US faces worst droughts in a 1,000 years, predict scientists

[G_j]

Last edited Thu Feb 12, 2015, 06:26 PM - Edit history (1)

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/feb/12/us-faces-worst-droughts-1000-years-climate-change-predict-scientists

Climate change is likely to cause decade-long mega-droughts across US south-west and Great Plains, new study shows



Cattle roam dirt-brown fields on the outskirts of Delano, in California’s Central Valley. Scientists predict future droughts will be far worse than the one in California. Photograph: Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Imag

The US south-west and the Great Plains will face decade-long droughts far worse than any experienced over the last 1,000 years because of climate change, researchers said on Thursday.

The coming drought age – caused by higher temperatures under climate change – will make it nearly impossible to carry on with current life-as-normal conditions across a vast swathe of the country.

The droughts will be far worse than the one in California – or those seen in ancient times, such as the calamity that led to the decline of the Anasazi civilizations in the 13th century, the researchers said.

“The 21st-century projections make the [previous] mega-droughts seem like quaint walks through the garden of Eden,” said Jason Smerdon, a co-author and climate scientist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

..more..

[randys1]

1. Want to plan a vacaton to go where deniers will be suffering from denial, i think it is the

only way I can get satisfaction out of most life on the planet ending because they emboldened denial.

Maybe I could stay in a hotel on top of a mountain where I can watch a tidal wave wipe some of them out.


I am a pacifist, yet this is what they have driven me to.

[Downwinder]

7. If this prediction holds up, you can go to

Phoenix or Las Vegas and stay in a hotel with a golf course.

[upaloopa]

2. I use to live south of where that picture was taken

We bought 20 acres in open range territory in 2005. The first two years we never used our air conditioner. There was always a cool breeze. Each year before June we had to clear a fire break around our house cutting down the tall weeds. By the time we moved in 2011, we had to use the air conditioner almost all summer. Temps were over 100.
Weeds sprang up in spring then disappeared before June. We no longer had to cut them.
Ranchers who were use to letting there cattle roam and graze off the land began buying feed. They never did that before.
We had to buy more feed for our horses because we didn't have grass growing in the summer. One horse died of colic having swallowed too much dirt.

[randys1]

3. Jesus Christ. Your description somehow sheds new light on the reality of this

Fuck, sorry for the language but fuck.

[upaloopa]

4. The irony is that that is in the reddest part of CA.

[zappaman]

5. Currently 84 here in Los Angeles.

In February...

[dhill926]

6. all this reminds me of...

T.C. Boyle's dystopian novel, "A Friend of the Earth." A very disturbing read. And yep, 3rd day in the 80's here on the central coast. Santa Ana's be a blowin'...