Word: droughts
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That picture of the future is all too familiar to many meteorologists. To some, it makes the drought that is crippling the nation's midsection seem an ominous harbinger of things to come. Because of the greenhouse effect, a process by which natural and man-made gases trap solar heat in the earth's atmosphere, the gradual warming of the globe is inevitable, in the view of many scientists. But until now, most had cautiously avoided definitive statements about precisely when such an effect might take place...
...consistent with computer models. "These are all expected signatures of the greenhouse effect," Hansen said. Still, he and other leading scientists warned against concluding that the greenhouse effect is directly responsible for the heat wave that is parching areas of the U.S. "Why didn't we have a drought last summer?" he asks. "You can only say that the probability of drought is increased by the greenhouse effect...
...current drought has dramatized these conflicts, but it did not cause them, nor will its end resolve them. In the Midwest and Southeast, farmers watching their crops wither this summer are simply victims of lack of rain, a circumstance that should improve next year if not next month. But in the West the water shortage is not just a freak of nature. Los Angeles receives 9 in. of rainfall a year and Phoenix only 8, vs. 40 in. of precipitation for Chicago. Almost all the U.S. flatlands west of the 100th meridian, which runs from Texas to North Dakota, consistently...
...required the region's Senators and Governors to sink deep wells into the federal treasury and draw forth sprawling, multibillion-dollar water-moving and -storage schemes (notwithstanding the popular image of Westerners as self-reliant and suspicious of meddlesome Government). Thus in the midst of the current nationwide drought, the 74 golf courses around Palm Springs, Calif., have plenty of cheap federal water to keep their sprinklers hissing, while Arizona farmers can afford to grow water- intensive crops like alfalfa in the middle of the desert. Little wonder: water in Palm Springs costs the golf courses just $18 an acre...
COVER: The nation' s worst drought in 50 years raises fears about the future...