏一会儿的时候，我们想知道如何在干旱的21世纪继续前进。