Arctic melting could worsen future California droughts

Melting ice in the Arctic might seem a world away from California’s farms and aquifers. But droughts in the state could get worse as the Arctic melts.

Extent of Arctic sea ice in September 2016 versus the
1981-2010 average minimum extent (gold line). 

Summers in the Arctic Ocean are expected to be ice-free within a few decades. When that happens, the precipitation California receives could decrease as much as 15 percent.

Cvijanovic: “We see quite clearly sea ice shaping how much rainfall California receives.”

Read the Yale Climate Connections story by Diana Madson - “Arctic melting could worsen future California droughts.”

Ancient water being depleted quickly, climate change slowing recharge

A

n alarming satellite-based analysis from NASA finds that the world is depleting groundwater — the water stored underground in soil and aquifers — at an unprecedented rate.

A new Nature Climate Change piece, “The global groundwater crisis,” by James Famiglietti, a leading hydrologist at the NASA Jet PropulsionLaboratory, warns that “most of the major aquifers in the world’s arid and semi-arid zones, that is, in the dry parts of the world that rely most heavily on groundwater, are experiencing rapid rates of groundwater depletion.”

The groundwater at some of the world’s largest aquifers — in the U.S. High Plains, California’s Central Valley, China, India, and elsewhere — is being pumped out “at far greater rates than it can be naturally replenished.”

Read the ClimateProgress story - “NASA Bombshell: Global Groundwater Crisis Threatens Our Food Supplies And Our Security.”

(The world’s “ancient water” – our aquifers – that took centuries to fill, are being depleted in just decades and everywhere they are dropping by metres)

Gasland Part II emphasises the dangers of fracking

The man behind "Gasland",
 Josh Fox.

Australians are being introduced to “fracking” and told by its advocates that it is the solution to the nation’s energy troubles.

The natural gas industry paints a wonderful and shiny picture of its process of hydraulic fracturing of rocks to access the natural gas locked within, but says nothing about the almost certain pollution of aquifers that sustain the lives of many.

“Gasland” first alerted many to the associated dangers of fracking and now the director and fellow behind that original movie, Josh Fox, has continued his investigations now releasing “Gasland Part II”.

In the Mother Jones story – “Gasland Part II”: The Fracking Empire Strikes Back, Fox talks about his new movie and comments on President Obama’s approach to dealing with climate change.