It seems that climate change may be partly responsible for California’s crippling drought. A new study, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters , found that global warming, caused by human emissions, has intensified the drought during the period between 2012 and 2014 by 8 to 27 percent. The study also suggests an increased likelihood of future droughts due to climate change, posing a serious threat to California’s farming and agricultural industries.
A NATURAL DISASTER, MADE WORSE BY HUMANS
Researchers involved in the study are careful to point out that even if global warming didn’t exist, there would still be a drought in California. In an interview with The New York Times , A. Park Williams, a climate scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University said “This would be a drought no matter what… But it’s definitely made worse by global warming.”
DROUGHTS WILL BE MORE FREQUENT, AND SEVERE
Although natural weather processes are mainly responsible for the drought, the study confirms that global warming is largely responsible for their acute severity. Scientists are also claiming that the likelihood of these types of extreme droughts occurring have nearly doubled in the past 100 years, which they also link to rising global temperatures. This trend in rising global temperatures has been breaking heat records across the nation, with The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently reporting July to be the hottest month ever recorded .
A CALL TO ACTION
Scientists have been reportedly impressed by how thorough the research team has been in organizing and collecting their data. Compared to most previous efforts made in search of similar evidence of how climate change impacts certain weather conditions, the new study analyzed an enormous amount of natural variables including wind speed, humidity, rainfall, temperature, and many others.
Because of this, many climate change scientists and activists are excited to present their findings to politicians who seek to impose legislation that limits human emissions, in order to back up their cause with more scientific proof. This new information could prove vital to President Obama’s new Clean Power Plan , which has come under fire from state governments and industries across the nation for its enhanced restrictions involving carbon emissions, which the plan aims to limit by 30 percent by 2030.
