More ways to deal with the drought

Re “Living through dry times,” Editorial, April 3

Here are a few suggestions that Gov. Jerry Brown could implement to reduce water usage while maintaining his popularity:

Stop all fracking with water.

Stop the commercial bottling of water in California.

Replace grass with artificial turf (water districts will help pay for this).

Remove thirsty nonnative vegetation and replace it with drought-resistant, native plants.

Make all golf courses into links-style facilities to reduce water usage. Let the desert courses go back to being deserts.

Convince the farmers to grow crops that use less water.

Unless he considers all these options, Brown might as well be just as retired as I am.

Heiko Peschel

Lake Forest

We keep hearing about the drought in California, but few news sources actually mention a cause of a possible decades-long drought. As levels of carbon dioxide increase in our atmosphere, the tropical Hadley Cells shift, preventing rainstorms from coming to California.

Water rationing is a good idea, but why not address the problem at its source and strengthen regulation of greenhouse gas emissions? We can even start with small steps here in L.A. by, for example, enforcing the ban on dirty, gas-powered leaf blowers. On a larger scale, we need to price carbon.

Let us not stand by while one of the most beautiful and agriculturally productive states goes to ruin.

Gabriela Sosa

Los Angeles

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There is an inherent disincentive to conserve when doing so lowers the number used to compute a future savings goal that might require a certain percentage in reduction. We need a more objective way to determine water rates and savings goals.

An across-the-board reduction of 25% is unrealistic and unfair to those of us who have already been doing our part to conserve.

David Wogahn

Carlsbad, Calif.