Climate Connections

By: DCMS Lego team Charging Panthers

Climate and Weather

• The difference between weather and climate is that weather is a change in our environment, and climate is a change in our environment over a long period of time. Our climate problem that we’ll be talking about today are droughts.

Climate Change Problems in Kentucky

• Droughts occur when water is so scarce that the existence of life becomes threatened. This is a major problem in our community, and it most definitely needs to be fixed.

http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/originals/kentucky_climate_profile.html

Droughts

• Droughts are also a climate problem in Mozambique, Africa. To solve this problem, Skylab astronauts take pictures of Africa to discover possible water sources. Here is a picture of drought-stricken Mozambique.

The Significant Drought in Kentucky

• The largest drought in Daviess County history started on September 9, 1999 at 12:01 A.M. and ended on September 30, 1999 11:59P.M. It destroyed 154,000,000 crops in this county. There were no deaths or injuries after this drought, but 21 other counties in Kentucky were affected by it.

This picture to theright was taken after the 2007 drought in Kentucky.

Mr. Hardy

• We contacted a professor from the Department of Agriculture named Mr. Hardy. We asked him a few questions and here is what he responded with…

How Has Drought Affected Us Over the Years?

• Mr. Hardy says: “It has made our land very dry and it has destroyed millions of crops in our county. It has cost us millions and millions of dollars throughout history.”

How Many Droughts Have We Had Over the Past 10 or 15 Years?

• Mr. Hardy says: “There weren’t many severe droughts. But we’ve had a minimum of 8 or 9 droughts in the past ten or fifteen years.”

How Many Crops Have Been Damaged from these Droughts?

• Mr. Hardy says: “All of the crops that we have produced have been damaged by droughts, but other counties’ crops have been affected too.”

Has Droughts Been A Major Issue in Daviess County?

• Mr. Hardy says: “We endured a major drought in 2007, and another one in 2008. So the problem of lower rainfall HAS affected Daviess County.”

How Can We Solve the Problem of Droughts in Daviess County?

• Mr. Hardy says: “Droughts are a very difficult problem to solve. A solution is to start planting crops early, also to conserve moisture.”

Is There Any Emergency Supply of Water in Case of A Drought?

• Mr. Hardy lastly says: “There are some forms, like springs and under wells, that the farmers can use to pump the water up to the surface. We also have the Green River as an emergency supply of water.”

Underground Spring Green River

Solutions

• Another solution to destroy droughts are…

• Using aquifers to store extra water underground

• Try to rethink your water storage technique and make it better

Resources

• http://www.idcide.com• http://www.water.ky.gov• Clint Hardy from The University of Kentucky’s

Department of Agriculture