A new drought? (1 Viewer)

[Eeyore]

'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 new study published Thursday suggests.

www.usatoday.com

 

[Turfie]

I’m sure this could stretch into parts of Eastern Washington and Inland BC.

Not mentioned in the article is the increased fire threat.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

Locusts, anyone?

 

[Goatman Saint]

There is so much hysteria put into this. Reservoirs are drying up. Yeah, well there never was enough water to fulfill the needs when those reservoirs were built. Unless you are running at flood stage year after year, more water was promised from Hoover Dam building and the treaties than has ever realistically been possible. California the same way. There simply isn’t enough water, except in flood years, to fulfill everyone’s wants. You now have farming all the way to Bakersfield. It’s an impossible situation to maintain, I don’t care how you want to slice the pie, the pie isn’t big enough.

With forest fires and the pine beetle. Here’s the issue there, forests are meant to burn and gradually be thinned out by fire. Only thing is people stopped that. Talk to any forestry guy in the west (have a couple in my family) and they will all tell you the forests are sick and dying, long past mature stage. They need to burn out and come back young and healthy. There is no way to avoid what is going to happen, it’s just the way nature works.

I’m not denying the warming for an instant. I’m not saying it’s not happening. But some of this stuff has its roots back in the 20s and 30s when these contracts were made and policies for forest management were created.

 

[Goatman Saint]

Locusts, anyone?

Those are in Africa right now

 

[superchuck500]

Locusts, anyone?

And right on cue - a plague of locusts

Where's David Robbins when you need him?The UN has called for international help to fight huge swarms of desert locusts sweeping through east Africa.A spokesman for the UN's Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), called for aid to "avert any threats to food security, livelihoods...

saintsreport.com

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

And right on cue - a plague of locusts

Where's David Robbins when you need him?The UN has called for international help to fight huge swarms of desert locusts sweeping through east Africa.A spokesman for the UN's Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), called for aid to "avert any threats to food security, livelihoods...

saintsreport.com

what's left on the bingo card? frogs?

 

[bonnjer]

Don't forget about those 5+ magnitude earthquakes in Idaho and Utah last month.

 

[StudioSaint]

There is so much hysteria put into this. Reservoirs are drying up. Yeah, well there never was enough water to fulfill the needs when those reservoirs were built. Unless you are running at flood stage year after year, more water was promised from Hoover Dam building and the treaties than has ever realistically been possible

One additional worrisome fact from the study was that the 20th century was the wettest century in the entire 1,200-year record. It was during that time that the population boomed in the western U.S., and that has continued.

"The 20th century gave us an overly optimistic view of how much water is potentially available," said study co-author Benjamin Cook, a NASA climate scientist, in a statement.

 

[saint-fan]

Mother Nature giving the finger to us humans all over the world.

 

[DaveXA]

Mother Nature giving the finger to us humans all over the world.

Well, that's really nothing new.

 

[Turfie]

You now have farming all the way to Bakersfield. It’s an impossible situation to maintain, I don’t care how you want to slice the pie, the pie isn’t big enough.

The butterfly effect could mean that over time certain commodities could have to be planted in area with more natural rainfall.

More natural rainfall (and less drip irrigation) will mean more humidity and leaf wetness. More humidity = more disease pressure. More disease pressure = more fungicide use.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

The butterfly effect could mean that over time certain commodities could have to be planted in area with more natural rainfall.

More natural rainfall (and less drip irrigation) will mean more humidity and leaf wetness. More humidity = more disease pressure. More disease pressure = more fungicide use.

In theory that works but climate change won’t allow us to be all that predictive about rainfall, et al

 

[gavinj]

You can draw a line cutting halfway through Texas up through Oklahoma and Kansas curving up and over to the tip of Lake Superior and everything west of that line is dry, has always been dry, 100 years ago, 200 years ago, and it will continue to be. Washington and Oregon have a little strip close to the ocean good for growing grapes and weed, that’s about it.

 

[DaveXA]

In theory that works but climate change won’t allow us to be all that predictive about rainfall, et al

While climate change is undeniably real, it remains cyclical to a large degree. All predictions have limitations unless you're talking really short term weather patterns.