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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 DeathMonkey on Monday September 08 2014, @06:42PM
You can provide a fact free rebuttal to a study, too, if you follow my handy guide to rebuttals:
1. If you rebut a specific study, don't rebut anything the study actually says.
2. If you rebut anything the studay actually says, be vague about what the flaws are.
3. Make your rebuttal require verification in 5 years. No one will remember it five weeks later, let alone in five years.
4. Give the authors zero room with time frames and percentages. After all, science must be 100% accurate at any resolution you demand. There is no such thing as error bars.
And don't worry about accuracy, because in today's 24/7 news cycle, no one will remember your rebuttal tomorrow.