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<div class="column"><p class="">"Could we thrive in the face of a pan-continental megadrought? Probably yes, but <b class="">only if</b> we develop the appropriate buffering
strategies in advance of the drought, <b class="">and if</b> we
think more seriously about reducing emissions
of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere as a way
of keeping future droughts from becoming so
hot and dry that they are beyond our buffering
capacity."</p></div><div class="column"><p class=""><span style="font-weight: 700;" class="">Jonathan T. Overpeck </span><span style="font-style: italic;" class="">is at the Institute of
the Environment and in the Departments of
Geosciences and of Atmospheric Sciences,
University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721,
USA.</span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-style: italic;" class=""> </span></p>
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