Within this century, global warming will bring about disruptive, decades-long droughts in the U.S. southwest and Great Plains, exceeding even the driest periods of the last millennium, according to new research released this month.
The study, “Unprecedented 21st-Century Drought Risk in the American Southwest and Central Plains,” was published in the inaugural edition of the journal Science Advances, put out by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. It supports previous predictions, but suggests that future droughts could be even worse than scientists have said in the past.
“The 21st-century projections make the [previous] mega-droughts seem like quaint walks through the garden of Eden.”
—Jason Smerdon, Columbia University
In fact, it projects that some time between 2050 and 2100, extended drought conditions across the U.S. will become more severe than the mega-droughts of the 12th and 13th centuries. Such arid conditions would affect millions of people, placing stress on agricultural crops and increasing the likelihood and frequency of water shortages in urban areas.
“The coming drought age—caused by higher temperatures under climate change—will make it nearly impossible to carry on with current life-as-normal conditions across a vast swath of the country,” the Guardian warned.
Jason Smerdon, study co-author and climate scientist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, told the newspaper: “The 21st-century projections make the [previous] mega-droughts seem like quaint walks through the garden of Eden.”
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT