Water deficits to force human migrations

From Michael Campana at his blog, WaterWired

Two risk metrics were developed to capture the influence of within year dry periods (Normalized Deficit Index – NDI) and of drought across years (Normalized Deficit Cumulated – NDC). The NDI is computed as one number for each year using historical daily rainfall data for the area and current daily water needs. It measures the maximum cumulated water shortage each year during the dry period that needs to be provided for from ground water or from surface water storage or transfers from other areas.

Today is International Day for Biological Diversity.




Marci Krivonen spoke with Dr. Tom Painter on Aspen Public Radio:

A group of scientists are flying over mountains in California and Colorado this spring, measuring snowpack with high-tech gadgets. NASA’s Airborne Snow Observatory mission started last month over the Sierra Nevadas and Southwestern Colorado’s Uncompahgre River Basin. The idea is to measure the snow in a way that’s never been done before, to get an idea of how much water is stored there. Snowpack accounts for 75 % of the Western United States’ freshwater supply. And, as demands for water grow, scientists are working on solutions.

From a piece posted at LiveScience:

Today, our Western forests — from the Rockies to the mountains of the Sierra Nevada — are loaded with several billion excess trees. This is the unintended consequence of a longstanding federal policy, symbolized by Smokey Bear, to stamp out forest fires. It's that kind of thinking that now threatens to strangle the very forests and streams environmentalism seeks to protect. It's time to move on.

The Congressional Budget Office examines the effects of a carbon tax.

Rewild the West: connect the American Prairie Reserve with the Greater Missouri Basin National Wildlife Refuge.

Rob Chaney writes in The Missoulian:

The Water Resources Development Act includes a $30 million provision to benefit the headwaters of the Missouri, Yellowstone and Columbia river systems. The Senate passed the $12 billion measure 83-14 last week.

Whirlwind Woman: Native American tornado mythology and global parallels by Pybus, Nani Suzette, Ph.D., Oklahoma State University.

From Pew Environment:

Each year, livestock operations in the United States generate up to a billion tons of manure, much of it from concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs. Whether waste comes directly from manure storage at an animal production facility or from a nearby field fertilized with manure, it can degrade water, leading to oxygen-depleted “dead zones” that kill fish, contaminate drinking water, and hurt communities.