Posted on 02/27/2014 6:30:07 AM PST by Kaslin
Someone better send John Kerry a high school geography textbook.
Our brilliant Secretary of State doesn't seem to know that California is about two-thirds desert.
Based on his recent statements about the cause of my home state's 13-month drought, Kerry doesn't know anything about California's history or climate, either.
He thinks the state's current drought - which is draining reservoirs, raising fears of severe water shortages in small towns and already causing the usual idiots to demand the death penalty for lawn watering -- is the result of man-made climate change.
If only more of Kerry's Hollywood soul mates would drive a Tesla, if only every American could be forced to walk or windsurf to work each day, we could save California from drying up and blowing away.
Not exactly, Secretary. California's mostly a desert. It's been one for eons. Deserts tend to, ah, have water issues - especially when tens of millions of people live in them.
My native state has been subject to droughts that make the current mini-drought look like monsoon season. This dry spell is nothing compared to the mega-droughts of old.
How about the one that started in the year 850 - and lasted 240 years? Or the shorter one that began in about 1100 and ended in 1300? Did humans cause them too, Secretary?
Were the Tongva people who lived in L.A. before the Spanish arrived driving too many big SUVs or barbecuing too many mountain lions?
When I was growing up in Southern California we had droughts.
But in 1960 we didn't have to worry about running out of water because we had a competent state government that had built enough dams, reservoirs and aqueducts to serve its 16 million people.
Now we've got 37 million Californians and a government that's more interested in tearing down dams, diverting river water to save endangered fish and building $68 billion bullet trains than investing in our future water needs.
The L.A. Times had a big piece about the drought recently. It trotted out a bunch of experts who said we have a real dumb state and federal water policy in California, which was news to no one.
The experts also said we waste too much water. Farmers waste it. Homeowners waste it. Businesses and golf courses waste it. And they said we're all going to have to learn to use less water and pay more for it in the future.
So let's get this straight.
First the politicians create the water problem by not building enough dams to store the water we'll need when the next inevitable drought comes.
Now they want to solve the water shortage they created by telling me not to use so much water? On top of that, they want to make me pay more for less water so that the guys who sell the water can keep their profits up?
Sounds like a typical government operation to me.
The experts in the L.A. Times article never addressed the idea of creating a free-market mechanism that would allow people - mainly farmers who consume 80 percent of the water -- to buy and sell water rights as a way to allocate our water resources efficiently.
And they pooh-poohed the idea that the answer to our future water needs is more reservoirs, which they said are too expensive.
I think the water experts are all wet.
This week two huge rainstorms are coming in off the Pacific. By Saturday I'll be able to go over to the Los Angeles River and see it at full flood stage. The streets nearby might be flooded.
Talk about wasting water. Talk about stupid. All that rainwater will flow straight into the ocean.
California has built some water reservoirs since 1960, but we need to build more. That way, when we have to pray for rain and it comes we'll have somewhere to hold it.
Hmm, wonder how he explains the rain that started last night and will hit So-Cal for at least the next 4 days?
Earlier in the late 80s and later, I spent quite a bit of time at China Lake, Edwards, et al. Definitely desert, like much of the areas that surround them. China Lake is just a couple hours drive or so to Death Valley.
On base at China Lake, there is an arroyo or small canyon that a government friend took us by to visit. a long sloping canyon that narrowed out eventually, but there on the rock cliffs and outcroppings (all over it) were glyphs and drawings, etc. that are very old, presumably left there by the desert dwellers that lived there.
/johnny
And of course, the more people conserve, the less revenue for water and electric utilities. Then they have to jack up the utility rates so high that The Poor have to be subsidized by increasing rates even more on the paying consumers.
What a mess.
Talk about perpetuating conditions to make it easier to control an undereducated populace.
I know it is. I live in California. It started raining this morning and will continue through Sunday. I wonder if John Kerry considers that to be “Climate Change” also.
I had my basic training at Camp Roberts - in the desert.
“Global Dumbing” activists like Kerry thrive on the ignorance of the unwashed masses.
Low precipitation in California is due to COLDER Pacific waters where the water vapor is generated for storms that cause rainfall.
A warmer Pacific Ocean means MORE WATER VAPOR for storms to work with. So Drought in California is the result of GLOBAL COOLING, not global warming as Scary Kerry claims.
Get it, folks???
NOAA has a website that discusses SST’s (Sea Surface Temperatures) and it’s predictive value as to whether or not there will be an El Nino or La Nina winter.
We’ll written, Michael.
Groundwater storage has less evaporative loss.
NOAA has a website that discusses SST’s (Sea Surface Temperatures) and it’s predictive value as to whether or not there will be an El Nino or La Nina winter.
While what you are saying with regard to saturation capacity and dew point is true, I am beginning to think that the main contribution of sunspot activity is cloud nucleation by cosmic rays. Over the last ten years, I have been tracking the correlation between equatorial surface water temperature and annual rainfall. Whether it is an "El Nino" or "La Nina" year has virtually no predictive value. This year, for example, was well within the "normal" range.
Another high IQ democrat.
/s
The liberals feel good about themselves when we lose precious fresh water to the Ocean, and that’s the important thing. This is California.
Last time I saw a mouth like that I put a couple of sugar cubes in it....
Yeah, the last time I saw a mouth like that I put a bit between those teeth, slipped a collar over that ugly head and then put the hames on. The damned mule was smarter than Kerry though. Better looking too and actually worth feeding for the work he did. Way out ahead of JFK II.
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