A Gripping Look At 2022’s Global Drought

In some parts of the world, summer 2022 is the hottest and driest in hundreds of years. It's providing a look at our climate future.
(CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images)

China, Europe, the Middle East, the Horn of Africa and parts of North America are all enduring record-breaking droughts.

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  1. Don’t worry, folks. Just a temporary blip. Nothing to see here. And really, folks, sacrificing a virgin is not going to change the direction or magnitude of the effects of increasing global warming. And god is not going to save you or your children or your grandchildren, who could well be the last humans on Earth. But you do have the great privilege of witnessing what no humans have ever seen - the death of this world due to the utter stupidity and willful ignorance and incredible greed and weakness of humans. Kiss it goodbye. Don’t burn your lips.

  2. It’s been hot and dry here in Kansas as it usually is all summer but this year seems different. Most of the Siberian elms in town (about half the trees) have turned brown and I’m not sure if they died or simply went dormant.

  3. Avatar for tao tao says:

    The heat causes drought for multiple reasons. But the heat and warming seas also causes more water to evaporate and enter the atmosphere. Sky rivers develop and floods put destructive amounts of water where it can’t be used. And so, a universal existential threat will serve to unify all of humanity to work together in order to survive. Or not.

  4. We had fairly stable weather patterns for millions of years. We’ve had ice covering the North Pole for millions of years.
    We’re expected to have an Arctic BOE (Blue Ocean Event) in the next few decades. If you think weather has gone crazy now…just wait for the BOE.

  5. Avatar for tao tao says:

    Trees stressed for water can fall victim to disease and insect pests that they could normally fend off. Once they turn brown, they are in real danger. Several years ago, New Mexico piñon trees were wiped out in large areas of the state by borers that normally could be controlled by production of pitch. The infested trees mobilized stored pitch reserves before dying. The wood that was left was like cardboard and rotted within a few years. Many of the juvenile trees that were left are doing well, but it is a very slow growing tree.

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