A few weeks ago, I mused that the American Southwest may be on borrowed time. Forget that. The Southwest is toast. A new paper in Nature spells doom. From the abstract: The potential for increased drought frequency and severity linked to anthropogenic climate change in the semi-arid regions of the southwestern United States is a…Continue Reading…
Drought, like global warming, is a slow motion event that humans can’t get seem to get ahead of. Or properly grasp. For a good historical case study examining how the Maya, the Vikings, and the U.S. (in the lead-up to the Dust Bowl) each responded to drought, see this paper by Ben Orlove, who observes:…Continue Reading…
This article by Roger Webster, a South African historian, is intriguing on several levels. I was drawn in by this opening: One of the many aspects of history and archaeology that fascinates me is that, in many respects, archaeology becomes the verifier, or the destroyer, of history. Be sure to read it all the way…Continue Reading…
The indispensable Jeffrey Gettleman has a heart-wrenching dispatch on Dot Earth: We walked through a camp for displaced people, absorbing the human wreckage all around us. There were stick-skinny children with horrible, rattling coughs that sounded like an old Chevy Nova trying to start up on a cold morning. Emaciated goats snacked on piles of…Continue Reading…
The tragedy of Kenya’s latest drought is captured in all its complexity by Jeffrey Gettleman. His deeply contextual story won’t lend itself to climate advocates who’d probably like nothing better than to tag it as another cautionary tale of global warming. As Gettleman explains, The aid community here has been predicting a disaster for months,…Continue Reading…
Turkey is playing a high-stakes game with Iraq, using water to advance its national security interests. Will Rogers at the Natural Security blog has nicely sized up this fascinating new wrinkle–yet another example of the emerging nexus between between international relations and environmental resources: If Turkey is successful in getting Iraq to crack down on…Continue Reading…
The dominant framing of the water/drought issue in California is quite similar to that of the emerging climate change/developing world meme. In California, drought is simplistically blamed for the state’s water woes and economic plight of farmers. Similarly, venerable authorities claim that climate change is responsible for 300,000 annual deaths and much misery in developing…Continue Reading…
This could get ugly. (Hat Tip: John Fleck.)
Would climate change have greater urgency in the public mind if we started talking more about adaptation? I realize many climate advocates fear that such a discussion is a slippery slope to non-action. But it needn’t be. In fact, I believe that more stories and chatter about the growing humanitarian concerns of near-term climate change…Continue Reading…
There’s a mind-bending exchange between climate scientists and policy experts on Dot Earth that many should find fascinating. Or not.