Tennesse and Georgia's war over water There are about five million residents in north Georgia affected by the drought. The phrase "if its brown flush it down, if its yellow let it mellow" has become part of the local jargon in an attempt to encourage water conservation.
posted on Feb 22, 2008 - View this thread

So you've all heard about how global warming will lead to rising sea-levels, but what about falling freshwater levels?
posted on Oct 26, 2007 - View this thread

Georgia's going dry -- and we're not talking liquor stores. Record temperatures in Georgia and a long drought have left many Georgia cities wondering when the taps will run dry. Some towns have only a few weeks of water left, while rivers near Athens have nearly dried up. A broken water main hasn't helped the problem, and some fear that the University of Georgia campus there may shut down for lack of water. What's more, Atlanta itself is already feeling the pressure, as Lake Lanier, a water source for 3 million residents, falls by 1.5 feet per week and has only a three month supply remaining. While there have been more severe (pdf) droughts in Georgia's history, rising population numbers have increased demand to now unsustainable levels.
posted on Oct 13, 2007 - View this thread

Record heat. Extreme drought. But the grass must stay green!
posted on Oct 3, 2007 - View this thread

"California has a decision to make. We either brace ourselves for long-term [water] cuts that threaten our economy and our very way of way of life, or we invest in a solution to fix the [San Francisco Bay] Delta and expand our water toolbox so we can meet future challenges head-on.”
posted on Sep 16, 2007 - View this thread

The Amazon rainforest becomes "a desert" after three consecutive years without rain - the trees die. Next year would be the third year of an ongoing drought. The forest contains 90 billion tons of carbon (or about 45 years of stored human emmisions at current rates) - 3/4's of the carbon is released within a year of dieing. The Amazon is "headed in a terrible direction".
posted on Jul 25, 2006 - View this thread

Ever think about drought? The National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) "helps people and institutions develop and implement measures to reduce societal vulnerability to drought. The NDMC, based at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, stresses preparation and risk management rather than crisis management." Lots of interesting things in here, like the drought maps that stretch back to 1895, and the Standardized Precipitation Index Maps. You can also check the Drought Monitor to see how dry things are as of last Thursday. [via the excellent j-walk blog]
posted on Jan 31, 2006 - View this thread

Global warming approaching point of no return...
Climate change: report warns point of no return may be reached in 10 years, leading to droughts, agricultural failure and water shortages. The possibilities include reaching climatic tipping points leading, for example, to the loss of the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets (which, between them, could raise sea level more than 10 metres over the space of a few centuries), the shutdown of the thermohaline ocean circulation (and, with it, the Gulf Stream), and the transformation of the planet's forests and soils from a net sink of carbon to a net source of carbon. Countdown to global catastrophe
posted on Jan 24, 2005 - View this thread

Santa Ana Speeds the Spread of So Cal Fires
Five separate fires are burning in San Diego County, including several densely populated suburban areas. Dozens of homes have been burned. Marine Corps Air Station Miramar has been affected, including an FAA air traffic control installation. 16,000 people in the South Bay lost electricity when a major distribution line went down. Many San Diego firefighters went up to Camp Pendelton yesterday. (1, 2)
posted on Oct 26, 2003 - View this thread