Opinion: Clarifying the science behind Calif.’s water woes
By Andrew C. Revkin, New York Times
There’s no question that residents of California and much of the West face a collision between high water demands driven by growth and outdated policies and a limited and highly variable water supply.
But that reality hasn’t stopped heated arguments from springing up in recent days over the cause or causes of California’s continuing epic drought. Is one of the drivers the growing human influence on the climate? Or is this drought something we’ve seen before, the result of natural variability?
In the wake of an unusual public debate on this issue between President Obama’s science adviser, John Holdren, and Roger Pielke Jr., a longtime analyst of climate-related disaster losses at the University of Colorado, I received a helpful note from Martin Hoerling, who studies climate extremes for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Hoerling’s conclusions echo those of another longtime student of western drought, Richard Seager of Columbia University, as reported in Justin Gillis’s recent news report on the issue. “I’m pretty sure the severity of this thing is due to natural variability,” Seager told Gillis.
Better to be safe than sorry….. we still need to be mindful of our natural resources!
If another story I just read tonight is correct, this issue is solved next year with the return of El Nino. So in reality, LA needs to quit raping the Eastern Sierra for their water “SAVE MONO LAKE!” and agriculture needs to be more mindful of the cash crops that are planted in relationship to water demands of those crops. Leave the cotton and the rice to the Mississippi Delta where there is plenty of water.
The situation is more complicated than this article and its’ supporting memo suggest, as it is quick nowadays to posit an opinion based on the recent past to justify that opinion. . .but we would be conflating one for the other as it should be readily apparent that the climate change issues are going to compound whatever the near-term experience “now” says. . .
‘Obvious’ says, in the “winter” just passing, that even the little amount of ‘snow’ was added to by a lot of rain (a CC prediction). . .the Water politics brutal as they’ve always been, had better be more cognizant of the need for serious change, so we’re not consumed by the same crusty, destructive methods that backfire this time. . . with no useful primary or back-up plan. . .