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"The West Without Water" On Tuesday's Access Utah

B. Lynn Ingram is Professor of Earth and Planetary Science and Geography at the University of California, Berkeley and co-author of "The West Without Water: What Past Floods, Droughts, and other Climatic Clues Tell Us About Tomorrow." She'll join us for Tuesday's AU to answer such questions as: What is "normal" climate in the West and how do we know what's normal? What do we learn from megafloods and megadroughts during the past 2,000 years, including most disastrous flood in the history of California and the West, which occurred in 1861-62?  Why is climate so variable in the West? What does the past tell us about tomorrow?

Ingram and her co-author Frances Malamud-Roam say that extended droughts and catastrophic floods have plagued the West with regularity over the past two millennia but that, while the West may have temporarily buffered itself from such harsh climatic swings by creating artificial environments and human landscapes, our modern civilization may be ill-prepared for the future climate changes that are predicted to beset the region. They warn that it is time to face the realities of the past and prepare for a future in which fresh water may be less reliable.

Lynn Ingram us coming to Logan to deliver a lecture, "The West without Water: A Climate History," as part of USU Natural Resources Week, hosted by the S. J. & Jessie E. Quinney College of Natural Resources. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is April 1 at noon in the Eccles Conference Center Auditorium on the USU campus.

Tom Williams worked as a part-time UPR announcer for a few years and joined Utah Public Radio full-time in 1996. He is a proud graduate of Uintah High School in Vernal and Utah State University (B. A. in Liberal Arts and Master of Business Administration.) He grew up in a family that regularly discussed everything from opera to religion to politics. He is interested in just about everything and loves to engage people in conversation, so you could say he has found the perfect job as host “Access Utah.” He and his wife Becky, live in Logan.