Jul 11 2007
Changing Climate in the Desert Southwest
NPR has had a couple stories recently about a family of climate scientists from the University of Arizona vacationing in the desert Southwest United States.
Ancient Culture Prompts Worry for Arid Southwest
Chaco Canyon is a stark and breathtaking ruin, nestled under soaring, red sandstone cliffs. It resembles the condition of the lost Inca city of Machu Picchu in Peru.
“Well, once a lot of people lived here, or at least came here to visit and then they went away, and they have a lot of ideas why, but no one knows for sure,” Overpeck explains. “And one of the reasons we think they went away was, in part, because it got dryer. And it got so dry that it was difficult to live here.”
A Family Vacations Amidst Changing Landscape
“Well, at first glance it looks pretty depressing. I mean we’re standing amidst a lot of really black and tall trees, and I would say most of them, 90 percent of them, are dead,” Julie says.
Peck says the trees are dying because of the drought that has hit the area. His nervous laugh underscores his worries. Climate forecasts are almost unanimous — the Southwest could well be heading into a permanent drought this century, the kind of drought that contributed to the demise of previous civilizations in this part of the world.
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