California
Related: About this forum2007 climate study predicted permanent drought in Southwest
May 2007
But according to a sobering new study, the Southwests aridity is about to get worse. Published in the April 9 issue of Science, Model Projections of an Imminent Transition to a More Arid Climate in Southwestern North America predicts that climate change will permanently alter the landscape of the Southwest so severely that conditions reminiscent of the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s could become the norm within a few decades.
Our study suggests a perpetual arid condition over the American Southwest, says Jian Lu, a postdoctoral researcher in ASP/CGD who is an author of the study.
Of the 19 different computer models that the research team used for the study, all but one showed a drying trend in the swath of North America between Kansas, California, and northern Mexico. The models predicted an average 15% decline in runoff for the Southwest between 2021 and 2040, compared to the average surface moisture between 1950 and 2000.
The Southwests future droughts are expected to be of a different nature than those that have afflicted the region in the past.
For the study, the research team assumed that greenhouse gases would continue to rise from todays level of 380 parts per million until beginning a decline around 2050, measuring 720 parts per million in 2100.
http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/0705/drought.shtml
NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)We need to make a concerted effort to reduce use in all sectors, agricultural, industrial, commercial and residential.
Some of the agricultural areas may have to be left to become the deserts they always were before the water projects, and smart irrigation techniques mandated.
More and more industries will have to conserve, reduce, and recycle water. This is totally doable.
We haven't even begun to do what's possible with respect to greywater systems and residential conservation and efficiency.
Basically, we need to do with water what we've done with electricity: educate and promote and regulate. California is the most progressive state in the nation with respect to energy efficiency (not including transportation).
Now let's do it with water!