Comments on: Website of the week: Drought.gov

By: Paul Mags

Paul Mags — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 19:48:45 +0000

Going along with your economic interests as potential indicators, investors can now trade water futures on the open market. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-06/water-futures-to-start-trading-amid-growing-fears-of-scarcity

I discussed “The Water Knife” previously. Interesting SciFi of the near future that seems a bit more near.

By: Stephen Keire

Stephen Keire — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 18:57:14 +0000

This La Nina year certainly isn’t helping to alleviate the secular drought on the Coast. The track of the Jet Stream has been persistently nudged north by high pressure ridges that remain immobile for weeks. Humans are going to take a further hand as the interest in prospecting for lithium and platinum family minerals increases, see for example the active USGS study Spectral Characteristics and Mapping of Lithium-rich Playas for Use in Western U.S. Basin and Range Mineral Assessment of Lithium. There are lithium prospects just west of Death Valley, and permission for exploratory drilling has been sought. I read a Zillow add mentioning a property’s potential attractiveness to lithium miners; the Clayton Valley and Borate Hills are of particular interest. The water demand that’s going to be imposed by mineral extraction and refining remains to be seen. It’s a tricky question, whether Bolivia and Chile should bear all the burden but our demand for technological progress seems insatiable. Go see the desert tortoises and bighorn sheep while you can is the conclusion I’ve drawn.

By: Paul Mags

Paul Mags — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 01:57:47 +0000

In reply to George.

https://www.pbs.org/wnet/peril-and-promise/2019/05/climate-change-contributed-to-droughts/

https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2891/a-drier-future-sets-the-stage-for-more-wildfires/

https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2017/05/31/in-a-warmer-world-expect-the-wet-to-get-wetter-and-the-dry-drier/

https://www.climatehotmap.org/global-warming-effects/drought.html

Cheers

By: George

George — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 01:38:06 +0000

Looking at the historical graph of 1895-present, and even breaking it into 30 year segments, it actually appears to me to be wetter on average now than in the past. Granted, this is for the country as a whole and certain areas will naturally be drier, but I can’t see a case in this data that the climate overall is drier. I did note that Utah is historically dry right now though. I found it fascinating that you can find out how dry/wet it was in some areas all the way back to the year 0!