'Drought shaming' targets wealthy celebrities over lush California lawns

California is suffering through itsworst drought in 1,200 years, according to U.S. scientists though you'd never knowit by looking atKim Kardashian'slush, green estate.

Likewise for the well-watered lawns and sparkling pools ofany other celebrity, establishment,or very rich individualbeing "drought shamed" on Twitter right now.

Tensions have been running high betweenwealthyCaliforniansand those in lower-income neighbourhoods since the drought took holdfour years ago, steadily increasing asincome disparity becomesmore and morevisible bythe colour of an area's grass.

"In Los Angeles, one of the most unequal cities in America, while lawns in poorer parts of town have mostly gone brownlawns in hyper-wealthy places like Beverly Hills, Bel Air and Pacific Palisades are still reportedly overwhelmingly green," wrote the Guardian.

Last year officials started encouraging citizens to reportneighbours forhosingdown sidewalks or excessive lawnwatering, but the threat of a $500 fine didn't seem todeterthewealthy from turning on their sprinklers.

In April, Gov. Jerry Brown proposed raising the fine for being a "water waster"to $10,000,just weeksafter implementingrationing measuresto cut wateruse by 25 per cent.

Residents still have doubts, however, that even such a hefty finecouldstopwealthy water wastersfrom doing as they please.

So they're taking action against the problem themselves.

Thousands of people have used the #droughtshaming hashtagin recent weeks to shine a spotlight on propertiesthat appear to be generously watered.

As the L.A. Times notes, the practice of drought shamingis not entirely new.

The hashtagdidn't blow upworldwide, however, untilthis week ascorporations and celebrities got pulled into the conversation (joining alreadycontroversial products like almond milk and bottled water.)

And with more than 93 per cent of the statenow experiencing "severe" to "exceptional" drought, theattention being paid to drought shaming has promptedCalifornians to start calling out their neighbours publicly morethan ever before.

Whetherthese social media posts will affect California's water shortage remains to be seen, but as is often the case when a trend involves "shaming," some online are nowwondering what harm the hashtag may cause.

"When we are in crisis, everyone blames everyone else," said UCLA environmental historianJon Christensen to the Guardian, warning that "a culture of blame and shame" would not be "conducive to providing creative solutions in resolving the problem of living harmoniously through the drought."

Christensen does see a difference, however, betweenname-and-shame internettrends of the past and this mostrecent spate ofdrought shaming(which the Guardian refers to as "tech-savvy snitching for the opulence-sick and environmentally conscious").

"What is new is the class warfare that has now come into it,"he said. "There is a lot of focus on the fact that the rich and famous use more water than others."

"The class differences are very real," he said."The correlation with wealthier people here is very simple: they have bigger yards."