00:00 Today's episode is about droughts, specifically the one currently affecting California.

05:34 Droughts are natural and seasonal, but become natural disasters when humans apply their impact to the land, such as through agriculture and excessive water usage.

10:39 Drought occurs when there is not enough rain to sustain the ecosystem, and it is exacerbated by factors such as high pressure zones, air pollution, and shifts in wind patterns.

16:06 Warmer than average water temperatures in the tropics can create wetter or drier than average conditions in different parts of the world, leading to extreme weather events like floods and droughts.

21:07 The severity of a drought can be categorized into stages, starting with meteorological drought where only weather enthusiasts would notice, followed by agricultural drought where farmers start to notice, then hydrological drought where the general public starts to notice, and finally socioeconomic drought where government restrictions are put in place and it can have serious economic and social consequences.

26:39 Climate change, specifically the increase in CO2 in the atmosphere, is believed to be a major factor in creating drought-like conditions due to the rise in temperature it causes.

31:47 Climate change, specifically the increase in CO2 in the atmosphere, is believed to create drought-like conditions by creating high-pressure areas that prevent air from rising and generating rain, and reducing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere could potentially reverse these conditions.

36:56 Melbourne successfully reduced water usage during a drought through local recycling programs and effective campaigns that emphasized the shared responsibility of conserving water.

42:08 The Dust Bowl was one of the worst natural disasters in US history, caused by a combination of drought and unsustainable farming practices in the 1920s.

47:33 The overproduction of wheat, combined with a recession and drought, led to the Dust Bowl in the 1930s, causing 100 million acres of topsoil to blow away and forcing many farmers to leave their homes and farms.

53:06 The government implemented measures to rehabilitate the land affected by the Dust Bowl in the 1940s, including buying land to keep it grassy and stable, and creating the Works Progress Administration and the Natural Resources Conservation Service to prevent future droughts, although smaller farms eventually consolidated into larger ones that still receive government subsidies for soil conservation measures.

57:54 The damaged wing membranes of hibernation-interrupted bats are especially susceptible to water loss, and studies indicate that bats die from lack of water rather than lack of food, with chronic respiratory acidosis being a mechanism for this.