Droughts can’t be prevented

Dirk Dahlgren, Las Vegas

Thursday, Nov. 14, 2013 | 2:02 a.m.

An Oct. 31 letter to the editor expressed concern that Southern Nevada’s water problem is a direct result of airborne carbon and climate change. A little research will show that before 1600, there were many droughts that were much more severe than have occurred since then, including the current one. The past 400 years have been exceptionally wet for the southwest. Droughts before 1600 were caused by climate change, not by human-caused airborne carbon or carbon dioxide.

If you think the current situation is bad, in our lifetime we have not seen anything like what could come. We really should be prepared for an extensive drought. For example, the Southwest had a 38-year drought in the latter 1200s, and similar droughts will likely occur in the future, but we don’t know when and we cannot prevent them.