Gov. Jerry Brown’s Holy War Against Climate Change
California’s drought conditions are actually historically normal; water shortages are created by incompetent and scheming government
In March on Meet the Press, after declaring Ted Cruz unfit to run for president because of his views on climate change, Brown said, “We are running out of time because it’s not raining. This is a serious matter we’re experiencing in California, as kind of a foretaste. But there is no doubt that into the future, we’re going to have more problems.” Brown also claimed research shows a “connection” between California’s drought and climate change.
California’s drought conditions are actually historically normal; water shortages are created by incompetent and scheming government. California’s recent drought was billed by government and media as the driest period in the state’s recorded rainfall history. However, scientists who study the Western United States’ long-term climate patterns say otherwise: California has been dry for significantly longer periods—more than 200 years at a time, and long before the industrial revolution.
Last May, following a year of near-normal amounts of rain and snow, Gov. Jerry Brown ordered permanent urban water restrictions, including bans on hosing down driveways and using sprinklers following rain. Brown also reiterated mandatory permanent reductions in water use by cities.
While California homeowners have had to parch their lawns and replace dead shrubs and trees with rock gardens, install low-flow dribbling shower heads and toilets (which require double the flushes), just to save a few extra gallons of precious household water, the government wastes hundreds of billion of gallons of water annually, letting it rush to the ocean to assist bait fish and baby salmon (which swim there anyway). While California farmers and ranchers have had their water cut off by a vindictive evil government, Jerry Brown doubled down on water restrictions and climate change madness.
The mega-storms in California this month have provided more than 350 Billion gallons of water in the state’s reservoirs from this rain. Reluctantly, water officials and news media sycophants are finally admitting the drought is over. To prevent more flooding in Sacramento, California, the location of the confluence of the American and Sacramento Rivers, the state Department of Water Resources opened up 13 gates on the Sacramento Weir onto the Yolo Bypass as water releases from Folsom Lake are increased, and to maintain a consistent level of the Sacramento River near
NASA Climate Chief: ‘Russia actually thinks that warming the Arctic is going to be good’
Speaking on the geopolitics of geoengineering the Earth’s climate, NASA Climate Chief Gavin Schmidt says, “Russia actually thinks that warming the Arctic is going to be good for it.”
NASA GISS DIRECTOR GAVIN SCHMIDT: “And, so you’re left with countries that have slightly looser environmental regulations. Say, Russia. Now Russia doesn’t want to do it because Russia actually thinks that warming the Arctic is going to be good for it. So, they’re not going to do it.”
University of Southampton
Global Challenges – Dr. Gavin Schmidt, NASA GISS
January 12, 2017…
Warmist Sen. Harris to Trump CIA nominee Pompeo: Repent, climate heretic
POSTED AT 4:01 PM ON JANUARY 12, 2017 BY ED MORRISSEY
Confirmation hearings often reveal more about the panelists than they do about the nominee, and that’s certainly the case in the exchange that took place between Mike Pompeo and newly installed Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA). Donald Trump nominated Pompeo for director of the CIA, a role for which his years as chair of the House Intelligence Committee have prepared him, including an understanding of the role intelligence services play. Harris seems to have a strange set of priorities for intelligence operations, and her obsession with climate change leaves Pompeo almost laughing in bemusement. (Allahpundit will have more on the rest of Pompeo’s hearing in the next post.)
Bear in mind that this followed Harris questioning Pompeo on LGBT policy, and you get a sense of the silliness on display:
HARRIS: CIA Director Brennan, who spent a 25-year career at the CIA as an analyst, senior manager, and station chief in the field, has said that when, quote, “CIA analysts look for deeper causes of rising instability in the world,” one of the causes those CIA analysts see as the — is the impact of climate change. Do you have any reason to doubt the assessment of these CIA analysts?
POMPEO: Senator Harris, I haven’t had a chance to read those materials with respect to climate change. I do know the agency’s role there. Its role is to collect foreign intelligence, to understand threats to the world. That would certainly include threats from poor governance, regional instability, threats from all sources, and deliver that information to policymakers. And to the extent that changes in climatic activity are part of that, we’ll deliver that information to you all and the president.
That was Pompeo’s attempt to acknowledge her concern at climate change while politely reminding her that it’s not the CIA’s primary focus, or even secondary focus. (If it has been in the past, perhaps that’s why we missed the real nature of the “Arab Spring,” the rise of ISIS, and Russia’s determination to team up with Iran to keep Bashar al-Assad in power.) Harris didn’t take the hint, however, which forced Pompeo to become a little more blunt:
…HARRIS: In the past you have questioned the scientific consensus on climate change. Nevertheless, according to NASA, multiple studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals showed 97% or more of actively published
‘Permanent drought’ update: UC Davis Prof.: ‘We certainly don’t have a statewide drought right now’ in California
The powerful storms that soaked Northern California over the past week did more than trigger power outages, mudslides and flash floods.
They sent roughly 350 billion gallons of water pouring into California’s biggest reservoirs — boosting their storage to levels not seen in years, forcing dam operators to release water to reduce flood risks and all but ending the five-year drought across much of Northern California, even though it remains in the south, experts said Monday.
“We have to be careful about crying wolf here,” he said. “You have to maintain credibility with the public when there are critically dry years, so you have to call it like it is when conditions improve.”
On Monday much of the state began drying out from the weekend drenching that caused at least three fatalities and triggered flooding in Morgan Hill, Sonoma County, Yosemite and parts of the Sacramento Valley, even as forecasters said another storm system was coming in Tuesday.
Too much snow closes ski resorts in California, Nevada
…Warmist 350.org hopes to turn out 500,000 to protest Trump climate policy in march on DC on April 29, 2017
…The ‘permanent drought’ of California ‘is now virtually over in the northern half of the state’
There has been talk in recent years that this latest drought in California was going to be different this time and more of a “permanent” drought and there was also some talk that European winters would soon be lacking in snow – to say that both of these ideas are being seriously challenged this winter is quite an understatement. In California, incredible amounts of rain have piled up in recent days across low-lying areas of the state, mountains of snow have accumulated in the higher elevations of the Sierra Nevada Mountains – and much more is on the way.
California’s rain and snow
There has been so much snow in recent days across California and several other western states (e.g., Nevada, Colorado) that many ski resorts have been forced to close down. Up to ten feet of snow in the past several days has caused the closure of many roads leading to ski resorts such as Woodward Tahoe and Kirkwood in California and the most extreme snow report has come from Mount Rose where 25 feet has accumulated during the recent series of storms. Ski conditions in the Sierra Nevada will no doubt be excellent for weeks to come and more snow is on the way. Snowpack in the Sierra Nevada – and more specifically snowmelt – is crucial to California’s water supply during the rest of the year long after the snow has ended.
Reservoirs in California have seen a significant boost to water content, according to Mercury News, with upwards of 350 billion gallons accounted for as of the last round of storms. Since January 1st, Lake Tahoe has actually risen nearly a foot as a result of the heavy rain and snow according to the National Weather Service. The drought in California actually started to improve quite a bit during the last several months as outlined here and it is now virtually over in the northern half of the state. The first storm in the series arrived in the middle of last week and brought rain to northern and central California. A second storm occurred over the weekend (January 7 and 8) and brought heavy rains again to mostly northern and central California although southern California also received significant amounts. This second event led to widespread flooding, downed trees and mudslides; especially, in the Sierra Nevada where hurricane force winds took place and Interstate 80 was …
Trump’s climate skeptic choice for CIA director refuses to answer questions about climate change
President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to run the Central Intelligence Agency, Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS), seems less certain about the connection between climate change and national security.
In an exchange with Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) Thursday, Pompeo dodged questions about climate change and the threat it poses to U.S. national security, telling Harris that he did not want to get into a debate about climate change and climate science because he did not see it as central to his role in the CIA.
“Frankly, as the director of CIA, would prefer today not to get into the details of the climate debate and science,” Pompeo said. “It seems — my role is going to be so different and unique from that. It is going to be to work alongside warriors keeping Americans safe and so I stand by the things I’ve said previously with respect to that issue.”
When asked if that meant Pompeo doubts NASA’s findings that scientists overwhelming agree that climate change is both occurring and man-made, Pompeo refused to answer.
“I haven’t spent enough time to tell you that I’ve looked at NASA’s findings in particular,” he said. “I can’t give you any judgment about that today.”…
Physicist Dr. Lubos Motl worried that Rex Tillerson is not strong climate skeptic
Rex Tillerson, a lukewarmer, stands out like a sore thumb in the new era
Donald Trump has said that global warming was a hoax invented by the Chinese in order to weaken America. And believe me, Trump isn’t a great fan of China so this link between China and the man-made global warming movement wasn’t meant to be a compliment for the latter.
He has chosen numerous folks for his administration whose climate realist credentials seem indisputable: Scott Pruitt for the EPA, Cathy McMorris Rodgers for the Interior Department, and Rick Perry for the Department of Energy. Given the fact that Rex Tillerson has served as a CEO of ExxonMobil, you would think that it’s similar with this guy. Except that it’s not.
All climate jihadists who have been fighting “climate change” and ExxonMobil should notice: If you have a relative ally in the Trump administration, it’s the former CEO of ExxonMobil! 😉 What an irony. Don’t get me wrong. He is not as superficial and insane as his predecessor – he should be an improvement relatively to John Kerry. However, his views are mixed.
Christian Science Monitor’s section on climate solutions wrote
His zeal isn’t clear, but Tillerson calls climate change a ‘threat’
AGW is a threat, Tillerson says. On the other hand, in a testimony to the lawmakers (video), he said that the global warming wasn’t an imminent threat to the U.S. national security, a statement by which he differs from the Democrats’ party line, and he stated that there are mixed opinions in the scientific literature when it comes to the relationships between CO2 and unpleasant weather events (e.g. in Syria – and let me say that the suggestion that the mess in the Middle East was due to the “weather” is both arrogant and silly).
I must say one thing. Donald Trump seems to make rather radical changes but his team isn’t supposed to be an ideologically uniform group of Yes men and I surely think it’s right. Moreover, Tillerson has some experience with international relationships as well as with applied science and engineering – and those can be useful for his new job although I am not quite sure whether the engineering part is ideally exploited by the Department of State.
Tillerson’s scientific and engineering background places him into a special position that I can understand very well. While some other people who
Tillerson: Climate change not ‘imminent national security threat’
Testifying before the Senate, Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson says that climate change is not an “imminent national security threat” as Senate democrats claim.