Gillis, J. (2015, August 20). Climate Change Intensifies California Drought, Scientists Say. Retrieved August 20, 2015, from http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/21/science/climate-change-intensifies-california-drought-scientists-say.html?_r=0
California Governor Brown has been imposing restrictions on the severe drought that has been building for the past three years, as he has been given research showing that, although droughts are common in California, climate change has increased the effects of the drought by 8-20%. The article states that scientists can give concrete examples to how the drought is worse due to climate change, as the warmer air is able to hold over 8.5 trillion more gallons than it was in 1895, when the temperature was 2° cooler. With similar rates of increase of greenhouse gas emissions, it is reasonable to assume that California will get 5-6° warmer in the next hundred years, “turn[ing] even modest water deficits into record-shattering droughts”
This article shows that climate change is related to environmental science because the increase in temperature creates a much dryer California. The main issue about the drought and its relation to climate change is that future water shortages will be seriously aggravated by the higher capacity of the air to hold air. I think that we need to think both short term and long term by conserving water and finding ways to increase the positive effects of the El Niño.
I am not surprised that climate change contributes to our droughts. I think it’s shocking that not only will our temperature increase but also the rate of temperature increase is going up in the next hundred years. I wonder if there is any hope for us to decrease the number of degrees our temperature is predicted to rise in the next hundred years.
This is a pretty scary article! I had no idea how big a difference a few degrees in air temperature made when it comes to holding water. Hopefully we will find a way to at least slow the heating of our planet so that (best worst case scenario) we are able to figure out how to handle a world with less and less water. Best case scenario would of course be figuring out a way to cool our climate back down– is this possible? How?