EEM Professor Jonathan Deason was quoted extensively in a Newsweek magazine article about the current U.S. megadrought. His points highlighted the extent and severity of the megadrought as well as the impacts it is causing and offered an assessment of what is to come in the future.
In the article, which appears in the June 27, 2022 issue of Newsweek, Deason said "As much as 80 percent of the 17 western states that comprise the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's area of operations have experienced severe or worse drought conditions at times during the past two decades. And overall, more than 20 percent of the land area in the western states has been in severe, extreme or exceptional drought conditions during the majority of time since the turn of the century."
Deason also said he does not expect to see much, if any, relief for a number of years because, even when the dry conditions abate, it is going to take several years of above-average rainfall for there to be a significant recovery. "Rainfall data for 2022 show essentially no relief yet for the vast majority of these areas," Deason said.
It is also increasing airborne particulate matter, which is a major cause of adverse respiratory effects on people, according to Deason.
At the socio-economic level, the megadrought affecting the United States has had profound effects, according to Deason.
"The megadrought has had huge negative effects, not only on reduced agricultural outputs and resulting increases in the prices of food, but also induced economic effects that are reverberating throughout the economy in terms of lost jobs and reduced standards of living, not to mention impacts on human nutrition," he said.
"While we know that megadroughts have occurred all over the world long before humans existed, there is very little doubt that anthropogenic impacts on the Earth's atmospheric temperature is playing a big role in creating these conditions," Deason said.
The full article can be seen on the Newsweek website.
On the July 21, 2022, Good Morning America program, ABC Chief Meteorologist Ginger Zee, in discussing climate change-induced drought, said “Jonathan Deason, Co-director of GW’s Environmental and Energy Management Institute told me, ‘People are so worried about gas prices, we should be concerned about food prices. Drought around the world and here in the U.S. will change food prices and even create conflict surrounding the need for food. A clip can be seen here.
EEMI climate change-related quotations also appeared in Newswise and World News Group publications in July 2022.