Australia Faces Collapse As Climate Change Kicks In: Are The Southwest And California Next?

[Hissyspit]

http://www.alternet.org/water/124689/australia_faces_collapse_as_climate_change_kicks_in%3A_are_the_southwest_and_california_next

Australia Faces Collapse as Climate Change Kicks in: Are the Southwest and California Next?

By Joseph Romm, Climate Progress. Posted February 2, 2009.

Australia is the canary in the coal mine for climate-driven desertification.

Australia has been suffering its worst heatwave on record, the first time temperatures exceeded 110 F for 3 days running. It’s been so hot that on Thursday, the low at Melbourne airport was 87 F.

Australia is the canary in the coal mine for climate-driven desertification. The astonishing decade-long drought in southern Australia was declared ‘worst on record’ last year. My headline quote is from the UK’s Independent story, which notes:

Australia, the driest inhabited continent on earth, is regarded as highly vulnerable. A study by the country’s blue-chip Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation identified its ecosystems as "potentially the most fragile" on earth in the face of the threat.

Australia is but the first and most seriously impacted of the arid sub-tropical (and near-sub-tropical) climates that are facing horrific desertification from climate change. For instance, Lester Snow, Director of California’s Department of Water Resources said Friday

We may be at the start of the worst California drought in modern history.

Two years ago, Science (subs. req’d) published research that "predicted a permanent drought by 2050 throughout the Southwest" -- levels of aridity comparable to the 1930s Dust Bowl would stretch from Kansas to California. The UK’s Hadley Center warned in November 2006 that their research predicted multiple permanent Dust Bowls around the planet on our current emissions path:

Extreme drought is likely to increase from under 3% of the globe today to 30% by 2100 -- areas affected by severe drought could see a five-fold increase from 8% to 40%.

Extreme drought means desertification, especially if it lasts for hundreds of years, as the recent NOAA-led study found (see NOAA stunner: Climate change "largely irreversible for 1000 years," with permanent Dust Bowls in Southwest and around the globe). The regions that NOAA identifies as facing permanent Dust Bowls:

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[XemaSab]

1. Shasta County, California is at 45% of normal rainfall

We're right up at the headwaters of the Sacramento River.

And for those posting the inevitable "Californians r so dum LOL": You can suck on our nuts.

Oh wait, we aren't going to have any damn nuts. And guess what? You're not either.

Really hope you liked our walnuts, pecans, and almonds while they lasted. :banghead:

[aquart]

3. Not our fault you aren't getting rain.

I'm actually pretty unhappy about it.

[ProfessorGAC]

6. And The Midwest Is The Opposite

Snow and rain for the last 3 months have precip way above normal! And, it's been a record cold winter in Chicagolan.

Weird, isn't it?
GAC

[tom_paine]

2. Interesting. n/t

[Hekate]

4. KnR, Hissy. As a Californian I know we're in a drought already. Thanks for the article. nt

[JCMach1]

5. Arabia- Above average rainfall (near records) the last two years

Global Warming is a fickle mistress!

[glinda]

7. DUH! Ya think? There is money to be made and jobs in global warming.

[Hun Joro]

8. Here in southeast texas everything is brown, brown, brown.

Normally this time of year we are seeing the brilliant green of new winter grasses and clovers. I don't think I've ever seen so much brown.