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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 frojack on Saturday September 06 2014, @06:13PM
This might save me a few cents every months. I don't fault anyone who wants to do so, but it's pretty ridiculous trying to bully people to do uneconomic things.
It is said in the investing world, that the sum of everything known about a company is reflected in the price of their stock.
It is a simplistic way of looking at the world, but in the end, it really is the only way. Yes there are large amounts of public works and expendatures to transport water all over the state, but those all end up being reflected in the price of water sooner or later. The same is true for gasoline to a large extent.
The days when and industry could externalize costs and pass them on to society as a whole are long gone. You can't get away with that anymore because people aren't that dumb, and they notice that newsprint paper is dirt cheap, but the river is an open industrial sewer. The paper mill is forced to bear cleanup costs and newsprint prices go up.
Its the same with water. When they start using all the much hyped new technology to set up solar powered desalination plants (or whatever) you can believe there is a problem. But all of this will be reflected in the price of water. When the price goes up, you know the worries are serious.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.