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Cause And Effect Of California Drought

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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

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