Permanent drought predicted for Southwest

[Jcrowley]

Permanent drought predicted for Southwest
Study says global warming threatens to create a Dust Bowl-like period. Water politics could also get heated.
By Alan Zarembo and Bettina Boxall, Times Staff Writers
April 6, 2007

The driest periods of the last century — the Dust Bowl of the 1930s and the droughts of the 1950s — may become the norm in the Southwest United States within decades because of global warming, according to a study released Thursday.

The research suggests that the transformation may already be underway. Much of the region has been in a severe drought since 2000, which the study's analysis of computer climate models shows as the beginning of a long dry period.

The study, published online in the journal Science, predicted a permanent drought by 2050 throughout the Southwest — one of the fastest-growing regions in the nation.

The data tell "a story which is pretty darn scary and very strong," said Jonathan Overpeck, a climate researcher at the University of Arizona who was not involved in the study.

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-swdrought6apr06,0,7403662,full.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[iamjoy]

1. Get Rid of the Golf Courses

I just don't understand it. When areas are in drought and residential areas face water restrictions golf clubs can continue to water their lush green courses. Screw it. Let 'em use astroturf.

The article says Lake Mead may cease to be. I don't know about Lake Mead, but on a vacation out West last year I took a cruise on Lake Powell. We could all see the "high water" mark on the cliffs was far overhead. As the drought worsens and the Colorado river dries, there will be increasing pressure to release waters from the reservoirs that are Lakes Powell and Mead.

[Solo_in_MD]

3. Get rid of most of LA

LA rapes the surrounding areas up to several hundred miles away to steal their water, dump their trash, and accept the polutants from their power generation. Stop that, and LA prices will skyrocket for utilites and plument for housing. It will force some balance back into things in SoCal

[bluerum]

2. It is curious. A dry arid climate left unpopulated because no sensible

person would want to live where there is no water.

So, real estate investors buy the land for next to nothing then start touting the virtues of "dry heat" so they can the land for 1000% profits to rich dopes who then take over the town governments and force them to pipe in water from hundreds or thousands of miles away.

It is curious how money makes out brains stop working.