Florida, my home, is gripped by a historic drought. We will need at least a year of heavier than average rains to replenish our aquifer to normal levels. I’ve been following the drought in Florida with concern, watching as the level in Lake Okeechobee drops and we steadily drain our aquifers. But I recently discovered that Florida isn’t the only state in the Southeast that is experiencing a drought of epic proportions.
The entire Southeast is gripped by a drought of such intensity that something similar hasn’t been seen for at least 100 years. Georgia and North Carolina are reaching the bottom of their water supplies. In North Carolina, some cities are less than 80 days away from exhausting their water supplies. In 90 days, Atlanta may also be out of water supplies. Large amounts of rain need to come soon to avert these emergencies, but we have entered the dry season and it isn’t likely that we will get heavy rainfall anytime soon. 
While drought affects some areas of the Southeast, tornados are ripping through Pensacola and Missouri. Its impossible not to link this in with the freak tornado that touched down in Brooklyn earlier this fall, the floods in the Southwest this summer or severe weather that is impacting Asia and Central America right now.
Droughts, tornadoes and an increased frequency of severe weather incidents are all effects of climate change. Its pretty clear to me at least that these aren’t just normal fluctuations, and that climate change is already affecting us globally. So why are the nations of the world and our so called leaders still scratching their heads and avoiding taking real action on this issue?As Juan pointed out, what will it take for us to take action on these issues? The U.S. is feeling the impacts of climate change while contributing to it more than any other nation. How many more tornadoes, droughts and floods will we need to catapult us into action?
I know one thing, that the youth climate movement won’t give up. We won’t stop fighting until we force our leaders to take action on these issues. In a time when true leadership on these issues is so lacking from the older generation, I need look no farther than my friends and peers to be inspired and encouraged. I can’t wait until we are all together at Power Shift, and we can gather together the collective voice of our generation and demand firm, strong action on climate change.
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Will there be alternative water sources for Atlanta and others? This is really scary. We need to be showing leaders that this is what we’re causing because we don’t want to end our use of fossil fuels. Thanks for the post!
I am not sure about Atlanta, but Durham, NC (pop. 450,000+) is set to run out of water within 60 days. When this happens their plan is to begin pulling from neighboring cities, including Burlington (also a major source of water for Greensboro whose population 240,000) as well as water sources for Apex and Cary. Raleigh is set to run out in January. But this is a major problem that, at least from my perspective as a resident of these areas, governing bodies have failed to adequately address the public about. But perhaps even more disheartening is that many of the population in these areas don’t seem to realize what a dire drought we’re in — they turn on the faucet, water comes out; they go to the grocery store, there’s still food. There are some upcoming mandatory restrictions on water coming up in my area (Burlington) and hopefully that’ll wake people up to the severe nature of this problem.