If you think that California is dry now, wait until mid-century – ‘We haven’t seen anything like this since at least the 1400s’

By Eric Holthaus12 February 2015 (Slate) – When it comes to drought in the West, we ain’t seen nothin’ yet. That’s the conclusion from a new study that links an increasing risk of decades-long drought episodes in the western United States to human-induced climate change. The study predicts drought severity outside the bounds of what’s […]

Global warming contributed to Syria’s 2011 uprising, scientists claim – Severe drought ‘more than twice as likely as a consequence of human interference in the climate system’

By Ian Sample2 March 2015 (The Guardian) – The prolonged and devastating drought that sparked the mass migration of rural workers into Syrian cities before the 2011 uprising was probably made worse by greenhouse gas emissions, US scientists say. The study is one of the first to implicate global warming from human activities as one […]

Warmer, drier climate altering California forests statewide

By Robert Sanders20 January 2015 BERKELEY – Historical California vegetation data that more than once dodged the dumpster have now proved their true value, documenting that a changing forest structure seen in the Sierra Nevada has actually happened statewide over the past 90 years. A team of scientists from the University of California, Berkeley, UC […]

Long dry spell doomed Mexican city 1,000 years ago

By Robert Sanders27 January 2015 BERKELEY (UC Berkeley) – Archaeologists continue to debate the reasons for the collapse of many Central American cities and states, from Teotihuacan in Mexico to the Yucatan Maya, and climate change is considered one of the major causes. UC Berkeley study sheds new light on this question, providing evidence that […]

Graph of the Day: Observed and projected snowfall decline in Australia, 1958-2090

27 January 2015 (CSIRO) – Snowfall in the Australian alps is projected to decrease, especially at low elevations. There is very high confidence that as warming progresses there will be a decrease in snowfall, an increase in snowmelt and thus reduced snow cover. These trends will be large compared to natural variability and most evident […]

Taps start to run dry in Brazil’s largest city – São Paulo devastated by its worst drought on record – ‘We’re witnessing an unprecedented water crisis in one of the world’s great industrial cities’

[This is an interesting situation: A technogenic climate catastrophe that isn’t caused by global warming, but instead by deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. –Des] By Zachary Davies Boren   23 February 2015 (The Independent) – As Brazil continues to battle a historic drought, millions of people in its largest city are about to run out of […]

Image of the Day: ‘Welcome to the Cantareira desert’

15 January 2015 (EPA) – A message in graffiti which reads ‘Welcome to the Cantareira desert’ is written on a car which was once submerged in water, at the Atibainha dam, part of the Cantareira System, which shows lowest levels of water, in Nazare Paulista city, 90km away from Sao Paulo, Brazil, 15 January 2015. […]

Brazil drought prompts drastic measures to save water – ‘São Paulo was known as the drizzle city. Now it’s kind of a desert.’

By Lourdes Garcia-Navarro10 February 2015 (NPR) – Last Sunday, hundreds of Paulistanos, as the residents of São Paulo are known, dressed up and danced on the streets at one of the dozens of block parties that happen in advance of the annual celebration known as Carnival. Except this year – among the pirates and Viking […]

Starved for energy, Pakistan braces for a water crisis – ‘In the next six to seven years, Pakistan can be a water-starved country’

By SALMAN MASOOD12 February 2015 ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (The New York Times) – Energy-starved Pakistanis, their economy battered by chronic fuel and electricity shortages, may soon have to contend with a new resource crisis: major water shortages, the Pakistani government warned this week. A combination of global climate change and local waste and mismanagement have led […]

5 reasons Peak Food is the world’s No. 1 ticking time bomb

By Paul B. Farrell7 February 2015 (Market Watch) – Global food poisoning? Yes, We’re maxing out. Forget Peak Oil. We’re maxing-out on Peak Food. Billions go hungry. We’re poisoning our future, That’s why Cargill, America’s largest private food company, is warning us: about water, seeds, fertilizers, diseases, pesticides, droughts. You name it. Everything impacts the […]

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