California drought: 'May have to migrate people'
Suffering in its third year of drought, more than 58 percent of the state is currently in "exceptional drought" stage, according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor map. That marks a huge jump from just seven days ago, when about 36 percent of the state was categorized that way.
Exceptional drought, the most extreme category, indicates widespread crop and pasture losses and shortages of water in reservoirs, streams and wells.
If the state continues on this path, there may have to be thoughts about moving people out, said Lynn Wilson, academic chair at Kaplan University and who serves on the climate change delegation in the United Nations.
"Civilizations in the past have had to migrate out of areas of drought," Wilson said. "We may have to migrate people out of California."
Wilson added that before that would happen, every option such as importing water to the state would likely occur— but "migration can't be taken off the table."
Droughts are nothing new in the West.
Prehistoric droughts there have dwarfed the current drought. If you intend to build a civilization in a dry region, you have to make plans.
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