<
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/05/states-drought-climate-crisis>
"Every US state except Alaska and Kentucky is facing drought, an unprecedented
number, according to the US Drought Monitor.
A little more than 45% of the US and Puerto Rico is in drought this week,
according to the tracker. About 54% of land in the 48 contiguous US states is
affected by droughts.
Even as the country experiences autumn and heads further away from a summer of
record heat, the droughts continue to rise. More than 150 million people in the
country – and 149.8 million in the 48 contiguous states – are in a drought this
week. That is about a 34% increase since last week and an over 150% increase
since last month.
The drought is also affecting more than 318m acres of crops, a 57% increase
since last month, according to the tracker.
That reality is only the latest illustration of global warming and the climate
crisis, spurred primarily by humans’ burning of fossil fuels.
Last month, it was reported that world’s water cycle was out of balance “for
the first time in human history”. Nearly 3 billion people face water scarcity.
Drought conditions are not simply caused by a decrease in rain – but are driven
and exacerbated by abnormally high temperatures that can quickly suck moisture
from the atmosphere and the earth.
The problem, however, is more complicated than simply counting rainy days.
Droughts can occur even when there is slightly more rain than usual, depending
on the frequency of rainfall. If there is a lot of rain all at once, it’s
difficult for the water to be properly absorbed into the ground.
“Climate change can cause extremes in both directions,” Dr Lifeng Luo, a
professor of environmental science at Michigan State University, said. “When it
rains really hard, it’s not going to really penetrate into the soil. It becomes
runoff, which produces floods.”
Different city and state leaders across the US have acknowledged the drought
issue and have tried various ways of beginning to address it. In New York City,
the mayor, Eric Adams, encouraged residents to water their lawns less
frequently and to “only flush when necessary”.
“Taking shorter showers means more water could be allocated for other purposes,
which is good,” Luo said. “But its impacts in terms of reversing a drought is
very small.”
According to the National Integrated Drought Information System, droughts will
increase an area’s reliance on groundwater. Groundwater provides more than 40%
of the water used for US agriculture and domestic water supplies. Increased
pumping during droughts can reduce the future availability of those supplies."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
