Climate Change South Eastern United States ?

A report into the waterless conditions in the South Eastern United States of America concludes that Climate Change is not the predominant factor.

Phew ! We can all breathe a sigh of relief !

No, we can’t.

Computer model projections for this water-stressed region do show gradual decline of available fresh water, meaning Climate Change will have an increasing impact in the area.

And what was the factor that most likely caused the recent problems ? Over-consumption of water, as known as “population growth”, which may be a euphemism for “immigration”.

And the question is : why are people using more water ? Why are there more people in the area to use more water ? Could this have anything to do with the drought in Mexico, which is more easily blamed on Global Warming ?

Could the situation in South Eastern USA be a secondary effect of Climate Change, caused by migration away from rainfall-stressed areas ?

There is definitely more to come in analysing exactly what is going on. It’s too soon to say that Climate Change, in all its many vectors and factors, is not implicated :-

http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/div/ocp/pub/seager/Seager_etal_SE_2009.pdf

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/02/science/earth/02drought.html?_r=2&ref=business