The menace of global warming may lead to permanent drought in the Southwest United States by the year 2050, fears researchers.
Pointing to the fact that major part of the region has been hit by severe drought since 2000, a new study fears that the transformation has already started and it would take a few decades before the Dust Bowl of the 1930s and the droughts of the 1950s become norm in this part of the world.
Analyzing the computer climate models, the study, published online in the journal Science, said the drought in the last seven years in fact mark the beginning of a long, dry period for the region.
Richard Seager, who is a research scientist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University and the lead author of the study, said that the climatic change would have its effect on the social and economic order as well.
Seager said,
There are going to be some tough decisions on how to allocate water. Is it going to be the cities, or is it going to be agriculture?
Philip Mote, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Washington, was not part of the research group but even he threw his weight behind the study.
Mote said,
There is a convergence of the models that is very strong and very worrisome.