In virtual mega-drought, California avoids defeat
The Los Angelos Times (October 5, 2014) - A few years ago a group of researchers used computer modeling to put California through a nightmare scenario: Seven decades of unrelenting mega-drought similar to those that dried out the state in past millennia. "The results were surprising," said Jay Lund, one of the academics who conducted the study. Traumatic changes would occur as developed parts of the state shed an unsustainable gloss of green and dropped what many experts consider the profligate water ways of the 20th century. But overall, "California has a remarkable ability to weather extreme and prolonged droughts from an economic perspective," said Lund, director of the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences.