How Bad Is Global Warming?

[Iamwhomiam]

Actually that's the problem. El Niño gave us a "normal" winter here! Now it's back to the Arizona-like heat, endless sun, and massive drought. Crops are going to fail. We'll have water for this year because of our normal winter, but unless there's another El Niño next year, were seriously fucked here in the western US. Look for weeks on end of 120 degree heat in the San Juaquin valley this summer.

Do you get the sense that you will have a good amount of water? That it didn't run off into the ocean or hit the wrong areas? I know that was the fear, coupled with mudslides, but luckily it doesn't seem like that happened as much as they predicted.

Californians need to decide what is more important to their wellbeing, whether to continue watering almonds (bumper crop last year) and lawns or to have enough to meet the population's human needs.

Waterless toilets and better conservation. Or migrate now to avoid the coming crunch.

[Nordic]

Actually that's the problem. El Niño gave us a "normal" winter here! Now it's back to the Arizona-like heat, endless sun, and massive drought. Crops are going to fail. We'll have water for this year because of our normal winter, but unless there's another El Niño next year, were seriously fucked here in the western US. Look for weeks on end of 120 degree heat in the San Juaquin valley this summer.

Do you get the sense that you will have a good amount of water? That it didn't run off into the ocean or hit the wrong areas? I know that was the fear, coupled with mudslides, but luckily it doesn't seem like that happened as much as they predicted.

No. We haven't had that much rain here in LA. Central and northern Califirnia have had a decent amount, but the snow level at, say, Mammoth mountain, while significant, isn't that supernormal.

The El Niño in 1992 was a couple of orders of magnitude greater. We had rivers overflowing, cars and houses and rv's being washed into the ocean, regular storms and flooding day after day week after week, water shooting out of drainpipes in the Hollywood hills. It was crazy. Dry lake beds in the desert were suddenly filled with water, and the Mohave turned green!

This year we had maybe 2 days of that sort of rain and not enough to do any damage. Now it seems to be over. And now it's hot!

[Nordic]

Actually that's the problem. El Niño gave us a "normal" winter here! Now it's back to the Arizona-like heat, endless sun, and massive drought. Crops are going to fail. We'll have water for this year because of our normal winter, but unless there's another El Niño next year, were seriously fucked here in the western US. Look for weeks on end of 120 degree heat in the San Juaquin valley this summer.

Do you get the sense that you will have a good amount of water? That it didn't run off into the ocean or hit the wrong areas? I know that was the fear, coupled with mudslides, but luckily it doesn't seem like that happened as much as they predicted.

Californians need to decide what is more important to their wellbeing, whether to continue watering almonds (bumper crop last year) and lawns or to have enough to meet the population's human needs.

Waterless toilets and better conservation. Or migrate now to avoid the coming crunch.

It's way more epic than anything like that. It's a massive climate change, a desertification of the state, and no amount of conservation is going to have any affect. Kiss your fresh produce goodbye or start growing it yourself. The San Joaquin valley feeds the whole damn country, not just us. Tighten your belts and open your wallets.

[Joe Hillshoist]

So were you in LA in 98?
Did it rain much then?

[Iamwhomiam]

Nordic, I agree it's bad, but it will be worse for people if the water they need to survive is diverted to cash crops. I mean, tumbleweeds aren't blowing down Hollywood Blvd. yet.
It's nonsense to say no amount of conservation will help. Conservation will not impact climate change, but it will positively impact the quality of life as the climate changes.

[Luther Blissett]

My entire garden failed this year, all I got were a few tomatoes here and there. I think it was more a matter of my efforts than anything else though. The growing season seemed good for my neighbors (this by the way was being done on my landlord's empty backyard in previous disuse.

I recently had to guilt switch off from processed almond creamer in my coffee. I should probably just kill the coffee altogether since that's where the huge footprint is and I don't like any of my options.

[NeonLX]

I hadn't thought of the coffee angle, but yer right...it does have an alarmingly huge footprint. I use dairy half and half, but cows are very energy- and resource-intensive to keep going.

[Iamwhomiam]

There's nothing like blighted crop failure in one's own backyard or community garden to help one recognize just how powerful an impact crop loss was to those whose lives depended upon their successful harvest.

[Luther Blissett]

There's nothing like blighted crop failure in one's own backyard or community garden to help one recognize just how powerful an impact crop loss was to those whose lives depended upon their successful harvest.

It really broke my heart. I felt really bad about it. They were just seeds and I had a lot more where they came from. But still.

[Nordic]

Nordic, I agree it's bad, but it will be worse for people if the water they need to survive is diverted to cash crops. I mean, tumbleweeds aren't blowing down Hollywood Blvd. yet.
It's nonsense to say no amount of conservation will help. Conservation will not impact climate change, but it will positively impact the quality of life as the climate changes.

I don't disagree but most people don't realize how much of their food comes from California. Exactly which crops are we supposed to abandon? Almonds are obviously a big one, but most people don't realize California actually produces rice. Rice in the desert. Stupid of course.

But think of tomatoes. How much of our food contains them. Spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, so many things. I mean the list is ridiculously huge.

Conservation can "help" but it's not going to change the overall disastrous trend.

[Iamwhomiam]

Oh, I do know. I once sold produce in an old market that had catered to the affluent in Albany, Red Bartlett Pears for Mayor Corning as soon as they came into season down south and authentic Belgian Endive. Most of our pre-season produce came from New Jersey; spinach, Boston and leaf lettuces.

You're right though, about California providing much of our food.

I met a trucker in a Colorado truck stop who hailed from my region who was hauling produce to the east. Soon thereafter, a train successfully made the trip in 3 days, something the trucker said would be impossible. Competition!
"Jet flown" Pineapples have been available here for a long time.

If some of our more wealthy folk were wise, they'd start growing foods in soil-less greenhouses hydroponically with controlled humidity.

Fair well. Stay hydrated!

[Nordic]

So were you in LA in 98?
Did it rain much then?

I missed that one. Was living in Austin then.

[Joe Hillshoist]

So were you in LA in 98?
Did it rain much then?

I missed that one. Was living in Austin then.

When its El Nino here we get really hot dry weather. And wet with la nina. probably the opposite of what you guys get. In '98 one of the worst droughts in Australian history really got going.

there were plenty of El Ninos betweeen 1990 and 2010 and in parts of se Australia most of that time was spent in drought.

[Luther Blissett]

January 2016 was the hottest January since record-keeping began and represented the most deviant month global average temperature-wise, at 1.13º C above the 1951-1980 average. Can anyone find the actual figure? I would like to see how it compares to July 2015, when the global average temperature was 16.61°C (with a deviation of "only" 0.81ºC).

This was due in large part to a temperature explosion in the arctic region, from a combination of el nino effects, the arctic oscillation, and the sea ice albedo feedback loop.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/image ... sR1KeuFGSA

Global warming spiked in January, setting new record

January saw an extraordinary, record-setting spike in global average temperature, according to the just released monthly analysis from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

The global average temperature at Earth’s surface for January 2016 was 1.13 degrees C above the 1951-1980 average. That’s slightly more than 2 degrees F. The previous record for January, set in 2007, was .95 C, or 1.71 F above average. NASA’s climate record goes back to 1880.

[Joe Hillshoist]

This any good to you?

http://reason.com/blog/2016/02/05/hotte ... emperature