4 ms·

The Western US is a semi-arid desert: https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/pt.6.1.20180801a/full/ https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/pt.6.1.

• deleted 4y ago
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• 8bitsrule 4y ago
  Very good article, with several illustrative cites going back to 1979. The west is dominated by the [0] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermontane_Plateaus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermontane_Plateaus] , much of it losing water since the pluvial lakes like [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Bonneville https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Bonneville] reached its greatest height 18000 years ago. "The abandoned shore lines have yielded evidence of past climatic changes second in importance only to those of the Pleistocene glaciated areas."[0] A lot of snow falls in the winter, but for a century the meltwater has had plenty of mouths to feed. A lot of the distribution plans have been based on only a couple centuries of experience.
• the_third_wave 4y ago
  Well, there is that ocean on the left coast which theoretically can provide all the water needed to avert problems. There is also that sun in the sky which could provide power for the desalination plants needed to turn that salty sea water into fresh water. The resulting brine contains a number of harvestable minerals as well so given the incentive there would be a possibility to stave of desertification of at least parts of the area - something which was not possible to those previous populations which got decimated by this cycle.