Scientists See Looming Water Crisis in Western US

A water supply crisis is looming in the western United States thanks to human-caused climate change that already has altered the region’s river flows, snow pack and air temperatures, scientists said.

Trends over the past half century foreshadow a worsening decline in water, perhaps the region’s most valuable natural resource, even as population and demand expands in western states, researchers led by a scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography wrote in the journal Science on Thursday.
Up to 60 percent of changes in three key factors affecting the West’s water cycle — river flow, winter air temperatures and snow pack — are due to human-caused climate change, they determined using multiple computer models and data analysis.

“Our results are not good news for those living in the western United States,” wrote the team led by Tim Barnett, a climate expert at Scripps Institution, part of the University of California at San Diego.

“It foretells of water shortages, lack of storage capability to meet seasonally changing river flow, transfers of water from agriculture to urban uses and other critical impacts.”

Barnett said computer models point to a looming crisis in water supply in the coming two decades.

Planet Ark