Reposted from Fabius Maximus Blog
Larry Kummer, Editor Climate change 19 May 2019
Summary: Activists hope that daily apocalyptic news stories about climate change will mold public opinion, no matter how much they exaggerate the science. For a stunning example, look at the news and facts about droughts.
ID 50990297 © Kiosea39 | Dreamstime.
The propaganda barrage by climate activists has few precedents in modern US history, increasing in intensity and the magnitude of its exaggerations. Any extreme weather, no matter how typical in history, becomes evidence of human influences: heat waves, cold, floods, snow, and – as described in this post – droughts. Activists hope that their flow of alarmist “news” will shape public opinion, just as a riven can carve through mountains.
About the California drought, forever until it ended
For several years journalists and activists pumped out stories like this. Seldom did they mention the IPCC or any contrary notes by scientists.
“Thanks El Nino, But California’s drought is probably forever” by Rick Stockton at Wired, May 2016.
“California Braces for Unending Drought” by Ian Lovett at the NYT, May 2016.
Editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Drought is the new normal“, December 2017.
The Pacific Institute on the California drought: “Responding to the drought is responding to a ‘new normal’ water future with climate change” (2016).
See this example from September 2016 showing how sober research becomes apocalyptic warnings.
- “Prolonged California aridity linked to climate warming and Pacific sea surface temperature” in Science Reports. Conclusions: “it remains uncertain if the Pacific will react in a similar manner in the 21st century, but should it follow apparent past behavior more intense and prolonged aridity in California would result.”
- The UCLA press release is more dramatic: “Pacific Ocean’s response to greenhouse gases could extend California drought for centuries.”
- A story by KTLA-5 is apocalyptic: “‘The New Normal’: California’s Severe Drought Could Last Indefinitely, New Study Says.” UCLA Professor Glen MacDonald, the lead author, said “it’s not beyond reason that as we move into the 21st century that this isn’t a drought. This could be what would we consider normal conditions for California: a drier and hotter state,”
The Texas drought, a new normal until it wasn’t
The Texas regional drought produced a similar flood of doomster stories.
“Texas’ Permanent Drought” by Forrest Wilder at the Texas Observer, July 2011.
“Texas Climate News sought out the state’s finest climatologists, oceanographers and public-policy experts. If nothing else, their responses make clear that the Lone Star State is headed for a new normal.” {Dallas Observer, 14 October 2013.}
“Fear in a Handful Of Dust” by Ted Genoways, The New Republic: “Climate change is making the Texas panhandle, birthplace of the state’s iconic Longhorn, too hot and dry to raise beef. …environmental activists and reporters began to ask whether “drought” – a temporary weather pattern – was really the right term for what was happening in the state, or whether “desertification” was more appropriate. … ‘If climate change is the real deal then the human race as we know it is over’.”
“Drought is ‘the new normal’” by Lacey Jarrell at the Herald and News, September 2015.
“Texas’ Record Floods Are the New Normal” by TakePart, September 2015.
Back to reality: good news about droughts
“We don’t even plan for the past.”
— About our unpreparedness for the inevitable repeat of past weather, by Steven Mosher of Berkeley Earth at Climate Etc.
Neither of those droughts was unusual for their regional climates. Scientists said so at the time. (See the quotes in the posts listed below.) Such short-term events tell us little or nothing about climate trends (but showed our poor ability to handle normal weather). But clickbait-loving leftist journalists misreported the science.
Now the weather has swung to the other extreme, but there are few stories about this good news: the percent of the continental US in drought is at a record low (i.e., going back to January 2000), with a slight trend to less droughts (h/t to Professor Roger Pielke Jr.). This graph shows the percent not in drought. For more information, see the US Drought Monitor.
What do we know about the trend in droughts?
How much do climate scientists From the table 1in the Summary for Policymakers of the Working Group I of the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report, a description of what we know about the trends for various kinds of extreme weather. Here is the row about drought. Unlike the bold certain claims by activists, the IPCC’s scientists have low confidence in assessment about past and future trends.
- “Increases in intensity and/or duration of drought: low confidence on a global scale’
- “Assessment that changes occurred (typically since 1950 unless otherwise indicated): low confidence.
- “Assessment of a human contribution to observed changes: low confidence.
- “Likelihood of further changes in the early 21st century: low confidence.”
You will seldom see this mentioned in articles about climate change, especially since Leftists abandoned the IPCC as “too conservative” (examples here and here). That is why they are losing. We cannot successfully cope with climate change – natural and anthropogenic – without a relentless focus on the science. Otherwise climate change will become a tool for those who wish to shape society for other reasons.
For More Information
Two useful government reports about climate change.
- “Climate Change: Information on Potential Economic Effects Could Help Guide Federal Efforts to Reduce Fiscal Exposure.” by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), September 2017. See its misleading press coverage.
- “Drought in the United States: Causes and Current Understanding” by the Congressional Research Service, November 2017.
Ideas! For shopping ideas, see my recommended books and films at Amazon.
If you liked this post, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. See these Reference Pages for other posts about climate on the FM sites: The keys to understanding climate change and My posts about climate change. Also, see these posts about droughts …
- Recommended: Key facts about the drought that’s reshaping California.
- Have we prepared for normal climate change and non-extreme weather?
- Droughts are coming. Are we ready for the past to repeat?
- Let’s prepare for past climate instead of bickering about predictions of climate change.
- Our response to California’s drought shows America at work to enrich the 1%.
- Recommended: Key facts about the drought that’s reshaping Texas.
- The Texas drought ends; climate alarmists wrong again!
- Lessons learned from the end of California’s “permanent drought.”
- Weather porn about Texas, a lesson for Earth Day 2019.
Books about droughts
See the 1993 classic book forecasting our present problems Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water
States…ALL STATES…will be in far better shape once they crawl off the AGW band wagon and actually start learning from and subsequently begin preparing for past weather events and their potential to repeat as future weather events
Rains will occur
Torrential rains will occur
Hurricanes will occur
Stalled Fronts will occur
Dry Seasons will occur
Droughts will occur
Winds will occur
Tornados will occur
Always have…Always will
There is NOTHING man can do to stop them from happening and EVERYTHING man should do to prepare for their eventuality.
An ounce of Pre-action is worth a Pound of re-action
Squaw Valley ski resort has received 28 inches fresh snowfall since 16 May, over 700 inches for the winter season, and the Tahoe Basin today has 16 times the normal snowpack for this date. “The End Of Snow” indeed.
One of the reasons that longer term corrective action isn’t taken is that the politicians jump all over excuses like climate change so that they don’t have to take funds away from their vote buying projects. It’s the politicians that are the problem in most areas.
I agree, stop wasting money on pointless virtue-signalling, that is the first thing that needs to happen. It might even be a good idea to divert money currently spent on useless Green-Tech into a trust fund to be able to respond when those types of events that have occurred in the past re-occur. And they will.
But, in planning for the past, don’t we do that already? As a good example, take hurricanes. I use this because we have a current example: Hurricane Michael destroying Tyndall AFB, and a past example: Hurricane Andrew destroyed Homestead AFB. In the wake of Hurricane Andrew all the leaders and brains got together and first decided how much of Homestead we needed rebuild. Congress appropriated money for that, and it has happened, it’s a done deal. Brains also reassessed building codes, and in the end issued addenda that increased the design maximum wind speed, and significantly increased flood hardening. But that was all. Was this adequate?
I maintain it was, and it is. No matter how much money we spend, I would wager we could never build a 100% hurricane-proof building, something will occur that probably nobody thought of beforehand, and if the building sees enough hurricanes, or a strong enough single event, it will be destroyed. And even if we try to rebuild all our vulnerable military assets, as just a small example of all of the United States, how much money will that cost? It will be many times, hundreds to even thousands of times, more than we spent to rebuild Homestead AFB.
Now let’s look at the current example. It is first of all important to note that Tyndall AFB did not experience any loss of life, neither on the installation itself nor in the evacuation (I could be wrong now, but I don’t think so). I would say that alone shows our current building codes are adequate as they stand. As for its future, again the leaders and brains will get together and make a determination how much of Tyndall AFB to rebuild, Congress will appropriate money and that will happen, we can count on it. Rebuild it to what standard? I have seen some pics from post-Michael Tyndall, and I think overall it did pretty well. Although many buildings are currently uninhabitable, I have not seen a complete structural failure (again, I have only seen pics, I wish I could visit and do a first-hand assessment), the structural members are largely still standing (I think I saw a collapsed roof, couldn’t tell if it was the support members or just the decking and sheathing).
So that’s the sum of it. Although I hear frequent calls to instantly rebuild to a safer standard, or relocate to a safer location, any and all vulnerable federal assets, I firmly believe we don’t need to. We have built safely enough to safeguard human life, and since we don’t know where the next storm will strike, nor how to make all structures 100% fail-safe, there isn’t enough money in all this world to meet that impossible standard. I believe we have done as well as we can, and all that we morally should. Study our current codes against the most recent damage (you couldn’t ask for a better laboratory) and make sure the codes are good enough to continue to protect human life, and save our taxpayer money to rebuild the next installation that receives the brunt of a Cat 5 hurricane. That is planning for the past!
Bryan,
I’m not necessarily disagreeing with your comment but want to add a point about individualism.
“…and actually start learning from and subsequently begin preparing for past weather events and their potential to repeat as future weather events.”
I believe we need to be doing this more on an individual level.
We always seem to approach the concept of public safety and weather event safety as a need for governments to solve all our problems and do the preparation and protect us. In reality governments create many of the problems we see in extreme weather events with bad policy and sometimes even with poorly designed/implemented infrastructure that makes things worse not better. Why are we collectively insuring areas that we know for a fact are going to suffer huge losses due to weather events in the future? If people had to bear more of the risk, then they would make better decisions. We taxpayers are all subsidizing people’s bad decisions of building/buying in KNOWN flood zones. We taxpayers are all subsidizing people’s bad decisions of building/buying in known hurricane prone zones. Collectivizing risk may be warranted in some cases, but when private industry says, “no we won’t insure this risk” we seem to be okay with government using taxpayer money to step in and cover risk for people wanting that river-front, flood-plain, or ocean-front property KNOWING that there will almost certainly be a loss at some point (and that they’ll get bailed out). I guess my point is, that without skewed incentives, people would do a better job of minimizing risk exposure and being better prepared for bad weather events INDIVIDUALLY. We’re becoming a bunch of soft, babies that can’t deal with anything other than a climate-controlled environment. Geez, people today would have had zero chance of making a foothold on a new continent and venturing westward and settling this country. Most people can’t handle extreme weather, because it seems to me they are expecting someone from the government to rush to their aid in an extreme weather event–so why prepare? Which makes all these events worse. Which creates call for more government response and preparation next time.
Just wanted to add a few thoughts that reflect a more individualistic approach to dealing with weather. Yes, I realize this is a pipe dream. If we didn’t have the nanny state mentality, I think we’d actually have fewer fatalities in extreme weather event, not more–which is likely a minority opinion so I’m sure lots of slings and arrows coming my way.
Activists love “Wonderful World” stories–“don’t know much about history, don’t know much about geography. . .”
A “Herman’s Hermits” reference.
https://youtu.be/y4S0DOiEA9s
They only did a cover. Sam Cooke did it 1st.
And the best!
I was thinking of the Sam Cooke version.
I was thinking Louie Armstrong; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWzrABouyeE
The great drought of the 1930’s in the USA I’ve read may have been due to the cooling of the equatorial pacific aka La Niña conditions. It caused a shift in the jet stream southernly which meant it wasn’t picking moisture up from the Gulf of Mexico and bringing it to mid west.
http://www.kgs.ku.edu/Publications/PIC/PIC35.pdf
This paper does a pretty good job of actually explaining the drought history of North America, using plenty of real data, and it does indeed mostly correlate to La Nina.
I’d be curious to see how the Texas droughts fit into that. Texas has had 3 great multi-year droughts in modern history; 2005 – 2011; 1951 – 1957; and approx 1890 – 1896. Interesting how a 60 year cycle seems to be peeking out from behind those numbers.
Interestingly, although the upper midwest had a terrible drought in the 30’s (dust bowl, etc) Texas had a series of major floods, suggesting that the jet stream had shifted.
The Dust Bowl years and drought hit Texas in the northern panhandle.
Look for a Dust Bowl map, or read
The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
This is an Amazon link to a book by Timothy Egan.
Colorado water law is designed to handle multiple demands for water in “dry/drought” conditions. As one who has professionally studied historic diversion records related to water right demands in Colorado’s major watersheds, it’s easy to spot an obvious 11-year cycle related to precipitation, which overlays the sun spot activity cycle.
Even our ancient predecessors in the West, recognized that the means to address dry/drought conditions, is to build water storage and water distribution, i.e. irrigation facilities! Their “technology” was based, unfortunately, only upon human physical labor , which limited the extent and scope of their ability to provide the massive water storage capacity necessary to sustain their agriculture (as limited as it was for a much smaller population) over a period of successive dry years.
Yet, we haven’t learned much, since the Green wackos oppse every attempt to contruct dams which would provide such storage and encourage the destruction of exisitng ones in order to s “save the poor fishies”!
The next two years, 2020 and 2021 “could” be a strong La Nina years. And with strong La Nina’s comes the high probability of drought returning to California, the SW US and Texas. Time will tell. Anyone who says they know with any amount of certainty is lying or talking out their butt.
Can I get this post in the form of a ppt (PowerPoint presentation) so I could do a 2 min gig in front of an audience?
(YES, the info is that good.)
Jim,
Unfortunately I only have this as HTML. You could probably copy it and make PP slides.
_Jim,
Larry Kummer is a walking library. An incredible amount of work on Climate Change and other subjects.
Snippet tool or snag it are your friend. You can copy anything into a ppt file by selecting, copy, paste.
Always lie. Isn’t it the only way to build trust?
George,
The kind of misrepresentation of the data and science described here has hurt the cause of the climate crusade – but it is not the worst mistake of climate scientists.
This is, gone wrong at the start: https://fabiusmaximus.com/2015/08/04/climate-science-public-policy-broken-87951/
Marcia McNutt was a true travesty of politicized science foisted upon AAAS/Science mag, and now she’s at the NAS, wrecking further damage on science. Holdren was grooming her since plucking her out of Monery Bay Aquarium obscurity in 2009 to check the box at USGS where she was over her head. Continuing to fail up, using her at Science mag to get the Karl Pause Buster paper out with a pal review in time for Paris. In quid pro quo, she was supposed to be Hillary’s OSTP advisor. I suppose she is still clinging to the hope a Dem replaces Trump in 2021 for the career topping cherry post. Science will further slide back into the Dark Ages if that happens.
Great to see the public disbelieve the hype, the chickens are coming home to roost, I want CAGW alarmism to come crashing down.
That will be hard to sell this year, we are 6 weeks past last years start with no one needing water and we are dumping 215,428 gallon a hour to keep the reservoir from overflowing. With the middle of the country still underwater, not going to fly.
I keep an eye on the Lake Powell and Lake Mead levels and the potential inflows coming in from the Upper Colorado River basin water shed and snow pack.
With yesterday’s Intermountain West snow falls and rains, today’s Upper Colorado River Basin snow pack is at very high levels for 21 May: 222% of normal for 21 May.
http://www.snowpack.water-data.com/uppercolorado/index.php
The colder temps so far in May are delaying at least by 2 weeks the typical ramp-up of melt run-off to help refill Lake Powell, but it will get there for sure by mid-June with inflows topping 50,000 cfs by then.
Lake Powell will add at least 40 feet to reach 3,620 feet by 6/15. It may get to 3640 ft by 6/30, a level not seen since 2011. Of course, this depends greatly on what decisions will be made on how much water to send down to Lake Mead.
http://lakepowell.water-data.com/
All in all 2019 in the Rocky Mountains snow pack that supplies Lake Mead and Lake Powell are looking nice. Lake Powell and Lake Mead water users are getting at least a 3 year reprieve on any water restrictions* by this year’s snowpack.
The US lower 48 is currently at near all-time low for drought, with only a narrow strip in western Washington State with any drought conditions.
*Mandatory water restrictions for Lower Colorado River water users begin when Lake Mead hits 1075 feet. But this can be manipulated by upstream Lake Powell water releases or hold-backs. So the smart observer will watch both lake levels to see if “games” are being played there on the Lake Mead level.
” with only a narrow strip in western Washington State with any drought conditions ”
this needs an update:
New declaration, with map
WA DOE advisement, Gov. Jay Inslee expanded the state’s drought emergency to include a total of 27 watersheds after adding 24 watersheds to the initial April 4 emergency drought declaration for the Methow, Okanogan. and Upper Yakima basins.
Weather patterns sent winter snows in ways that missed WA State much of the time.
Current weather is cloudy, wet, and cool.
State policy declares the State should be warmed by CO2.
It will be interesting to see how this works out.
For now Jay Inslee is running for POTUS on a platform with one leg — global warming.
I doubt the year will be as bad as he hopes. Regardless, it won’t be a great water year.
There must be a drought somewhere because it’s been cold and very wet in central Indiana all spring. Very little planting has been done because the ground is too wet. I’m a little worried that it isn’t going to get dry enough to plant anything in the central US.
There’s a real worry farmers will take insurance money pay-outs over planting this summer, thus leading to very high market prices fro corn and soybeans.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/grain-supplies-likely-hit-if-farmers-turn-to-payouts-11558461645
That will also hit gas prices as ethanol mandates (requiring 10% blending) would force refiners to pass the higher ethanol cost on to the pump price.
Parts of Eastern Uk had a drought last summer, an averagely wet winter and a pretty dry spring 2019.
Hardly a major chunk of the earth, but we could certainly use a storm or two dropping two inches of rain in 36hrs.
We are in the early stages of drought here in Western Canada but most of the last 20 years have seen excellent to high moisture levels so there’s no reason to assume it isn’t just the usual cyclical ups and downs. Even the great droughts of the 30’s were exacerbated by the farming methods of the day.
We have weather porn onscreen every day in Australia too. The supposedly impartial public broadcaster has been bombarding us with dirty climate stories for years
We have this famous quote:
Actually, it started out somewhat differently.
I realize that, when war comes, truth is the first victim. link Anyway, the principle extends to other circumstances. Always and everywhere, activists should be taken cum grano salis. As one of my buddies would say: “They lie like a sidewalk.”
The lies are more than just about drought.
They’re hoping that ‘fake news’ will win out across the board.
It’s been propping them up for years – now it’s all they’ve got.
Here’s hoping that it’s not enough this time.
The Des Plaines River has been well over its normal banks for two years running. This spring, it reached flood stage before the snows melted and is flooding the wetlands that were set aside to receive the overflow. Unfortunately, they were already inundated from last year, and this year, there is NO MORE ROOM.
So what does that mean? The Des Plaines is a major tributary for the Mississippi River which is at flood stage and has been for several week. The flood gates at the Bonnet Carré Spillway down near New Orleans were opened several weeks ago because of the high river levels from all rivers. https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2019-05-09/midwest-floods-local-rains-swell-lower-mississippi-river
Despite that article’s reference to “local flooding”, the flood gates were put in to accommodate upstream flows as well. Uninformed, intentionally incorrect — yes, reporters are abundantly stupid that way, but we know better because we take it seriously. But that one at least mentioned Ohio and the Midwest, which is good, because the Missouri River also feeds into the Mississippi.
It’s all one big system. And my lawn is so thoroughly soaked that I won’t have to water it for a month. I’ll just have to mow it every other day. 🙁
Good article, good points. Stay cool!
Last year I swam in a lake May 9 first swim of the year, but still too cold this year, May 21, near Pontiac, Michigan.
Inslee (WA Governor) declares drought emergency, May 21, 2019 because snow is melting, as usual during spring thaw.
https://www.governor.wa.gov/news-media/inslee-expands-drought-emergency-nearly-half-state
but on March 3, March 15 and March 26, 2019 Snotel (Snow-water-equivalent) reports that in Washington that snow pack was mainly shown to be 85-110% of normal (yellow and green).
https://www.google.com/search?biw=1920&bih=928&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=g4rkXJGkFrWU0PEP3POf6A8&q=washington+snotel+map+2019&oq=washington+snotel+map+2019&gs_l=img.3…32027.33385..33691…0.0..0.100.447.6j1……1….1..gws-wiz-img.3kwjc_QSNuQ#imgrc=YpQEB1PhixS_ZM:
On the other hand Gov. Inslee, the climate change guru, whose priorties are considerably misplaced, refused to provide $75 million requested by Washington’s Dept. of Natural Resources during the 2019 legislative session for the coming fire season and instead funneled $250 million to a state study on how orca whales are damaged by retaining four hydroelectric dams on the Snake River.
How hydroelectric dams affect Orcas…
They Don’t…
Now where’s my $250M check?
Oh no you don’t. You don’t get paid with an answer like that.
You have to go on for hundreds of pages about how Orcas could/would/should be affected by hydroelectric dams and then claim that the research, while pointing mightily in that direction, is still preliminary and more funds are needed for further research.
See how it works?
Obama played politics with natural resources and people’s utility bills. Gov Inslee is no different. Inslee has sold his soul to the Green Slime in return for their campaign support kick-backs to soothe his ego. The man is a true waste of carbon if there ever were.
Bryan, Bryan, it is obvious dams affect Orcas. Have you ever seen an Orca swimming up one of the spillways? No. So there you have it proof positive, observations prove dams affect Orcas.
I am happy to split the $250 million with you both.
The only ORCA I’ve seen affected by Hydro Dams was Captained by a man named Quint
Survived the Indianapolis…
Loved to Fish…
Taken by a Great White…
Sad story….
Wanna bet some of that funneled $250 million ended up in Inslee campaign?
Climate activists are like young children experiencing something for the first time, except they interpret their own first experiences of their own new knowledge as worldwide trends.
My questions to them: Overgeneralize much? … Self focus much?
My suggestion to them: Look at some real world data and get out of your selfie-obsessed heads.
The Greenies, Lefties and Warmist have entered the Joe Izuzu phase of their propaganda campaign without the decency of satire/humor.
When anger and desperation replace contemplative, deliberate thought, comedy and self-awareness are the first things to get tossed.
It is lies all the way down.
Colorado is in drought hiatus.
https://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/ftpref/states/co/snow/state/daily/co_update_snow.pdf
Can alarmists make it through to the next one? Stay tuned.
Fake news = propaganda and should be seen and called for what it is.
The continual repeating of these lies would not be possible without a compliant media. Of course, the media is
occupying the same ideological hell-hole that the alarmists have wallowed in for decades.
They can’t claim drought this year, at least so far.
“The United States just had its Wettest 12 Months in Recorded History — Cosmic Ray Flux”
https://electroverse.net/the-united-states-just-had-its-wettest-12-months-in-recorded-history-cosmic-ray-flux/?fbclid=IwAR3VjqrzbvBO1CQTqn_hLiWJ4XC4PQMXWhR1hTWu7AXDn7LagyJfC3af_9c
Nothing new here,the lyrics of “Oh Susanna” are the tale of The Cult Of Calamitous Climate.
Exaggeration,contradiction and pure flights of fancy.
That this hysteria has succeeded for so long is a tribute to our urban sprawl.
Only ignorant people living in an air conditioned paradise could be this gullible, Extreme Weather!
STORM, the likes of the weather channel are just comedic,if you are an outdoors person.
But if you are a protected creature of the shopping Malls,Public Transit and Airplanes,you might buy in.
Tiny Tim’s “performance Art” The Ice Caps Are Melting is a classic.
When everything is a catastrophe, nothing matters.
Chicken Little was not an instruction manual.
The choice of lying as a means of messaging, might need some rethinking.
Seems to only work in the very short term.
They cry about droughts and don’t like dams either. Hydro power is the only renewable with real benefits. { I consider methane a renewable. } 🙂
They won’t be able to use it this year, at least so far.
“The United States just had its Wettest 12 Months in Recorded History — Cosmic Ray Flux”
https://electroverse.net/the-united-states-just-had-its-wettest-12-months-in-recorded-history-cosmic-ray-flux/?fbclid=IwAR3VjqrzbvBO1CQTqn_hLiWJ4XC4PQMXWhR1hTWu7AXDn7LagyJfC3af_9c
Larry
“Activists hope that their flow of alarmist “news” will shape public opinion, just as a riven (river)? can carve through mountains.”
Marcus,
Great catch! Thanks for flagging that.
“The victor will never be asked if he had lied”-Adolph Hitler
One of the more interesting discussions in economics in Australia at the moment is what exactly is a Climate Change cost. For example having to repair house or infrastructure damage actually becomes an industry and a service. If we viewed banks in the same way as Climate Change costs are being counted then they should be abolished because they are nothing but a cost. These industries only becomes a problem when you can’t meet the ongoing payments for the industry service. The more strict way to do Climate Change costings would be to treat it like the banking sector with both positive and negatives.
With the Australian Election having put the leftist inner city eco-warriors in their place it interesting the more intelligent conversations that are actually opening up. Currently Coal earns $20B and Gas $22B per year and that buys a lot of ability to fund any real climate costs and actually help grow the economy.
LdB,
Interesting indeed. The Greens are being turned away in the USA, Germany, France, and now Australia. The ‘Green New Deal’ is so preposterous, even AOC is now walking it back.
Incessant rain is the new normal in N. California.
You heard it here first.
For example, consider the drought tolerant nature of native plants in many parts of California Periodic droughts have been the norm long before the beginning of the industrial revolution. But even if we could somehow stop the Earth’s climate from changing, extreme weather events including drought and sea level rise would continue because they are all part of the current climate. Mankind does not know of a climate regime that does not include extreme weather events such as floods and drought. So even if mankind could somehow change the earth’s climate we do not know what to change it to.
Historians should investigate if there has been another climate optimum in the Holocene period (medieval, roman, minoan …) that has been as wasted as the actual climate optimum by climate alarmists, green psychopaths, snake oil salesmen, all of those fraudsters having the same qualification :
They can SEE HOW TO shamelessly fill their pockets with this scam.
Another fake climate calamity has been the claim of Great Lakes being lowered by global warming.
https://www.csgmidwest.org/policyresearch/0213glclimate.aspx
Record-low water levels, rise in algal blooms among concerns linked to changing Great Lakes climate
by Tim Anderson ~ February 2013 ~ Stateline Midwest »
and…….
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/water-levels-of-the-great-lakes-are-declining/
and
https://www.cleveland.com/weather/blog/2017/08/how_is_climate_change_affectin.html
“Rising temperatures could lower water levels in the lakes, intensify harmful algal blooms and threaten fish and wildlife.”
But now, and not surprisingly, the lakes are approaching record high levels and global warming is to blame.
https://abc57.com/news/concern-growing-over-rising-lake-level
… at 1:34 in that news video a meteorologist asserts global warming is now to blame for rising lake levels.
and….
https://www.newyorkupstate.com/weather/2019/05/is-climate-change-to-blame-for-lake-ontarios-alarming-water-levels.html
History shows, for thousands of years in the past, that droughts are common. They are no more nor less common today, than they were, say 50 100 years ago! There were droughts when there WEREN’T any humans! There WILL be droughts long after we are gone! The Earth is populated by piss ants (humans when viewed from space) and even the real piss ants have little, if any, effect on the Earth and it’s environment/atmosphere! Liberals have an agenda, that of destroying the Earth and all of it’s inhabitants! WHY?? The only answer has to be that THEY are all insane! So, are we going to model our lives around the ravings of lunatics? I sincerely hope not!
History shows us, for thousands of years in the past, that droughts are common. They are no more nor less common today, than they were, say 50, 100 or a thousand years ago! There were droughts when there WEREN’T any humans! There WILL be droughts long after we are gone! The Earth is populated by piss ants (humans, when viewed from space) and even the real piss ants have little, if any, effect on the Earth and it’s environment/atmosphere! Liberals have an agenda, that of destroying the Earth and all of it’s inhabitants! WHY?? The only answer has to be that THEY are all insane! So, are we going to model our lives around the ravings of lunatics? I sincerely hope not!
“We cannot successfully cope with climate change”
Great to see you’re only a little bit brainwashed!
That like calling the journey from here (Scotland) to London “downhill” – because it’s a few tends of meters lower than where we live and starting to talking about “coping with going downhill” – when between here and London are numerous hills which are far far greater than almost insignificant overall change.
Of course “we” can cope with climate change – because it is so small and so inconsequential that it only has meaning (and even then very little) when totally ignoring all the far more important short term changes.
Upper Colorado River basin is at 246% of average today, with more snow to come.
http://www.snowpack.water-data.com/uppercolorado/index.php
DROUGHT in the American Southwest is not a joking matter. It is a reality and has been for a very long time.
What it isn’t is NEW — it is generally believed that the Anasazi — “the Anasazi, a civilization that arose as early as 1500 B.C. Their descendants are today’s Pueblo Indians, such as the Hopi and the Zuni, who live in 20 communities along the Rio Grande, in New Mexico, and in northern Arizona.” — where driven out of their lands and “disappeared” as a culture due to an extended major drought. “Using data from tree rings, researchers know that a terrible drought seized the Southwest from 1276 to 1299; it is possible that in certain areas there was virtually no rain at all during those 23 years” [ source ]
Alarmists would like to claim both too much rain and not enough rain as evidence of their favorite talking point.
The image of the “Dry Lake Bed” con is the best. Three times I’ve stumbled onto the alarmist use of images of dry lake beds. The first was a TED presentation by a Green Venture Capital CEO. Recognized the image of the Salton Sea which is drying due to interception of water for urban and agriculture use. The second was a dried up lake in China. It took about five minutes online to see it was a victim of the Three Gorges Dam project. And, the latest was a drying Lake Oroville in 2015. And, the dam was overflowing in 2017.
Very true. Poor griff was a science denier until the bitter end, claiming California was still in a drought even when presented with data showing that 0% of the state was under drought conditions.