Category: Health – Happiness

Thanks in part to rising temperatures due to climate change, “extreme” or “exceptional” drought conditions are now occurring in 74 percent of the state of California, while 72 percent of the Western U.S. is classified as experiencing “severe” drought, according to data from the U.S. Drought Monitor.

With the risk of wildfires growing with every passing day in states like California, which receives only minimal precipitation during the summer months, temperatures last week continued to trend 3 to 6 degrees above normal, the Drought Monitor said on its website.

In May, California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a drought emergency in 41 of the state’s 58 counties, putting in place water conservation restrictions.

“We’re working with local officials and other partners to protect public health and safety and the environment, and call on all Californians to help meet this challenge by stepping up their efforts to save water,” Newsom said.

Back-to-back dry years in conjunction with above-average temperatures have exacerbated drought conditions across the American West, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said on its website. The extent of the drought is unprecedented in recorded history, with 100 percent of both California and Nevada now classified as experiencing “moderate to exceptional drought.”

“Snowpack since April 1 has rapidly decreased earlier than normal to near zero, with run-off going into parched soils,” the NOAA said. “Reservoir levels are low throughout the region.”

In fact, California’s reservoirs, more than 1,500 in all, now contain 50 percent less water than they normally do at this time of year, according to Jay Lund, co-director of the Center for Watershed Sciences at the University of California, Davis. With water levels falling precipitously, the dry, exposed shorelines and boat slips attest to the severity of mounting water shortages.

But water shortages are just one consequence of the ongoing drought. An even more palpable risk hanging over the region due to bone-dry conditions is that of wildfires.

According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire), climate change has helped extend the duration of so-called fire season in the state by 75 days.

“While wildfires are a natural part of California’s landscape, the fire season in California and across the West is starting earlier and ending later each year,” Cal Fire said on its website. Climate change is considered a key driver of this trend. “Warmer spring and summer temperatures, reduced snowpack and earlier spring snowmelt create longer and more intense dry seasons that increase moisture stress on vegetation and make forests more susceptible to severe wildfire.”

While the 2018 fire season in California remains the deadliest and most destructive on record, with 97 civilians and six firefighters killed and over 24,000 buildings destroyed, the trend line for the number of acres burned by wildfires in the state continues to rise.

“Since 2015, the term ‘unprecedented’ has been used year over year as conditions have worsened, and the operational reality of a changing climate sets in,” a Cal Fire report on the 2020 fire season stated. “In California, the 2020 Fire Siege claimed the lives of 28 civilians and three firefighters, destroyed 9,248 structures and consumed 4.2 million acres.”

In April, Newsom signed a $536 million wildfire package that will allow the state to implement wildfire-suppression efforts.

“This crucial funding will go toward efforts including fuel breaks, forest health projects and home hardening,” Newsom said when he signed the bill into law.

A month later, he signed a proclamation declaring May 2 to May 8 as “Wildfire Preparedness Week.”

“Hotter, drier conditions driven by climate change are contributing to unparalleled risk of catastrophic wildfire across landscapes,” the proclamation stated. “With continued dry conditions and ever-present climate change, California is facing another difficult and dangerous wildfire year.”

This morning, our series “Eye on Earth” looks at the punishing drought gripping much of the western U.S.

Scientists are calling it a “mega-drought” brought on by climate change.

The latest U.S. Drought Monitor Map shows large areas of the Southwest are “exceptionally dry,” the worst category.

It’s taking a dramatic toll on the Colorado River system that provides water to 40 million people in seven states — and may force the federal government to make a drastic and historic decision.

For more than eight decades, the iconic Hoover Dam has relied on water from Nevada’s Lake Mead to cover up its backside. But now, at age 85, it finds itself uncomfortably exposed. Much of the water the dam is supposed to be holding back is gone.

“This is like a different world,” said Pat Mulroy, the former head of the Southern Nevada Water Authority. She told CBS News senior national and environmental correspondent Ben Tracy that Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir, is on track to soon hit its lowest level ever recorded.

This part of the Colorado River system is a crucial water supply for Las Vegas, Phoenix and Southern California. It makes the vast agricultural land of the desert Southwest possible.

Mulroy said, “This landscape screams problems to me. I mean, just look at the bathtub rings. To me, that is an enormous wake up call.”

Lake Mead is at just 37% of its capacity.

It hasn’t been full since back in 2000, when the water came right up to the top of Hoover Dam:

This is what it looks like now:

Since 2000, Lake Mead has dropped 130 feet, about the height of a 13-story building. Islands in the lake that used to be completely submerged are now visible.

Back in 2014 Tracy had visited the dam, and asked Mulroy about water levels at Lake Mead, which she described as being at “a pretty critical point.”

Today, Tracy asked, “If you look at 30 feet lower now, what point are we at?”

“We’re at a tipping point,” said Mulroy. “It’s an existential issue for Arizona, for California, for Nevada. It is just that simple.”

For the first time ever, the federal government is expected to declare a water shortage on the lower Colorado River later this summer. That will force automatic cuts to the water supply for Nevada and Arizona starting in 2022. Homeowners have higher priority and, at first, won’t feel the pain as badly as farmers.

Dan Thelander is a second-generation family farmer in Arizona’s Pinal County. The water to grow his corn and alfalfa fields comes from Lake Mead. “If we don’t have irrigation water, we can’t farm,” he said. “So, next year we are going to get about 25% less water, means we’re going to have to fallow or not plant 25% of our land.”

In 2023 Thelander and other farmers in this part of Arizona are expected to lose nearly all of their water from Lake Mead, so they are rushing to dig wells to pump groundwater to try to save their farms.

“The future here is, honestly I hate to say it, pretty cloudy,” Thelander said.

Back at Hoover Dam, facility manager Mark Cook has his own concerns. Lake Mead has dropped so much that it has cut the dam’s hydropower output by nearly 25%.

Cook wanted to show Tracy the brand-new turbine blades they just installed, designed to keep power flowing efficiently at rapidly-dropping lake levels. At some point, the dam could stop producing electricity altogether.

“Our previous number [for cutoff] was at elevation 1,050, and now we’ve lowered that number to 950,” Cook said. “So, we bought ourselves 100 feet.”

Mulroy said a rapidly-retreating reservoir may be the new normal – and the millions of people who rely on this water supply will have to quickly learn to live with less of it. “We don’t change unless we absolutely have to,” she said. “Well, when you look out at this lake, I think that moment of ‘it’s absolutely necessary’ has arrived.”

See also:

Sir David Attenborough on climate change: “A crime has been committed” (“60 Minutes”)Climate tipping points may have been reached already, experts sayFor many climate change finally hits home (“Sunday Morning”)Western U.S. may be entering its most severe drought in modern history