Weird Weather Watch: Massive Climate Change in American Southwest

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The Nation, the New York Times, and other reputable papers reported this week that the American Southwest is not experiencing a drought, as previously thought, but rather shifting to a significantly drier climate on a permanent basis. As a consequence of human activity, temperatures will increase by as much as 9 degrees (and if you’ve ever been to Phoenix, you can imagine how hot that will really be). Think major water problems, species extinction, likely large-scale human migrations, and certain animal migrations.

So see New Mexico while you still can. It’s exquisitely beautiful, even to this water-loving Yankee.

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We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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