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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: 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.