Opinion: State’s future depends on adapting to climate
By Dan Cayan
Maybe it is the fact that in 1862 massive floods from 45 straight days of rain transformed the Central Valley into an inland sea that drove the California Legislature to relocate to San Francisco.
Or maybe it’s because sunny beaches, cool Sierra slopes and expansive deserts can be seen and felt, all within a half-day’s drive. Santa Ana winds and San Francisco fog figure prominently in our culture. For many reasons, Californians have a heightened sense of their special relationship to climate, an appreciation for how it changes from year to year, and a high awareness of the extremes that come with it.
On the national level, however, climate change science has been a challenging message to convey in the political arena. Politicians respond to immediate, often emotional, issues and are especially tuned to the timetables of legislative terms and news cycles.
Climate change is in many ways the opposite – a plodding sequence of events, dominoes falling one at a time only every 10 years or 100. Warnings of temperature rises that may amount to only a few degrees in 50 years do not inspire angst. The climate trend that is set in motion today might be recognized as serious only by a voter two generations hence.
But Californians have shown that they understand how important it is to understand climate and invest in research. Even through years of unsigned budgets, shutdowns and IOUs, we have still managed, wisely, to take the long view on one thing that really matters.
Dan Cayan is a researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego and the U.S. Geological Survey.
Hey Dan your job is secure. Lay off the scaremongering and soothsaying. The sky is not falling and we won’t be like frogs in a kettle of water as it heats up.
Can you imagine what Dan would be saying if this conference were taking place in the 30’s during the dust bowl era?
BTW, what happened to that “atmospheric river”, did it dry up for the last 150 years.
Umm, hasn’t mankind been adapting to the weather for it’s entire existence? And, for the vast majority of that time, we managed to do it without a plethora of government agencies.
While this scientist is clearly someone who gets grants thanks to the whole Climate Change drum beating, he did say something that everyone can agree with-“We understand that a significant amount of climate change is inevitable, even if the global community rapidly curtails its greenhouse gas emissions.”
And I’m also glad to read that he’s part of a group that’s going to put forth specific recommendations on the matter! I’ve always wanted to know what’s the plan, (if one is so sure there’s man made caused Climate Change/Global Warming) to deal with it?
TCR that is the point. He either states the obvious or nonsense as some special truth kinda like old JG. Parker, have you heard of “cap and trade” for CO2 or artificially keeping the price of gas high by not allowing drilling in our country. These are some of the ways to control your behavior.
It would be so much easier if we can just acknowledge the science, admit that the earth is warming, and assume that we are part of the cause. And move on to the discussion that follows. What can we do that is possible, feasible, economical (over a period of 100+ years), considers how our resources (primarily water) will change.
Russia for example, is exploring how its resources will change in their favor as a result of a decrease in multiyear ice. The US is doing the same. The vast majority of people have moved on with the exception of the people in this country who are being used as pawns for the short term gains of politicians and the corporations that control energy. Our behavior (decisions) must change. Will they be proactive, or re-active? Those are the only options.
It would be so much easier if we just let the government run our lives and except the future. And we know how much better our existance would be because the bureaucrats have our best interests at heart.
This is about as stupid as what you wrote directly above.
Many governments mess with the weather. I’m curious to know if we are seeding the clouds again. Last year they supposedly did not and we had a wonderful winter. How much garbage do we have floating/surrounding the atmosphere? Living our daily lives is not the problem, the earth is designed to evolve. Government is the problem. They should spend the grant money cleaning up the clogged atmospheric garbage. I agree with Earl.