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A new study published as a joint effort by scientists at Cornell University, the University of Arizona, and the U.S. Geological Survey finds that the chances of the Southwest facing a “megadrought” are much higher than previously suspected.
According to the new study, “the chances of the southwestern United States experiencing a decade-long drought is at least 50 percent, and the chances of a ‘megadrought’ – one that lasts up to 35 years – ranges from 20 to 50 percent over the next century.” Not so crazy, according to Richard Seager, a climate scientist at Columbia University who has helped pen many studies of historical megadroughts: “By some measures the west has been in drought since 1998 so we might be approaching a megadrought classification!” he says. The study points to manmade global climate change as a possible cause for the drought, which would affect portions of California (where a drought is currently decimating farms), Arizona and New Mexico.
http://modernfarmer.com/2014/09/scientists-american-southwest-faces-megadrought/
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday September 06 2014, @11:50AM
In which areas are people bullied into water preservation?
Almost seems like a hint to move to greener pastures..
(Score: 4, Informative) by khallow on Saturday September 06 2014, @01:52PM
Pretty much the entirety of California. I think one of the bigger contributors to the downfall of that state will be the widespread and epic mismanagement of water. I might add that we might see a US southwest "megadrought" just from that part alone even if the climate plays nice. Draining the water table completely is a recipe for long term and enduring droughts IMHO.
(Score: 4, Informative) by evilviper on Saturday September 06 2014, @02:29PM
While California is more often the butt of jokes on the subject, the depletion of the Ogallala aquifer is even more troubling, affecting about "27 percent of the irrigated land in the United States":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#Accelerated_decline_in_aquifer_storage [wikipedia.org]
Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.
(Score: 2) by evilviper on Saturday September 06 2014, @01:53PM
Any big cities in the South West. Los Angeles, Phoenix, Las Vegas, etc.
It would be absolutely mindbogglingly stupid to move just because water happens to be a little more expensive. It still remains a completely trivial expense to average households. Those with an acre of blue grass may feel a bit of pain, but even that is a small expense next to, say, the cost of home heating, up north.
People are getting "bullied" into saving energy all over the place. Are you going to pick up and move to WA, where they've got lots of cheap hydro-power? Or maybe to South Carolina, where gasoline prices are lowest in the country?
My whole point is that they're directing their efforts the wrong way around. Maybe a number of the farmers should move, but those big users being less wasteful is an option, too.
Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday September 06 2014, @06:20PM
Are you going to pick up and move to WA, where they've got lots of cheap hydro-power?
No, goddammit, stay away. Parts of Washington are still suffering from the northward migrations of the hippie horde of the 60s and 70s.
They've moved up here, and are now tearing out dams left and right to destroy the same cheap water and power they moved here to enjoy.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Thursday September 11 2014, @04:37AM
If they want to remove dams... I have a suggestion: ration their water and power proportionate to the amount that's no longer available. Don't just raise prices; make it unavailable. See how long it takes them to figure it out.
Idiots...
As to that 'endangered' salmon in California, as I recall it's actually an invasive species, not native.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.