Climate Change, Drought, and the Fall of California Agriculture

Posted on December 6, 2014 by GarryRogers

California Drought

GR: The California drought is a result of human-caused climate change. As irrigated farmlands decline, supermarket prices will rise, and homegrown produce will become attractive. Though many will lament this blow to Human society and will fight to maintain consumer economics in the produce aisles, others will consider it a just outcome of our own stupidity. Joshua Frank says, “Planting community gardens, growing our own vegetables, and

Mining waste of the land’s productivity.

shopping at local Farmer’s Markets – these are all ways we can survive without relying on the bounty California has provided.” However, this too, like irrigated agriculture, will ultimately fail. Human population growth will continue to overuse natural resources and force a decline in ecosystem stability and productivity. In the battles for fresh water and good soil, the blows to Human society will be massive and irreversible.

The following by Joshua Frank.

California Agriculture

“Thanks to cheap water and plentiful sunshine, California grows most of the US’s fruit, vegetables and nuts, writes Joshua Frank. But with the drought looking ever more permanent, the $40 billion industry is facing a terminal crisis. It’s only a matter of time before we have to rely on local produce – so let’s make a start now!

“Agriculture accounts for over 80% of California’s total water consumption. The future of the state’s big ag is grim. It’s a reality the entire country will have to face.

Invasive species of animals and plants in the Great Basin Desert

Wild horses on a Great Basin Deseert landscape denuded by domestic cattle.

“It’s bone dry in California, and as I wrote in a recent print issue of CounterPunch magazine, it’s likely to remain that way for a long, long time thanks to our warming climate.

“The melting ice in the Arctic is manipulating the jet stream off the coast, pushing winter storms out of California. By many accounts the California water crisis is in its infancy and we are only beginning to witness the many changes the state will face as a result.”

Go here for an explanation of the California drought.

Go here for the rest of the article: Climate change and the downfall of California’s big agriculture – The Ecologist.

Buffalo’s 2014 November Snowstorm

Posted on November 21, 2014 by GarryRogers

GR: As extreme weather events become more common, they will become more extreme, guaranteeing more exciting weather news cycles than ever before.

“Earlier this week something rather interesting and disturbing happened to the Jet Stream.

“In the extreme northwest, a large heat pool over Alaska and the Beaufort Sea in the Arctic Ocean kept temperatures in the range of 10 to 36 degrees Fahrenheit above average. To the south, a powerful super typhoon, gorged on Pacific Ocean waters ranging from 1-2 C hotter than normal, raced into the extratropical region of the Central and Northern Pacific. And to the north and east, the cold core that normally resides over the North Pole began slipping south.

“As the supertyphoon’s remnants hit the warm weakness in the Jet Stream near Alaska, it bombed out into a monster extra-tropical low. This kicked warm air even further north, causing a whiplash in the Jet and driving the cold air core south over Canada.

“Cold air rocketed down over the relatively warm waters of the Great Lakes. These waters, having soaked up the heat of yet another hotter than average American summer, squeezed an epic amount of moisture and storm feeding energy out into the air. Over the past two days, the result was as kind of thundersnow storm that parked itself in one location, dumping foot after foot of snow. By the time the final tally was counted this morning, as much as 8 feet had fallen over Buffalo New York. A record amount never before seen in so short a time span and yet so far ahead of winter.”

Source: robertscribbler.wordpress.com

Read the full article to see why flooding is expected early next week.

NASA: October 2014 Tied For Hottest on Record

Posted on November 20, 2014 by GarryRogers

At the same time we have developers wiping out habitat, we have the progress machine spewing out smoke and toxic waste. It’s as if we humans have made a careful analysis and found every possible move we can make to damage our environment.

robertscribbler

(October was again a global temperature record setter. Image source: NASA.)

NASA’s monthly global temperature analysis is in and the results are once again record-making. For according to NASA’s global monitor, world temperatures were 0.76 degrees Celsius above the Earth average for the mid 20th Century.

This high temperature departure ties 2005 for hottest in NASA’s 136 year record. A temperature level that global ice core data points toward being hotter than at any time in the past 400,000 years. A record hot month in a string of record hot months for 2014. A resurgence to record high marks amidst an unprecedented spate of rising temperatures that has lasted now for more than a century running.

(Global temperatures have risen by more than 1 degree C above their low mark at the start of the 20th Century. It is a human-driven pace of warming 15-20 times faster than at…

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Warmest Oceans Ever Recorded

Posted on November 16, 2014 by GarryRogers

Ocean Surface Temperature Rising Sets Record

GR: The global-warming hiatus is probably over. Now might be a good time to review the RobertScribbler post: http://robertscribbler.wordpress.com/2014/10/08/its-worse-than-we-thought-new-study-finds-that-earth-is-warming-far-faster-than-expected/.

From Science Daily: “The current record-breaking temperatures indicate that the 14-year-long pause in ocean warming has come to an end.

“This summer has seen the highest global mean sea surface temperatures ever recorded since their systematic measuring started. Temperatures even exceed those of the record-breaking 1998 El Niño year,” says Axel Timmermann, climate scientist and professor, studying variability of the global climate system at the International Pacific Research Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa.”

Source: www.sciencedaily.com

The Brink of Mass Extinction

Posted on July 22, 2014 by GarryRogers

March through June 2014 were the hottest on record globally. While a single extreme weather event is not proof of anthropogenic climate disruption, the increasing intensity and frequency of these events is.

Source: www.truth-out.org

GR: Excellent review of news on effects and responses to anthropogenic climate disruption (ACD). Covers Earth, water, air, fire, and denial.

Global Warming and Fire

Posted on July 20, 2014 by GarryRogers

Northern Canada is On Fire, And It’s Making Global Warming Worse For the past few weeks, dry and warm weather have fueled large forest fires across Canada’s remote Northwest Territories. The extent of those fires is well above average for the year to-date, and is in line with climate trends of more fires burning in the northern reaches of the globe.

Of the 186 wildfires in the Northwest Territories to-date this year, 156 of them are currently burning. That includes the Birch Creek Fire complex, which stretches over 250,000 acres.

The amount of acres burned in the Northwest Territories is six times greater than the 25-year average to-date according to data from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center.

Boreal forests like those in the Northwest Ter..

Source: elispiritweaver.wordpress.com

GR: Increasing fire occurrence means that a site is more likely to be burned a second time before the vegetation can recover. This quickly leads to a reduction in diversity and stability.