Description
It causes crops to fail, grazing land to dry up, forests to catch fire, drinking water to run short, and entire empires to fall. This is drought.
Droughts have changed the course of human history. More than 75,000 years ago, a series of mega-droughts may have been responsible for the first migrations of early humans out of Africa. In the last century, drought caused a Dust Bowl across the Great Plains of the United States, sending two million people off their land. In China the drought of 1928 claimed somewhere between 3 and 10 million lives. In this century, droughts have a role in reshaping the world by limiting access to fundamental resources; forcing populations in Africa, the Middle East, and Central America to migrate to find sustenance.
How dangerous are droughts? And what, if anything, can we do to stop them?
In this episode, we speak with former California Governor Jerry Brown about the most recent six-year drought that ravaged the state. The effects were devastating. However, drought doesn’t get quite the respect it deserves because its impact evolves slowly. Most of us are unaware when we’re in one. The impact of drought on agriculture has consequences for both biological and economic survival. The reduction of freshwater also causes social impacts that are less obvious: job loss, declines in community mental health, and threats to public health due to low water levels.
But now, scientists are researching ways to reduce the destructive social impact of the changing climate that is already evident around the world. Warmer temperatures brought on by greenhouse gases are changing the climate. It appears some droughts no longer dissipate as quickly.
In addition to minimizing greenhouse gases, new scientific research is dedicated to improving water desalination plants, cloud seeding to make artificial rain, and recycling methods to convert wastewater into drinking water. Planning the right response to future droughts is becoming increasingly vital in order to save lives and the natural environment.
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