By Craig Miller
This winter is shaping up to be among the Bay Area's driest on record, but scientists are weighing the odds of a thousand-year drought.
Some researchers may have found one in ancient times — something on the order of 1800 to 2800 years ago.
Paleoecologist Scott Mensing says that's a “long time ago from human perspectives, not long ago geologically”.
Mensing is a paleo-ecologist at the University of Nevada, Reno. He turned up the evidence by studying ancient pollens buried in lake beds: not literally a thousand years with no rain, but a long, dry period, perhaps punctuated with a few wet
Source: KQED Radio News
