Here is the link to the study published in the Journal of Science - https://science.sciencemag.org/content/368/6488/238. I doubt it will happen, but I would hope that this would be a wakeup call...
Unlike historical megadroughts triggered by natural climate cycles, emissions of heat-trapping gases from human activities have contributed to the current one, the study finds. Warming temperatures and increasing evaporation, along with earlier spring snowmelt, have pushed the Southwest into its second-worst drought in more than a millennium of observations.
“The real take home,” Overpeck said, “is that the Southwest is being baked by the burning of fossil fuels and other human activities, and the future implications are dire if we don’t stop climate change.”
I doubt it will happen, but I would hope that this would be a wakeup call for the Republican climate change deniers who continue to push our country to rely on fossil fuels and destroy our environment. The fact that this megadrought is broader than California and encompasses deep red states like Idaho could help with that.
This article also does a good job at the end in detailing what life is like under a megadrought by highlighting how California has coped with the drought in recent years. I was not aware of how harsh the struggle was there. It is not a reality I am looking forward to.
East Porterville, Calif., in the Central Valley became a town without water. A church set up a shower trailer so residents whose wells went dry could wash. The state placed water tanks outside homes so their toilets would flush. Laundering clothes, washing hands and brushing teeth became luxuries.
The drought and the drive to save water had environmental consequences, as well. It resulted in the death of trees that improved air quality, provided animal habitats and beautified urban areas across California. Urban trees joined about 12.5 million wild trees that died in dry California forests during 2015’s drought, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
Such serious drought effects happened with only about 1 degree Celsius of warming since the industrial revolution, Diffenbaugh said. “The impacts we’ve already seen from one degree of warming really highlights the intensification of what’s coming,” he said.
The article itself gives them their argument to deny this: the study repeatedly refers to other megadroughts. So this current megadrought is just one more megadrought like all the rest. It might...
I would hope that this would be a wakeup call for the Republican climate change deniers
The article itself gives them their argument to deny this: the study repeatedly refers to other megadroughts. So this current megadrought is just one more megadrought like all the rest. It might be a bit worse than usual, but that's only to be expected due to natural variations. "Nothing to see here. Move along, folks."
That's a primary argument of climate change deniers: natural variations in climate can happen, have happened, and are happening all the time.
So, a change in climate, or what us hippies call "climate change", is normal and expected. What are we so worried about?
First, you have to build the case that the climate is actually changing.
Then, you have to build the case that somehow this change is different to all the other changes in Earth's history.
Then you have to build the case that somehow this change was caused by human activity.
There are multiple escape routes along the path between "we're in a drought" and "we caused this megadrought to be worse than previous megadroughts". Don't hold your breath!
Here is the link to the study published in the Journal of Science - https://science.sciencemag.org/content/368/6488/238.
I doubt it will happen, but I would hope that this would be a wakeup call for the Republican climate change deniers who continue to push our country to rely on fossil fuels and destroy our environment. The fact that this megadrought is broader than California and encompasses deep red states like Idaho could help with that.
This article also does a good job at the end in detailing what life is like under a megadrought by highlighting how California has coped with the drought in recent years. I was not aware of how harsh the struggle was there. It is not a reality I am looking forward to.
The article itself gives them their argument to deny this: the study repeatedly refers to other megadroughts. So this current megadrought is just one more megadrought like all the rest. It might be a bit worse than usual, but that's only to be expected due to natural variations. "Nothing to see here. Move along, folks."
That's a primary argument of climate change deniers: natural variations in climate can happen, have happened, and are happening all the time.
So, a change in climate, or what us hippies call "climate change", is normal and expected. What are we so worried about?
First, you have to build the case that the climate is actually changing.
Then, you have to build the case that somehow this change is different to all the other changes in Earth's history.
Then you have to build the case that somehow this change was caused by human activity.
There are multiple escape routes along the path between "we're in a drought" and "we caused this megadrought to be worse than previous megadroughts". Don't hold your breath!