California might be shrinking in mass due to climate change-induced drought

Opmmur

Time Travel Professor
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California might be shrinking in mass due to climate change-induced drought

By Jim Algar, Tech Times | October 3, 2:48 PM

satellite-images-of-drought.jpg


California may be losing mass as it dries out in ongoing drought. Satellite images give dramatic evidence of water loss, as scientists put blame on human-caused climate change.
(Photo : NASA)

California' ongoing drought may be causing the state the shrink -- or at least lose mass -- as it dries out and water storage levels drop, new satellite images indicate.

NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites have provided colorful but disturbing images of just how severe the declines in water storage have been over the last decade or so.

Different colors in the GRACE satellite images indicate changes in mass linked to variations in water amount below or on the surface of California, scientists say.

In the worst-hit central area of the state, where heavy groundwater pumping has been necessary to support agricultural activities, the Central Valley's river basins lost a combined 4 trillion gallons of water annually between 2011 and 2014, NASA reported.

In the satellite images, colors assigned to the Central Valley between 2002 and 2014 changed from green to orange to an alarming red, indicating a severe reduction in mass due to declining water storage.

More than 95 percent of California is under severe or exceptional drought, with 58 percent under the highest "exceptional" drought level as defined by the U.S. Drought Monitor.

The federal government has declared all of California's 58 counties to be natural disaster areas.

Gov. Jerry Brown declared a drought emergency earlier this year, and water agencies have been considering a daily water allocation amount for each California household.

"The drought crippling California is by some measures the worst in the state's history," the National Science Foundation has said.

As the state suffers, a Stanford University study funded by the NSF has confirmed that growing evidence supports the contention that "atmospheric conditions associated with the unprecedented drought in California are very likely linked to human-caused climate change."

The researches said a combination of computer models and statistical analysis shows a long-lasting region of high atmospheric pressure over the Pacific Ocean, which has diverted storms that traditionally bring California much of its water away from the state, was much more likely to exist in the current modern level of greenhouse gas emissions.

"Our research finds that extreme atmospheric high pressure in this region--which is strongly linked to unusually low precipitation in California--is much more likely to occur today than prior to the emission of greenhouse gases that began during the Industrial Revolution in the 1800s," says Stanford climate scientist Noah Diffenbaugh.

Climate change is being blamed for decreased precipitation in many areas of the world, including the Mediterranean and much of the U.S. southwest, the researchers note in their study published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.
 

Harte

Senior Member
Messages
4,562
Load of old crap - to quote Ringo Starr.
Note:
BEGINNING about 1,100 years ago, what is now California baked in two droughts, the first lasting 220 years and the second 140 years. Each was much more intense than the mere six-year dry spells that afflict modern California from time to time, new studies of past climates show. The findings suggest, in fact, that relatively wet periods like the 20th century have been the exception rather than the rule in California for at least the last 3,500 years, and that mega-droughts are likely to recur.
Source.

Yep, that's from the New York Times, believe it or not. But note the date - 1994.

They wouldn't dream orf printing any facts like that today in "the nation's newspaper of record."

Used to be "all the news that's fit to print." Now it's "all the news that fits (our worldview) we print."

Harte
 

IroncladMarshmallow

Active Member
Messages
578
It's not climate change. It's called humans made of 75% water flooding into California nonstop. There really is a limit to how many people this world can sustain.
 


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