Megadrought coming to US west?
And if it continues to be this dry, it could become the most severe megadrought on this entire chart.
“The only reason this drought is lagging behind that 1500s drought is because it’s so young,” Williams said.
Via The Guardian comes this article on the current heatwave in the US…personally I have stories ranging from ducks not reproducing because of the heat and drought in Montana to severe water use restrictions in San Jose…
What tree rings reveal about America’s megadrought
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2021/jun/17/tree-rings-america-megadrought-visual
Also see this NYT link:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/06/11/climate/california-western-drought-map.html
Not much left to do now but blame the cows, rearrange the deck chairs, and shut our eyes while we wait for the end :<)
My wife and I always wanted to retire in AZ. The main reason was because we wanted to play golf 3 or 4 times a week throughout the year. My health issues have stopped me from playing. Nothing serious, just a physical inability to play a decent game.
We’re still in Chicago for another year, but the drought, the temps (over 115 five straight days in June), combined with the housing market has changed our minds. So last Monday we put out Phoenix house up for sale. By 9 am we had six offers. Took an offer at 6 pm.
170% more than we paid in 2012. Cash. No appraisal. No home inspection. As is.
Insane out there.
My ranch (yes, a multiple section ranch with a federal grazing lease, not a 5 or 10 ac parcel) was just burned by the Telegraph fire. It now looks like a moonscape. There were once beautiful stands of ponderosa pine, mature juniper, and old growth oaks that are gone. Gone forever.
My dad purchased that property in ’77 and when we first went out there the stream would trickle year round and there were troops of coati that used the sycamores as an arboreal highway. Paradise.
And then the neighbors all subdivided their property, plugged in wells, and the water table dropped. The tree frogs vanished. I watched for years as money-hungry outsiders from Illinois and Ohio (it seems everyone in PHX is from Chicagoland) set up a regime to have no taxes and lax land regulation. And the range got eaten by 10 acre ranchettes with an ag deferment (as a work-around to pay super low property taxes on the retirement home). And a bunch of made men and banks hoovered up a ton of wealth. The current yahoos in the state house (most born in OH and IL) want to continue and think that it can continue the land-swindle forever, just air-condition everything and continue the feedback loop.
So, this is climate change on the ground on the scale of “me”. The mass migration to the southwest changed everything about the environment and virtually none wants to admit any culpability. I watched as the land was changed by home development and stressed water resources, the springs dry out, and the state went to crazy-town to the right of John Birch. And when I am talking to the neighbors, they are just looking for someone else to blame while their property in the valley appreciates. Powerlessness.
Since I have dead ancestors and property here to look after I am stuck. I have panic attacks because I know I will eventually lose everything become a climate refugee because my assets are becoming liabilities due to climate change.
My area was a paradise that will never recover. But, megadrought or not, the damage was done 35 years ago by the Lincoln Savings/Fife Symington model of business. The Phoenicians will rise from the ashes to find blame and target their wrath, most likely punish the most vulnerable and cannibalize the last of the land resources.
Nature bats last.
Not:
Interesting news on the state of nature and water in southwest AZ. Water is an issue in much of the country unless you are near the great lakes. What arew they doing to conserve near you. They can not keep going balls-out. Someone has to have a few plans.
@NOT,
Back East in Virginia we did not need outsiders’ help to lay waste to the Chesapeake Bay, but still got a fair share from northern states anyway. That was overharvesting, particularly shellfish – both mollusks and crustaceans, but also menhaden – the fish at the bottom of the food chain for the game fish that are so prized both for sport and food. Fish oil, fertilizer, and animal food is made from the menhaden.
Here climate change so far is mostly just more extreme weather, hot and cold, and more and more severe storms and hurricanes and even some tornadoes, rarely seen near here until the last three decades. Any realistic assessment indicates that we have not seen anything yet from climate change compared to what will happen before the end of this century. The oceans are dying from both overharvesting and persistent warming. What we are likely to see on land will make the whales and dolphins seem like the lucky ones.
If there is a sliver lining it is that although mankind is unable to control human population growth, then nature has no such inhibitions. Since this is an economics site and there are so many pop-up ads here on finance and investing, then it stands to reason that visitors here might want information on future stock picks for front-running the market. So, to that end I suggest investing in Caterpillar and Komatsu, since their equipment will be in high demand as the need for mass graves increases by mid-century :<) I acquired my appetite for gallows humor in Phu Bai, RSVN, near Huế.