Climate Change Identified as Main Driver of Worsening Drought in the Western United States
Humanity’s heating of the planet, driven by the burning of fossil fuels and unchecked emissions of greenhouse gases, has become the main driver of worsening droughts in California and the American West, according to new research.
A team of UCLA and NOAA scientists found that while droughts in the last century were caused mainly by decreases in precipitation through natural cycles, an entirely different pattern has taken hold as a result of the rising temperatures this century.