Some reading for the “anti-warmalists” and “climate-change deniers”

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Failed doubters trust leaves taxpayers at loss

By STEVE KILGALLON - The Dominion Post | 8:45AM - Sunday, 12 January 2014

A GROUP of climate-change doubters has left the taxpayer at a substantial six-figure loss after its trust was liquidated following a failed High Court battle with the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA).

A three-year court case over NIWA's recording of historic temperature data ended last year when the New Zealand Climate Science Education Trust's final appeal foundered. It was ordered to pay NIWA $89,000 in costs after losing the original case; the appeals court then made another costs order, with the amount yet to be finalised.

The trust didn't pay the first amount, and last month NIWA pursued liquidation, but a trustee has confirmed the trust has no money.

NIWA chief executive John Morgan said it was still considering pursuing two of the trust's key players — former wine journalist Terry Dunleavy, a Justice of the Peace and MBE, and retired lawyer Barry Brill, a former National MP — for the money, but was waiting for the liquidation process to finish.

He added: "On the surface it looks like the trust was purely for the purpose of taking action, which is not what one would consider the normal use of a charitable trust".

NIWA gained an increase on the normal scale used to award costs. Morgan said he "suspected the judge [did that because] he think the merits of their accusations way below a basic threshold".

The trust's deed said its purpose was "promotion of enlightened awareness and understanding of climate [and other environmental issues", research and exchange of ideas.

Trustee Bryan Leyland, when asked about its assets, said: "To my knowledge, there is no money. We spent a large amount of money on the court case, there were some expensive legal technicalities."

Funding had come "from a number of source, which are confidential".

Dunleavey referred calls to Brill, who did not respond to calls.

Both Judge Venning and the Court of Appeal dismissed the trust's claim that it was in the "public interest" to challenge government departments, partly because the trust refused to back up some of its arguments.

The Ministry of Business, Employment and Industry wouldn't comment until liquidator Anthony Pullan's report on January 17th.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/9600968/Failed-doubters-trust-leaves-taxpayers-at-loss

[nitpicker1]

 

Lake Michigan Is Full Of Ice Balls The Size Of Boulders
The Huffington Post
By Ryan Grenoble      
Posted: 01/09/2014 4:52 pm EST 
Updated: 01/10/2014 8:51 pm EST

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/09/lake-michigan-ice-balls-video_n_4570097.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

[Im2Sexy4MyPants]

freezing in America,Hot in Australia,Summers been cool here where i live so yes we have climate change it happens every day.Record weather lol hahaha 


Global warming religion nutters got stuck in the ice in the summer time and the main stream whore slite propaganda beast media done their best to change the subject,

They seem to have a bad case of lets not talk about or mention global cooling in Antarctic






Global warming experts adrift in Antarctica since Christmas have finally been rescued, as the valiant efforts to save the Russian ship Akademik Shokalskiy were documented throughout the mainstream media.
Yet one major detail – what the ship was doing in Antarctica at all – seems to have eluded almost every major media outlet.
Breitbart News previously reported that the New York Times's account of how the Russian ship was finally freed from a large chunk of ice after attempts by a Chinese icebreaker failed mysteriously omitted the original purpose of having 25 professors on board a ship in Antarctica in the first place.
However, the Times was not anywhere near alone in covering only the details of the rescue without any look into why the crew needed rescuing.
CNN's earlier reports  on the ship coincide with this week's news  that the crew on the ship was finally saved by an American icebreaker ship, both mentioning that the crew onboard the Akademik Shokalskiy were, indeed, "on a climate change research ship." It stands out among media sources in pointing this out. The Associated Press, for example, mentions only that the Akademik Shokalskiy was a "research ship." The Washington Post version  of the AP story claims the ship was in Antarctica "re-creating Australian explorer Douglas Mawson’s 1911-13 voyage to Antarctica." NBC News  went with this story, too, as did Reuters  – omitting any mention of climate change research. ABC News went with no mention  of any motive for the ship's being down in the Antarctic at all.
Not every media outlet merely reported a straight story without that key fact; some attempted to find new angles to the story that distracted from the purpose of the voyage and the tragedy that befell it – during Antarctica's summertime, no less – and the terrible optics these implied for the climate change lobby. USA Today , for example, wondered whether there would be any impact on the Antarctic tourist cruise industry thanks to the media's covering a ship stuck in the region (it concluded that no, no cruise companies seem to be worrying about this). National Geographic went with the very bizarre twist  of emphasizing the American rescue ship's horsepower compared both to the Russian ship and its initial Chinese icebreaker savior, admiring the sheer power to break ice of such a ship.
Only publications with "conservative" reputations like the New York Post and the Boston Herald addressed the climate change angle of the story. The Herald ran an editorial  hoping that the incident would increase awareness of the continued growth of Antarctica's polar ice caps, a fact contrary to much global warming speculation. The Post also mentioned  the record-breaking ice in Antarctica's summer and highlighted the ship's goal to document the hypothetical record-breaking melting the scientists expected to find.
The Akademik Shokalskiy first sent out its distress call that it was stuck in ice on Christmas morning and has been lodged there ever since until finally having its passengers saved this week. The Snow Dragon, a Chinese icebreaker, moved closer to the Akademik Shokalskiy but, rather than managing to break a path through which it could escape, the icebreaker got stuck itself. A helicopter the ship brought with it did manage to take some passengers out of the Akademik Shokalskiy before the full rescue. An American vessel, the Polar Star, arrived this week from Australia and is in the process of returning the passengers to Tasmania, where they are expected by mid-January. The ships themselves remain lodged in ice.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2014/01/06/Mainstream-Media-Omits-Climate-Change-Mission-From-Antarctica-Ship-Rescue?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

[Im2Sexy4MyPants]

[nitpicker1]

then

this is todays  temps sourced from
http://www.worldweathernow.com/

and Now


from same source
http://www.worldweathernow.com/

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Fine weather for creepy melancholia

By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist | Tuesday, January 21, 2014

I HAVE enjoyed many terrific birthdays in San Francisco. I have, if memory serves and it sometimes does, nearly always celebrated my January birthday indoors, perhaps luxuriating in a fine hotel, or soaking in a hot, steaming body of water, or rolling around in a very large bed surrounded by whisky and laughter and various slippery things, all due to the chilly and invariably drizzling, foggy, sleeting, flagrantly unpleasant winter weather outside, weather that has always slammed January in San Francisco like a familiar and necessary refrain.

Not this year. This year, I was sunbathing. This year I was splayed out on a tiny, hidden gem of a beach down in Half Moon Bay, sipping champagne, wearing nothing but underwear and a smile alongside a gorgeous companion equally — though significantly more beautifully — unadorned, both of us marveling at the 74-degree temperature, the glass-calm ocean and the utter surreality of the dry, warm, lightly breezed air.


Beach day! In January! WTF!

We were, quite obviously, enjoying ourselves immensely. We were gasping at the stillness, the clear and simple heat, the ache and bite of the thirsty sand, repeating over and over that we couldn’t believe it was actually winter even as, deep down, we both could sense it — as I’m sure you can, too: Something is wrong.

It’s not supposed to be like this. It’s not supposed to be warm, dry and sunny in the Bay Area for the entire month of January, and probably February, and most of December, and who knows how much longer. Not here. Not now. Not ever.

Let me be clear: “Something is wrong” isn’t just something you mutter to yourself when the weather blips and flops and pulls a weird little stunt, like a rogue cold snap or fluke heat wave that you know will pass in a few days so hey, let’s get out the sunblock and have a freak barbecue in December.

This kind of wrongness, it’s of a different tang and scale. You can feel it in your bones, your primitive animal nature, your equilibrium. It’s not about weather, per se. It’s about something bigger. Deeper. And quite a bit scarier.

Surely you already know that California is officially in the midst of a severe, unprecedented drought. You’ve probably already read that 2013 was the driest year ever recorded in the state, that it could be the driest winter in 500 years, that the Sierra snow pack is 17 percent of what it should be, and that many, many people are beginning to get very, very concerned.


Do you have enough sunblock? You do not have enough sunblock.

What you might not know is a normal January has zero wildfires, whereas this one has already had 150. What you might not know is the predictive models for the entire western side of the country show extremely bleak times ahead. Go ahead, skim through just how scary it really is. If the insane fire danger alone isn’t enough to freak you out, the dour forecasts for all sorts of industries, from agriculture to ski resorts, certainly should.

So really, this is not a column about the weather. This is a column about gut-level disquiet, about seeing the woes of our city (San Francisco hasn’t even reached half of its record-low rainfall for this time of year) and our state, and then widening out that lens of unsettling weirdness to take in the totality of what’s happening, from the brutal (and equally unprecedented) “polar vortex” slamming the rest of the country, to extreme disasters, such as Supertyphoon Haiyan, the strongest storm ever recorded at landfall, which killed 6,000 people in the Philippines.

It recently snowed in Cairo for the first time in 112 years. In June of last year, in Death Valley, they hit the hottest temperature — 129 degrees — ever recorded for that month.

We are, at our core, blood-soaked, spit-infused, bone-hammered animals. We are, behind all our air-conditioned defenses and numbed-out obsession with technology and loneliness, still somehow attuned to the rhythms of the planet, still a living organism deeply interwoven with, and desperately dependent upon, a much larger organism. What happens to her, happens to us. We can feel it. Even if we caused it. Maybe because we caused it. Can you really separate?

Let’s take one paragraph right here to openly slap back the mortifying idiocy, the dangerous ignorance of the Tea Party, Fox News and all tiny-brained global warming deniers everywhere, and point instead to the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s most recent climate report, by far its most shocking and damning yet. Conclusion: It’s no longer a matter of when, but how bad.

Which is to say: dramatic climate change is no longer even remotely preventable. It’s here. It will be here for centuries. And yes, most of what’s happening is very much our fault. It’s now only a question of severity, adaptation and survival.

Do you care? Do you feel it? I bet you do. Your very body, your cells, your electromagnetic field and neural wiring, they all understand that nature is not a linear, easily predictable force, particularly when we’ve been slapping her, mauling her, cramming billions of tons of toxic waste into her and generally behaving towards the Earth the way a meth addict behaves toward a mixed green salad. A creeping sense of resigned doom pervades the blood.

Is there any good news? Sort of. Advances in conservation, energy use and environmental policy are happening every day. Wind, solar and thermal power are growing fast, though still remain light years behind oil and coal. There’s still a chance California could be deluged by rain and snow in March. Our fatal game of Russian Roulette with the planet might once again leave us standing, quivering and stupid, one more time.

The bad news? Science and common sense agree: It’s all too little, too late. Short of an immediate, radical overhaul of international energy usage on a scale unprecedented in human history, we’re headed for some vicious struggles for survival indeed. Check that: They’re already here.


Nothing left to do but sigh.

So, what do you do? How do you respond? Do you profess utter powerlessness and hope someone, somewhere figures it all out in time? Do you enjoy the random spoils of odd weather while you can, praying the wildfires don’t wipe out your home or the polar vortex doesn’t kill your grandparents, and store up on bottled water and good porn and Jesus? Do you shrug it off and keep dancing?

Maybe you make a nervous joke out of it, a game, tell everyone to “shower with a friend!” as you work to cut back on your water usage by 20 percent, even though you know upwards of 85 percent of all water in California goes for farming (less than 10 percent is residential), and most of that goes to grow grain, to feed cattle, to feed our gluttonous meat/fast-food obsessions, to feed our obesity epidemic which feeds our love of pharmaceuticals and fad diets and hoping someone else figures it all out in time. Ah, the circle of life.

Maybe you realize, deep in your bones, it’s no longer possible to turn it all around, and that there’s only so much you can do to adapt to severe unpredictability and the fact that Mother Nature always, nay always bats last. We’d try to whistle past the graveyard, if our lips weren’t so damn chapped.

• Email: Mark Morford

• Mark Morford on Twitter and Facebook.

http://blog.sfgate.com/morford/2014/01/21/fine-weather-for-creepy-melancholia

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

From the Los Angeles Times....

California's drought, times three

The state is facing three distinct water crises, each
requiring its own emergency and long-term responses.

LOS ANGELES TIMES EDITORIAL | Sunday, January 26, 2014


Seen above on Tuesday, a tree that is usually at the banks of Folsom Lake outside Sacramento is now several hundred feet away from the water. In his
drought emergency declaration, Governor Jerry Brown asked Californians to cut their water usage by 20%. — Photo: John G. Mabanglo/EPA.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIANS are facing not one drought but three, interconnected yet distinct, each bringing its own hazards and each requiring its own emergency and long-term responses.

The first drought is regional, caused by the lack of rain in our own mountains and our own backyards. In normal winters — or rather those we have come to accept as normal — storms blow south from the Gulf of Alaska, churning in a counterclockwise direction and keeping much of their stored water in the air until they move inland from the west and run smack into the San Gabriel Mountains. When they lack enough energy to push over the peaks, they dump their water — in torrents that rush down the mountainsides, feed seasonal rivers such as the Los Angeles, replenish groundwater basins and, occasionally, cause havoc.

The winter rain falls not just on the slopes but throughout the basin and the valleys that make up the geographic triangle outlined by the mountains and the coastline. That's the water that soaks into our backyards and landscapes and lessens the need for sprinklers. It's the water that also soaks into natural oaklands and scrublands, and when it goes missing — as it has for three winters now — the ground dries out, the trees and chaparral get dangerously crisp and wildfire becomes an increasing danger.

That's the hazard Southern California faces in the coming months. The recent Colby fire north of Glendora may have been started, as prosecutors allege, by three men carelessly smoking marijuana in the foothills, but it spread quickly and frighteningly because of the tinder-dry conditions. Without substantial rainfall in February and March, we can expect more fires like that one in the summer and fall fire seasons.

Other than extra caution by residents and vigilance and expertise on the part of professional firefighters, there is little Southern Californians can do about this regional drought beyond hoping for rain.

The second drought is different but related. The same Gulf of Alaska system that usually sends rain south of the Tehachapis also sends storms across the Central Valley and into the higher, colder Sierra Nevada, where the water falls as snow and forms California's greatest natural reservoir, releasing its water later in the year in manageable, and useful, seasonal pulses. More often than not, that's the water that comes out of the tap here, brought to Los Angeles households from Eastern Sierra snowmelt through the Owens River and the aqueduct for which the centenary was celebrated a few months ago; and it's the water that comes to us, and to all of Southern California, plus Silicon Valley, much of the coast and Central Valley fields and homes, from Western Sierra snowmelt that flows from the Sacramento River to the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and to the California Aqueduct.

The Northern California drought does little to affect fire danger here but a great deal to affect the supply of water to homes and businesses. Southern California is unlikely to go thirsty this year because it has water reserves banked around the region. But it's worth noting that although the winter snowpack is down by 80%, Governor Jerry Brown's drought declaration called for only a 20% decrease in water use.

It may seem counterintuitive to let lawns turn brown and gardens dry up in such dangerous conditions. But conservation is nevertheless crucial to address the problems caused by the drought in the Sierra.

The third drought is occurring across the Western United States, and especially in the Rocky Mountains, which feed the Colorado River and by extension the other major component, after the Central Valley, of California's agricultural wealth. It also forms a major part of Los Angeles' water portfolio.

Because these three droughts are interconnected, we rarely suffer from one without dealing with the others, and this year's situation is no different. The vast majority of Californians rely on water that falls in other parts of the state, or even outside the state, and although the multiple sources make water more secure for all of us, shortages usually come all at once.

Southern California must prepare for the future by recapturing more of the rainwater that in wetter years still runs, unused, to the sea. It must do even more than is already being done to clean and reuse urban water. We will likely need a storm water bond, tax or other measure. We may have to build new dams to store water for future use without drying up rivers and destroying the ecosystem, as dams in California historically have done. A statewide water bond, which voters will consider in November, should help clean up groundwater basins here to allow residents to rely more on local supplies and less on the Sierra — although distant snowmelt must always be a part of the entire state's water portfolio.

That means diverting some of the delta's water with pumps that do less damage to endangered fish and rely less on earthquake-vulnerable levees. The kind of system envisioned by the Bay Delta Conservation Plan would help all parts of California deal with global climate change and its inevitable result: precipitation that falls on the Sierra less like the snow that generations have come to rely on and more like the rain that comes, when it does, to Southern California in unmanageable torrents.

These measures are needed not merely for drought years like this one. But the trio of droughts serves as a reminder of the urgent need for action — to plan, to conserve, to store, to reuse, to transport and to share the state's most precious resource.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-new-drought-20140126,0,7229717.story

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

From the Los Angeles Times....

Republicans seek to tap California drought for a political edge

Midterm election campaigns attempt to link the state's water crisis to
Democratic environmental policies, and promise relief for farmers.

By EVAN HALPER | 10:58PM PST - Sunday, January 26, 2014


A visitor to Folsom Lake in California's Central Valley walks his dog down a boat ramp that is now several hundred yards from the water's edge.
At a mere 17% capacity, the lake has become a visual symbol of California's water crisis. — Photo: Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press.

WASHINGTON — Beleaguered and outnumbered, California Republicans think they may have found a crucial ally — drought.

Up and down the state's increasingly dry Central Valley, Republicans have pounded away at the argument that Democratic policies — particularly environmental rules — are to blame for the parched fields and dwindling reservoirs that threaten to bankrupt farms and wipe out jobs.

In his latest campaign video, Republican Doug Ose stands in the middle of dried-out Folsom Lake. At a mere 17% capacity, the usually scenic reservoir favored by boaters and sunbathers looks like the set of "Mad Max". As the camera pans, Ose declares, "We're facing a real crisis."

"Where's our representative?" he demands, referring to Representative Ami Bera, a freshman Democrat elected in 2012 on a razor-thin margin, whom he hopes to unseat this fall.

House Speaker John A. Boehner joined the effort recently, flying to Bakersfield and promising to shepherd legislation through the House to divert some of the state's dwindling water supply to farmers.

"When you come to a place like California, and you come from my part of the world, you just shake your head and wonder what kinds of nonsense does the bureaucracy do out here?" the Ohio Republican said, referring to the long-running diversion of millions of gallons from farms to the habitats of endangered fish.

"How you can favor fish over people is something that people from my part of the world never understand," he said.

Whether the politics of water can help the Republican Party make gains in this year's congressional elections remains to be seen. Republicans have bet on the water issue in the past to little avail. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina, for example, made attacks on water-related environmental regulations a major element of her unsuccessful campaign against Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer in 2010.

Already, however, the renewed partisan focus on the issue has complicated Governor Jerry Brown's job, as his administration scrambles to develop emergency plans to keep water flowing to cities where the spigots of homes and businesses are in danger of running dry.

And this time may be different.

Across the state's agricultural heart, crisis is bearing down. Laborers face unemployment, and the owners of small companies that rely on a robust farming industry are panicked. The GOP is leveraging their anger.

Until now, "nobody cared," said Tony Quinn, an editor of the California Target Book, which handicaps political races. "In a drought, all of a sudden there is rationing, there is no boating, no fishing. People are told not to flush when they pee in the toilet. We'll be going through all that. People begin to pay attention."

"Republicans are looking for an issue in this very Democratic state," Quinn added. "Congressional candidates throughout the Central Valley are going to seize on this."

Indeed, Republican strategists hope the issue could help in half a dozen districts in and around the Central Valley. In addition to Ose's race against Bera, Republican strategists hope anger over water restrictions could help them with otherwise uphill challenges to Democratic incumbents Jerry McNerney of Stockton and Jim Costa of Fresno.

Water politics could also help Republicans defend incumbents who might be vulnerable if Brown appears headed to a lopsided victory. Democrats have eyed three Central Valley Republicans — Representatives David Valadao of Hanford, Jeff Denham of Turlock and Devin Nunes of Tulare — as possible targets.

The political advantage exists even though the plan Boehner unveiled last week, which would give more water to farms and less to habitat conservation, stands almost no chance of becoming law. The Brown administration dismisses the proposal as crude and potentially catastrophic, and its odds in the Democratic-controlled Senate are about nil.

Leading Democrats argue that the Republican proposals ignore the reality that California's water woes are complex and caused by diverse issues. Among them are gambles that agricultural interests took when they invested heavily in operations that rely on unstable water supplies.

Relaxing of endangered species protections would not necessarily free up any water amid a drought this severe. Moreover, Democrats note, proposals to fund large water conservation and recycling programs have foundered in the GOP-controlled House.

"This is a political stunt," said Representative George Miller (Democrat-Martinez), a veteran of the state's water tensions. "Their argument is so stupid."

The drought has already complicated Brown's efforts to win approval for his long-range plan to build two 35-mile tunnels that would divert as much as 67,500 gallons of water every second from the Sacramento Delta to thirsty cities and farms to the south.

The latest move by Central Valley farmers and their Republican allies to get more water in these scarce times is sure to increase tensions with Northern California voters and their representatives, including Miller, among whom opposition to diverting delta water appears to be hardening.

State officials also worry that the measure Boehner is promoting could upend decades of carefully built alliances among farmers, water agencies, environmentalists, fishing communities and others that are the backbone of the state's water system.

"What they are doing does not serve a purpose," said state Natural Resources Secretary John Laird. "It's not as if we have water left to argue over. We need to triage.

"Some parts of the state are going to have to depend on the kindness of other parts of the state" to get water for their most basic needs, Laird said. "This is not the time to start a fight."

For Boehner and his allies, however, those complexities may be beside the point. As Democrats struggle to explain the myriad policies, contracts and stakeholder agreements that have left the state unprepared to deal with a historic dry spell, Republicans are offering simpler explanations that appeal to the inland voters they covet.

"The Man-Made California Drought" is the title of a Web page devoted to water at the House Committee on Natural Resources' site. It prominently features clips from "The Valley Hope Forgot", a multipart harangue against California water policy by the Fox network's Sean Hannity.

Nunes, who stood alongside Boehner in Bakersfield, brushes aside Laird's advice to avoid a fight.

"Laird and the others are all disciples of the NRDC and Sierra Club," said the congressman, referring to the National Resources Defense Council and the environmental group founded by conservationist John Muir. "They sit in San Francisco drinking $500 bottles of wine, and they want us out of production."

Nunes, who once brought a bowl of fish to a hearing to make the point that they are treated better than farmers, accepts that pumping more water to farms right now may not be feasible. But the Republican proposal stipulates the pumping would start once water levels are high enough.

"The people who built the water system designed it to withstand a five-year drought," he said. "But we have just been letting water go."

And at least some Democrats are taking no chances. Shortly after Boehner's visit, Costa signaled he planned to sign on to the Republican effort.

His re-election could hinge on it.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-drought-politics-20140127,0,4166887,full.story

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

From the Los Angeles Times....

California snowpack hits record low

Underscoring the severity of a statewide drought, snowpack measurements
hit a record low as Governor Jerry Brown meets with water leaders.

By BETTINA BOXALL | 5:55PM PST - Thursday, January 30, 2014


Frank Gehrke, chief of the California Cooperative Snow Survey Program for the Department of Water Resources, leaves a snow-covered meadow
after the second snow survey of the year near Echo Summit, California. Gehrke said that while recent snow fall will help bolster the depleted
snowpack, it is not enough to affect the water supply. — Photo: Associated Press.

EVEN WITH the first significant storm in nearly two months dropping snow on the Sierra Nevada, Thursday's mountain snowpack measurements were the lowest for the date in more than a half-century of record keeping.

At 12% of average for this time of year, the dismal statewide snowpack underscored the severity of a drought that is threatening community water supplies and leaving farm fields in many parts of California barren.

As snow survey crews worked, Governor Jerry Brown met with Southern California water leaders as part of a series of drought meetings he is holding around the state.

"Every day this drought goes on, we're going to have to tighten the screws on what people are doing," Brown said in brief remarks before the private meeting with regional water managers at the downtown Los Angeles headquarters of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

Brown earlier this month declared a state drought emergency and called on all Californians to cut water use by 20%. "Make no mistake," he said Thursday. "This drought is a big wake-up call and a reminder that we do depend on natural systems. It's not just going to the store."

Thanks to billions of dollars of ratepayer investments in regional water storage projects and conservation programs, Southern California is in a stronger position than much of the rest of the state. "We spent 20 years preparing for a drought like this," MWD General Manager Jeffrey Kightlinger said.

The agency, which supplies the Southland with water from the Colorado River and Northern California, has no plans to impose rationing this year. But Kightlinger is asking the MWD board to issue a formal alert, emphasizing Brown's call for conservation, and wants the board to dip into the agency's general reserve fund to double annual conservation spending to $40 million.

The money would fund public outreach and consumer rebates for water-efficient appliances and sprinkler systems.

Kightlinger also said MWD would be open to forgoing some water shipments and transferring them to needy districts in other parts of the state if enough storms come along in the next two months to raise the level of depleted reservoirs upstate.

But "right now we don't even have those supplies in Northern California," he said. "Frankly, I've never seen anything like it."

MWD officials and Brown also discussed a $25-billion proposal to replumb the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta with a new diversion point and two water tunnels. Brown and major water contractors including MWD are pushing the project as the best way to ease endangered species restrictions that have cut water deliveries to the Southland and San Joaquin Valley agriculture.

When President Obama this week phoned Brown about the drought, Brown said he told the president that some "lower level" federal officials involved in the project "are not being helpful. Quite the opposite."

Kightlinger, elaborating later, said the Brown administration and water contractors were frustrated by the pace of review by federal agencies that must approve the project.

"We've been working on it now over seven years," Kightlinger said. "We've spent $200 million-plus dollars in planning alone and we need high-level federal engagement to wrap this up."

Until Thursday, the lowest statewide snowpack measurement at this time of year was 21% of average, in 1991 and 1963. The one bit of good news Thursday was that it was snowing in the Sierra.

The storm arrived Wednesday evening and, combined with a second wave of moisture Thursday night, was expected to dump one to two feet of snow on slopes that have been so bare that mountain bikers were climbing them in the middle of January.

The U.S. Forest Service on Thursday issued an oddly welcome warning of backcountry avalanche danger between the Yuba and Ebbetts passes "due to new heavy snow slabs."

Dawn Johnson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Reno, said two low pressure systems in recent days managed to split in half the persistent high pressure ridge off the West Coast that has blocked winter storms.

"That finally opened up the door" for a track of tropical moisture from Hawaii, she said. A cold front from the Gulf of Alaska turned the initial rain to snow in the mountains and foothills. The system, extending from the Oregon border, was largely spent by the time it reached Southern California and forecasters said the Los Angeles area would get no more than a tenth of an inch of rain.

Although another low pressure system could bring precipitation to the California coastline Sunday night, Johnson said there was no way of knowing if the storm door will remain open next month, or slam shut.

• CLICK HERE to view an interactive graphic showing the state of California's water reservoirs.

http://www.latimes.com/science/la-me-brown-water-20140131,0,3070851.story

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

From the Los Angeles Times....

Want to cut Arctic warming in half? Curb emissions now, study says

By TONY BARBOZA | 10:07AM PST - Friday, January 31, 2014


Icebergs float in a bay off Ammassalik Island, Greenland. — Photo: John McConnico/Associated Press.

GLOBAL WARMING is changing the Arctic so quickly that experts say we should expect an ice-free Arctic Ocean in the summer within just a few decades.

But a group of scientists says there is a way to spare the Arctic from more disastrous climate change. In a new paper, they say that reducing global carbon emissions now could cut Arctic warming nearly in half by century’s end.

Society already has released enough carbon dioxide into the Earth’s atmosphere that over the next few decades temperatures in the Arctic will continue to rise two to three times faster than in Earth’s middle latitudes, according to the study.

“Over the next 20 or 30 years, the fix is in,” said James Overland, an oceanographer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and lead author of the scientific paper. “That means more access to drilling, shipping and resource exploration. But it's not very good news for polar bears or walruses that depend on the sea ice habitat.”

Starting mid-century, society’s decisions about how to address climate change could begin to kick in, Overland said.

If carbon emissions continue on their current trajectory, by century’s end temperatures across the Arctic could rise by 23.4 degrees in the late fall and 9 degrees in the late spring, according to the study, which used computer models to predict the effects of different greenhouse gas emissions scenarios.

But if civilization levels off its emissions by mid-century, Arctic-wide warming would be limited to 12.6 degrees in the late fall and 5.4 degrees in the late spring, according to the paper accepted for publication in the journal Earth’s Future.

The Arctic is hypersensitive to climate change and is seeing some of the earliest and most severe effects because of a vicious circle known as “Arctic amplification.”

As Arctic sea ice shrinks to record lows, it is reflecting less sunlight and leaving behind more heat-absorbing ocean water. Thawing permafrost is increasing heat storage on land and raising temperatures even higher.

Already, the average annual temperature in the Arctic is 3.6 degrees higher than it was between 1971 and 2000, double the rise in lower latitudes during the same period, according to the study.

Overland conducted the research with three other scientists from the University of Washington, the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, and the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

The scientists wrote that their research “makes a strong case to begin mitigation activities for greenhouse gases,” adding that stabilizing carbon dioxide emissions by mid-century “is a plausible target if decisive actions are begun soon.”

http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-arctic-warming-sea-ice-carbon-emissions-20140130,0,6296635.story

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

From the Los Angeles Times....

California drought prompts first-ever ‘zero water allocation’

By BETTINA BOXALL | 2:04PM PST - Friday, January 31, 2014


The State Water Project's zero allocation, which comes amid a crippling drought, is the first in the sprawling system's 54-year history.
 — Photo: Nhat V. Meyer/McClatchy-Tribune.

OFFICIALS on Friday said that for the first time ever, the State Water Project that helps supply a majority of Californians may be unable to make any deliveries except to maintain public health and safety.

They also said they were cutting releases from large reservoirs in the northern part of the state to preserve supplies in the face of what could be the worst drought in modern California history.

“It’s about holding back water so we’ve got it tomorrow,” said Chuck Bonham, director of the Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The zero allocation for the State Water Project is the first in the sprawling system’s 54-year history. It will be reassessed monthly and could be adjusted upward if storms drop snow and rain on the parched state in the next three months.

Most of the contractors that get water from the project have other sources, such as storage and groundwater, and state Department of Water Resources Director Mark Cowin stressed that the delivery cut did not mean faucets would run dry.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the state project’s largest customer, has said it has enough supplies in storage to get the Southland through this year without mandatory rationing.

Cowin said it was necessary to take aggressive action now to ensure water would be available later for people, farms and fish. “This is not a coming crisis... This is a current crisis,” he said.

The State Water Resources Control Board announced that it is temporarily dropping requirements for reservoir releases to maintain environmental standards in California’s water hub, the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

The board is also telling junior rights holders in the Sacramento and San Joaquin river basins that they will have to curtail diversions from rivers and streams. Officials said most of the 5,800 junior diverters, who are primarily agricultural, have access to groundwater or other sources.

In another step, the board is limiting pumping from the delta to exports necessary for human health and safety, an action that in effect eliminates irrigation deliveries from the delta to the San Joaquin Valley.

Cowin called the actions “largely unprecedented but also unavoidable.”

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-california-drought-zero-water-allocation-20140131,0,4678128.story

[Im2Sexy4MyPants]

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

from The New Zealand Herald....

New storms create new misery for UK southwest

AFP | 9:04AM - Thursday, February 06, 2014


Workmen assess a huge hole exposing ground services and exposed railway track after the sea wall
collapsed in Dawlish, England. — Photo: Associated Press.

MORE THAN 8000 homes are without power in southwest England after fresh storms battered the region, sending huge waves crashing onto the coastline and damaging sea defences.

The main train service connecting the counties of Devon and Cornwall with the rest of Britain were suspended after part of the sea wall under the coastal railway line collapsed.

Local member of parliament Ben Bradshaw said the line closure was a "devastating blow" to the regional economy.

The Environment Agency issued nine severe flood warnings for the southwest, meaning there was a "danger to life", and Prime Minister David Cameron was due to chair a meeting of the government's emergency committee Cobra.

The committee has been meeting almost daily over the past few weeks, as storms have brought flooding to much of Britain, including to the southwest county of Somerset, where one village has been cut off for a month.

Speaking in parliament before Wednesday's meeting, Cameron announced an additional £100 million for flood repairs and maintenance over the coming year.

"Whatever is required, whether it is dredging work on the rivers Tone and Parrett, whether it is support for our emergency services, whether it is fresh money for flood defences, whether it is action across the board, this government will help those families and get this issue sorted," he said.

The electricity distribution network that covers Devon, Cornwall and Somerset said about 8200 properties still remained without power on Wednesday morning.

"It's all weather-related. There's been absolutely no let-up," a spokeswoman for Western Power Distribution told AFP.

A further 60,000 homes had been reconnected overnight, according to the prime minister.

Meteorologists at the national weather centre, the Met Office, warned of further heavy rain and gale force winds to come on Wednesday and through to the weekend.

Britain has been lashed by storms and heavy rain throughout the winter, with parts of southern England seeing the wettest January since records began in 1910.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11197504

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Lots of pictures of Global Warming/Climate Change's handiwork here....

❏ Crumbling homes are falling into the sea after battering by huge waves forced families to flee for their lives as railway line and coastal wall were destroyed

(Daily Mail — 7:00AM GMT, Wednesday, 05 February, 2014)

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

From the Los Angeles Times....

California's severe drought exposes civilization's thin veneer

By DAVID HORSEY | 5:00AM PST - Thursday, February 06, 2014



THE severe drought in California and much of the West is a reminder that civilized life is a paper-thin veneer that overlays the deep upheavals of nature. Humans carry on blithely, holding fast to the illusion that the natural world can be tamed and exploited with no unavoidable consequences. Then we get slammed by a hurricane, a flood, a tornado, a wildfire, a drought or a freezing polar vortex that lets us know how wrong we are.

Yet, after each disaster, we forget again — which is the reason so few of us give any sustained attention to the climate change peril. It is similar to the way we think about death. We know it’s coming, but we would drive ourselves crazy if we thought about it all the time. As a result, we revert to living in the moment or counting on promises of heaven.

With climate change, either we suspect it is too late to do anything about it or we just deny it is real. And even the vast majority of climate scientists who know it is a real phenomenon are quick with the caveat that no single weather event can be attributed to climate change with complete certainty. Nevertheless, now that extreme weather is hammering us with increasingly regularity, it is hard to argue that a profound shift is not underway.

The drought in California’s agricultural lands may simply be part of a natural cycle that has kicked in independently rather than being a result of global warming caused by the sharp increase in atmospheric CO2 levels in the industrial age. Whatever the case may be, experts say it has been 500 years since it has been this dry. The last time it happened, the native cultures in the West were severely disrupted. The question facing us today is how much disruption our more complex society can handle.

In the agricultural regions of California, where half of the nation’s fruits, nuts and vegetables are grown, many farmers are not planting crops this year because there is no water. Cattle and sheep are being sold off by ranchers because there is no grass. More than 25 million people who rely on dwindling local water sources are being told not to expect rescue because state and federal water reserves are quickly running out.

Nevada, New Mexico and other western states face a similar crisis. Unemployment is rising among agricultural workers and American consumers will soon see food prices shoot up as well, as the bounty of the land dries up.

A half millennium ago, the Anasazi people lived in marvelous cliff dwellings scattered throughout the American Southwest. No doubt the Anasazi expected their thriving culture to go on forever. The gods they prayed to lived in the sacred mountains and in the stars of the night sky and, like all humans, they prayed to those gods for bountiful harvests and safety in storms. But all their prayers could not protect them. Something made the ancient ones abandon their settlements — most likely a 300-year drought that began in the 12th century — and the Anasazi vanished.

As the consequences of climate change become more stark and real, it is a delusion to think we are immune from existential change. Our civilization is more complex and technologically advanced than the Anasazi culture, but that may only make us more vulnerable. Those ancient natives could take their knowledge of simple agriculture and move on to seek more fertile ground and abundant water elsewhere.

When our farmers can no longer feed us, where will we go?

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-californias-severe-drought-20140205,0,3634223.story

[nitpicker1]

re mess # 314

THE severe drought in California and much of the West is a reminder that civilized life is a paper-thin veneer that overlays the deep upheavals of nature. Humans carry on blithely, holding fast to the illusion that the natural world can be tamed and exploited with no unavoidable consequences. Then we get slammed by a hurricane, a flood, a tornado, a wildfire, a drought or a freezing polar vortex that lets us know how wrong we are.


http://www.history.com/topics/dust-bowl/videos#america-black-blizzard

http://www.history.com/topics/dust-bowl/photos#the-dust-bowl

[Im2Sexy4MyPants]

Over Two Thirds of Continental U.S. Covered in Snow

More than two thirds of the continental United States is currently covered in snow, according to new data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
With 67.4% of the contiguous United States now covered with snow, up from 48.1% last month, the so called Polar Vortex would appear to be leaving Global Warming fear mongers lost in a vortex all their own.
Contrast current data and images with these words from Dr. David Viner.
According to Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia,within a few years winter snowfall will become “a very rare and exciting event”.
“Children just aren’t going to know what snow is,” he said.
Not to be deterred in his battle against what some view as more climate fabulists, than scientists, Mark Steyn takes on a "Ship of Fools" in The Spectator this month.
Yes, yes, just to get the obligatory ‘of courses’ out of the way up front: of course ‘weather’ is not the same as ‘climate’; and of course the thickest iciest ice on record could well be evidence of ‘global warming’, just as 40-and-sunny and a 35-below blizzard and 12 degrees and partly cloudy with occasional showers are all apparently manifestations of ‘climate change’; and of course the global warm-mongers are entirely sincere in their belief that the massive carbon footprint of their rescue operation can be offset by the planting of wall-to-wall trees the length and breadth of Australia, Britain, America and continental Europe.
Big Climate is slowly being crushed by a hard, icy reality: if you’re heading off to university this year, there has been no global warming since before you were in kindergarten. That’s to say, the story of the early 21st century is that the climate declined to follow the climate ‘models’.
Really, there's little that's more unsightly than an adult so called scientist crying test tubes full of tears over their broken model. Unfortunately for many, that's precisely what recent weather patterns have done - shatter the models these so called scientists have been employing in their war on capitalism for decades.
How ironic that a Polar Vortex was just what was needed to heat up the climate war!

http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2014/02/09/Over-2-3-of-US-Covered-in-Snow-despite-Snowfall-being-a-thing-of-the-past

But theres more lol



Global-Warming Slowdown Due to Pacific Winds, Study Shows


Stronger Pacific Ocean winds may help explain the slowdown in the rate of global warming since the turn of the century, scientists said.

More powerful winds in the past 20 years may be forcing warmer seas deeper and bringing cooler water to the surface, 10 researchers from the U.S. and Australia said today in the journal Nature. That has cooled the average global temperature by as much as 0.2 degree Celsius (0.36 Fahrenheit) since 2001.

Scientists have been trying to find out why the rate of global warming has eased in the past 20 years while greenhouse-gas emissions have surged to a record. Today’s paper elaborates on a theory that deep seas are absorbing more warmth by explaining how that heat could be getting there.

“The net effect of these anomalous winds is a cooling in the 2012 global average surface air temperature of 0.1–0.2 degree Celsius, which can account for much of the hiatus in surface warming observed since 2001,” the researchers wrote. They’re led by Matthew England, a professor of oceanography at the University of New South Wales in Australia.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in September that the average temperature since 1998 has increased at less than half the rate since 1951. The world has warmed by an average 0.05 degree per decade since 1998, compared with the 1951-2012 average of 0.12 degree a decade, the UNIPCC said.

Hiatus Persisting

“This hiatus could persist for much of the present decade if the tradewind trends continue; however rapid warming is expected to resume once the anomalous wind trends abate,” the authors of today’s study said. “Volcanoes and changes in solar radiation can also drive cooler decades against the backdrop of ongoing warming,” they said.

The scientists used computer models and weather data to determine the effect of the stronger winds on ocean circulation. Other institutions involved in the research include the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, the University of Hawaii, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organization.

A paper in the journal Geophysical Research Letters in May found that ocean waters below 700 meters (2,300 feet) have absorbed more heat since 1999. A separate study in Nature in August linked the hiatus to a cooling of surface waters in the eastern Pacific, and today’s research builds on that.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-09/global-warming-slowdown-due-to-pacific-winds-study-shows.html

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

From the Los Angeles Times....

Ice storm paradox: It's colder because the Earth is warmer

By DAVID HORSEY | 5:00AM PST - Thursday, February 13, 2014



WITH the American South locked in a deep freeze, you can be sure that plenty of the folks suffering through the snow and ice storms are interpreting the big chill as more proof that global warming is a hoax. “Warming?” they scoff. “How can the planet be warming when it’s so darn cold?”

People in other parts of the world seem to have no great difficulty understanding the science but, in the good old USA where quite a few people consider science just another political opinion, it is going to take a lot longer to get most people to accept the cold facts about a warmer world.

Put very simply, here is what the predominant science says: Average global temperatures have been rising in recent decades. Some of the warming could be part of a natural cycle but, almost certainly, increased levels of CO2 in the atmosphere caused by the burning of fossil fuels are a pivotal factor in intensifying the phenomenon. The starkest evidence of the temperature jump is the rapid melting of the polar ice caps and the disappearance of the world’s glaciers.

Climate scientists have said another key signal to watch for is a dramatic shift in weather patterns. It is close to impossible to attribute any single weather event — a snowstorm, a tornado, a hurricane — to temperature rise, but, once extreme weather becomes normal and what has been normal is no longer the norm, we will know we are in the throes of change that is likely irreversible.

It sure looks like that could be where we are now. In just the last couple of years, Americans have experienced epic tornados in the center of the country, a monster storm that flooded Manhattan and ravaged New Jersey, extended drought in the West that threatens agriculture and water supplies, and an unprecedented number of wildfires in forests dried to the flammability of kindling. This winter, frigid polar air has slipped south, freezing much of the country, while in Alaska the season has been unusually warm. There are piles of snow in Atlanta, but a dearth of snow in the Sierra.

Extreme and unusual weather has been rolling in with more frequency all over the world.  Governments in most major countries have moved beyond debate about whether global warming is real. They are now busy making plans to deal with the costly disruptions and lethal disasters that climate change has already begun to bring.

Not in this major country, however. Though the Republican nominee for president in 2008, Senator John McCain, declared that all the things that need to be done to cope with and combat climate change would be worth doing even if warming was not happening, the dominant voices in the party sharply disagree. They seem fixated on loony conspiracy theories that imply that the scientists of the world are spinning lies in order to destroy American capitalism.

This week’s ice and snow will eventually melt and spring will come to the South, but too many American minds will remain in a deep freeze of denial. And because so many of the deniers hold seats in Congress, climate change will stay on the growing list of daunting problems that our political system is unable to address.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-ice-storm-paradox-20140212,0,7056061.story

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

from Hawke's Bay Today....

Arctic warmth creates big freeze

By BRUCE BISSET | 9:00AM - Saturday, February 22, 2014


With severe weather events happening regularly everywhere it is time for the masses to finally realise
they have been lied to.

WHAT I LOVE (NOT!) about climate change deniers is how they cherry-pick data in a very superficial way and then overstate their misinterpretation of it, as if doing so somehow turns a random observation into irrefutable proof.

Take the severe snowstorms and floods affecting America and Europe. A raft of deniers have been having a field day claiming this proves the myth of global warming - and doubtless to many ordinary folk, at first glance that might seem so.

If the Earth is warming, why is it freezing? So it can't be warming. QED.

But in fact it is precisely because the Earth is warming that these never-before-seen freezes are happening.

In this case, the "polar vortex" that almost crippled Canada and the USA last month, and the storms and floods afflicting Britain now, are directly related to the Arctic as a whole — and the area between Greenland and Russia in particular — warming far more rapidly than anywhere else.

Temperatures there are already 2°C to 5°C greater than usual. By century's end, while the global average rise will be about 2.5°C above today's norm, the eastern Arctic will have warmed by 20°C — or more.

Which is the tricky thing about averages. On a global scale, "average" is meaningless. Some places will get cooler! But some will get far hotter.

The Arctic is one such. Problem is, it's the most crucial place in terms of the effects generated by warming, as we are now witnessing.

See, the primary currents of the seas and the winds are controlled by temperature. If the Arctic ocean, or air, or both, warms or cools too much, those macro-mechanisms change their behaviour. And of course the oceanic and atmospheric systems interact.

In the water, the currents at different depths rely on temperature differentials between them in order to keep operating as they should. If any layer warms or cools too much, the whole system gets thrown out of whack and could even cease to function.

Which was, you may recall, the over-played but still relevant scenario used by disaster movie The Day After Tomorrow.

In the air, latest research shows the circumpolar jet stream is "dipping" lower than normal into the Atlantic because it is warmer, and therefore weaker, so it is getting diverted by local weather systems.

This forces the jetstream south, bringing polar storms with it; and those storms hang around far longer than usual because the jetstream now lacks the force to push through them — so the storms eddy in place instead of moving on.

Much as a back-current might eddy in the corner of a diversion race in a stream, while the main flow diverts elsewhere.

Result? The US and Europe freeze and flood — and all because the Arctic is warming.

A denier — someone who deliberately misleads, rather than someone merely taken in by "the obvious" — will not explain these things to you. Because to admit the "myth" is real would open people's eyes to the fact human-induced climate change is just as real. And that can't be allowed, because it is the dirty, polluting, climate change-causing business of coal and oil that has made the rich.

But with severe weather events happening regularly everywhere — such as Australia's burning droughts and our cyclonic summers — the time is upon us where the masses will finally realise they have been lied to: consistently, deliberately, for a long time.

On that day, I bet you won't be able to find a denier for any money.

That's the right of it.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503462&objectid=11207317

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

[Im2Sexy4MyPants]

What a load of rubbish from the lil childrens brainwashing department

[Im2Sexy4MyPants]

I knew i should have had some swimming lessons

[nitpicker1]

What's a Polar Vortex?

http://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/climate-weather/atmospheric/polar-vortex.htm

4or 5 pages, so keep reading ...

[Im2Sexy4MyPants]

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

From the Los Angeles Times....

Scientists warn of global warming's abrupt changes

A report by American Association for the Advancement of Science lays out in plain
language the potential for harmful consequences should governments delay action.

By TONY BARBOZA | 9:00PM PST - Tuesday, March 18, 2014


An artist's rendering of NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory, one of five Earth science missions
launching in 2014. It will help answer questions about the planet's carbon dioxide levels.
 — Picture: NASA/JPL-CALTECH.

A GROUP of scientists warned Tuesday that world leaders must act more swiftly to slow greenhouse gas emissions or risk "abrupt, unpredictable and potentially irreversible changes" from climate change.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science's blunt report contains no new scientific conclusions. But by speaking in plain, accessible terms it seeks to instill greater urgency in leaders and influence everyday Americans. Scientists said many previous assessments have been long and ponderous, and have failed to shift public opinion on global warming.

The goal "is to move policy forward by making science as clear and straightforward as we possibly can," association Chief Executive Alan Leshner said. "What we're trying to do is to move the debate from whether human-induced climate change is reality … to exactly what should you do about it."

The 18-page report, titled "What We Know", lays out many effects of human-caused climate change already underway. It warns that the consequences are growing more severe the longer governments delay action.

"The sooner we make a concerted effort to curtail the burning of fossil fuels as our primary energy source and releasing the CO2 to the air, the lower our risk and cost will be," the report says.

Its release marks a new approach by the world's largest general scientific society, which has more than 120,000 members. A panel of 13 U.S. climate scientists, including oceanographers, ecologists and public health experts, worked with Climate Nexus, a communications nonprofit, to produce the succinct report and a website.

A one-minute online video (see below) posted with the report illustrates the problem of climate change and its consequences. Footage shows a mountain biker careening down a bumpy trail and skidding toward the edge of a cliff as a narrator says "the sooner we put the brakes on climate change, the better off we'll be."



Though recent polls show many Americans think global warming remains a topic of scientific disagreement, 97% of climate scientists agree that humans are causing climate change — a level of consensus comparable to the science linking smoking to heart and lung disease, the report notes.

"The evidence is overwhelming: levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are rising," the report says. "Temperatures are going up. Springs are arriving earlier. Ice sheets are melting. Sea level is rising. The patterns of rainfall and drought are changing. Heat waves are getting worse as is extreme precipitation. The oceans are acidifying."

The planet has warmed by about 1.4 degrees since the late 1800s as carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases have built up in the atmosphere from human activity. If emissions keep climbing, temperatures could rise another four to eight degrees over the century, the report says, pushing the climate beyond the range experienced in millions of years and increasing the odds of irreversible damage.

The scientists did not prescribe specific solutions, "but we believe that the full suite of innovative instruments, whether it's technologies or markets or policies, should be brought to bear on this problem," said James McCarthy, a professor of biological oceanography at Harvard University who co-chaired the panel.

A report last month by the National Academy of Sciences and Britain's Royal Society struck a similar tone, distilling the latest climate science into an easy-to-read series of twenty questions and answers.

The United Nations' body of climate scientists, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, will meet in Yokohama, Japan, next week to complete its latest assessment. That report will focus on the effect of climate change on nature and society, including the risks warming poses to the world economy, food, water supplies and security.

http://www.latimes.com/science/la-me-0319-climate-change-20140319,0,234455.story