About 10 percent drier, according to this New York Times map of watersheds.Of course, Texas should be thankful it’s not the Colorado River basin, projected to be 20 percent or so drier.
Since much of eastern Texas is non-irrigated agriculture, this has major farm and ranch fallout. If it’s four degrees warmer, and you also have four fewer inches of rain a year, well, plus more evaporation from higher temperatures, you’re looking at more crop failures.
That’s still better than the lower Colorado River basin. Since the river itself could be at 500-year low flow and Lake Mead could disappear by 2020, Southern California and Arizona farmers may not have ANY water for their crops by then.
Back in Texas, in west Texas to be precise, without more stinting use of water (and setting aside nuttery like transporting water to east Texas) the Ogallala Aquifer will probably be about played out at about the same time.
But, Ed Abbey told them 40 years ago that the desert ultimately wins. Heck, John Wesley Powell halfway said that more than 100 years ago.
The full report’s home page is here, with PDF links to individual sections.
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