The West Without Water

In 2013, California suffered its driest calendar year on record. Wildfires raged across the state – from the massive Rim Fire in Yosemite to the flames that engulfed Big Sur – and Governor Brown has since declared a drought state of emergency as the unprecedented dry spell has stretched into 2014. UC Berkeley paleoclimatologist B. Lynn Ingram, co-author of The West Without Water, believes this could potentially be the driest water year we’ve had in 500 years. Join Ingram and co-author Frances Malamud-Roam for a discussion on California’s current water crisis, the region’s climatic past and predictions about the future of climate change and its effect on water resources.