Southwest Megadroughts Are Coming Back Because of Climate Change, Scientists Say

The Weather Channel ^ | 7/25/19 | Ron Brackett

[joe fonebone]

Perhaps I am just being nieve, but isn’t the southwest....... desert?

[Political Junkie Too]

How much of this "megadrought" is the result of a massive influx of people from Central America moving to the American southwest, and then drawing upon the water supply?

-PJ

[null and void]

No idea, but it’s raining right now in the high desert...

[z3n]

There are some drought resistant species of trees. I am going off of memory from when I started reading about Acacia Tortilis quite a few years ago, and the plan to plant them in semi-arid parts of africa, with the theory being that if they get a good foothold over a large enough area, they help the soil get a biome back, as well as help the soils retain moisture both from that and their canopy, which then allows arid grasses and other plants to take hold, and various animals and insects to thrive (and aerate the new top soil layers) and so on.

That was quite a few years ago, but it appears they’ve had some success with that approach already.

Of course, Acacia Tortilis would be considered invasive in North America. But it just raises the question as to weather some semi-arid areas can be recovered.