Access to adequate fresh water supplies is a critically important societal challenge posed by climate change. With rising heat and shifting rainfall patterns, and reduced water storage resilience, fresh water supplies are already diminishing in the western United States, Mexico, the Middle East, and Mediterranean. Water shortages have been implicated in recent international conflict, and a recent Department of Defense study underscores the geopolitical importance of this problem.
drought
Researchers
| Name | Title | Fields of interest | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weston Anderson | Graduate Student | Drought, Hydroclimate, Food Security | |
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A. Park Williams | Lamont Associate Research Professor |
News items
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June 08, 2017
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February 14, 2017
Aaron Putnam sits atop a boulder high in the Sierras of central California, banging away with hammer and chisel to chip out a sample of ice age history. Each hunk of rock is a piece of a vast puzzle: How did our climate system behave the last time it warmed up like it’s doing today?
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October 05, 2016
As the American Southwest grows hotter, the risk of severe, long-lasting megadroughts rises, passing 90 percent likelihood by the end of the century if greenhouse gas emissions continue at their current pace, a new study says. If we aggressively reduce greenhouse gas emissions, however, we can cut that risk substantially, the authors write.
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January 22, 2016
The Columbia Center for Climate & Life at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory has announced its 2016 Fellows. Michael Puma is focusing on food security and climate shocks, and Park Williams is exploring the influence of climate change on droughts and wildfires.
Videos
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Richard Seager Sees Hand of Climate Change in Drought | Richard Seager Sees Hand of Climate Change in Drought |
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The Impact of Human-caused Warming on Drought and Fire in the Western United States |
