Global warmth means change in Nebraska
Last week’s international report on global warming adds more urgency to efforts to put water usage in Nebraska at a sustainable level.
The debate over whether global warming is occurring basically is over. Dr. Susan Soloman, chairwoman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which produced the report, put it this way: “Warming of the climate system is now unequivocal, unequivocal.”
She wasn’t the only expert to resort to repetition to emphasize a point.
“Now we have very high scientific confidence in this work — this is real, this is real, this is real,” said Richard Alley, a Penn State professor who was one of the report’s lead authors.
If Nebraska’s drought should be blamed on global warming, then the effect of the change has been disastrous.
The state is now in its eighth year of drought. Since the drought began, groundwater levels in parts of the state have dropped by more than 30 feet. In southwest Nebraska, groundwater levels have dropped more than 50 feet since large-scale groundwater irrigation began.
It’s still unclear how global warming will affect specific regions. But the general rule is that areas that currently are wet probably will receive even more rainfall, and areas that are dry will receive less.
Experts say different computer models used to assess the effect of climate change still fail to produce consensus on how global warming will affect wind patterns.
A long-term change in wind patterns could have a ruinous effect on Nebraska and other parts of the Midwest.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln scientists reported last year that the Nebraska Sandhills were desert dunes of windblown sand only 1,000 years ago.
In a story on the global warming report, the Christian Science Monitor wrote that “many of these dune systems (in Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado) are on the knife’s edge of mobilization and could begin to wander across the landscape if moisture becomes much more scarce.”
The report by the panel said that even if steps are taken immediately to reduce production of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming, the current trends are likely to continue for hundreds of years.
Nebraska already has taken some steps to reduce usage of water for irrigation and to find more effective ways to raise crops with less water. Just last week, UNL took another step with the purchase of 1,280 acres in western Nebraska to conduct research based on real-life conditions in a part of the state experiencing a water shortage.
Meanwhile, controversy continues over Nebraska’s new water policy aimed at keeping water usage at a sustainable level.
But the new report on global warming strengthens the evidence in favor of taking strong action to cope with climate change. The real controversy over Nebraska’s water policy should be whether it goes far enough.
The debate over whether global warming is occurring basically is over. Dr. Susan Soloman, chairwoman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which produced the report, put it this way: “Warming of the climate system is now unequivocal, unequivocal.”
She wasn’t the only expert to resort to repetition to emphasize a point.
“Now we have very high scientific confidence in this work — this is real, this is real, this is real,” said Richard Alley, a Penn State professor who was one of the report’s lead authors.
If Nebraska’s drought should be blamed on global warming, then the effect of the change has been disastrous.
The state is now in its eighth year of drought. Since the drought began, groundwater levels in parts of the state have dropped by more than 30 feet. In southwest Nebraska, groundwater levels have dropped more than 50 feet since large-scale groundwater irrigation began.
It’s still unclear how global warming will affect specific regions. But the general rule is that areas that currently are wet probably will receive even more rainfall, and areas that are dry will receive less.
Experts say different computer models used to assess the effect of climate change still fail to produce consensus on how global warming will affect wind patterns.
A long-term change in wind patterns could have a ruinous effect on Nebraska and other parts of the Midwest.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln scientists reported last year that the Nebraska Sandhills were desert dunes of windblown sand only 1,000 years ago.
In a story on the global warming report, the Christian Science Monitor wrote that “many of these dune systems (in Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado) are on the knife’s edge of mobilization and could begin to wander across the landscape if moisture becomes much more scarce.”
The report by the panel said that even if steps are taken immediately to reduce production of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming, the current trends are likely to continue for hundreds of years.
Nebraska already has taken some steps to reduce usage of water for irrigation and to find more effective ways to raise crops with less water. Just last week, UNL took another step with the purchase of 1,280 acres in western Nebraska to conduct research based on real-life conditions in a part of the state experiencing a water shortage.
Meanwhile, controversy continues over Nebraska’s new water policy aimed at keeping water usage at a sustainable level.
But the new report on global warming strengthens the evidence in favor of taking strong action to cope with climate change. The real controversy over Nebraska’s water policy should be whether it goes far enough.
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