Drought In The U.S. West Is The Worst In 1,200 Years Or Something

All because you just had to have that steak from an Evil moo cow and drive to the beach

Climate crisis in Western US worst in 1,200 years

As the population in the Western United States continues to grow, 72 percent of these states are experiencing a considerably “severe” drought, including 26 percent experiencing exceptional drought, NBC News reported — the worst drought in the region in 1,200 years.

Neither The Hill article nor the NBC News one provides scientific data backing up this assertion. The NBC one says

This year’s aridity is happening against the backdrop of a 20-year-long drought. The past two decades have been the driest or the second driest in the last 1,200 years in the West, posing existential questions about how to secure a livable future in the region.

They both happily blame anthropogenic climate change, failing to consider the question “what caused the drought 1,200 years ago?” If the answer is “natural processes”, then why is that different from now? I’m certainly not going to dismiss some anthropogenic forcing, especially land use and the overuse of underground water, but, they did not have industry, fossil fuels, and so forth 1,200 years ago during the Medieval Warm Period, and 1,20o years ago is right in the middle of it, and the real data shows it was warmer than the current warm period. So, what caused it? Back to The Hill

This year is set to be the worst drought in the West since 1977, Ernest Conant, director of the Mid-Pacific Region of the Bureau of Reclamation, told NBC News. Before that, the second driest year took place 1,200 years ago.

Oh, wait, what? I thought it was the worst in 1,200 years? No? So the headline and first paragraph were just mean to scare people? That’s not even mentioned in the NBC cult screed. It’s almost like the Credentialed Media is trying to gaslight us, all while failing to give up their own use of fossil fuels and make their businesses carbon neutral. Why are we supposed to trust them?