The report does not draw any radical conclusions to support the causes of drought and linking current conditions to the impacts of climate change. Two things I did pick up from reading portions of the document is that on average 7% of the United States is typically in a drought condition from year to year. The other new term to me is megadrought, one that I had not heard of before. Evidently you can document earthquakes on the coast with tree rings and also document droughts from eons ago. Some megadroughts in the ancient past have lasted for decades.
The radical change that I see for our modern world, carbon aside, is the extensive use of water for supporting all facets of our 21st Century community. It is not just about drinking and supporting wildlife anymore. As we extract more water from the ground and don't replenish it we'll eventually run out of it, especially in those arid places that everyone seems to want to move to and have green lawns and golf courses.
Perhaps the rain storms that hit California over the weekend will begin to reverse the multi-year drought cycle that they are currently in--or not! It will take a significant change in climatic conditions for that reversal to happen. The one good thing that will come from this is the water conservation measures that are being put in place. As Las Vegas has shown, these types of conservation efforts can make a huge difference over time. It is the power of mitigation!
