The greatest social antagonism we as a living, loving, thinking species are currently facing--global climate change--is continuing to cause drastic alterations to our planet’s ecology. California’s already four-year-long drought is worsening by 27% as a result of higher temperatures, which are causing more moisture to evaporate from plants and soil, reports a recent study in the journal named Geophysical Research Letters.
Contained within the journal’s somber diagnoses is the prediction that the state of California will experience more “persistent aridity” throughout the next several decades, according to a press release of Columbia’s, disseminated August 20th.
“The reason why this is important is because the amount of moisture that the atmosphere is demanding due to human-caused global warming is rising,” remarked A. Park Williams, a bioclimatologist at Columbia University, and lead author of the study. “And it’s rising steadily such that every year the atmosphere sets a record in how much water it is demanding regardless of what natural climate variability does.”
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Williams continued, saying that even though California will certainly have wet days again, these showers will only precede an even drier and more arid future. This means that the drought is going to worsen as time goes on, disturbing not just natural wildlife and plants, but the economy and the frequency of forest fires.
Additionally, another Californian climatologist also informed the state government through a press release that El Niño will not be enough to reverse the pace of this drought, whose momentum has given the golden state new record-breaking high temperatures and a record low snowpack. It’s become so dire that the state’s imposed severe water-use restrictions on its
I.) Water and Drought in California: Facts and data show that the weather we are experiencing here in California is that there is a difference between La Niña that brings the ocean temperature down and making them cooler and El Niño brings much warmer ocean temperatures. Currently california is experiencing a weakened La Niña. With a 55% chance of this weather continuing for the next 3 months. La Niña affect patterns of rainfall, atmospheric pressure, and global atmospheric circulation. Even though California is in a severe drought, with coordination, modernization, and compromise, California should be able to provide enough water for a growing population and growing economy.
After more than five years of drought in California, we are just now beginning to see an above-average precipitation,and this is leaving many to ask, "is the drought over?" This last drought was one of the worsts droughts California has experienced in history and it left many panicked and trying to come up with solutions. “Governor Jerry Brown even made one of the first cutback to farmers ' water rights since 1977, and ordered cities and towns to cut water use by as much as 36 percent ” (Zamora,et al..) Overall California has 39 million residents and on top of that California also grows an unbelievable amount of
California’s continuous drought not only affects California, but essentially impacts the entire food system. Could you imagine an entire state unable to contribute to the growing demands of a thriving economy? As California enters its fifth year of drought the consequences of an ever depleting natural resource, water, continues to negatively impact landscape plants, agricultural production, wildlife, and the economy. The lack of water in California has the potential to have a devastating effect on an ever thriving economy.
At some point of our lives we have been asked or have heard the question, what can we not live without?. Many of us will not hesitate to mention family, friends, food, water, and other living essential we find futile to our survival. If we place these living essentials in order of importance some of us may place family over water. If you then think about it, we can live without our family, but we cannot live without water. Water gives us life its in our fruits, foods, and drinks. Without water we would not be alive and healthy for the most part. The importance of water is substantial and California is currently experiencing one of its worst droughts in history. The planet itself is also undergoing global warming, which only contributes to a more severe drought occurring in California. Droughts in California’s history did not have the contributing factor of Global warming diminishing their severity. California’s drought and Global warming share a common link in the factor that would contribute to the severity of the drought we are currently experiencing in California and
The state of California is getting worse instead of better. “Just over 95 percent of the state now faces severe drought conditions and nearly 60 percent is in exceptional drought the highest of five rankings by the US drought monitor”(source 2).
It was just recently that the L.A Times came out with an article explaining that, slowly but surely, the southern part of California is coming out of this drought. Adding to that,
Due to the lack of rain in the past few years, and particularly in the last few months, California faces severe drought. This is the worst drought in more than one hundred years. The impact of California drought affects community, agriculture, organic ranchers, and dairy farmers. Because of these facts, the United States must rethink the way it uses water. Californians alone are asked to reduce their water usage by twenty percent to prevent water waste.
Californians have been struggling with trying to conserve our water for over three years. Twenty-Thirteen was our driest year in many populated areas in California, and it doesn't seem to be changing any time soon, unless we all act now. In twenty-thirteen, Los Angeles and Sacramento, went down on record as the driest two cities in California. A drought is when area of land scarcely drop rain. Droughts are caused from climate changes and lack of precipitation, resulting in a shortage of water. Water is vital for all living things and is the essential component of all life. This ongoing drought has drastically affected the state of California. The long-term change in climate is truly affecting California. Our water reservations are lower than
It is undeniable that climate change is drastically changing our current landscapes throughout the world. There are many individuals who consider climate change to be a natural and organic progression, but many studies indicate that due to excess greenhouse gas emissions, humans are accelerating global warming at an alarming rate. It’s convenient to continuously dismiss the studies and evidence that suggest climate change is real and it could have serious consequences, but when these drastic changes are taking place in our own backyard, it becomes a harsh reality. There is longstanding research, which indicates that the Colorado River has been in a drought since the early 2000’s and researchers allege that due to rising temperatures, the
California state and some other west regions face the problem of severe drought and the researchers show several reasons to explain this phenomena. According to research in weather data for the past century, in terms of overall precipitation and spring snowpack, the past three years are not record-breakers and paleoclimate studies show that the current drought is not exceptional given the natural variations in precipitation of the past seven centuries. It cannot thoroughly attribute drought to global warming. California may be faced a future of “perfect drought” because of following reasons. Rising heat increases the evaporation, continuing depletion of ground water, and growing water shortages on the Colorado River [1]. It is predictable
The California Drought is one of the most catastrophic weather and climate related events in recent history. It has singlehandedly altered the geographic landscape of the state and brought down entire industries to a grinding halt. Not since global warming became a prominent fixture in the national spotlight has a climate issue so deeply challenged Californians to reconsider their lifestyles according to their climate conditions. This essay will examine the origins of climate change and the California Drought, how the two are related, the current state of California as a result of the drought, and the future outlook of California.
Samenow (2015) argues that climate change is best regarded as as a drought amplifier rather than the source of the drought itself. He provides instances showing links between drought and climate change. One is that the atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping gas, have risen about 25 percent since 1958. Heat-trapping gases, like carbon dioxide, act like a performance-enhancer when it comes to warm weather extreme, because they considerably intensify the probability for setting new records for hot
Water is the most important resource, controlling all aspects of life. The effect on climate change is changing California’s water quality and quantity. This creates
Because most greenhouse gases would remain in the atmosphere for a long period of time, the temperature of the earth will be continuously rising. If global heat-trapping emissions proceed at a medium to high rate, temperatures in California are expected to rise 4.7 to 10.5°F by the end of the century1. With the rise of temperature, the climate of California would also be changed. California has large area of forest and farmland, hundreds of miles of coastline, large amount of snowpack, and other natural wonders. And these special treasures of nature are especially at risk2. So it is very necessary to understand the strategies of California to combat climate change.
California has been in a drought for about 4 years now and it has been considered the most severe drought in the last 15 years. The California drought has been causing multiple ongoing problems for the last few years. The state of California has tried to take actions toward ending the drought, but the efforts put forth are clearly not enough to end this drought. The main focus in ending the drought has been water conservation, but many California resident are taking the seriousness of the drought too lightly. The drought has already caused several problems, for example water shortages, dying crops, and wildfires all across the state. If serious actions towards ending the drought are not taken soon, California will continue to surface or may get worse. There are a few ideas underway to try and end the drought in California such as, desalination, wastewater recycling, ground water digging, and the main focus water conservation. All of the solutions to ending the drought will cost a good amount of money, so the fact of the matter is which idea would be most efficient and less costly.