Water Weirding: American Southwest on Uncertain Ground
by Tim McGee, Helena, MT, USA on 04.13.08
Global climate models have differed on what a warming globe will look like, but most agree that the American Southwest is in for a dry spell. The Southwest is familiar with drought and fire. But if a team of international climate scientists are correct, we can no longer expect historical water records in the region to be a guide for future management strategies.
In addition, the study is one of the first to link manmade global warming to direct changes in the hydrological parameters of a region. The scientists found that up to 60% of the trends in river flow, minimum winter air temperature, and spring snowpack over the past 50 years are a direct result of human impact.
Given climate change, river runoff in the region is expected to fall by 10%–30% by 2050. In an area where there are already political battles, water shortages, and strict management, even a 10% decrease in runoff is a major problem. Lake Mead, the reservoir for cities and farms throughout the entire Southwest is already only half full, but by 2021 without changes in water management the scientists give the lake a 50-50 chance of drying up completely.
Current policy on water management does not take global warming's impacts into account. Water weirding, like the drought conditions found in Atlanta will continue to surprise us until cities and regions begin to account for global climate change. To learn more about how the scientists figured out the impacts, follow the link to the American Institute of Physics. To green your own water use, check out Treehuggers How To Green Your Water.
via:: Physics Today
i like the ele bill ...good work
BLOGGERSMOSAIC
50 50 chance of Lake Mead drying up completely. WTF???
It is figures like this that should make people pull their heads out of their arses and start dealing with problems.
drought
http://www.drought.com
1) Greenie, 50% chance that Mead will be "functionally dry" -- see this post
2) Politicians in the West ARE proposing solutions to global warming. Unfortunately, they are proposing dams.
3) The rate of LOCAL warming in the West is 50% higher than the rate of global warming.
My lovely comment disappeared. Here are three links of interest:
1) Lake Mead has a 50% chance of being *functionally* dry:
http://aguanomics.com/2008/02/lake-mead-in-trouble.html
Note that Vegas is lowering its intake to forestall that moment.
2) Politicians ARE responding to warming -- with dams:
http://aguanomics.com/2008/04/dams-will-not-fix-water-problems.html
3) Local warming in the western US will be 50% more than global warming:
http://aguanomics.com/2008/03/local-heat.html
Man, I HATE this comment system....
My lovely comment disappeared. Here are three links of interest:
1) Lake Mead has a 50% chance of being *functionally* dry:
http://aguanomics.com/2008/02/lake-mead-in-trouble.html
Note that Vegas is lowering its intake to forestall that moment.
2) Politicians ARE responding to warming -- with dams:
http://aguanomics.com/2008/04/dams-will-not-fix-water-problems.html
3) Local warming in the western US will be 50% more than global warming:
http://aguanomics.com/2008/03/local-heat.html
Man, I HATE this comment system....
I go wakeboarding in lake mead regularly. It is crazy to see how much has dried up! I hope we can fix something soon, cause that's scary.