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Once Declared “Drought-Proof”, Climate Change Is Pushing El Paso To Its Limits
June 1st, 2022
Via MIT Technology Review, a report on how El Paso spent decades preparing for drought, but now climate change is forcing the city to ask just how far adaptation can go: About 20 miles outside El Paso, Texas, on a warm afternoon just before the fall harvest, Ramon Tirres Jr. turns his truck between two fields […]
Read more »‘Flash Droughts’ U.S. Midwest’s Next Big Climate Threat
May 26th, 2022
Via Grist, an article on ‘flash droughts’, potentially the Midwest’s next big climate threat: September in Oklahoma is typically a rainy season, when farmers take advantage of the state’s third-wettest month to plant winter wheat. But last year, many were caught off guard by abnormally dry weather that descended without warning. In the span of […]
Read more »With Severe Drought, Urgent Need To Rework Colorado River Compact
May 20th, 2022
Via the LA Times, an article on the need to rework the Colorado River compact: One hundred years after a landmark agreement divided the waters of the Colorado River among Western states, the pact is now showing its age as a hotter and drier climate has shrunk the river. The flow of the Colorado has […]
Read more »50 Years of Protecting and Restoring the Great Lakes
May 19th, 2022
Via The Conversation, a look at 50 years of US-Canada joint efforts to protect and restore the Great Lakes: The Great Lakes cover nearly 95,000 square miles (250,000 square kilometers) and hold over 20% of Earth’s surface fresh water. More than 30 million people in the U.S. and Canada rely on them for drinking water. The lakes support a multibillion-dollar maritime economy, […]
Read more »Grim Drought Outlook for Western U.S. As Climate Change Brings Hotter, Thirstier Atmosphere
May 19th, 2022
Via The Conversation, a report on the grim 2022 drought outlook for Western US as climate change brings a hotter, thirstier atmosphere: Much of the western U.S. has been in the grip of an unrelenting drought since early 2020. The dryness has coincided with record-breaking wildfires, intense and long-lasting heat waves, low stream flows and dwindling water supplies in reservoirs that millions of […]
Read more »U.S. Interstate River Compacts Written For A West Far Different From Today
May 12th, 2022
Via The Conversation, a report on how America’s western river compacts were innovative in the 1920s but couldn’t foresee today’s water challenges: The Western U.S. is in a water crisis, from California to Nebraska. An ongoing drought is predicted to last at least through July 2022. Recent research suggests that these conditions may be better labeled aridification – meaning that warming and […]
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