Historically the 20th Century was more wet than average. We got falsely comfortable with that level of precipitation. Worse that level of self-deception led to development (i.e., people and structures) that was struggling with water issues in the best of times.
It's unfortunate. But to call it unprecedented is painting a false narrative.
Uhm, okay, you have convinced me that droughts aren't a new phenomenon.
The claim however was that they become more frequent and severe. Not every drought is the same. From your link:
> the 2012–15 period was the driest in at least 1200 years
Also, according to your link, about there was a drought in 12 of the last 20 years, with only one or two years in between droughts, where they previously usually were spaced by around a decade or more.
The data listed there really doesn't seem to contradict the article's claim about more frequent droughts in the future.
I don't know why you are listing examples of droughts, unless you interpreted my statement that global increased precipitation would seem to imply less severe droughts globally, as a statement that droughts will no longer exist. This would be an example of poor reading comprehension or poor inferential logic.
I get the feeling that droughts have happened before, are happening now, and will happen again; and we are just not able as humans to control the climate.
In fact I found this study that proves that history does repeat.
Thankfully, due to technological advancement though - it is nowhere near as damaging as it once was - in fact now these are barely a blip on the radar on human life. In times past, it is easy to forget that a simple drought halted all commerce, caused great famines, and without transportation and local food sources available, people were dying.
Just take a look at the history and see the trend lines for the evidence of improvement that advancements like electricity and internal combustion have given us:
Year-to-year variability isn't enough to make up for cumulative multi-year effects. See this UC Boulder webinar - here's the timepoint where they discuss multi-year droughts:
Notice the increasing tempo of drought frequency? That's in line with long-term climate model predictions of the drying of the American Southwest, linked to a general trend of rising interior temperatures in midlatitude continental zones (in particular, decreased soil moisture, declining summer snowpack, possibly expanding Hadley cell circulation).
See also the 2000-present graph at the bottom of this page:
It might be true that these reservoirs could be refilled if most outflow was eliminated, but that would mean the end of regional agriculture and severe restrictions on household water use across the entire region.
Recent human experience. Local climates were never in steady-states during human experience. California is a great example: during the industrial age it's been in an unusually wet period.
> Drought is intrinsic to the natural climate of California.[6] Across the Californian region, paleoclimate records dating back more than 1,000 years show more significant dry periods compared to the latest century. Ancient data reveals two mega-droughts that endured for well over a century, one lasting 220 years and one for 140 years. The 20th century was fraught with numerous droughts, yet this era could be considered relatively "wet" compared against an expansive 3,500 year history. In recent times, droughts lasting five to 10 years have raised concern, but are not anomalous. Rather, decade long droughts are an ordinary feature of the state's innate climate. Based on scientific evidence, dry spells as severe as the mega-droughts detected from the distant past are likely to recur, even in absence of anthropogenic climate change.
A drought isn't climate change. The annual weather is a chaotic system, and a drought for a year or two (or even 10) is normal. Climate change is much longer term.
I get the feeling that droughts have happened before, are happening now, and will happen again; and we are just not able as humans to control the climate.
Great! Hope you're not wrong. The vast majority of people who are in the best positions to know think you are.
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