From “The Hill”, even California Democrats aren’t buying the climate BS Obama and Holdren are selling on drought: (h/t to WUWT reader “Green Sand”)
Voters don’t hear the words “climate change” when Democrats in competitive races in California explain what’s causing the worst drought in the state’s history.
President Obama has repeatedly blamed global warming for episodes of severe weather, including wildfires and droughts in the Golden State, but Democrats seeking to unseat Republicans in the hard-hit Central Valley region are balking at that argument.
The drought is an issue in three of the five closest House races in California, but Democrats are opting against drawing a direct link between the drought and climate change.
“The way folks talk about the drought out here is: ‘We have a problem, let’s fix the problem,’” said Amanda Renteria, a Democrat challenging Rep. David Valadao (R).
“Climate change doesn’t really belong in the question, or answer,” said Renteria, one of her party’s best hopes of gaining a House seat this fall.
California’s drought is in its third year, with no signs of ending. It’s expected to cost the state $2.2 billion this year.
Renteria’s race against Valadao in California’s 21st District is smack dab in the middle of the agriculture-heavy Central Valley, where the drought is the single biggest issue for voters.
Renteria isn’t a climate skeptic and thinks there is something “going on” with climate change.
But her campaign isn’t focused on pinning the drought to the effects of global warming.
It’s focused on how federal and state officials were unprepared to deal with the drought, and how Central Valley lawmakers should have pushed Congress to take steps to build water storage infrastructure to help farmers.
“The fact that we need an answer, and needed an answer for years — this has been coming, we knew it was coming — adds to questions about who our leaders are, and what is going on in Congress,” she said.
Other Democrats in California districts impacted by the drought are tacking a similar tack.
OK, spot the portion caused by climate change:
The paper:
North American drought: Reconstructions, causes, and consequences, Cook et al. 2007
PDF here: NADrought
Figure 10 is the source of the above graph:
Fig. 10. Long-term aridity changes in the West (A) as measured by the percent area affected by drought (PDSIb−1) each year (B) (redrawn from Cook et al., 2004). The four most significant ( pb0.05) dry and wet epochs since AD 800 are indicated by arrows. The 20th century, up through 2003, is highlighted by the yellow box. The average drought area during that time, and that for the AD 900–1300 interval, are indicated by the thick blue and red lines, respectively. The difference between these two means is highly significant ( pb0.001).
Duster says:
August 18, 2014 at 9:35 am
As a northern Californian, I am opposed, as are most Delta farmers and ranchers, to the “tunnels,” whose sole purpose is to protect points south of the Delta from the effects of salinization during low-flow years. Part of that water would go to southern San Joaquin Valley farmers who are already working soil the grows evaporite minerals naturally. Sorry guys, you live in a desert, adapt. The remainder goes to the water-sucking monster south of the San Gabriels.
Note – Concerning the tunnels… As it stands, we are not slated to get a increase of the amount of water we are curently allocated. The delta pumps will be shut off and that water will be replaced with delivery from the tunnel. And the current understanding is we will get a meager amount. Most of it will go to, as you correctly put it “the water-sucking monster south of the San Gabriels”.
As far as living in the desert… Deal with it….
We are, the best we can. But we’re at a point where conservation is a game with diminishing returns. And if dealing with it means shutting down the farms and returning the land to the desert???? Them we should definitely unwind and tear down the Hetch Hetchy reservoir, return the Yosemite Valley twin to its natural state, and let Northern California “deal with it”.
“For California’s sake, I hope we get a strong El Nino later this year, as that should bring lots of rain.
However for the propagandists of the CAGW cult, I hope this year’s stalled/failed El Nino remains that way and extends the global temperature’s ‘Pause’ even further.
Greenies really should be called goofies, as they are against almost everything sensible and for almost everything stupid – an example of the first is dam building and of the second the non-problem of supposed global warming.”
There two aspects to a strong El Nino that we should not wish for too much:
1) California, especially Southern California if flood prone beyond 1″ per event. This is beneficial if;
2) The reservoirs are managed properly and excess water is stored rather then allowing flood gate relief.
The fairly new man-made reservoir in the LA area will certainly help the LA region, but if #2 does not function in an effective manner, then we will see #1 fully implemented via disasters.
Water storage is only part of the problem, basically for water you need diversity of supply, the atmospheric flows that bring rain vary latitudinally, but on the whole the tropics bring plenty of water, the problem is to get water from where it falls to where we want to use it. Lesson for USA, do a deal with Mexico, they have the water, you have the city.
The Democrats stay silent about climate change in elections so that they gain the most votes possible. Republicans let them because they are scared of opening the debate.
Result —> Democrats gets elected —> new climate change policies are enacted to appease the left-wing support —> California is a loser once again.
The kooks must be called out on how kooky they are. They then lose 10% of the swing vote (the rational middle-grounders) and they lose the election. Simple math.
Not enough water for the land,
and then you add the water needed for the people…
Doug Jones says:
August 18, 2014 at 2:44 pm
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Doug, the great storm of 1996 came close to doing the same thing. It rained close to 30 days and 30 nights. It was the longest rain event that I have ever witnessed in this state. Every little rivulet of water in every gully became a raging stream. The earthen dam on the Feather River just north of Oroville, Ca came close to over-topping the dam. If that dam had gone so would have Sacramento along with all of the towns north of there. It would then have moved into the SF/Bay Area and flooded the entire SF Bay. As it was there were lakes forming in low areas all through the region. By the way, I expect another flood year to be due in not too many more years. I would say that 2016/17 is very probable, or by 2017/18. That will break the drought. All of the heavy floods that I know of have all occurred around the solar minimum, 1946/47-1955/56-1964/65. Then there is a skip in the 1970s and 1980s. Finally in 1996 a massive rain strikes and then again in 2008 a moderate flood. Also note that those are all related to La Nina events. Being that I expect La Nina to start up later next year, next year should be a normal rain year.
goldminor says:
August 18, 2014 at 6:24 pm
La Ninas bring drought to most of CA; El Ninos rain. But perhaps northernmost CA benefits from more rain during La Ninas, which divert moisture northward to the Pacific NW.
@ur momisugly sturgishooper…yes all of those heavy washes stretched from No California, and some into Oregon and Washington. I took a Greyhound bus ride to visit cousins in Seattle in the summer of 1965. That ride took 37 hours. The devastation was something to see, and it went all the way into Washington.
That trip was from SF to Seattle.
goldminor says:
August 18, 2014 at 6:49 pm
Well do I recall the floods of 1965 in Oregon. Also 1995 & 1996. I missed those of ’48.
goldminor says:
August 18, 2014 at 6:50 pm
You are Pamela, are you not? Please excuse me if wrong.
Ironically, that “little” excess water, snowfall and rain across lower California and the Rocky Mountains in 1915 – 1918 happened exactly in the years that were used to survey the Colorado River flowrates to design the Hoover Dam and Lake Meade. And, to assign water rights to Los Angeles, Colorado, NM, and California, and Arizona for the water FROM that lake.
So, if you “measure” excess water flow during a rainy period, but keep assigning the same water rights across dry periods from 1970 through 2014, you get dry lakes and dead lawns and large cities in places that should never have received water at all.
Excuse my ignorance, but doesn’t California have different micro-climates normally. Obama should have said “It’s the climate’ leave out the change, unless he is referring to seasonal changes.
bushbunny says:
August 18, 2014 at 8:57 pm
Sure, but most of the state, including the big population centers, is historically drier during La Ninas and wetter during El Ninos. If, as appears likely, the PDO has switched, so that now La Ninas will be more common than El Ninos.
milodonharlani says:
August 18, 2014 at 6:57 pm
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I am Mark.
bushbunny says:
August 18, 2014 at 8:57 pm
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California is a very diverse state. From north to south it is around 900 miles in length. So it encompasses many climate zones, from rain forest to desert and almost everything in between..
milodonharlani says:
August 18, 2014 at 6:55 pm
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OT, but I was just looking at the quake map a few minutes ago. There has been a string of 5 quakes, 2.7 to 3.6, around Lakeview Oregon, which is in south central Oregon. What else is around that part of Oregon that would cause this string. I have watched daily quakes for 3.5 years now. This is a new series. They hit over a period of 5 hours. Why there?
goldminer @ur momisugly 9:33 pm.
California is the only place on earth that contains all the climate zones from Sonoran to Arctic.
Mike Alexander @ur momisugly 9:14 am.
You mentioned a $7.5 billion water bond in California being put to the voters during a drought. I understand that $2.7 billion is to be used for water storage projects on the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, $800 million for ground water cleanup and $4 billion for the environment.
I don’t see the $4 billion being used to improve the water shortage there. If anything it will be used to fight against improvements to water storage and distribution. It seems voting for this bond would assure the water shortage situation would continue and the voters would be paying higher taxes for it.
Climate change deniers are complicit in the global warming deaths of hundreds of thousands of people per year 88% of them children (World Health Organization). No amount of money would tempt me to do that. But, mercenaries only know self-interest and are pathetic.
We need to mitigate further damage or the damage may be beyond repair. Watts ,you don’t know squat. Try to get your analyses published in expert journals, rather than throw this stuff in front of people without the sophistication to find your poison pill.
REPLY: I have published in “expert journals” see my about page for papers, here: http://wattsupwiththat.com/about-wuwt/publications-and-projects/
… and most recently here: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/04/30/new-skeptic-publication-in-nature-climate-change-rebuts-strm-et-al-claims-of-increased-deaths-due-to-heat-waves/
What was that you were saying about not knowing “squat”? Please show your list of papers. – Anthony
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2727734/Wet-cold-bank-holiday-way-forecasters-warn-two-weeks-bad-weather-ahead.html
August, snow in Scotland? GOTTA BE GLOBAL WARMING!
“They’re rioting in Africa, they’re starving in Spain.
There’s hurricanes in Florida, and Texas needs rain…
They’re rioting in Africa, there’s strife in Iran.
What nature doesn’t do to us, will be done by our fellow man. ”
– From ‘The Merry Minuet’, The Kingston Trio, (1959)
jfreed27 says:
August 19, 2014 at 2:58 am
There is no evidence that the supposed global warming from 1970 to 2004 to which the WHO falsely attributes 140,000 deaths was primarily caused by human activity. It bases that accusation on fatally flawed, GIGO reports by the UN’s biased IPCC.
In fact, man-made CO2 has been a boon to humans, plants and other living things on the planet.
‘We have a problem, let’s fix the problem,’” said Amanda Renteria
Of course, her degree in Poli Sci is just what we need, to guarantee perfect weather!
In the 1960’s people said, “the fastest growing areas of the United States have the least water, this will be a problem in the future“. They were right, 38 million people require more water than 16 million.