It hasn't rained for years.
Streams are no longer flowing,
the soil is so dry nothing can grow in it,
you haven't seen green plants for miles,
and the animals that feed on plants
have no food.
You have no food or water either.
And you can’t remember the last time
you felt anything but the dry weather.
A drought means a region
isn’t getting enough rain,
causing the soil to dry out
and plants to die.
A megadrought
is a severe dry period
that lasts not for weeks or months
but years or decades.
Droughts ruin crops.
And fields go dormant
because nothing can grow,
destroying food resources
for humans and animals.
And megadroughts can cause
environmental disturbances
like dust storms.
Riverbeds can dry,
forests can burn more easily
as conditions get drier,
and then there’s less water to fight
those fires due to the drought.
If you think that a decade-long drought
is only something in a
post-apocalyptic film,
you're wrong.
A megadrought has been gripping
a wide swath
of the southwestern United States
and northern Mexico
since about the year 2000.
Scientists say that it's the worst one
in 500 years.
And it’s the first megadrought
influenced by human-caused
climate change.
Digging a well,
or digging an existing well deeper,
could be an option if you live
where it's possible,
like out in the country.
But this would only be
a temporary solution,
as you'll need rain to refill the aquifer.
In a drought,
there will be a sudden need for water.
So if you extract all the groundwater
the aquifer will be depleted.
And once an aquifer is gone,
it’s gone forever.
It won't refill.
Eliminate or cut back
on water-intensive food.
Some foods you may eat daily
require incredible amounts
of water to produce,
like rice and some nuts.
California’s almond crop
needs up to
4.2 trillion liters (1.1 trillion gallons)
of water each year.
And some kinds of livestock,
like cattle,
need a lot of water.
It takes 2,650 L (700 gal) of water
to grow the crops that feed one cow
and produce 3.78 L (1 gal) of milk.
And it takes more than
1,514 L (400 gal)
for 113.3 g (.25 lb) of beef.
During Australia's Millennium Drought,
in the early 2000s,
one in three Melbourne residents
installed tanks on their roofs
to collect as much rainwater
as they could.
This water can be treated and filtered
to remove pollutants,
and you can use it
for cooking and drinking.
So building a rainwater tank
on your roof
might be a lifesaver.
From 1995 through 2009,
Australia experienced a terrible drought.
Melbourne received 90%
less rainfall than average,
and the city nearly depleted
its water supply entirely.
The city cut back on water usage.
And it installed rainwater tanks,
built water retention ponds
to collect rain for irrigation
and created water markets to help
to help people who had the least water.
After more than a decade
of working together,
the drought ended.
And Melbourne was considered
one of the happiest cities in the world
as its residents understood
that they had to work
together to survive.
They took care of each other
and limited their water use
to help each other.
The Earth is an integrated system
and maintains a kind of balance.
If one region is drier,
another area
is likely to experience floods.
Take your livelihood
into consideration
and if things become desperate,
move where conditions
aren't hazardous.
You survived a 20-year drought.
But it looks like the dryness
helped create a monster sandstorm.
Do you know what one of those
can do to your body?
Find out here,
on How to Survive.