North America Drought which Occurred due to Global Warming - Literature review Example

Introduction Producing the lowest average of 5.4 MAF between the years 2001 to 2003, the drought that has recently occurred in the North America was the worst natural disaster in the history (Awitness 2010). This particular natural phenomenon had negatively affected millions of people in North America. Aside from the absence of clean drinking water which is vital for people and animals to live, the profitability of the businesses related to agricultural products suffers most (Tafari 2005). As part of examining the contributing factors behind the drought in North America, a literature review will be gathered to examine the impact of global warming in the formation of drought followed by discussing its reconstruction, causes, and consequences. As part of the conclusion, some of the recommended ways on how we could possibly prevention of global warming causing drought in North America will be tackled in details. Drought under Global Warming: A Review The atmosphere traps the heat coming from the energy of the sun. In line with this, the greenhouse effect maintains the average surface temperature of 60oF (15oC) Earth (United States, Office of Technology Assessment, Congress 1990). The greenhouse effect is caused by the greenhouse gases that trap the sun’s heat within the atmosphere. In the absence of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, it is possible that the Earth’s temperature will reach 0oF (-18oC). A temperature this low is too cold for most of the living things to survive. Too much of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere could cause the atmospheric temperature to heat up. This could result to global warming causing disastrous effects such as hurricanes, drought, El Niňo, tropical storms, and other extreme changes in the climate (Science Daily 2009). Because of the significant increase in the atmospheric temperature, it is possible for the polar ice to melt. This natural phenomenon can cause the sea level to increase. In relation to the significant changes in the atmospheric temperature, the cool weather condition that is taking place in the eastern tropical Pacific as a result of a low sea surface temperature is one of the main causes of drought in the western part of North America (Conroy et al. 2009; Seager et al., 2005b). Based on the modelling and the past empirical studies concerning global warming and drought, there is a strong connection between the sea surface temperature with the precipitation and patterns of temperature among distant regions (Seager 2007; Seager et al., 2005b, 2005a). By considering the sea surface temperature and its association with the El Nino Southern Oscillation patterns of climate in the tropical Pacific and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and AMO in the north Atlantic region, climatologist can somehow predict climate changes on decadal timescale and possible drought or pluvial in North America (Cook, Seager and Miller 2010; Keenlyside et al. 2008). Seager (2007) explained that El Nino Southern Oscillation is one of the most significant factors that could affect the hydroclimatic variability not only in the tropical and subtropical areas but also in mid-latitude areas including the North America. However, direct impact of El Nino Southern Oscillation over the hydroclimate in North America is greater during winter as compared to warm season. To lessen the intensity of drought, the use of soil moisture is necessary to allow the cold season moisture to last during summer season (Wang et al. 2010). Each time the eastern tropical Pacific is having a very cold atmospheric temperature which is lower than the normal average temperature, the precipitation activities that is going on in the southern part of the North America is being suppressed (Seager 2007; Seager et al. 2005b). This causes serious drought in North America. As explained by Cook, Seager and Miller (2010), “cooler tropics can lead to a reduction in equator-to-pole temperature and pressure gradients and a poleward contraction of the westerly jets”. With this in mind, the degree in which the atmospheric temperature in the eastern tropical Pacific cools down could somehow cause a significant impact over the extent of drought being experienced in the North America. Upon examining a total of 1200 years record concerning the eastern equatorial pacific in relation to the past mega droughts that has occurred in the western part of North America, the research study that was conducted by Conroy et al. (2009) revealed that majority of the droughts that occurred in the western part of North America was caused by eastern equatorial pacific’s low sea surface temperature. In line with this, the cooling atmospheric temperature in the eastern tropical Pacific is believed to have a warming effect over the Atlantic region. It simply means that each time the north Pacific and north Atlantic ocean basin have a very low temperature, there is a strong tendency that the northwest of North America including other parts of the tropical and subtropical areas to experience drought (Cook, Seager and Miller 2010). North American Drought: Reconstructions, Causes, and Consequences During the 20th century, the industrialization in North America aside from its municipal and agricultural activities continuously develops (Barnett and Pierce 2009). As a consequence of these human activities, the long-term hydroclimate in the western part of North America needs to undergo reconstruction in order to prevent the long-term social, health, environmental, and economic consequences of drought (Meko et al. 2007; Woodhouse et al. 2005). Reconstructions Data available from the World Data Centre for Paleoclimatology, NCDC publicly announced that the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI), precipitation, the past and future record of lake levels measured in scales, the stream flow are among the reconstructions of drought-related variables (NCDC 2010). As part of monitoring possible drought in North America, the most current tree-ring information is useful in terms of determining past droughts. Since the use of tree-ring chronologies for more than 1000 years is possible, Cook et al. (1999) suggest that a tree-ring reconstruction should be considered as a reliable source of information when studying incidence of droughts in the area. Basically, information gathered from a tree-ring reading can be used in studying the decadal to century scale variability of temperature and precipitation during warm or cold season (Hughes and Graumlich 2010). Based on these reconstructions, existence of past mega droughts can be traced in terms of its severity and duration. Based on the expanded network of the 835 tree-ring chronologies, Cook et al. (2004) suggest the need for PDSI reconstruction such that a new grid which is composed of 286 points will be used in examining the 2.5 degree grid that has been used in examining most parts of the North America. Available in numerical data and time-series plots, negative values presented in the PDSI suggest a dry condition and vice versa (Cook et al. 2010). Causes Global warming is the primary factor that has recently triggered a mega drought in North America. As a negative environmental consequence of global warming, increase in rainfall in some parts of the world along with serious drought in some areas is likely to occur. In line with this, global warming can be explained with the strong interdependency between changes in climate and economic behaviours. In general, human activities like burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas used to power generators, factories, and road transportation contributes to global warming (Prakash 1990). Other human activities like farming, deforestation, coal mining, fire, and air-conditioning units also contribute to the production of manmade greenhouse gases (Seo 2010; Ahn et al. 2010). Specifically the human activities related to excessive farming, irrigation, deforestation and erosion could result to the inability of the soil to hold onto water which can be used in minimizing the impact of excessive heat. Once the soil is unable to hold onto water during warm season, the incidence of drought is possible. Another possible cause of drought is the weather cycles in the atmosphere and ocean. In line with this, the presence of El Nino Southern Oscillation can cause extreme weather changes like droughts or floods in North America (Cook, Seager and Miller, 2010; Seager 2007; Seager et al., 2005b; Tafari, 2005). As a common knowledge, rainfall create sufficient amount of water vapour in the atmosphere which is necessary in the prevention of drought. In line with this, Miskolczi explained that the water vapour which is a more effective gas that is capable of trapping heat in the atmosphere has a significant impact over the cooling of the atmospheric temperature in the eastern tropical Pacific (Miskolczi 2007). In line with this, whenever the level of carbon dioxide that is present in the atmosphere increases, the level of water vapour decreases. Based on this explanation, the cooling effect in the atmospheric temperature is possible. Consequences Drought in North America has adverse effect over the environment, health, social, and economic condition of the people living in the area. Aside from disrupting the flow of the ecosystem, the recent incidence of drought in North America has resulted to inadequate clean drinking water which is vital for people and animals to live. Likewise, the absence of water negatively affects the profitability of the local businesses particularly those that are related to food and beverages, restaurants, and agricultural sector (Harou et al. 2010; Tafari 2005). Aside from causing water supply shortage for industrial use and generation of power supply (Green Peace 2006), the farmers are the once that would be greatly affected by the consequence of long-term drought. As part of the long-term consequence of drought, people living in North America will have serious problems concerning the availability of food and water supply. Since the local demand for food and water is so much greater than the available supply, sellers of food and beverages would take advantage of this situation by increasing the market prices of these basic commodities. In worst cases, it is possible for sellers of food and beverages to decide not to sell these products for their own benefits. If this happens, many people living in North America who do not have the financial capacity to migrate to another state or country could die of hunger and dehydration. Another consequence of drought is that the absence of sufficient water supply could result to high levels of pollution in the remaining water supply. When ingested by human beings and animals, the poor quality of water supply could trigger a widespread of diseases in North America. This will result to a serious damage in the habitat of terrestrial and aquatic wildlife. Because of people’s strong desire to live, cold war is possible because of their need to survive the environmental, health, social, and economic consequences of drought. With regards to environmental consequences of drought, the combination of excessive heat and absence of water supply could create forest fire big enough to burn more than 370, 000 hectares in different states in North America (NASA 2004). Since there is no sufficient water supply to water the plants, severe drought could trigger insect outbreaks which could cause high levels of morbidity in the area (Betancourt 2003). Conclusion Drought in North America is a serious problem which could lead to a long list of environment, health, social, and economic consequences. In line with this, the reconstructions that are being considered as a result of the recent drought in North America are simply one step to improve the research studies behind drought. Information gathered from the reconstruction can be used as a future references in the study of climatology and drought prevention. It is a common knowledge that the incidence of drought is a consequence of global warming. Since industrialization and human intervention contributes a large portion of the significant increase in the carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere, the government in North America should continuously promote the use of alternative renewable resources for electricity production. This strategy could significantly decrease the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. In case of drought, the government should consider cloud seeding as an alternative way to induce artificial rainfall to prevent the total destruction in the habitat of animals and ecosystem (Jian 2004). By closely monitoring possible drought using the PDSI and increasing the availability of water supply, it is possible to maintain the quality of water in the rivers and other sources of water aside from reducing the risk for forest fires. *** End *** References Ahn, H., Mulbry, W., White, J., & Kondrad, S. (2010). Pile mixing increases greenhouse gas emissions during composting of dairy manure. Bioresource Technology , doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2010.10.142. Awitness. (2010). Retrieved December 4, 2010, from North American drought worst in 500 years: http://www.awitness.org/journal/worst_drought.html Barnett, T., & Pierce, D. (2009). Sustainable water deliveries from the Colorado River in a changing climate. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(18), p. 7334. Betancourt, J. (2003). Retrieved December 4, 2010, from The current drought (1999-2003) in historical perspective. Paper presented at the Southwest Drought Summit, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, May 12-13, 2003: http://www.mpcer.nau.edu/megadrought/Betancourt%20Abstract.pdf Conroy, J., Overpeck, J., Cole, J., & Steinitz-Kannan, M. (2009). Variable oceanic influences on western North American drought over the last 1200 years. Geophysical Research Letters , 36, L17793, doi:10.1029/2009GL039558 . Cook, B., Seager, R., & Miller, R. (2010). Atmospheric circulation anomalies during two persistent. Climate Dynamics , DOI 10.1007/s00382-010-0807-1. Cook, E., Anchukaitis, K., Buckley, B., D'Arrigo, R., Jacody, G., & Wright, W. (2010). Asian Monsoon Failure and Megadrought During the Last Millennium . Science , 328(5977), pp. 486-489. Cook, E., Meko, D., Stahle, D., & Cleaveland, M. (1999). Drought reconstructions for the continental United States. Journal of Climate , 12, pp. 1145-1162. Cook, E., Woodhouse, C., Eakin, C., Meko, D., & Stahle, D. (2004). Long-Term Aridity Changes in the Western United States. Science , 306(5698), pp. 1015-1018. Green Peace. (2006, August 4). Retrieved December 4, 2010, from Sweden closes nuclear plants over safety fears: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/features/sweden-nuclear-closure-040806/ Harou, J. J., Medellín-Azuara, J., Zhu, T., Tanaka, S., Lund, J., Stine, S., et al. (2010). Economic consequences of optimized water management for a prolonged, severe drought in California. Water Resources Research , 46, W05522, doi:10.1029/2008WR007681 . Hughes, M., & Graumlich, L. (2010). North American Drought: A Paleo Perspective. Retrieved December 4, 2010, from Multi-Millennial Dendroclimatic Studies from the Western United States: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/drought/drght_graumlich.html Jian, W. (2004, July 24). China Daily. Retrieved December 4, 2010, from Cloud seeding helps alleviate drought: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-07/24/content_351196.htm Keenlyside, N., Latif, M., Jungclaus, J., Kornblueh, L., & Roeckner, E. (2008). Advancing decadal-scale climate prediction in the North Atlantic sector. Nature , 453, pp. 84-88. Meko, D., Woodhouse, C., Baisan, C., Knight, T., Lukas, J., Hughes, M., et al. (2007). Medieval drought in the upper Colorado River Basin. Geophysical Research Letters , 34(10), pp. 10705–10709. Miskolczi, F. (2007). Greenhouse effect in semi-transparent planetary atmospheres. Quarterly Journal of the Hungarian Meteorological Service , 111(1), pp. 1-40. NASA. (2004). Retrieved December 4, 2010, from Looking at Earth, “Drought Signals Sever Fire Season in the U.S.: http://www1.nasa.gov/vision/earth/lookingatearth/Western_Drought.html NCDC. (2010). Retrieved December 4, 2010, from North American Drought: A Paleo Perspective: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/drought/drght_appendix.html Prakash, C. (1990). Automobiles and the “Greenhouse” effect. Journal of Advanced Transportation , 24(3), pp. 261-275. Science Daily. (2009, September 24). Retrieved December 4, 2010, from Global Warming May Dent El Niño's Protective Shield From Atlantic Hurricanes, Increase Droughts: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090923143337.htm Seager, R. (2007). The turn of the century North American drought: global context, dynamics, and past analogs. Journal of Climate , 20, pp. 5527-5552. Seager, R., Harnik, N., Robinson, W., Kushnir, Y., Ting, M., Huang, H., et al. (2005a). Mechanisms of ENSO-forcing of hemispherically symmetric precipitation variability. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society , 131(608). Seager, R., Kushnir, Y., Herweijer, C., Naik, N., & Velez, J. (2005b). Modeling of Tropical Forcing of Persistent Droughts and Pluvials over Western North America: 1856–2000. Journal of Climate , 18(19), pp. 4065–4088. Seo, S. (2010). Is an Integrated Farm More Resilient Against Climate Change?: A Micro-econometric Analysis of Portfolio Diversification in African Agriculture. Food Policy , 35(1), pp. 32-40. Tafari, L. (2005). The greenhouse effect in effect. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health , 59, p. 349 . United States, Office of Technology Assessment, Congress. (1990). Replacing gasoline : alternative fuels for light-duty vehicles. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. Wang, H., Schubert, S., Suarez, M., & Koster, R. (2010). The physical mechanisms by which the leading patterns of SST variability impact US precipitation, In Press. Journal of Climate . Woodhouse, C., Kunkel, K., Easterling, D., & Cook, E. (2005). The twentieth-century pluvial in the western United States. Geophysical Research Letters , 32(7), p. L07701. Read More