Thursday November 7, 2024
Los Angeles Times —
Humanity’s heating of the planet, driven by the burning of fossil fuels and unchecked emissions of greenhouse gases, has become the main driver of worsening droughts in California and the American West, according to new research.
A team of UCLA and NOAA scientists found that while droughts in the last century were caused mainly by decreases in precipitation through natural cycles, an entirely different pattern has taken hold as a result of the rising temperatures this century.
The researchers determined that since 2000, human-caused warming has become the dominant force leading to more drought severity in the Western United States. In the case of the intense Western drought from 2020 to 2022, the scientists attributed 61% of its severity to high temperatures, and only 31% to reduced precipitation.
“For the same precipitation deficit, drought now is much stronger than it used to be in the 20th century, and drought also lasts longer,” said Rong Fu, a UCLA climate researcher and study coauthor. “That makes drought more severe and more extensive.”