"Side Effect Of California's Drought: More Climate Pollution"

"Droughts are already getting longer and more severe because of human-caused climate change in the American Southwest and around the world. But the drought-climate connection goes both ways: California's prolonged dry spell has also made climate change a little bit worse.

Between 2011 and 2014, during the height of the drought, electricity production from hydropower dropped more than 60 percent as rivers dried up and reservoir levels fell, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of California, Irvine. That low-carbon electricity was replaced largely by natural gas, which generates climate pollution. The result: From 2012 through 2014, the state's electricity sector generated 33 percent more carbon dioxide annually than it had in 2011, scientists found.

"If you look at just the California drought, the amount of additional (carbon dioxide) in the atmosphere is probably not a lot. But droughts happen everywhere, all the time, throughout the world," said Amir AghaKouchak, a UC Irvine engineering professor and co-author of the study. "So we argue that the cumulative effects of these extreme events like droughts and heat waves are significant.""

Sammy Roth reports for the Palm Springs Desert Sun January 3, 2017.