Report: Southeast Water Becoming More Uncertain

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National
Wildlife Federation has released its new report about water use and drought
in the southeastern United States. Click here to read more and
access the report.

Since 1960, the region’s population doubled and water use
for municipalities, irrigation, and thermoelectric power more than tripled. The
Southeast is one of the fastest growing parts of the country—58 of the fastest
100 growing counties in the nation are in the nine states of the Southeast.

More Variable and Uncertain Water Supply: Global Warming’s
Wake-Up Call for the Southeastern U.S. details
how:

• Water supply in the Southeastern United States will be more variable and uncertain in the coming decades;
• Rapidly expanding population, irrigation, and thermoelectric power use
  has increased water demand;
• The astonishing biodiversity of the Southeast is also at risk; and
• The Southeast should plan for increasing variability in water supply.

Strategies for meeting the increasing demand for water in
the region have not typically accounted for the regular occurrence of drought,
as illustrated by recent droughts. During 2007 alone, crop losses are estimated
at more than $1.3 billion and wildfire ravaged 600,000 acres in Georgia and Florida.