The West Without Water: What Past Floods, Droughts, and Other Climatic Clues Tell Us about TomorrowThe West without Water documents the tumultuous climate of the American West over twenty millennia, with tales of past droughts and deluges and predictions about the impacts of future climate change on water resources. Looking at the region’s current water crisis from the perspective of its climate history, the authors ask the central question of what is “normal” climate for the West, and whether the relatively benign climate of the past century will continue into the future. The West without Water merges climate and paleoclimate research from a wide variety of sources as it introduces readers to key discoveries in cracking the secrets of the region’s climatic past. It demonstrates that extended droughts and catastrophic floods have plagued the West with regularity over the past two millennia and recounts the most disastrous flood in the history of California and the West, which occurred in 1861–62. The authors show that, while the West may have temporarily buffered itself from such harsh climatic swings by creating artificial environments and human landscapes, our modern civilization may be ill-prepared for the future climate changes that are predicted to beset the region. They warn that it is time to face the realities of the past and prepare for a future in which fresh water may be less reliable. |
Contents
Introduction I | 1 |
Normal Climate in the West | 13 |
Nevada | 14 |
Precipitation during winter from 373 stations in the western United | 22 |
Lessons Lost | 27 |
Precipitation in San Francisco Sacramento and Stockton California | 29 |
Dust storm approaching a midwestern town during the Dust Bowl | 42 |
Maps of the western United States showing A the correlation | 54 |
Ancient tree stumps exposed in southern Lake Tahoe | 98 |
Archaeologist Douglas Kennert and his father paleoceanographer | 109 |
Maps of A California and the Great Basin showing many of | 117 |
Montezumas Castle a cliff dwelling just north of Camp Verde | 124 |
An ancient tree stump submerged in the West Walker River | 131 |
Megafloods and Climate Swings | 141 |
Flood sediment layers for the past 2000 years from Santa Barbara | 144 |
Paleoclimate researchers drilling Porites coral heads in the Red Sea | 156 |
The Earths History Books | 63 |
A bristlecone pine growing in the White Mountains eastern | 65 |
Frances MalamudRoam B Lynn Ingram and Christina Brady coring | 73 |
A Sea level changes over the past 500000 years showing glacial | 83 |
PART THREE | 173 |
Map of California showing aqueducts that bring water to Southern | 177 |
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Common terms and phrases
American West Ancestral Pueblo Arizona atmospheric river average carbon causing Central Valley chapter climate change coast coastal Colorado River cooler cycles dams decades delta drier drought Dust Bowl earth eastern Pacific ecosystems El Niņo ENSO environmental estuary evidence extreme feet fires floods floodwaters forest fossil freshwater glacial global Holocene ice sheets increased inflow isotope layers Little Ice Age Lynn Ingram marsh megafloods mid-Holocene miles millennia million Mono Lake mounds mountain Neoglacial Niņo events northern occurred oxygen Pacific Northwest Pacific Ocean paleoclimate past climate patterns period plants pollen population precipitation radiocarbon rain rainfall records region Sacramento salinity salmon San Francisco Bay Santa Barbara Basin scientists sea level sediment cores sediments shells Sierra Nevada snow snowpack solar Southern California Southwest state’s storms summer surface waters temperatures tree stumps tree-ring tropical Pacific U.S. Geological Survey warm warmer western United wetter winter Younger Dryas