(SFGate) The Southwest, including California, along with the Great Plains states, will endure long-lasting "megadroughts" in the second half of this century, worse by far than anything seen in the past 1,000 years, a team of climate experts said Thursday.
The driving force behind the devastating droughts? Human-induced global warming, the team reported.
The new forecast is based on models of continued climate change that consider the slow pace of many nations to curb their output of greenhouse gases. The scientists contend there is at least a 20 percent chance that coming droughts will last 35 years or more, and a 50 percent chance that they will last 10 years or more.
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