Abstract: Residents in the state of California have been facing severe droughts caused from primarily human emissions. Research from Noah Diffenbaugh, an associate professor at Stanford University, has many Journals and Articles such as “Atmospheric Conditions Associated with the 2013-14 California Drought Are ‘Very Likely’ Linked to Human-caused Climate Change” and Causes of California’s Drought Linked to Climate Change, Stanford Scientists Say both have studies that prove California’s drought is linked to human-caused climate change . Other Articles such as Justin Gillis from the New York Times, California Drought Has Been Made Worse by Global Warming, Scientists Say also mentions that human emissions have intensified California’s drought. …show more content…
The Ridiculously resilient ridge prevented winter storms from reaching California in its rainy seasons during 2013 and 2014. Blocking Ridges are known areas of High Atmospheric pressure. These areas of high pressure have been over the Northeast Pacific for many months and have disturbed regular wind patterns keeping California dry. Triple R changed the currents, also known as the jet stream, causing storms from the Pacific to pass California, Washington, and Oregon. The snow that was supposed to fall on the West Coast was sent north to Alaska and as far as the Arctic circle. ”. Though pressure at times has weakened allowing some storms to provide precipitation to California. A recent study also shows that the Triple R was three times more likely to occur in today’s climate compared to that before the Industrial Revolution. Large amounts of greenhouse gasses are to blame. Assoc. Prof. Environmental Earth System Science, Noah Diffenbaugh’s, climate research group article mentions that “The probability of extremely high atmospheric pressure associated with ridging over the North Pacific Ocean—which is linked to decreased precipitation in California—has “very likely” increased by a factor of at least three due to human activities” (Swain, 2014, 2). . Heat-trapping greenhouse gasses have significantly increased …show more content…
In 1994, the state produced more than 458 million tons of CO2 equivalents.” (Wilkinson and Rounds, 1998, 35) Emissions are expected to increase in California, as well as other states. By 2010, it was predicted by the California Energy Commission to increase 15 percent. According to the document about 85 percent would be from fossil fuels. In 2012 according to California’s Environmental protection agency air resources board “Total California greenhouse gas emissions were 459 million metric tons (or tonnes) of carbon dioxide equivalent (MMTCO2e). This represents a 1.7 percent increase in total GHG emissions from 2011 and the first emissions increase since 2007.” (California Air Resources Board, 2014, i) The percentage of greenhouse emissions has increased tremendously since
The drought is not a result of Global warming because the California drought is caused by a lack of Pacific subtropical storms and the Nina ocean current pattern. However, Global warming does make California’s drought more severe in effect due to the rise of temperature which only contributes to hotter days resulting in more inland water evaporating into the atmosphere. As global warming persist and increases California’s current or future droughts will only become more severe. The implications Globe warming causes in just one state’s drought should be a realization of what global warming can cause in areas of drought at a larger
I.) Water and Drought in California: Facts and data show that the weather we are experiencing here in California is that there is a difference between La Niña that brings the ocean temperature down and making them cooler and El Niño brings much warmer ocean temperatures. Currently california is experiencing a weakened La Niña. With a 55% chance of this weather continuing for the next 3 months. La Niña affect patterns of rainfall, atmospheric pressure, and global atmospheric circulation. Even though California is in a severe drought, with coordination, modernization, and compromise, California should be able to provide enough water for a growing population and growing economy.
California state and some other west regions face the problem of severe drought and the researchers show several reasons to explain this phenomena. According to research in weather data for the past century, in terms of overall precipitation and spring snowpack, the past three years are not record-breakers and paleoclimate studies show that the current drought is not exceptional given the natural variations in precipitation of the past seven centuries. It cannot thoroughly attribute drought to global warming. California may be faced a future of “perfect drought” because of following reasons. Rising heat increases the evaporation, continuing depletion of ground water, and growing water shortages on the Colorado River [1]. It is predictable
The California Drought is one of the most catastrophic weather and climate related events in recent history. It has singlehandedly altered the geographic landscape of the state and brought down entire industries to a grinding halt. Not since global warming became a prominent fixture in the national spotlight has a climate issue so deeply challenged Californians to reconsider their lifestyles according to their climate conditions. This essay will examine the origins of climate change and the California Drought, how the two are related, the current state of California as a result of the drought, and the future outlook of California.
Most of us consider drought as a period of dry and hot weather with too little or no rain, and while any or all of these conditions might be existent during drought, the definition of drought is more complex and subtle. According to the United States Geological Survey, California Water Science Center (as cited in Congressional Digest, 2015, p. 2):
After more than five years of drought in California, we are just now beginning to see an above-average precipitation,and this is leaving many to ask, "is the drought over?" This last drought was one of the worsts droughts California has experienced in history and it left many panicked and trying to come up with solutions. “Governor Jerry Brown even made one of the first cutback to farmers ' water rights since 1977, and ordered cities and towns to cut water use by as much as 36 percent ” (Zamora,et al..) Overall California has 39 million residents and on top of that California also grows an unbelievable amount of
Because most greenhouse gases would remain in the atmosphere for a long period of time, the temperature of the earth will be continuously rising. If global heat-trapping emissions proceed at a medium to high rate, temperatures in California are expected to rise 4.7 to 10.5°F by the end of the century1. With the rise of temperature, the climate of California would also be changed. California has large area of forest and farmland, hundreds of miles of coastline, large amount of snowpack, and other natural wonders. And these special treasures of nature are especially at risk2. So it is very necessary to understand the strategies of California to combat climate change.
Due to the lack of rain in the past few years, and particularly in the last few months, California faces severe drought. This is the worst drought in more than one hundred years. The impact of California drought affects community, agriculture, organic ranchers, and dairy farmers. Because of these facts, the United States must rethink the way it uses water. Californians alone are asked to reduce their water usage by twenty percent to prevent water waste.
Water is the most important resource, controlling all aspects of life. The effect on climate change is changing California’s water quality and quantity. This creates
The state of California is getting worse instead of better. “Just over 95 percent of the state now faces severe drought conditions and nearly 60 percent is in exceptional drought the highest of five rankings by the US drought monitor”(source 2).
California is currently experiencing the worst drought in history and its not only affecting California – its affecting everyone. The California drought has become a slow movie disaster. You don’t realize how bad it is, until it hits you hard.
As most of us know California for the past four years has been in a drought. As I read an article called “How Much Of California’s Drought Was Caused By Climate Change? Scientists Now Have The Answer.” written by Katie Valentine it said,”Over the last few years, as California’s historic, four-year drought has intensified, scientists have found clues linking the extreme weather event to human-caused climate change.”If we are the cause what can we do to help stop this? The reason I say this is because we have started to put restrictions on water
California has been in a drought for about 4 years now and it has been considered the most severe drought in the last 15 years. The California drought has been causing multiple ongoing problems for the last few years. The state of California has tried to take actions toward ending the drought, but the efforts put forth are clearly not enough to end this drought. The main focus in ending the drought has been water conservation, but many California resident are taking the seriousness of the drought too lightly. The drought has already caused several problems, for example water shortages, dying crops, and wildfires all across the state. If serious actions towards ending the drought are not taken soon, California will continue to surface or may get worse. There are a few ideas underway to try and end the drought in California such as, desalination, wastewater recycling, ground water digging, and the main focus water conservation. All of the solutions to ending the drought will cost a good amount of money, so the fact of the matter is which idea would be most efficient and less costly.
It seems as humans evolve and advance, we also use nature to our advantage, and do not use any of our new-found technology to find ways to replenish those supplies which we so willingly take. Today, California is a test of our capability to adapt to human caused climate change. California’s first efforts to adapt started with the Assembly Bill 32 (the 2006 Global Warming Solutions Act), which has goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. Then the state later drafted its first climate
Climate change has been linked to increased extreme weather events such as; Hurricanes, tornadoes, torrential rains, flooding, and drought. These are all very debilitating to the communities they ravage through. The impact of California’s drought on the economy has cost the state about 603 million, with 4,700 job losses and a 550 million bill directly dealing with drought related cost. Tornadoes and severe thunderstorms