Yakima Valley agriculturalists are lucky to have some time to prepare and adapt to climate change. Our fruit growers and dairy farmers have little to worry about, according to UW meteorology professor Cliff Mass, until around 2090. Just the same, they should admit that they have a problem at the end of the path we are on. Then, instead of playing politics, we might successfully change the course of events. Here is an excerpt from an article printed in the LA Times on 4/12/2009 about the plight of Australia’s agriculture:
The rivers — the Murray, Darling and Murrumbidgee — flow from the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range and nourish the valleys of Australia’s fruit and grain basket, as well as a diverse system of wetlands, grasslands and eucalyptus forests.
Like scenes from a modern Dust Bowl, mile after mile of desiccated fields lie fallow, rows of shriveled trees that once bore peaches and pears are now abandoned orchards, and small businesses are shuttered, fronted by for-sale signs. The dingy brown of the landscape rearranges in a cloud of dust with every hot wind that blows.
Farmers who once grew 60% of the nation’s produce are walking off their land or selling their water rights to the state and federal government. With rainfall in the region at lower than 50% of average for more than a decade, Australia is witnessing the collapse of its agricultural sector and the nation’s ability to feed itself.
In rural Victoria, one rancher or farmer a week takes his own life. Public health officials say hanging is the preferred method.
“Fourteen dairy farmers in the valley have committed suicide in the last five years,” Eddy said matter-of-factly, staring at his hands at his long, wooden dining room table. “Hangings, they are common but they are not made public. It’s really depressing, it’s really tough going.
“Fruit growers are abandoning their orchards. It’s their life’s work, and it’s gone to dust. They are at their wits’ end. The small growers haven’t got the money to replant. Haven’t got the time to wait five years for a return. The machinery they have is not salable. They have thrown their arms up and walked away. They are broken people.”
…Santo Varapodio, 73, is the patriarch of a family that runs one of the largest fruit operations around the nearby agricultural center of Shepparton. The area’s annual rainfall used to be 19 to 21 inches a year.
“Now we’re lucky if we get 6 to 7 inches,” Varapodio said, displaying the stunted pears picked from under-watered trees. He said this summer’s heat wave “cooked” his fruit. “When we bring the pears in, about 15% will have burn on them,” Varapodio said. “The apples will have anything up to 50% sunburn on them.”
Rainfall patterns have been frustratingly uncooperative. Gentle winter showers that replenished groundwater have been replaced by torrential summer onslaughts that turn the fertile topsoil into a slough.
Most of the country is in the grip of the worst drought in more than a century. Every capital in Australia’s eight states and territories is operating under considerable water restrictions. In urban areas, “bucketing” has become a common practice — placing pails in showers and using the gray water on lawns or gardens. In some cities, such as Brisbane, residents drink recycled water, a process nicknamed “toilet to tap.”
…Meanwhile, the tropical north’s rainy season, known as the Big Wet, is longer and wetter than ever. Warming tropical waters in the Coral Sea and the Gulf of Carpentaria spawn ever more powerful cyclones, while rainfall and heat records are broken every year.
“Weather isn’t Climate and Precipitation isn’t Temperature”
well the definitions of these things are…
Climate:The meteorological conditions, including temperature, precipitation, and wind, that characteristically prevail in a particular region.
weather: The state of the atmosphere at a given time and place, with respect to variables such as temperature, moisture, wind velocity, and barometric pressure
precipitation: Any form of water, such as rain, snow, sleet, or hail, that falls to the earth’s surface
So, they are all interlinked to each other, the type of precipitation we have depends on the temperature, which makes up our climate.
31,000 scientists have signed a petition debunking Al Gores claims that man made global warming is settled scientific fact. Despite Gore’s extravagant claims, the petition shows that no such consensus or settled science exists. If man made global warming does not exist there is no way to “change the course of events.” Our planet is in constant flux, it is ever changing, it will change with or without us, just as it changed before we inhabited the planet.
The excerpt that you posted here shows that while one area experiences drought conditions, another area is getting more water than ever. While one region gets hotter another can cool, we have no control over the weather, and it is arrogant to believe that we are so powerful that we can influence the weather.
If these “31,000 scientists” are all members of a recognized scientific society in the U.S., then their personal views were rejected by their peers. The nineteen largest scientific societies in the U.S. have issued position statements on climate change. The presidents of eighteen of these societies wrote to Congress in support of a clean energy bill.
In the early 70′s three geophysical chemists at NASA’s Oakridge Laboratory published an article describing the greenhouse gas effect. There were no supercomputers. It is amazing how the advancement of instrumentation and computing power has amassed information on climate since the 80′s. Visit climate.nasa.gov for a great visual education on how information is collected today.
When you have 31,000 scientists rejecting the global warming agenda, their “peers” have no right to “reject” their conclusions and make their own conclusions “scientific fact”…both opinions have the right to be put in front of the public,(as legitimate scientific views) but your side “rejects” opposing views (as we have evidence from the e-mails of scientists from a major British university climate change center)
The Anthropogenic Global Warming group of scientists are full of activists, and alarmists, “Doomsday predictions” and fear mongering.
A clean energy bill, such as Cap and Trade will be harmful to all of us, we NEED energy, making it more expensive will not only affect the rich, but it will hurt middle class and the poor.
In the 70′s scientists were predicting “global cooling”. We were heading towards another “Ice Age”.
If you’re an oil or coal lobbyist, and you want to convince the conservatives that global warming isn’t real (even though you know it is) just change your title to “scientist” and get some cheap and easy “credibility” amongst the Hannity/Bachmann/Inhoffe crowd, and their obedient followers. It all pays the same.
If it’s money you are after, ask Al Gore how much HE is making off of this global warming hoax. Al Gore might be the world’s first “carbon billionaire”
Gore wants to convince the world that global warming is real (even though he knows it isn’t) because he knows it pays a lot more!
Shills like jason like to try and convince us that Al Gore is making untold millions when educating the world on the true threat to our planet that global warming presents. Of course, one of the hallmarks of the cons is when they are so bothered that a liberal could ever make a living promoting a pro-environment agenda, but see nothing wrong when a their favorite spokesliars for the oil/gas/nuclear/coal industry (Inhoffe, Hannity, Bachmann, Palin, et al) make make so much more while protecting those who seek to destroy the environment for personal profit.
Climate change has been around this planet since its inception. To what degree man is changing it right now is certainly unclear and probably unprovable by anybody. And to what extent man can change the climate by altering his behavior is certainly unclear at best.
Having a huckster like Al Gore telling Conan O’Brien that the Earth’s core is “several MILLION degrees” is certainly not helpful to the cause.
And Palin is worth more than Al Gore?? Don’t be ridiculous, Drew.
I am reminded of a Gallup Poll that said 5% of scientists believed in creationism. The National Academy of Sciences fact-checked by conducting a poll of their own, but they only polled scientists in the life sciences or related sciences. The results were 0.0015 of respondents believed in creationism.
If you want to talk money, what is the worth of a forest of healthy Douglas fir or a hillside of mature wine grapes?
If I drop off a ton of something at the landfill, I will pay a small fee. If Permanente releases 25,000 tons of greenhouse gas they should pay ten or twenty dollars per ton so as to discourage them from unnecessary emissions. Under Senator Cantwell’s cap-and-dividend bill, households will receive 3/4ths of whatever is collected. Most households will have a net benefit.
Thanks for clarifying that for us, Eleanor.
Neal, I never said Palin was worth more than Al Gore, and you know it. But she is making a lot of money speaking to groups that want to be encouraged and allowed to continue to pollute the air and water and soil that our grandkids will have to live with. How very un-conservative to promote a “live for today and don’t worry about tomorrow” ideal.
Drew…you said Al Gore is “making a living”
His net worth has ballooned since 2001 from 1 million to 100 million…nice living.
You said ” when a their favorite spokesliars for the oil/gas/nuclear/coal industry (Inhoffe, Hannity, Bachmann, Palin, et al) make make so much more while protecting those who seek to destroy the environment for personal profit.”
My point is made…and I found no need to call names.
Big difference between “worth” and what one makes for giving speeches. Currently, Palin is pulling down about 100 to 150k (each engagement) for spreading the untruths of the GOP and the energy lobby that pays her and others to help pave the way to cook the planet in the name of profits. As for Gore’s net worth, that includes money he put’s back into his organizations. It’s really unclear where Palin’s net worth is currently, since she had to start buying a bunch of her books to push sagging sales up again. Apparently the GOP and Faux News ran out of money doing the same thing to help her. Still, my point is intact- liberals are not allowed to make money promoting liberal agendas, according to republicans, but cons should be allowed to make money any way they can, even when it means they destroy the planet we leave for our children.
And no one here called you any names today. You need to grow up.
Drew, you need to get rid of the persecution complex with relation to me. I realize my arguments are always more cogent than yours ( as they span a broader spectrum than just one narrow viewpoint), but no need to beat yourself up.
Read my post with a bit more comprehension. Never said I was called a name.
Very well, then. I commend your new-found behavior, which is undoubtedly altered by having some of your more offensive off-topic comments removed.
Eleanor, I saw on the news this weekend that the republicans and the oil industry deep in their pocket were trying to attack Bill Nye, a scientist who knew more on his first birthday about the environment than all of these deniers today put together. They pointed to the recent series of storms in the Northeast as evidence that “global warming is a hoax perpetrated by Gore to make millions…”, and Nye, with an admirable calmness and rationality never seen in the right in recent decades, said, “It’s a seasonal trend, meaning ‘this season’. In every one of those areas, just prior to those storms, temps were unseasonably warm for weeks.
In Denver, the snow is nowhere to be found (one 18″ snowfall had melted away in about a week), and the snowpack in the Rockies is less than 50% for this time of year. Vancouver, BC., where the 2010 Winter Olympics are being held, had no snow up until just days before opening, and they still don’t have what they would consider “adequate seasonal snowbase” for competition. And across the Continental Divide, where drifts range between 3 and 5 feet along the Interstate, there is about 6 to 8 inches in most areas.
Eleanor nice piece on the drought in Australia. A decade is a long time to go without the necessary rain. Glaciers are fast retreating and it is surmised that the river delta in Bangladesh could be overun with rising seawater, as could the Mississippi bayous, and much of the south of Florida.
The problem with climate is the flux that occurs, which in the short term, would seem to refute global-warming evidence. These fluctuations will continue, and deniers will use that evidence to pale the “warming” believers. Facts suggest that Greenland, in the long term, could lose its entire ice cap–and there is evidence of coral reefs around Greenland, which lends credence to a massive change of climate in our past. Our life times are a very short measuring stick for what has happened over the millennia. California has been drenched after a very long drought–weathermen saying it is “El Nino.” Warming of the ocean is what brings on El Nino. This happens with a rather regular frequency but with a bit more vigor this time around.
“Climategate U-turn as scientist at centre of row admits: There has been no global warming since 1995
By Jonathan Petre
Last updated at 5:12 PM on 14th February 2010
* Comments (877)
* Add to My Stories
* Data for vital ‘hockey stick graph’ has gone missing
* There has been no global warming since 1995
* Warming periods have happened before – but NOT due to man-made changes
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1250872/Climategate-U-turn-Astonishment-scientist-centre-global-warming-email-row-admits-data-organised.html#ixzz0feHlbNJV
The Daily Mail is an ardent supporter of the Tories and people like David Cameron, and very much against the Labour Party, even when that group went conservative a few years ago. We were really hoping you’d find some legitimate news source or scientific paper that’s widely respected, like the BBC, The Guardian, The Independent, The American Association for the Advancement of Science, Science Daily, and New Scientist. Th Daily Mail gets a lot of advertising monies from the oil and gas industry. Even the American Petroleum Institute has purchased ink there to help you feel better about cooking the planet so their people can make a few more billion before the tides come in.
drew
You call those “legitimate news sources”? I call them left wing, kook fringe news sources! It’s a shame we can’t even agree on what a legitimate news organization is.
Net worth: the value of all of a person’s assets, including cash, minus all liabilities.***in other words, it is the money, or assets left over after paying bills and liabilities.
Bill Nye’s key words “It’s a seasonal trend…” He is correct, all weather is seasonal trends that one year can be warmer, and the next year can be colder than the “average” temps. Seasonal trends do NOT mean man-made global warming.
Climate scientist Phil Jones said (in an interview with the BBC)that for the past 15 years there has been no ‘statistically significant’ warming. and Professor Jones conceded that the world might have been warmer in medieval times,suggesting global warming may not be man-made.
Since you’re big on definitions, “seasonal” means, “during a given season”, vs. the annual cycles you are attempting unsuccessfully to use as comparisons to prove your point. Global warming is proving itself by way of scientific data being gathered over decades, and in evidence found in rock strata, soil compositions, fossilized organic materials, and of course the various oxygen/carbon dioxide ratios found deep in the ice shelves of the Antarctic.
Thanks for using one of the most respected news and information sources in the world, the BBC, in your comment. You actually proved my point in doing so: the BBC, which is publicly funded (so it cannot be influenced by advertisers), puts forth many opinions on any popular topic, not just the ones they are told to air.
I know you’ve never read either the Independent, or the Guardian, or you’d know just how unbiased they are. They regularly lambaste politicians and officials of any political stripe. Of course, once they dare expose one of your precious cons, you get your panties in a twist. I’m a regular reader of both, for the very reasons that their reporting is much more thorough than anything here in the states, and they go after anybody and everybody without prejudice.
Yes, you have successfully copied the definition of “net worth”…thanks for helping to prove my point.
Are you finally about ready to make the jump over here from the Dark Side now?
jason, maybe you should read the entire interview the BBC did, not just the parts the Daily Mail gleaned out, and Rupert Murdoch has told you to repeat. The Kansas City Star had the whole BBC interview:
Question: “Do you agree that from 1995 to the present there has been no statistically-significant global warming?”
Jones: “Yes, but only just. I also calculated the trend for the period 1995 to 2009. This trend (0.12C per decade) is positive, but not significant at the 95% significance level. The positive trend is quite close to the significance level. Achieving statistical significance in scientific terms is much more likely for longer periods, and much less likely for shorter periods.”
In other words, it has gotten warmer, despite what the deniers want to say.
And for good measure, here’s another question and answer, verbatim:
“How confident are you that warming has taken place and that humans are mainly responsible?”
Jones: “I’m 100 percent confident that the climate has warmed. As to the second question, I would go along with IPCC Chapter 9 – there’s evidence that most of the warming since the 1950s is due to human activity.”
hmmm…
This is what one of those “left-wing, kook fringe” news sources (The Guardian) had to say about Phil Jones:
The climate expert at the centre of a media storm over the release of emails onto the internet has admitted that he did not follow correct procedures over a key scientific paper.
In an interview with the science journal Nature, Phil Jones, the head of the Climate Research Unit (CRU) at the University East Anglia, admitted it was “not acceptable” that records underpinning a 1990 global warming study have been lost.
The missing records make it impossible to verify claims that rural weather stations in developing China were not significantly moved, as it states in the 1990 paper, which was published in Nature. “It’s not acceptable … [it's] not best practice,” Jones said.
He acknowledged that the stations “probably did move” but insisted he did not know this when he wrote the 1990 paper.
“I thought it was the right way to get the data. I was specifically trying to get more rural station data that wasn’t routinely available in real time from [meteorological] services.”
We realize that Fox News doesn’t allow you to seek other news sources, except for those “APPROVED” by Murdoch, Ailes, and the GOP. It’s time you started to think outside the Fox, man.
Drew seems a bit unhinged here…We all hope for a quick recovery…
The topic makes you pretty uncomfortable, does it?
I have to wonder about someone who posts 6 times in a row in under an hour.
Only thing that makes me uncomfortable is the cold weather here in Florida. Have to wear a golf glove on both hands…
The topic is still global warming, and you don’t like talking about it apparently. My posts were directly related to the posted topic. We don’t have to wonder at all why you want to change the subject.
Drew, prior to your “6 posts in an hour” diatribe, my post was dead-on topic. You have no sense of reality. It’s why your party will lose so many seats in November…and you know it.
That’s what makes it fun, tho.
So it only takes a few posts to throw you off topic. Up until now, I was giving you more credit.
And you’re still off topic: global warming is something we’ll all be dealing with long after the mid-terms, neal.
drew
“net wealth” is not “gross wealth” and more snow does not mean global warming… the snow that the rest of the country is getting is a seasonal trend, in the summer it will be hotter than any other time this year! (WOW, another seasonal trend!)
If the weather is always the same temp. on every Feb 1 or it only rains on Wednesdays, why would we need weathermen? Temperatures change from year to year. Get used to it!
The Medieval Warm Period could not have been created by man, where were their SUVs and their factories? He admitted they did not know much about the temps. durring that period and they were guessing that it was not “global”, how can science be based on that!?!