Monday, September 14, 2020

Can You Find The Article From Which This Graph Came?

This page contains a very good New York Times article about the centuries old drought history of California, and this graph:

Now there is a source, but after the Bellesiles matter, I like to look things up and verify the source.  I cannot find a article by E.R. Cook that contains such a graph, although I have found many articles by Cook about North American historical drought.  Can you find it?

Thanks!  Here. E.R. Cook. et al., "North American drought: Reconstructions, causes, and consequences," Earth-Science Reviews, Volume 81, Issues 1–2, March 2007, Pages 93-134

My librarian downloaded the full article.

The original graph, obviously modified a bit.


The essential fact is unchanged; western North America is ahistorically wet; droughts coincide with the Medieval Warm Period.

5 comments:

  1. I see a 2018 iteration here:

    https://climatereviewblog.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/Kalifornien-1.jpg

    sourcing it to this article:
    https://www.mercurynews.com/2014/01/25/california-drought-past-dry-periods-have-lasted-more-than-200-years-scientists-say/

    When I retrieve that today, the captions are misplaced from the pictures on my browser, and I find no reference to Cook in the article.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Don't know if this helps Clayton but I rad about this graph earlier on a post on JunkScience.com here:

    https://junkscience.com/2020/09/new-york-times-debunks-climate-caused-california-wildfires/#more-103155

    ReplyDelete
  3. E.R. Cook et al. / Earth-Science Reviews 81 (2007) 93–134

    points me to

    Cook, E.R., Woodhouse, C.A., Eakin, C.M., Meko, D.M., Stahle, D.W.,
    2004. Long-term aridity changes in the western United States.
    Science 306, 1015–1018.

    ReplyDelete
  4. OK, it looks like it is a redrawing of Figure 10 from Page 110 of the journal, page 18 of this PDF file:

    http://water.columbia.edu/files/2011/11/Seager2007NorthAmericanDrought.pdf#page=18

    Comparison of the two graphics here:
    https://imgur.com/a/Qgk1P7P

    ReplyDelete
  5. I worked as a Ranger (mostly fire management) on the Inyo National Forest, where the 4,000+ year old bristlecone pines live, for about 15 years.

    All the scientists studying these pines affirmed to me that it appeared that California had experienced wetter conditions starting approximately at the same time as significant European settlement began there.

    ReplyDelete