Thursday, April 05, 2007

Southwestern U.S. Is Becoming A Permanent Dust Bowl

Scientists are now reporting, after comprehensive research on the trends, that "the severe seven-year drought in the Southwestern United States is just the beginning of a new and even drier climate for the region due to climate change," according to IPS.

Read the full story on the coming permanent "dust bowl" in the U.S. Southwest here

The "dust bowl" conditions of the 1930's have returned, with a vengeance, and it looks, according to Ming Fang Ting, a senior research scientist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, like the current drought in the U.S. Southwest is not due to natural variability in climactic conditions. Her research was publish Thursday in Science, just the day before another key report by the Inter-Governmental Panel of climate Change is due to be released.

Using 19 computer climate models, researchers have determined that the drought in the U.S. Southwest and parts of Northern Mexico have been caused by changes in sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean. Apparently, the models have indicated that global climate change will dramatically increase the size of the sub-tropical dry zone around the planet. These dry zones will be far worse than anything seen in modern years and any time since medieval times. Because many people live in these regions, the impact looks to be very dramatic.

States affected in the U.S. would be Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah, among the fastest growing states in the U.S. This could have major impacts on demographics and population movements. Energy and water costs alone could ultimately slow population growth in these regions, but for now, population trends are likely not to change.

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