After a year with almost no rain in Southern California, almost a million people have been forced from their homes in just four days. The National Climate Data Center has reported that 43% of the country is in condition of moderate to extreme drought. Although California's wildfires and evacuations have dominated this week's news, on the other side of the country, there's a kind of slow-motion disaster that has Georgia, Alabama and Florida competing for a dwindling supply of water. It's also hotter and drier than usual in Minnesota, the North East and the Mid-Atlantic. Is it a spell of strange weather or long-term climate change? Is it caused by global warming? Will industry, agriculture and residential development have to change to ward off future disaster?
Fires, Drought and Our Role in the Destruction They Cause
Credits
Guests:
- Matt Kempner - Staff Writer, Atlanta Journal Constitution
- Peter Gleick - Pacific Institute - @PeterGleick
- Jon Gertner - contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine, author of “The Ice at the End of the World: An Epic Journey into Greenland's Buried Past and Our Perilous Future”
- Frank Harmon - Architect
- Steve Doyle - Past President, California Building Industry Association