Environment

Droughts Self-Propagate, Just Like Wildfires
Unlike other weather extremes such as hurricanes or winter storms, droughts affect humans in most climatic zones around the world; from the arid steppes of the Sahel to the humid rainforests of Amazonia. Moreover, droughts are expected to intensify in many regions following global warming.
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Scientists Identify the Most Extreme Heatwaves Ever Recorded Globally
Heatwaves are one of the most devastating extreme weather events. The western North America heatwave was the deadliest weather event ever in Canada, resulting in hundreds of fatalities. The associated raging wildfires also led to extensive infrastructure damage and loss of crops.
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Water Scarcity Predicted to Worsen in More than 80% of Croplands Globally
Global warming is inexorably leading to water scarcity, and more than 80 percent of the world’s croplands will be affected by this scarcity by 2050. One way to mitigate the effects of growing scarcity is improving irrigation infrastructure and irrigation efficiency.
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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 drying are long-term trends.
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As Lake Powell Dries Up, the U.S. Turns to Creative Accounting for a Short-Term Fix
A new agreement calls for Western states to leave their drinking water in the reservoir — and act as if they didn’t.
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What Choices Does the World Need to Make to Keep Global Warming Below 2 C?
A new modeling strategy, which explores hundreds of potential future development pathways, provides new insights on the energy and technology choices needed for the world to meet that target.
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To Reduce Growing Climate Dangers, the World Needs to Consider Sunlight Reflection
Nothing about the present climate crisis or its implications is natural. Perhaps how the world deals with a warming planet shouldn’t be either.
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Human-Induced Climate Change Is Affecting Hurricane Severity
A study that analyzed the entire 2020 North Atlantic hurricane season — in conjunction with human activity that affects climate change — found that hourly hurricane rainfall totals were up to 10 percent higher compared to hurricanes that took place in the pre-industrial (1850) era.
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Climate Change Will Transform How We Live, but Tech and Policy Experts See Reason for Optimism
Climate change has advanced so far, it’s now inevitable that societies will either transform themselves or be transformed. Existing solutions can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help people adjust to impacts of climate change that can’t be avoided. The problem is that these solutions aren’t being deployed fast enough.
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With Dwindling Water Supplies, the Timing of Rainfall Matters
A new study shows it’s not how much extra water you give your plants, but when you give it that counts. This is especially true near Palm Springs, where the research team created artificial rainfall to examine the effects on plants over the course of two years.
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Drenching Rains Pose Greater Threat to Fire-Damaged Areas in West
Areas in the western U.S. scarred by wildfires now face even more dangers: drenching rains. These rains inundate the burnt areas, causing significant destruction, including debris flows, mudslides, and flash floods, because the denuded landscape cannot easily contain the drenching moisture.
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Future Peak Flow Along Rio Grande to Arrive Early Due to Climate Change
The Rio Grande flows nearly 2,000 miles from its headwaters in the San Juan Mountains in southwestern Colorado to the Gulf of Mexico. It is the primary source of water for more than 13 million agricultural, municipal and industrial water users in Colorado, New Mexico, Texas and northern Chihuahua, Mexico. A new study finds that peak runoff on the Rio Grande could arrive earlier in the season, negatively impacting a watershed where demand already exceeds supply.
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The Financial Risks of Water Resilience Planning in California
California’s Water Resilience Portfolio Initiative is a multi-billion dollar effort that encourages different water utilities and irrigation districts to work together to build shared infrastructure to reduce the effects of droughts, but a number of questions remain regarding how best to structure these agreements.
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Redefining the Longest Drought
Maps of the American West have featured ever darker shades of red over the past two decades. In some areas, conditions have blown past severe and extreme drought into exceptional drought. But rather than add more superlatives to the descriptions, one group of scientists believes it’s time to reconsider the very definition of drought.
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Food Security During a Nuclear Winter
A nuclear war would cause global blockage of the sun for several years due to injections of black carbon soot into the upper atmosphere, covering most of the planet with black clouds. This could result in less than 40 percent of normal light levels near the equator and less than 5 percent normal light levels near the poles. Research focuses on how meeting food security and nutrition in post-catastrophe conditions, which could last 15 years in some wet tropical forests.
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