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Forget The Snow, It’s The Drought That Is Crushing The US Economy

April 20, 2015

Forget The Snow, It’s The Drought That Is Crushing The US Economy

With all eyes and talking heads focused on the ‘weather’, it seems cold, wet, snowy, and frigid are the most GDP-destructive adjectives. However, as Bloomberg reports, the drought out West is starting to infiltrate U.S. housing data, according to the chief economist of a homebuilders’ group, and weakening a major part of the nation’s economy.

As Bloomeberg reports,

Housing starts in the West fell for a third straight month, dropping by 19 percent in March to an annualized rate of 201,000 for the weakest since May. Construction rebounded from harsh winter weather in other parts of the country, such as the Northeast, where they jumped a record 115 percent, and the Midwest.

The weakness in the West might reflect the record-setting drought, which may be discouraging companies from building or taking out permits for new construction, said David Crowe, chief economist at the National Association of Home Builders in Washington. Uncertainty surrounding local water policy and the ability to obtain water connections for new homes or apartment buildings could be holding some builders back, he said.

“Until it’s clear what restrictions mean for new building, it’s wise for builders to be hesitant,” Crowe said. “This is more serious than just a temporary dry period. This is a new regime that says it’s going to be harder to obtain additional water usage.”

And it’s not just California…

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

 

US ‘at risk of mega-drought future’

February 13, 2015

US ‘at risk of mega-drought future’

The American south-west and central plains could be on course for super-droughts the like of which they have not witnessed in over a 1,000 years.

Places like California are already facing very dry conditions, but these are quite gentle compared with some periods in the 12th and 13th Centuries.

Scientists have now compared these earlier droughts with climate simulations for the coming decades.

The study suggests events unprecedented in the last millennium may lie ahead.

“These mega-droughts during the 1100s and 1200s persisted for 20, 30, 40, 50 years at a time, and they were droughts that no-one in the history of the United States has ever experienced,” said Ben Cook from Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

“The droughts that people do know about like the 1930s ‘dustbowl’ or the 1950s drought or even the ongoing drought in California and the Southwest today – these are all naturally occurring droughts that are expected to last only a few years or perhaps a decade. Imagine instead the current California drought going on for another 20 years.”

Dr Cook’s new study is published in the journal Science Advances, and it has been discussed also at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

 

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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