Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Dry days ahead in Florida and elsewhere

Eric Staats in the Naples News (Florida): Water shortages are nothing new in Southwest Florida. Just ask anyone who has tried to figure out whether he can turn on his lawn sprinklers on Saturday or has to wait until Sunday to comply with watering limits.

But a Natural Resources Defense Council report released Tuesday concludes that climate change will increase Collier County’s risk of water shortage by 2050 from “high” to “extreme.” In Lee County, the water shortage risk is labeled extreme with or without climate change taken into account, according to the report compiled by engineering firm Tetra Tech.

Collier and Lee counties are among some 400 counties in the continental United States at an extreme risk of water shortage, the report shows. In all, more than 1,100 counties — one third of all the counties in the continental U.S. — will face a higher risk of water shortage by 2050, according to the report.

The NRDC released the report as lobbying has kicked into high gear in the run-up to a Senate debate expected this summer on clean energy and climate change legislation….

From 2000, a helicopter drops water from a special "bucket" onto a small fire on Kennedy Space Center grounds. The site is between Kennedy Parkway North and the Indian River. From NASA

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