OldLady
Diamond Member
- Nov 16, 2015
- 69,568
- 19,601
- 2,220
I was afraid to say that because it's been so long since I read about that, I was afraid I'd messed it up. But that was what I was thinking, too. The Colorado River which literally no longer exists by the time it reaches the ocean. No more to take, folks. Start thinking.I've never understood why people chose to farm in desert areas of California, needing massive irrigation efforts to sustain it. At the very least, they should stop producing high water content crops like lettuce. We can do hydroponics now.I wonder if we are in for another dust bowl, combined with economic collapse. This is also includes areas that have seen a big increase in population.
'Megadrought' emerging in the western US might be worse than any in 1,200 years
Fueled in part by human-caused climate change, a “megadrought” appears to be emerging in the western U.S., a study published Thursday suggests.
In fact, the nearly-20-year drought is almost as bad or worse than any in the past 1,200 years, scientists say.
Megadroughts – defined as intense droughts that last for decades or longer – once plagued the Desert Southwest. Thanks to global warming, an especially fierce one appears to be coming back:
"We now have enough observations of current drought and tree-ring records of past drought to say that we're on the same trajectory as the worst prehistoric droughts," said study lead author A. Park Williams, a bioclimatologist at Columbia University, in a statement. This is “a drought bigger than what modern society has seen."
Scientists say that about half of this historic drought can be blamed on man-made global warming. Some of the impacts today include shrinking reservoirs and worsening wildfire seasons.
Megadroughts could return to southwestern U.S.
Severe droughts parched western North America hundreds of years ago. They may return, thanks to climate change.www.nationalgeographic.com
Described in a comprehensive new study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, scientists now understand the causes of the megadroughts common during the medieval period. With climate change, they predict more megadroughts in the future.
"What’s new here is they are really putting the pieces together in a way that hasn’t been done before,” says Connie Woodhouse, a climate scientist at the University of Arizona who was uninvolved with the study.
A string of decade-long droughts occurred in the American Southwest during the medieval period, between 800 and 1600 CE. The researchers tied together previously existing theories about megadroughts to discover three main drivers.
Lead author Nathan Steiger, a climate scientist at Columbia University, says that the study was “exciting scientifically, but [the] consequences are not good” for a warming future.
Their analysis pinpoints three main factors causing megadroughts in the American Southwest: Cooling water temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, warming water in the Atlantic Ocean, and something called radiative forcing. A novel part of this study, Steiger says, was “showing that radiative forcing is important too for causing these megadroughts.”
If we have another great depression and mega drought like the Dust Bowl era then expect mass genocide and a new world order.
The other day I told my adopted brother the difference between now and the dust bowl era is that we are not in a drought, but if this happens I will eat my crow...
There are some significant differences between then and now that might effect things. Part of the dustbowl's impact was due to bad farming practices in an area never meant for that kind of agriculture. Wheat speculation combined with false land advertising and an unusually wet few years drove thousands of people out to tear up the plains and plant. When the normal droughts came back, they were devastated and desperately plowed up more and more buffalo grass to plant more wheat in an attempt to get back some of their money. Prior to this, the area has been grazing for buffalo and cattle, the tough grasses had deep interwoven root systems that held the soil down. It's never fully recovered but farming practices have changed.
True and rotating and letting a land sit a year or two is practice more today and also most people do not farm and farming is more of a corporate thing in today time..
Sure, we have independent farmers still but very few compared to the corporate farms...
Personally if I were healthy I might farm this next few years seeing it will be profitable as can be...
As for the drought, let hope for the best and why hasn't California ever change the water system?
Issue with Southern Cali is they rely on other states for their water source and that has been an issue forever.
Northern Cal could do so much more with retaining water so they could supply Southern Cal and not rely on Nevada and Arizona to supply Southern Cal from the Colorado River...