The Bolivian capital of La Paz and its surroundings, home to nearly 2 million people, is poised to experience a catastrophic drought that will turn productive grasslands into arid deserts as soon as 2040 due to rising temperatures, a new study concludes.
by Stan Freeman, Mass.Live, Tuesday, December 14, 2010
WESTFIELD – The Bolivian capital of La Paz and its surroundings, home to nearly 2 million people, is poised to experience a catastrophic drought that will turn productive grasslands into arid deserts as soon as 2040 due to rising temperatures, a new study concludes.
Signs of the approach of such a drought, which has occurred twice in the region in the past 370,000 years, are already being seen, said Jennifer A. Hanselman, a Westfield State University biologist. She is one of three authors of the study, which was published in the December issue of Global Change Biology.
“The symptoms of it are evident now, and what we fear is that we will soon reach a tipping point. And if we reach the tipping point, it is inevitable,” she said.
The delicate balance between rainfall and temperature in that region is controlled, in great part, by Lake Titicaca, which sits on the border between Peru and Bolivia and is the largest lake in South America. La Paz resides in an Andean Valley, about 50 miles from the lake. Evaporation from the lake, which puts moisture into the air, accounts for perhaps half the rainfall in La Paz and its surroundings.