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I found myself on the Treehugger.com website when I was researching reporter Olivia Rosane, the writer we’d quoted briefly in Part Three of this editorial series. Ms. Rosane lives in England; she has a BA in English and Creative Writing from Barnard College, and a Masters in Art and Politics from Goldsmiths, University of London. She is currently working towards a PhD in English Literature at the University of Cambridge. As a reporter for ‘Ecowatch’, she is often published on the World Economic Forum website. Here’s her quote again:
The Western U.S. is in the midst of its worst megadrought in 1,200 years, and the climate crisis has made the drought 42 percent more extreme than it would have been otherwise…
Intentionally or not, such language might be prone to spread fear and anxiety.
I’m not sure where Ms. Rosane may have found her information, nor am I sure what she means by the term “megadrought”, although I’ve seen that same term used by other reporters, usually in close proximity to terms like “climate crisis” and “climate change”.
I live in the American Southwest and have to confess, I’ve not personally witnessed anything that seems to justify the prefix “mega-“. The world is currently experiencing some horrible drought-related famines… such as the one in eastern Africa… but not here in southwest Colorado.
Here’s a map produced by the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS), illustrating serious drought conditions in the western U.S. in December 2020. The darkest red color indicates “Exceptional Drought”. The darkest blue color signifies “Exceptionally Wet”.
Clearly, December 2020 posed a challenge to anyone depending upon normal precipitation in the American Southwest. At the same time, it would appear that folks in Virginia and North Carolina may have been dealing with flooding.
For climate doomsayers, “climate change” can be blamed for flooding, as well as drought.
But I want to keep my focus on one central question. If the world is getting hotter… is it also becoming ‘drier’?
Here’s another NIDIS map, this time for June 2019. Only 3% of the nation was abnormally dry. 81% of the country was abnormally wet, including all of Utah and Arizona, most of California, and the western half of Colorado. Much of the region was not merely “abnormally wet” but “Extremely and Exceptionally Wet”.
How such conditions could exist in the midst of the “worst megadrought in 1,200 years”, I am at a loss to explain.
But here’s the interesting situation I promised to discuss at the conclusion of Part Three, yesterday. We’ve been talking about how ‘climate change’ has been blamed for recent periods of drought in the American Southwest — and the implication that ‘warmer temperatures’ naturally mean ‘drier conditions’.
Here’s the NIDIS chart showing abnormally dry conditions (in yellow and red tones) and abnormally wet conditions (green and blue tones) between 1895 and 2022. According to the American Museum of Natural History, the concentration of atmospheric CO2 was about 300 PPM in 1900. It’s now estimated at more than 400 PPM. Many scientists — perhaps most scientists — assume that this increase in CO2 is causing an increase in the Earth’s temperature. Certain scientists are blaming drought conditions in the American Southwest on this increase in temperature. So are certain reporters.
The assumption being, “warmer = drier”.
Looking at the NIDIS chart below, we would probably expect to see a noticeable change in precipitation, as the CO2 levels increased from 300 PPM in 1895, to more than 400 PPM in 2022. But what we see historically — at least, what this editor sees — is an increase in the “abnormally wet” months (greens and blues) and no noticeable increase in “abnormally dry” months (the yellows and reds).
Why would the U.S. be experiencing a wetter climate, nationally… as more and more CO2 gets released into the atmosphere worldwide?
Is it possible that “warmer = wetter”?
I’ve yet to come across any reports that attempt to address this question.
Yesterday, we shared an op-ed by Gary Wockner, praising the Colorado Water Conservation Board for taking the ‘demand management’ discussion off the table, and directing their water conservation efforts in a more reasonable direction. The op-ed begins with a quote from Daniel P. Beard, former U.S. Bureau of Reclamation commissioner.
“CWCB’s decision to stop a flawed demand management program is a welcome decision. It seems as if common sense has trumped wishful thinking…”
This doesn’t always happen. Common sense trumping wishful thinking, I mean.
Some people who are studying for their PhD in England may wish to insist that the Western U.S. is in the midst of the worst megadrought in 1,200 years, and that “the climate crisis” has made the drought “42 percent more extreme than it would have been otherwise…”
This type of news reporting might, however, be mainly fear-mongering… in an attempt to promote someone’s climate agenda.
Which is not to suggest that drought is harmless. We are currently hearing about a severe drought in eastern Africa — Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya and southern Sudan.
From an ABC News article by reporter Edith Lederer:
Drought in the Horn of Africa has killed more than 1.5 million livestock and drastically cut cereal production, “and we are most definitely now sitting on the brink of catastrophe,” a senior official for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said Monday.
Rein Paulsen, FAO’s director of emergencies and resilience who returned from the region Friday, said a “very small window” exists for taking urgent action, and a key is whether the region’s long rains between March and May are good — and whether the agency gets the $130 million it needs until June…
…In agricultural areas in marginal coastal zones in southeastern parts of Kenya, “we’re looking at crop production estimated to be 70% below average,” he said…
One thing the ABC News article didn’t mention was deadly flooding in 2020, in eastern Africa, as the result of too much precipitation. Nor did the reporter mention a two-year-long plague of Desert Locusts — swarms of up to 80 million crop-eating insects per square kilometer — which has contributed to the famine.
Droughts and famines have occurred in Ethiopia about every 14 years, on average, for as long as anyone can remember. Has ‘climate change’ made them worse?