Water Resources
The impacts of global warming will be felt across the globe. These are a few of the many examples of the impacts of climate change on water reources.
Water Resources
The 1930s Dust Bowl was a relatively minor drought by prehistoric standards, yet tens of thousands of people were displaced. Today, farms and cities in the western United States could face a similar water shortage. This region relies heavily on the Colorado River for fresh water. The river, which is fed by the mountain snows, is overtaxed during dryer periods. Decreasing snow pack in the high mountains threatens to create severe water shortages throughout the southwestern U.S., and reduce the ability to generate hydroelectric power during the warmer summers.
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The Dust Bowl
A farmhouse is saved from drifting dirt by a wooden fence. In the mid-1930s the Dust Bowl displaced thousands of people in the American Great Plains. (Photo courtesy of
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Department of Commerce) |
Disappearing Glaciers
Glaciers are complex, and a short-lived advance or retreat of one or a few glaciers could have many causes. But almost all of the mountain glaciers on Earth have shrunk over the last century. The temperature increase needed to explain the rate of glacier disappearance agrees with warming estimated from thermometers.
Will Melting Ice Trigger an Ice Age?
Not likely. But, remember the Younger Dryas? Melting polar ice may have poured fresh water into the North Atlantic and interrupted the deep ocean circulation pattern, which may have sent the Northern Hemisphere into a 1,000-year cold period. Today, fresh water flow into the Arctic Ocean from Siberia’s four great rivers has increased, and oceanographers observe a slight decrease in the salinity of the North Atlantic. Although climate models do not project that these trends will lead to anything like an ice age, some indicate that over the next few hundred years deep ocean currents may be disrupted, which would affect regional temperature and precipitation patterns over North America and Europe.
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