Archives
7:59:00 AM EDT
Drying Up: Droughts and Disappearing Ponds, Lakes
Drought Is Worldwide Problem: Here's a quick post about the bevy of recent stories about droughts and disappearing bodies of water.
First there was the lake that disappeared in Chile. Then Los Angeles recorded its driest year on record -- only 3.21 inches of rain -- reminding us that the city is located in a desert.
Today there is a story about how northern ponds in Canada are drying up due to global warming. A quick Google search for "drought" brings up stories about lack of water in Australia, China, Africa and North Carolina.
A check of NASA's Earth Observatory site reveals an image of drought in the Southeastern United States, plus a heat wave in Pakistan. Plus the dog days of summer begin today in the Northern Hemisphere.
Climate scientists predict more droughts like these in the coming years. Can we adapt to a drier world -- or prevent some of the warming that causes the droughts? Post your comments here.
Written by downtoearthblog Blog about this entry |
Add to del.icio.us | 
digg this
-
Feel free to visit Texas, you morons! Lakes in the Dallas/Fort Worth area are 10 to 17 feet above normal following last years drought. Gee, guess it all kinda evens out huh? And don't fret about L.A. soon we'll be reading about floods and mudslides, happens all the time...I endured 20 years out there I saw it all.
-
Thanks for the note about Lake Chad. Yes, I did not know about that one; read more about the shrinking lake here, http://earthshots.usgs.gov/La
keChad/LakeChad. Also, I noticed today that scientists have solved the puzzle of Chile's disappearing lake, http://news.aol.com/story/_a/ scientists-solve-puzzle-of-chi les/n20070703165209990012?ecid =RSS0001. Apparently glacial melt -- hastened by global warming -- caused a crack in the ice wall through which the water drained.
I also remembered that in May, Lake Okeechobee in Florida tied its record-low level -- so low that the exposed lake bed caught fire. See the story, http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=3226097
-Dan -
For many millenia global warming cycles have come and gone. The Gulf Stream is more than half stopped now at the Grand Banks and in a 2, 3 or less years we will experience another Cold Cycle. There are`signs. As the Norse came to Lance Aux Meadow at the end of a Global warmth Cycle, thedy had to leave when abruptly the Cold (LIA) Cycle took over. We are in for erratic rains for Cold does not evaporate water and Rain patterns will be sparse, There will be droughts and famines and the lack of nourishment will cause illness. The last LIA, with its `crop failures caused over half the population of Great Britain, for example, twice, to less than half the population along with the Bubonic plagues. Migrations in history were caused by climate cycles. That is now happening. Our East coast will suffer great cold, much more so than our West-Coast. Needed are cisterns and Greenhouses like the last time. Ask the Cajuns!, whose Nation was founded as they fed Europe and Asia Minor (Before Columbus) with the Merue fish of the North Atlantic. ( But are the oceans sufficiently stocked now?) Nature is about to balance the earth, once more. More population on the same worn out dirt cannot be sustained without reckoning which is`arriving
Richard Fusilier -
Great Story, I find it scary that Lakes are drying up you forgot about Lake Chad in Africa.
I think it is time that we as people start taking better care of our earth or without fresh water we will never survive.
7/8/07 9:56 AM