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Ongoing Drought Amplifies Climate Change Concerns

 

That bathtub ring around Lake Mead isn’t the only marker reminding us of the ongoing and potentially catastrophic drought conditions in the West, and how climate change continues to impact our resources.

A new study out of University California Davis shows the drought will cost California around $1.7 billion in lost agriculture revenue.

The drought is having an impact on wildlife in ways large and small, from the abandoned pet turtles endangered because they are unable to find water sources to the farmed salmon that are carted to the ocean in trucks, since the rivers and streams are to shallow to carry them along.

And recently, the Bureau of Land Management sent a letter to ranchers stating the obvious: if current drought conditions continue, grazing on federal land may come to an end.

NASA announced that last May was the hottest May in history.

Have these many signs of climate crisis finally reached a critical mass? What do individuals and cities need to adapt to a new reality?

GUESTS

Tom Piechota, Vice President for research at UNLV and climate change expert

Eric Holthaus, meteorologist, Slate writer

Steve Rypka, President, Green Dream Enterprises

William DeBuys , conservationist, author, “ Salt Dreams: Land and Water in Low-Down California”

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