Across much of the United States, the flood risk is far greater than government estimates show, new calculations suggest, exposing millions of people to a hidden threat — and one that will only grow as climate change worsens.
Drought can mean restrictions for watering the lawn, crop losses for farmers and an increased risk of wildfires. But it can also hit you and your power company in the wallet.
California spent 376 weeks in a drought, from December of 2011 until March of 2019. That’s the longest duration of drought we’ve ever seen here in the Golden State. Now a study by Scripps Institution of Oceanography suggests wet and dry extremes in California are likely the result of severe storms called Atmospheric Rivers.
As a biologist and environmental advocate, even before the pandemic, I was scared by the headlines about our planet: A 75% decline in insect biomass with a 40% loss of insect species predicted; a United Nations warning of the imminent extinction of 1 million species worldwide; a 3 billion loss of birds in United States and Canada over the past half-century; the growth of dead zones on our coasts and the decline in the oxygen held by the world’s oceans. Climate change will only worsen these environmental problems.
California has been a global leader in heading off global warming, enacting laws to slash the state’s greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change by 40% by 2030 and 80% by 2050. To do so, local governments must draft formal Climate Action Plans that document how to meet their own mandates.
The ocean covers about 70% of Earth’s surface, regulates the climate and is home to countless species of fish, a major source of protein for more than one billion people. It is now under threat from climate change, overfishing and pollution.
In the arid West, scarce water supplies are growing scarcer. Climate change is shrinking snowpack in river basins throughout the region, leaving the future water supplies for cities, industries and farmers uncertain.
As California navigates a critically dry water year, many business-as-usual elements are getting a second look. One such transaction is a proposed water sale by the Merced Irrigation District.
The mercury could soar to 112 again Thursday in the San Diego County deserts, but cooler weather will arrive on Friday, according to the National Weather Service. The high pressure that has caused sweltering conditions since Tuesday will be replaced by a low-pressure system, which will also bring a slight chance of rain Friday night through Saturday morning everywhere except the deserts, forecasters said.
New research showing how global warming intensifies extreme rainfall at the regional level could help communities better prepare for storms that in the decades ahead threaten to swamp cities and farms.
The likelihood of intense storms is rising rapidly in North America, and the study, published Monday in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, projects big increases in such deluges.
“The longer you have the warming, the stronger the signal gets, and the more you can separate it from random natural variability,” said co-author Megan Kirchmeier-Young, a climate scientist with Environment Canada.
