At some point in your life, you probably turned on the tap and wondered where all that water comes from.  All you have to do is turn a handle and water flows effortlessly - until you decide it’s time to turn it off.  But how does it all get there?  And, how is the access to this precious resource so easy, considering it barely rains in southern California for much of the year?  Before we can answer how your water gets to your home and flows from your tap, we need to explain how water exists on our planet and where we’re likely to find it in California.

With geology, climatology, chemistry, biology, oceanology and a slew of other “-ology”s, why in the world would anyone create another scientific field called Earth System Science? Does this other area focus on dirt? Air? Water? Plants? Animals?

Previous studies have noted a warming over the Antarctic Peninsula while noting a slight cooling over the continent's interior. However, a recent study which blended satellite measurements and automated surface weather station observations conclusively shows a significant warming over much of western Antarctica. This positive trend in temperatures over western Antarctica exceeds 0.1C per decade over the past 50 years. More importantly, these trends are in agreement with climate models.