Increases in CO2 - Causes Cooling

[jem]

morons... try and blame this on man made co2 without any evidence.


we live in a dry region. we are effected by the tides and currents and the sun.

strong el nino's typically bring warming and they bring rain.
la nina's typically bring cooling and dryness.

Farmers are not on the sides of trolls like you db.

 

[dbphoenix]

Farmers are not on the sides of trolls like you db.

California farm drought crisis deepens

Published: Feb 22, 2014

ANDRIA CHENG

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — In a move that will likely signal higher food prices nationally, a federal agency says California’s drought-stricken Central Valley — hundreds of thousands of acres of the most productive farmland in the U.S. — won’t get any irrigation water this summer.

Friday’s announcement by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation follows an earlier warning of no irrigation deliveries from the California State Water Project and leaves Central Valley farms and cities with only wells and stored water to get through the worst drought since the state began keeping records in the 1800s.

Statewide, some 8 million acres of farmland rely on federal or state irrigation water.

California Gov. Jerry Brown has declared a state of emergency following reports that the water content of snow in Northern California’s Sierra Nevada, whose spring runoff is stored in reservoirs and moved by canals to other areas of the state, stands at 29% of normal.

“This low allocation is yet another indicator of the impacts the severe drought is having on California communities, agriculture, businesses, power, and the environment,” said Michael Connor, commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. “We will monitor the hydrology as the water year progresses and continue to look for opportunities to exercise operational flexibility in future allocations.”

The announcement is significant because California is the largest U.S. agriculture producer. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s most recent California Agricultural Statistics for the 2012 crop year, the state remains the leading state in cash farm receipts, with more than 350 commodities representing $44.7 billion, or 11% of the U.S. total, in 2012. Over a third of the U.S.’s vegetables and almost two-thirds of its fruits and nuts were produced in California, the USDA’s NationalAgricultural Statistics Service said in a report.

Milk, grapes, almonds, strawberries, lettuce and tomatoes are among the state’s top-10 valued commodities, California’s Department of Food & Agriculture said.

The Central Valley represents about a third of the state’s agricultural land. The agency’s announcement follows a 2013 growing season where the farmers there received only 20% of their normal allocations.

The federal agency’s announcement will particularly affect San Joaquin Valley farmers who are last in line to receive federal water, San Jose Mercury Newsreported, adding that many farmers will have to pump already overtaxed wells or leave fields fallow this year. Farmers will leave 500,000 acres of fallow this year, the paper quoted Mike Wade, executive director of the California Farm Water Coalition, as saying.

Bloomberg News reported the state has identified 10 rural towns with fewer than 100 days of water supply remaining.

Retail prices for tomatoes rose 10% in the 12 months through Jan. 31, and U.S. retail prices for beef, bacon, lettuce and broccoli have also risen at least 10% last year, even as total food inflation inched up just 1.4%, Bloomberg reported, citing government data.

 

[dbphoenix]

SACRAMENTO, California—Hints of a changing climate can be found all over central California.

In the western Sierra Nevadas, the air is filled with smoke and haze from wildfires. In the Central Valleysouth of Sacramento, dust whips across fallow fields, thanks to lack of rain and a record drought. Near the coast, people worry about bigger storms.

"Scientific predictions say that with global warming, we'll see more variability in California's climate, with more intense storms, longer dry periods, and less snowpack," hydrogeologist and geology department chair Tim Horner said from his office at California State University, Sacramento.

All this means climate change is going to force the state to "make some really tough decisions" over the coming years, Horner said.

Golden State officials will have to figure out how to protect the state's long coastline, keep a vast agricultural industry going, apportion dwindling water resources, drive smart development, and keep 38 million residents safe, all while dealing with a financial crisis.

Here are some of the key issues California will soon have to grapple with due to climate change:

1. Drought and Wildfires

Some 75 percent to 80 percent of California's freshwater comes from the Sierra Nevada snowpack, a resource that has dwindled in recent years and is threatened by future climate change, Frank Gehrke, who serves as the chief of snow surveys for California's Department of Water Resources, explained from a granite dome in Yosemite. In February, the Sierra snowpack was only 14 percent of normal.

"Regardless of what happens with climate change, even in a good year we don't have enough water," Gehrke said as he viewed the tiny pockets of ice left at the top of the national park.

Climate scientists predict the region will get even hotter and drier. And as more of the state's precipitation falls as rain instead of snow in the mountains, it will run off the land more quickly, ending up in the ocean. In the short term, farmers and cities will increasingly turn to reservoirs and groundwater, Gehrke said, but how long will that last? As it stands, California has only about a year and a half's supply saved behind dams, and groundwater tables have been dropping precipitously.

Lack of water has also led to more and larger wildfires, including last year's Rim fire, which scorched the largest area on record in the Sierra Nevadas. . . .

5. Loss of Native Fish

California once supported vibrant commercial and recreational fisheries, but the fish have long been in decline. According to Horner, native species like salmon, steelhead, and trout are now outnumbered by nonnative species like carp.

"A lot of the native fish in California are coldwater fish, so as the waters get warmer, they're not going to do as well," said Horner, who leads stream restoration projects around the state.

In fact, researchers at the University of California, Davis, found in 2013 that, of the state's 121 native fish species, 82 percent are likely to be driven to extinction, or close to it, by climate change.

To try to cool the rivers and keep the native fish alive, the state has been releasing water from dams. But that's unpopular with farmers, and works only as long as there is water to release.

Brian Clark Howard

National Geographic

AUGUST 12, 2014

 

[dbphoenix]

The US is expected to grow by 120 million people by 2050. Government scientists expect more incidents of extreme heat, severe drought, and heavy rains to affect food production. The warming is expected to continue without undue problems for 30 years but beyond 2050 the effects could be dramatic with staple crops hit.

According to the latest government report: "The rising incidence of weather extremes will have increasingly negative impacts on crop and livestock productivity, because critical thresholds are already being exceeded." Many agricultural regions of the US will experience declines.

California's central valley will be hard hit with sunflowers, wheat, tomato, rice, cotton and maize expected to lose 10-30% of their yields, especially beyond 2050. Fruit and nut crops which depend on "winter chilling" days may have to relocate. Animals exposed to many hot nights are increasingly stressed. Many vegetable crops will be hit when temperatures rise only a few degrees above normal.

John Vidal

The Observer

13 April 2013

 

[dbphoenix]

California hit with record West Nile outbreak — and its epic drought is to blame

California can’t catch a break. Amid its ongoing, devastating drought, it’s experiencing anunusually nast outbreak of West Nile Virus: 238 human cases, and 9 deaths, have been reported so far this year, compared to the 117 cases reported this time in 2013 and the five-year average of just 75. In Orange County, the epicenter of the outbreak, 90 peoplehave so far become infected — seven times the number of diagnoses for all of 2013. State officials say they expect the outbreak will continue to spread.

California Department of Public Health

Researchers have been warning that certain conditions created by climate change — increases in heat, precipitation and humidity — will be favorable to mosquitoes, providing ample opportunity for them and the variety of diseases they carry to multiply while their range expands. One invasive species, the Asian Tiger Mosquito, is already spreading rapidly — it’s invaded 36 states since arriving just a quarter century ago — and experts predict that, as climate change worsens, so too will its presence. In two decades, write researchers at the Public Library of Science, the land area covered by the pest may increase from 5 to 16 percent; as winters get warmer toward the end of the century, they could cover half the Northeast U.S.

But as California is proving, this isn’t the only way climate change could create a mosquito crisis. While the state has certainly seen its share of record temperatures this summer, it’s been making headlines for how little rainfall it’s received. But instead of working to suppress the propagation of mosquitoes, as we might expect, experts say the drought may actually be enabling the West Nile outbreak.

As water sources dry up, Roger Nasci, chief of the arboviral diseases branch for the Centers for Disease Control, told the Wall Street Journal, disease-carrying birds are forced to mingle with mosquitoes, making them more likely to pass on the infection. It can also mean more birds contracting the disease, which they’re then able to spread widely. What that means is that even though the total number of mosquitoes is down, the disease has become more concentrated: right now, California officials say they’re seeing the highest proportion of mosquitoes ever infected with the disease. In Orange County, 80 percent of mosquitoes tested carry it, compared to the normal level of 20 percent.

There’s no vaccine or treatment for West Nile Virus. Although only about 20 percent of people infected with it become ill, and one in 150 develop severe illness, health officials are nonetheless concerned — and not just about West Nile. “Taking the long view, we’ll probably see more vector-borne diseases as climate change progresses and mosquitoes discover expanded habitat,” commented John Swartzberg of UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health. “Dengue may make inroads from the border, and there’s also concern about chikungunya, another mosquito-borne virus that causes symptoms similar to dengue….With climate change, many things could be heading our way.”

Lindsay Abrams

 

[Tsing Tao]

Florida has had an outbreak of Chikungunya, too. No drought here.

 

[dbphoenix]

Researchers have been warning that certain conditions created by climate change — increases in heat, precipitation and humidity — will be favorable to mosquitoes, providing ample opportunity for them and the variety of diseases they carry to multiply while their range expands.

For the impaired.

 

[jem]

This is climate change... natural variability.

 

[jem]

interesting you were noting that the nutter warming forecast calls for increases in precipitation?
so why are you arguing as that is what I have been telling you?
here in California.. even the newspapers have been hoping for a strong el nino to end the drought.


however, recent forecasts by many papers have been saying we are at risk of cooling because the sun is scheduled to be less active.

For the impaired.

 

[dbphoenix]

*sigh*