Is drought a side effect of Southwest warming?
The 50 years ending in 2000 were the Southwest's warmest for at least 600 years, underscoring studies showing that human-caused climate change is heating up the region. But the area's climate experts can't say the area's continued drought is also due to long-term climate change. While the Southwest suffered its worst drought from 2000 to 2010 since at least 1900, several much longer and more severe "megadroughts" lasting up to 60 years occurred between the years 100 and about 1600. These are conclusions of the first Southwest Climate Assessment, a document prepared by more than 100 researchers around the West and released in summary form this week. The assessment is a regional version of global climate reports issued regularly by the International Panel on Climate Change, a group established by the United Nations. Despite uncertainty about the current drought's causes, the new climate report predicts that climate change will push the region into more severe droughts in this century.
Rural and Remote Health Journal - View Article
Personal View Diabetes on the Navajo nation: what role can gardening and agriculture extension play to reduce it? Citation: Lombard KA, Forster-Cox S, Smeal D, O'Neill MK. Diabetes has emerged as a serious health problem in the Navajo nation, the largest Indigenous tribe in the US. Key words: diabetes, diet, fruit and vegetable, gardening, Indigenous health, Native American health, Navajo, nutrition, semi-arid agriculture. Introduction Diabetes and the Navajo The Navajo nation, with over 250 000 members1, is the largest federally recognized tribe within the USA, encompassing nearly 70 000 km2 within parts of three states: Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah (Fig 1). Figure 1: Map of the Navajo nation (not to scale). Type-2 (non-insulin dependent) diabetes and the associated cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk are on the increase in the USA. The rise in diabetes among the Navajo is also correlated with socio-economic status and the lack of services in remote areas of the reservation. Public Health
Tom Harris Teaches Heartland Institute Fake Science to Students « Global Warming: Man or Myth?
A science watchdog has released a report slamming a course taught at Carleton University (Canada) over what they call “biased and inaccurate” claims concerning climate change. The course “Climate Change: An Earth Sciences Perspective”, taught by Tom Harris for two years, is the subject of a 98-page report written by the Committee for the Advancement of Scientific Skepticism (CASS). The report constitutes a blow-by-blow response citing extensively from the scientific literature to rebut 142 erroneous and fully-quoted claims. On auditing the course, CASS discovered that key messages for students contradict accepted scientific opinion. These messages include: denying that current climate change has an anthropogenic cause; dismissing the problems that carbon dioxide emissions cause because CO2 is plant food; denying the existence of the scientific consensus on the causes of climate change; and claiming that we should prepare instead for global cooling. Texas farmer who lost his livelihood
GIS Dixon Spatial Consulting
US Drought Monitor
Water Resources | Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States 2009 Report
Key Messages: Climate change has already altered, and will continue to alter, the water cycle, affecting where, when, and how much water is available for all uses. Floods and droughts are likelyat least two-thirds chance of occurring to become more common and more intense as regional and seasonal precipitation patterns change, and rainfall becomes more concentrated into heavy events (with longer, hotter dry periods in between). Precipitation and runoff are likelyat least two-thirds chance of occurring to increase in the Northeast and Midwest in winter and spring, and decrease in the West, especially the Southwest, in spring and summer. Changes in the water cycle, which are consistent with the warming observed over the past several decades, include: For the future, marked regional differences are projected, with increases in annual precipitation, runoff, and soil moisture in much of the Midwest and Northeast, and declines in much of the West, especially the Southwest. Water Cycle Changes
Regarding Navajo Water Rights
Last week both Arizona Senators visited the Navajo Nation to persuade tribal officials that they should agree to waive most of Navajo claims to the Lower Colorado River in order to receive $350 million worth in water development project. During their visit they ensured the Navajo Nation president and council that there was no trickery involved and that they are negotiating this agreement in “good faith.” But when two esteemed Republican Senators take time out of their busy schedules to visit the Navajo Nation in order to persuade tribal leadership with millions of dollars worth of development aide and other goodies, one has to assume something else is happening. In fact, a lot is happening here, and it is important that the Navajo people understand some of the larger issues influencing this settlement. 1) S.2109 is the product of a poorly planned settlement. Each of the 110 Chapters are supposed to have a Community Land Use Plan in place. Nikke Alex Dilcon, Arizona
