Due to global warming, massive fires covering half a million acres are burning in the eastern part of the Australian state of Victoria. In a desperate attempt to prevent them from combining into a superfire that would rank as one of the largest conflagrations in modern history, the Australian army has been mobilized to support firefighters.
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Global warming brings flooding?and droughts. It all depends on where you live. The Western U.S. and the West Coast will continue to have droughts, due to lack of snow melt and a drop in rainfall. Meanwhile, massive flooding is predicted for the U.K. And now we know that the ocean rises higher on the coasts than it does in the “middle,” making things even worse.
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Using computer modeling, NASA has determined that the devastating Dust Bowl in the American Southwest during the 1930s, which helped to set off the Great Depression, was caused by some of the same forces that are driving global warming today.
NASA’s computer model shows that a combination of colder-than-normal water in the tropical Pacific and warmer tropical Atlantic temperatures combined to create the drought conditions. This means that, despite improved farming techniques, it could happen again. NASA’s Siegfried Schubert says, “We know the computer matches well with what’s gone on the past few decades, but we want to test it against other well-documented events from the past, like the Dust Bowl drought, to confirm it against real-world events.”
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There are ancient trees submerged beneath Lake Tahoe, meaning the region was once much drier than it is now. Those trees are remnants of epic droughts over the centuries that lasted so long, they caused Lake Tahoe and other western lakes to drop 20 feet or more, allowing forests to grow where there is now water. And they could come again. Despite recent heavy rain and snow, should the area start planning for another monster drought?
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