A study released by Columbia University claims climate change is likely intensifying California’s record-breaking drought.
The Hill reports researchers say the drought is a mostly natural phenomenon, but blamed man-made global warming for increasing its intensity, by up to 20 percent.
The study says the root cause of the drought is a “persistent ridge of high atmosphere pressure” that has blocked wet weather from reaching California and its parched Central Valley.
Researchers say that global warming has likely contributed to the drought by sapping soil of its moisture, to the tune of eight percent to 27 percent between 2012 and 2014.
President Obama and California Governor Jerry Brown have both blamed climate change for contributing to California’s drought, which is now in its fourth year.
