( – promoted by buhdydharma )
We have been warned for years that global warming will happen at some distant time in the future. Today, a report was released which concluded that human activities have already caused increased temperatures in the Western states. This follows on the heels of another report that decreased mountain snowpack is also due to global warming. This presents a dilemma for California: Should the limited water supplies be used for people or endangered species? Today, courts are correctly following the law by mandating that water projects maintain instream uses for species, which means less water available for people. In fact, last year, one judge issued an injunction to turn off the pumps that divert the water which supplies people in order to maintain instream uses of water. Soon, the state or water purveyors will be lobbying Congress to change the Endangered Species Act so that protected species can die. Soon, the state or water agencies may be arguing that water infrastructure should be constructed without regard for environmental impacts. Yet, Congress is not taking action to address global warming now.
Last month, a report (The West’s Changed Climate) (pdf file) by the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization (RMCO) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) concluded that climate change is now happening in the western US.
The report is based on a comparison of the past 5 years (2003-2007) and found that the American West is heating up now:
1. The West is now heating up at almost twice the rate of the rest of the world: While the global climate has “averaged 1.0 degree Fahrenheit warmer than its 20th century average,” there are 11 western states which “averaged 1.7 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the region’s 20th century average-which represents 70 percent more warming than for the world as a whole.” Some may criticize that 5 years is not a sufficient period to determine a trend for climate change, but the report is based upon 50 scientific studies, 125 government and scientific sources and their own analysis.
2. The West has experienced “more frequent and severe heat waves, with the number of extremely hot days increasing by up to four days per decade since 1950.”
3. The West is already drier. 70% of our water is provided by snow rather than rain. There is already evidence of decreased snowpack, less snowfall, and earlier snow melt.
Last February, scientists confirmed — based upon data from 50 years (1950-1999) — that the dramatic decline in snowpack in our western mountains is “caused primarily by human-induced global warming and is not the result of natural variability in weather patterns.” For decades, scientists have been aware that western hydrology was changing, and people often claimed it was almost a temporary “fit” of Mother Nature that would self correct. Now, these scientists have “found very clearly that global warming has done it, that it is the mechanism that explains the change and that things will be getting worse.”
4. As time goes on, the intensity and duration of droughts will increase. In fact, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has already characterized the drought which has existed in the western US since 1999 as a “notable extreme climate event.”
5. The Colorado River Basin is a major source of water for several western states, and it is drying up.
6. The IPCC found that recent warming temperatures “are responsible for increases in wildfire in the West, including increases in the length of the fire season, number of fires, time needed to put out the average wildfire, and area being burned.”
7. Climate change is also increasing the melting of glaciers in the West:
U.S. Geological Survey researchers projected in 2003 that all glaciers in Glacier National Park could be completely melted by 2030, but they actually are melting so fast they are likely to be gone by 2022. In Washington’s North Cascades Mountains, 47 glaciers monitored since 1984 have lost, on average, 20 to 40 percent of their volume, with five having melted entirely away.
We need policy changes NOW. Not just passing some legislation so that Congress can claim that they are addressing climate change, but passing effective legislation that is not molded to fit the needs of corporate polluters.
10 comments
Skip to comment form
Author
i posted at DK last month, but recent events with Bushie makes it even more relevant. Bushie now wants to address climate change with legislation. Bushie will claim to the public that he wants to address global warming, but we all know he wants to control how global warming is addressed. My guess is bushie will go after ESA and NEPA and climate change laws that are now being used successfully by environmental groups and change the laws so that they can not be used to protect our environment. For example, right now ESA mandates that water remain instream for our little critters so that they live. This means less water for human consumption. One judge in California even issued injunction to stop diverting water to southern cal for people so that water remained instream for endangered fish. My guess is bush would love to nix this part of the law, and other sections rather than address the real issue of water shortages.
is that we knew in the 1970s that global warming was a real threat. Yet these assholes act like it’s a total surprise! Shrubbie may have been doing too much coke/booze back then to have noticed–but they aren’t all addicts…except for their addiction to oil.
I know I shouldn’t expect anything better from the group that “never could have guessed” 9/11 or Katrina or [fill in the blank]–but there were other presidencies between Nixon and now.
Oh, the stupidity…
is topping the list of piss me off totally subjects.
If I could afford ten Hummers and hire people to drive them around 24/7 it would not be enough.
Asking any of the clusterfucks in Washington is only going to result in less food, strike that, rationed food, food and modern life for those who can afford it.
Mandating global taxes for a global government does nothing.
Mandating twisty light bulbs slave made in China is another retarded idea.
a couple of Canadian Birders who were there to count the Hawks as they headed north to nesting grounds. They had just returned from Southern Calif. “It has been too dry. We used to be able to count Hawks in the hundreds, thousands. We counted 65.”
“The birds are changing their migratory patterns”, they said. “They are following the food. If this doesn’t indicate climate change….nothing will. Americans need to wake up.”
However, they love America and spend their winters in Texas near the Aransas Wild Bird Preserve and in Southern California.
They said that they try not to discuss politics, but saw the bumper sticker on our car and decided to chat. Figuring we were OK. What!!!!! I thought my sticker, “Stop Repeat offenders; Don’t Re-elect Them”, was innocuous. I guess we didn’t fool many Texans because the Canadians sure weren’t fooled!