How soon before they start pumping and transferring water from the Great Lakes to the West??

[NickB79]

132. This isn't a drought. It's not even a megadrought anymore

It's aridification. A permanent shift in the climate to a drier state, driving a shift in rainfall patterns, evaporation rates and ecosystems. And it will only get worse as the planet warms, because we're "only" 1C warmer so far. We'll be at 4C by 2100.

Calling it a drought is how people keep getting pacified into thinking this isn't the blaring crisis it truly is, because people associate droughts with short term problems that end eventually.

5000 years ago, the Sahara was a green landscape, complete with lakes, elephants, giraffes, lions and humans. Then a tiny shift occurred in Earth's orbital wobble, and the whole thing turned to desert. It isn't likely to flip back for another 15,000 years.

I wonder if there was a hunter gatherer sitting around the fire after days of not finding food, telling his fellow Saharans "Don't worry, it's just a drought. These things can't last forever."