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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: 3, Insightful) by gallondr00nk on Saturday September 06 2014, @09:06PM
I suspect it's time for a conversation over how land and water supplies have changed, and what we need to do differently in the future. As you say, prime arable land has been turned into housing developments, while deserts have been turned over for agriculture. It'll be immensely disruptive and costly, but I suspect that in the long run that land usage will have to be reversed.
Topsoil erosion seems to be becoming an increasingly immediate problem as well. It could be that we also need to do something radical with the soil itself, something like reintroducing the techniques making Terra Preta [wikipedia.org], a rich, dark soil with excellent nutrient content and retention qualities.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Thursday September 11 2014, @04:42AM
It looks like this terra preta is fundamentally burned garbage. The problem for that nowadays is since garbage is largely plastics, you need to burn something else. Tho I imagine 'cleaned' garbage could be bricked up and used.
I saw a study over 20 years ago that claimed over half the best farmland in the U.S. had already been built over. Once it's gone, what do they expect to eat?
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.