Mega-drought in this major food growing region should be a wake up call to everyone, most especially misguided political leaders all too quick to accept campaign contributions from powerful forces committed to the unsustainable status quo.
This valuable article reports on new studies which indicate we are on track for jaw-dropping drought extremes. Jim
“The new study from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) concludes that ‘The weather patterns that typically bring moisture to the southwestern United States are becoming more rare, an indication that the region is sliding into the drier climate state predicted by global models’…
“… the coming multidecadal megadroughts will be much worse than the Dust Bowl of the 1930s — ‘worse than anything seen during the last 2000 years,’ as explained in a major 2014 study, ‘Assessing the risk of persistent drought using climate model simulations and paleoclimate data.’ They will be the kind of megadroughts that in the past destroyed entire civilizations…
“Bottom line: The U.S. Southwest isn’t passively drifting into a drier state — humans are actively pushing it into a drier state.”
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/02/08/3746706/southwest-enters-drier-climate-state/
