“We won’t know for sure if it happens again until we get there,” says Fawcett. “But we are certainly increasing the possibility of crossing a critical threshold to severe and lasting drought conditions.”
Sudden shifts in carbon isotopes and lowered total organic carbon in the sediment record suggest that grasses and shrubs that depend mostly on summer rain died out during extended Pleistocene droughts. This is surprising, says Fawcett, because summer monsoon rainfall was thought to become more intense in a warmer climate. That summer rain was in fact strongly reduced, or had almost stopped, suggests that regional climate patterns must have shifted radically when Pleistocene temperatures crossed a threshold.
“The scary thing is that we seem to be very close to this point again,” he says.
…..during the 2000–2004 drought. We further document a pronounced drying of the terrestrial biosphere during this period, together with a reduction in river discharge and a loss of cropland productivity. We compare our findings with previous palaeoclimate reconstructions7 and show that the last drought of this magnitude occurred more than 800 years ago.
Fantastic storytelling. And I don’t mean this in the way that Anthony Watts would, either! [grin]
I was particularly struck by Jeff Masters comment that this year’s Midwest drought is just getting under way. The implications are profound. As I watched the development and conclusion of the 2011 Texas and Oklahoma drought I was struck by the fact that conditions didn’t really start to turn around in a big way until January, 2012. In other words, the worst of the 2011 drought ran for about 8 months total.
The significance is that if the normal seasonal low flow is made even more minimal by the drought, we could have the Mississippi at the lowest water in history within two months. This would bring river commerce to a complete halt and would impact not only river traffic but also water and sewerage systems along the entire lower Mississippi.
The Health Ranger aka Mike Adams is a very bad liar, when it comes to Global Warming Denial. Great someone is pointing this out, since he has a huge audience on his natural news homepage. I guess, just like Alex Jones is a Big Oil funded talking head, he is too.
awesome video. thanks.
Mega-drought threat to US Southwest.
http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110223/full/news.2011.120.html
“We won’t know for sure if it happens again until we get there,” says Fawcett. “But we are certainly increasing the possibility of crossing a critical threshold to severe and lasting drought conditions.”
Sudden shifts in carbon isotopes and lowered total organic carbon in the sediment record suggest that grasses and shrubs that depend mostly on summer rain died out during extended Pleistocene droughts. This is surprising, says Fawcett, because summer monsoon rainfall was thought to become more intense in a warmer climate. That summer rain was in fact strongly reduced, or had almost stopped, suggests that regional climate patterns must have shifted radically when Pleistocene temperatures crossed a threshold.
“The scary thing is that we seem to be very close to this point again,” he says.
Related to this is the recent Nature Geoscience yesterday…
http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/v5/n8/full/ngeo1529.html
…..during the 2000–2004 drought. We further document a pronounced drying of the terrestrial biosphere during this period, together with a reduction in river discharge and a loss of cropland productivity. We compare our findings with previous palaeoclimate reconstructions7 and show that the last drought of this magnitude occurred more than 800 years ago.
Russia: 15000 hectares of forest on fire (July 28, 2012)
The “new normal”?
Kudos Peter!
Fantastic storytelling. And I don’t mean this in the way that Anthony Watts would, either! [grin]
I was particularly struck by Jeff Masters comment that this year’s Midwest drought is just getting under way. The implications are profound. As I watched the development and conclusion of the 2011 Texas and Oklahoma drought I was struck by the fact that conditions didn’t really start to turn around in a big way until January, 2012. In other words, the worst of the 2011 drought ran for about 8 months total.
http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/archive.html
Another data point to consider is that the river flow in the Mississippi River normally reaches its lowest flows in September and October.
http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/eng/edhd/lat.gif
The significance is that if the normal seasonal low flow is made even more minimal by the drought, we could have the Mississippi at the lowest water in history within two months. This would bring river commerce to a complete halt and would impact not only river traffic but also water and sewerage systems along the entire lower Mississippi.
Reblogged this on Climate Force.
The Health Ranger aka Mike Adams is a very bad liar, when it comes to Global Warming Denial. Great someone is pointing this out, since he has a huge audience on his natural news homepage. I guess, just like Alex Jones is a Big Oil funded talking head, he is too.