Understanding the Emerging Megadrought

[greenman3610]

I spent months talking to the most essential experts on water in the west and southwest.
This is your essential 5 minute executive briefing on the emerging Megadrought.
I’ll be posting more, much more, of what those experts told me in coming days.

[luckone]

1. TY

[Random Boomer]

2. Could you please cross-post to the Environment forum?

Your information (which I'm very interested to hear) would be easier to find on a topic forum than on a forum about the medium in which the information is embedded.

[2naSalit]

3. K&R

[not fooled]

4. For the time being,

I live in SW Arizona. The doofuses in the local planning department are approving development as fast as they can. The local aquifer is being depleted. Trump is popular around here. I can't think of a worse political climate for dealing with the developing water and warming crises. Because you can't solve these problems by praying, shooting, wall building, or approving more subdivisions--the standard coping mechanisms around here--it's difficult to see how the local government is going to deal with global warming and aridification.

[keithbvadu2]

6. Saudis find plenty of water in Arizona for their alfalfa

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1127122294

AZ Freedumb Fans Gobsmacked When Out-Of-State Investors Arrive, Guzzle Their Unregulated Groundwater
-------------------
Saudis find plenty of water in Arizona for their alfalfa

https://www.revealnews.org/blog/debate-spreads-about-saudi-dairy-drilling-wells-in-arid-arizona/?utm_source=Reveal%20Newsletters&utm_campaign=01322dac59-The_Weekly_Reveal_11_19_15&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c38de7c444-01322dac59-229918333

Debate spreads about Saudi dairy drilling wells in arid Arizona

[bucolic_frolic]

5. Where did the water go?

They pumped it out of the aquifers, so isn't there now more humidity in the world? Is there more rain somewhere else? It's all in the ocean causing rising tides? Why doesn't it evaporate and cause rain?

[greenman3610]

7. the atmosphere is indeed holding more moisture,

about 7 percent more with the rise of one degree C globally.
In general, what's happening is that wet areas are getting wetter,
dry areas are getting dryer.
the atmospheric dynamics that create arid zones in the subtropics
have not changed - but the "thirstiness" of the atmosphere has
increased - meaning when you have a dry spell, air sucks moisture
out of plants and soil faster than in the past.
At the same time, it's still possible for dry areas like Arizona to
see rain, when it comes, to come in extremes like the recent monsoon
storms.
unfortunately, extreme gully washers on dry ground tend to run off
too quickly to fully recharge soils, as more steady, less intense storms
would.

[Dustlawyer]

8. This year it seems as if it all came down on the eastern Texas Gulf Coast.

I haven’t used a sprinkler one time and my yard never looked better. Wish we could send the excess via pipeline out West.

[Ligyron]

11. That's the thing.

The earth has all the water it ever had. It Certainly didn’t just fly off into space.

The distribution is the problem.

[Sienna86]

9. Excellent

Thank you for sharing. Everyone needs to watch.

[littlemissmartypants]

10. This would be a great cross post for the Environment & Energy Group...

https://democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1127

[Uncle Joe]

12. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread greenman.