Will we have a Groasis?

Part I- NATURAL LANDSCAPE CHANGES

The Changing Sands

So thirsty. Source: Giphy

This week concludes our 'Natural Landscape Changes'. We've witnessed how the Southwest is losing precipitation and partly as a result, is losing river flows! What this creates is a more arid climate prone to desertification!

Look here at Las Vegas' urban growth. As it expands the reservoir loses more and more water. While the city grows, Lake Mead shrinks. Barnett and Pierce (2008) make startling claims like there's a 50% chance Lake Mead's live storage will disappear by 2021. While the flaws of their argument, such as the underlying hydrological assumptions they make, are debated by Barsugli et al. (2009) and others no one debates that the lake is shrinking. It has become more a matter of when and how quickly.

Viva Las Vegas? Las Vegas Growth. Source: Imgur

This desertification or aridification or as I call it 'thirstification' is becoming more widespread in American thought. While Earth scientists have been aware of what's happening for decades the news outlets have picked up on it. Its even found its way into mainstream pop culture. Check out this Jimmy Kimmel Live sketch. While humorous, this highlights how far reaching public awareness is to the recent California droughts. We have a Nashville singer on a Los Angeles show being broadcast during the 'late night' time slot to the East Coast about California's problems. 

This is not to say it is all doom and gloom for the Southwest. Many ecosystems are adapted to desert like conditions and inevitably will perform much better than others in the future like the Sonoran Desert in southern Arizona and New Mexico. The concern lies more with how will the more seasonal and temperate ecosystems adapt but also how will we as humans adapt?

As we go into the future we'll tackle these questions starting with our next section 'Agriculture'.