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Brutal century ahead
Federal report details drastic impacts of global warming on the Southwest
Monday, June 22, 2009 | 2:05 a.m.
The first detailed report issued by the Obama administration on global warming paints a grim picture of the projected effects of climate change in the United States.
“Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States,” a study released last week by 13 science agencies with assistance from major universities, should be of particular interest to Southern Nevadans.
Compared with the period from 1960 through 1979, temperatures in the Southwest are expected to rise 4 to 10 degrees by the end of the century.
The chance for longer-lasting heat waves could force the region’s residents to use more air conditioning, which would increase the risk of blackouts as electricity supplies become depleted.
The report also warned that the region, already suffering an extended drought as evidenced by declines in Colorado River flow and spring snowpack, should be prepared to face large reductions in spring precipitation by the end of the century. With that, combined with temperature increases and rapid population growth, the Southwest can expect increased competition for water.
The rising temperatures will also lead to more wildfires, and the loss of wetlands will cause more flooding along rivers. Also, ski resort areas will have less snow, cutting recreational opportunities.
While all of this sounds like a doomsday movie script, it is being presented to the public in all seriousness by many of the country’s top scientists.
The responsible thing for this nation to do would be to take the advice of John Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology. He recommended a reduction in harmful emissions globally, combined with local measures to reduce damage from environmental changes that are no longer avoidable.
President Barack Obama and Congress should press ahead with strategies to promote increased use of renewable energy, stricter limits on factory pollution and production of automobiles that get better gas mileage.
Southern Nevadans can play a role, too, by conserving water and taking greater advantage of the state’s solar, wind and geothermal resources.
Without these measures, conditions in the Southwest are bound to get worse.
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The goal of Obama is that Obama is able to control the annual temperature for the whole earth.
He will do this with a thermostat in the oval office.
After he does this .... well what next.
Amazing stuff
Reagan was accused of having voodoo economics (which was never proven). Obama is engaging is voodoo science which will will be proven. The winter of 2008-09 was one of the coldest on record.
So the two bright pennies above must know the history of science on this issue. Right?
They must know who Svante Arrhernius is or John Tyndall or that Joseph Fourier was already investigating heat trapping gases in the 1820's. Right?
Right!!!
For a nice debunking of jlb101's nosense please read here:
http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2009...
mschaffer
Well done to mention Tydall and Arrhernius, both of whom forecast the eventual global warming due to CO2 emissions, but little did they realise it would go so quick. In 1896 Arrhernius said that the possiblity of global temperatures rising by as much as 5 degsC within a few hundred years, now we are expecting it to happen before the end of 2090.
Regarding the Colorado River and the Hoover Dam, water experts are saying that levels will fall drastically by 2017 and by 2020 there will not be enough water to turn the turbines
Hi uddeboda,
Anyone interested in the science behind climate can find the information about these pioneers from legitimate science sources of information but the posters above would be out of their depth as they depend on newsmax or some similar nonsense.
As to our problems with Lake Mead water levels, it looks serious but the science states that there is a high probability of losing the lake due to climate change and increased demand. This is not the same as saying it is a certainty but it should be planned for. Unfortunately, our general population appears to be at the same level as the first two posters above.
Mschaffer
True what you say, but the real problem of the Colorado is that the snow fields are getting smaller and smaller due to a shortening of the winter seasons. I am assuming that there are glaciers that feed the Colorado, or ??
uddeboda,
I have only heard of snow pack as the source for the Colorado River. I don't think there are any glaciers but could be wrong. In either case a few centuries worth of abuse are probably going to come home to roost unless drastic action is proposed and implemented.
Its not only the snow pack or glaciers that are the problem, with decreasing rainfall, the amount of water that is repleanishing the ground water is also getting less and less. Pumping up water now will not solve the problem it will only worsen it. In the Middle East, countries have ceased pumping up water when they reached 1000meters down, they are now converting sea water into drinking water, at huge expense.
Barcelona in Spain has no drinking water of its own, and is importing fresh water by tank boat to satisfy its citizens and tourists. Huge areas of central Europe are at rish due to the rapid melt of the glaciers in the Alps, and countries like Switzerland and Austria are worried about the lack of water for their hydro electric plants
Dr's. Future & jlb: Please, your explanations for disappearing glaciers, artic and antartic shrinking ice masses, wildly changing weather patterns, etc., etc.
God's punishment for Roe v Wade maybe?
Wayne-
Nope. Try "God's punishment" for us not being good stewards of the planet she made for us.
mschaffer & uddeboda-
Thanks for enlightening us with more real science. Yes, we're at risk to lose Lake Mead in the future. Yes, snow pack in The Rockies is diminishing, which further worsens the problem. And yes, building desal plants in California will do little or nothing to solve the long-term problem. We need to rethink the way we use our natural resources. We're finding out the hard way that they're finite, and the climate crisis is only worsening the problem.
This plus healthcare reform should be a great sinking stone on the economy.
The Democrats are riding on the great Obama train off the end of the cliff.
The science naysayers were entrenched in the HW Bush and GW Bush administrations. These anti-science perpetrators did everything in their power to stymie real scientific inquiry and research on everything from Global Warming to earthquakes.
It really goes back to anti-science voodoo magic of Nancy Reagan who believed in astrology, a real pseudo-science and not in true sciences.
There are still many, even in Las Vegas, who do not believe that global warming and climatic change are upon us. Good for them ... how will they explain to the lack of water, food and extreme high temperatures in the very near future to their offspring?
You can believe whatever you want...that is your choice. Science is the search for knowledge and truth. True science is indisputable just as the scientific fact that the sun rises in the East every day and sets in the West. Science is backed by facts, inquiry and research.
Conclusions, assumptions, suggestions,etc of lay, non science trained persons matters not.
Call me in 20-25 years when Lake Mead has dried into a mud puddle and we are out of water...
Call me in 20-25 years when the temperatures of the entire globe have risen and caused great problems with increased ocean levels, decreased arctic and antarctic glacier ice...
Call me when the world begins to fight wars over water supplies and food shortages due to global climate changes instead of territories...
In 20-25 years I will be either dead or a mumbling, bumbling indigent in some home talking to myself about what it used to be like.... Remember Soylent Green? May in 20-15 years I too will become a special "cookie" for the masses of hungry humans to treasure and consume. Yummy!!!
vsestini:
I wish I could say you are a crazy old fool, unfortunately, you are not.
"Those who can't listen have to learn."
--My Mother
uddebodda and mschaffer,
Stick to what you know....liberal politics. You need to study the cyclic nature of winter run-off levels in Colorado. Lake Mead hasn't existed as a full reservoir at least three times since the Dam was finished.
vsestini,
Thanks for blaming Bush for this. I was beginning to think an opinion section was going to go "clean" of blaming Bush, I am glad you are up to the task.
For the record if your pal Obama keeps spending and regulating at the rate he's going we won't have to worry about anything.
We will all be gone or wish we were.
How's that change thing working out?
I find it interesting that the people who assure us of the infallibility of catastrophic climate change science are the first ones to throw rationality out the window when it comes to deciding what to do next. Often the most expensive and least effective methods for dealing with climate change are chosen giving a great deal of weight to those who suggest climate change is abused by those who want to push an agenda all together separate from saving the environment.
I find it interesting that they can't get the weekend forecast right and they are telling us what the climate will be in 30 years.
SgtRock: Picture yourself someday soon, after you've lost your health insurance and you're sitting in a hospital emergency room for 12 hours and the water fountains have been turned off.
Let the President worry about the economy. You need to worry about that ever expanding ring around Lake Mead.
"Let the President worry about the economy."
I wish he would!!!!
I think it is priority number 1,300,843,328,305 for him.
"The goal of Obama is that Obama is able to control the annual temperature for the whole earth".
Wow! I didn't think people this stupid actually still breathed or even knew how to breathe.
Neocons,
Shut up!
http://blogs.reviewjournal.com/community...
Yes, goose stepping kool-aid lib.....
So much writing by the know nothings so little understanding.
jldour,
I will make you a bet about summer's 25 years in the future and I can win the bet as soon as you agree to put up, oh let's say, $1,000 OK? That is, if you have the courage of your convictions.
Patrick,
Care to detail those expensive solutions and reference the peer reviewed literature backing up your claims?
getalife,
Care to show what your formal education was in the sciences?
Ms Shaffer,
Care to detail ANY peer reviewed journal on climate change solutions that takes into account a cost benefit analysis?
Be my guest.
To all others... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WWpH0lmc...
Dr. Cristy is a PhD climatologist from the University of Alabama at Huntsville. Basically what he says is that the climate is changing but disaster change is a media hype and he has the data to prove it.Basically the environment is complex, incredibly complex and no body really knows what is going on, what effects what and how much. That said, it is incredibly difficult to project the future climate and the models are often wrong when it comes to predicting (thanks to a hole bunch of uncertainties and variables on the planet). He also hammers the IPCC reports noting what many on the left won't acknowledge - the IPCC is a political organization not scientific.
Go to minute 39 (about) to see what won't happen if you choose expensive environmental policy versus building nuclear power plants.
jldour, You are wandering again, mixing local weather forecasts with global climate change, naughty, naughty
Patrick,
Why don't you spend a month or two here for starters:
http://www.realclimateeconomics.org/bene...
I am sure you haven't thought about going to a research library for information as linking to John Cristy just shows how clueless you are. Well I guess idiots like you need to eat as well. Stick to your usual know nothing topics as you are completely out of your depth on climate change.
While I'm reading your website for the next month how about you watch that 50 minute video from a PhD academic researcher and state climatologist (before you slam him and the information he has to offer)?
...and maybe you can provide me links to articles that I don't have to pay $30 to read? I was kind enough to give you a free lecture that you didn't bother watching before going on the ideological attack.
Oh and by the way, don't ever criticize NPRI's research since you are quoting articles from Frank Ackerman a man who sells his services to left-wing think tanks and political action organizations like Greenpeace. Not that I have problem with that, but you do.
It's interesting that the author recommends that Obama take the advice of John Holdren, a man who advocates forced abortion and mass sterilization.
http://zombietime.com/john_holdren/
Hope and change, y'all!