Water Needs Power

Despite the state's push toward renewable energy, most Californians can't choose solar power at home. But a bill moving through the state legislature may soon provide a way for more people to jump on board the clean energy bandwagon.

Rising seas from warming oceans are generally seen as a threat to the future. But archaeologists are realizing that they're also a threat to the past. Coastal erosion is destroying Native American sites, including graves and places where people once cooked and camped.

There are more than 1,400 dams in California. When the earliest of them was built, the goals were clear: store water, control floods and generate electricity. Since then, new priorities have been added, such as protecting endangered species, which makes relicensing the dams a very pricey and lengthy process.

While much is uncertain about California's warming climate, there's little doubt that it's already changing the fundamentals of how most of us get our water. And that has some far-reaching implications that could even show up on your electric bill.

The state's water managers rolled out a plan this week to reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by moving water around the state. If that sounds odd, it turns out that moving and treating water takes a lot of electricity. But the reverse is also true -- generating power uses a lot of water.

Here in California we're constantly prodded to save energy, and to save water, too. But what if we told you that by saving one, you can save both? That's because water and power are inextricably bound together, a fact that is starting to get the attention of policymakers.

We imagine all our music, apps and photos stored somewhere "out there" - in the sky, perhaps. In truth, data lives in data centers that run on electricity. There's a fight going on between Greenpeace and Apple over the energy source behind Apple's iCloud.

Scientists are concerned that as the climate warms, West Nile Virus and other mosquito-borne illnesses will gain a stronger foothold in North America.