drought
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Must-see photo essay about the drought
George Steinmetz' photo essay in Time about the drought in Texas, New Mexico, and Georgia is absolutely gasp-inducing. That's thanks to the beauty of the images, sure. But it's also the magnitude of the disaster (crops fail, waterways recede or disappear) and the shocking evidence of wastefulness (homeowners irrigate their lawns despite the record-setting drought; […]
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Rick Perry prays for an end to drought and EPA regulations
The rain prayers haven't worked yet -- maybe the Texas governor's prayers against the EPA won't, either.
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Texans drinking urine, consulting Bibles in face of ongoing climate apocalypse
Texas is now in the midst of its worst-ever one-year drought. Austin, Texas' capital, has received less than two inches of rain since October, a period that would normally see 18 inches. Here are just a few of the impacts of the state's ongoing drought, which is entirely consonant with the northward march of the world's subtropical deserts that will continue, unabated, as climate change intensifies:
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Why this drought will be way, way worse than the last one
A New York Times article about the current drought in the South compares it to a record-setting dry spell 60 years ago:
Climatologists say the great drought of 2011 is starting to look a lot like the one that hit the nation in the early to mid-1950s. That, too, dried a broad part of the southern tier of states into leather and remains a record breaker.
But this time, things are different in the drought belt. With states and towns short on cash and unemployment still high, the stress on the land and the people who rely on it for a living is being amplified by political and economic forces, state and local officials say. As a result, this drought is likely to have the cultural impact of the great 1930s drought, which hammered an already weakened nation.
But it's not just the economy that's worse now than it was in the 1950s. Water usage is also way, way up. This drought rivals the record-setting 1950s drought -- it's already breaking records in some states -- but it comes at a time when the population is double what it was in 1950, and total water use is more than twice as high.
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'It is hotter than balls,' says U.S. government
.bbpBox90778323399090177 {background:url(http://a0.twimg.com/images/themes/theme1/bg.png) #C0DEED;padding:20px;} p.bbpTweet{background:#fff;padding:10px 12px 10px 12px;margin:0;min-height:48px;color:#000;font-size:18px !important;line-height:22px;-moz-border-radius:5px;-webkit-border-radius:5px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata{display:block;width:100%;clear:both;margin-top:8px;padding-top:12px;height:40px;border-top:1px solid #fff;border-top:1px solid #e6e6e6} p.bbpTweet span.metadata span.author{line-height:19px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata span.author img{float:left;margin:0 7px 0 0px;width:38px;height:38px} p.bbpTweet a:hover{text-decoration:underline}p.bbpTweet span.timestamp{font-size:12px;display:block} 640 max heat records broken or tied this month http://t.co/6v837IF Even more for highest minimum http://t.co/kIaL5OBless than a minute ago via Tweet Button Favorite Retweet ReplyJustin Kenney JustinNOAA […]
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Critical List: Oil spills into Yellowstone River; Americans are driving less
42,000 gallons of Exxon oil spilled into the Yellowstone River in Montana over the weekend. Regulators had warned the company that the pipe wasn't safe.
The river's particularly high, which isn't helping clean-up.
Atmospheric pollution from China's coal use temporarily masked global warming: sulfur particulates reflected more light back into space, keeping the planet’s temperature from rising too fast. But over time the carbon dioxide released from the coal will push temperatures upwards. -
In the worst drought in Texas history, 13.5 billion gallons of water used for fracking
Texas is experiencing the driest eight-month period in its recorded history. But in 2010, natural gas companies used 13.5 billion gallons of fresh water for hydraulic fracturing, and that could more than double by 2020. Where's all this water coming from? Oh, it was just lying around, in these aquifers! You guys weren't using it to drink or irrigate or anything, right? Guys?
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'Under the weather' Inhofe skips climate denier conference
As a record drought roasts Oklahoma, "under the weather" climate denier Jim Inhofe bails out of Heartland Institute's Conference on Climate Change.