Global warming will cause rainfall and water supplies in the West to drop drastically in the next 25 to 50 years, especially in the Southwest, according to a new report by the U.S. government.
The new study focused on the next 50 years, in which changes in the emissions of greenhouse gases will not have time to affect the shifts in climate that are already occurring. While it is important to reduce emissions in the long term, the report’s authors emphasized, the short-term changes predicted are likely to occur no matter what.
Due to rising global temperatures, water flow from rainfall is expected to drop by 20 percent across large areas of the West, and even more in the already dry Southwest. Water flow is expected to increase by 20 percent or more, however, in the East and Midwest. Read more
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