in several parts of the country, she says, and will only get worse as dry conditions increase demands on groundwater. Endangered sources detailed in her extensive related writings include the Ogallala Aquifer, vital to agricultural operations across much of the Great Plains, and California’s Central Valley, the nation’s fruit and vegetable bowl. In the Colorado River Basin, which provides drinking water to some 30 million people, water demands already exceed the available supply—and that gap is expected to widen with changes in the region’s climate.


Sandra Postel In other regions, the problem


is too much water from storms, hurricanes and flooding, a trend that Postel and other experts say will also worsen as the world continues to warm and fuel weather extremes. Beyond the loss of lives and property damage, this “new normal” holds stark implications for communities. “We’ve built our bridges, dams and


other infrastructure based on 100-year records of what’s happened in the past,” advises Postel. “In a lot of ways, how we experience climate change is going to be through changes in the water cycle. If the past isn’t a good guide to the future anymore, we’ll have to change our water management.” (See nrdc.org/water/readiness by city and state.)


On the Ocean Front The world’s oceans are being transformed by climate change in ways we are only beginning to understand. Since the Industrial Revolution, oceans have absorbed a significant portion of the carbon dioxide generated, experiencing a 30 percent rise in acidity; that’s expected to reach 100 to 150 percent above pre-industrial levels by the end of this century, according to the nonprofit National Academy of Science (NAS), in Washington, D.C. “Thank goodness for the oceans,


but they are paying a tremendous price,” says Oceanographer Dawn


Cont. on page 16 NaturalAwakeningsSA.com October 2013 15


Signs Of Changes To Come


Without actions to significantly curb greenhouse gas emissions, air temperatures could increase as much as 11.5 percent by 2100, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). While the United Nations


Framework Convention on Climate Change pledged in 2009 to keep warming from increasing more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, more recent reports by the World Bank and other institutions warn that the goal may be unrealistic. Continued global warming could cause widespread drought, flooding and other changes, with disastrous consequences. Here are some of the ways climate change has already impacted our lives. Temperatures: The average


global temperature for 2012—about 58.3 degrees Fahrenheit—was the ninth-warmest year since record keeping began in 1880. It was also the 36th consecutive year that the global temperature surpassed the 20th-century average, according to the National Climate Data Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The problem comes alive in a video at Tinyurl.com/ NASAEarthTemps. The EPA reports that the number


of days that temperatures will exceed 90 degrees Farenheit is expected to increase throughout the U.S., especially in areas that already experience heat waves.


Drought: Drought struck two-


thirds of America’s lower 48 states last year, and continued into 2013 in many parts of the country, costing billions of dollars in crop failures and damage from resulting wildfires. Extreme storms: East Coast


weather has become wilder, with storms such as Hurricane Irene and Superstorm Sandy wreaking unprecedented losses in human life and property. Freshwater supplies: As melting


shrinks glaciers’ historic footprints, reducing the amount of springtime snowmelt, and we continue to deplete groundwater faster than it can be replenished, conflicts between agriculture, industry and municipalities over water are expected to increase. Meanwhile, rising sea levels near some seashore cities have already led to incursions of saltwater, contaminating underground freshwater systems. Rising sea levels: Since 1870, the


global sea level has risen by about eight inches, according to the EPA. By the end of this century, it estimates that New York City could see a rise of 2.3 feet and Galveston, Texas, 3.5 feet. Other studies say those estimates are conservative. Research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in July concluded that a rise of 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit could result in a corresponding rise in sea levels exceeding 13 feet.


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