Drought, Climate Change and Deniers . . . .

A recent review of the scientific literature found that between November 2012 and December 2013, there were 2258 peer-reviewed climate articles, coauthored by 9136 scientists. One author had rejected global warming. Compare this with an earlier literature review, covering the period 1991 through Nov. 12, 2012. It found 13,950 articles on “global warming” or “global climate change” and 24 articles that “denied the theory of man-made global warming.” That is a ratio of 581 to 1. Ask yourself: “If 581 dentists said you needed an infected tooth pulled and one told you that all you needed to do is drink a glass of Kool-Aid each morning,”  what would you do? Would you drink the Kool-Aid or have your tooth pulled?
 
What the deniers are saying is “that the people we should trust the least are the people who know best regarding what they’re talking about.” They want us to drink their Kool-Aid.
 
The deniers rely on “straw-man” arguments.  For example, the experts continually change names; First it was called global warming, then it was called climate change, and then they would use daily changes in the weather to prove their point too.
 
Weather refers to day-to-day changes over relatively short time periods; Whereas global warming relates to the change in planetary temperatures over extended periods of time, driven by green house gases (GHG). These GHGs act like your blanket. When you’re cold at night, you put on an extra blanket. The result of you having covered yourself with an extra blanket, is that you get warmer. The same with the Earth; When heat energy cannot escape back into space, the planet slowly warms.
 
As the planet grows warmer atmospheric water vapor, a GHG, increases.  Carbon Dioxide (CO2), another GHG, has been increasing from a relative stable 280 parts per million (ppm), at the beginning of the industrial age when we began the wholesale burning of fossil fuels, to more than 400 ppm today.  The combined increase of atmospheric water vapor and CO2 has resulted in the Earth warming faster than any other time in recorded history.  And as the Earth has warmed, the oceans and permafrost have begun to release Methane (CH4), another potent GHG, pushing us even further toward an environmental catastrophe.  This is how global warming drives climate change.
 
Climate change relates to the changes in climate that are driven by global warming. It will rain or snow in areas that seldom, if ever, will see rain or snow. Storms grow in severity, while droughts occur more frequently and will last longer than in previous years. Add to this run away population growth, putting additional strain on the environment, and you have a real recipe for disaster.
 
We’re in an extended “extreme” drought now. Our rivers and reservoirs are at an all-time low. We’re told to conserve water, while the state gives the green light to fracking, which then consumes millions, if not billions of gallons of water. Greed trumps the needs of the people and the environment. So, when the wells are finally dry, the oil and gas companies will move on, leaving us to bury our dead and clean up the mess they left behind!

We could save our water and reduce pollution by enacting the following resolution --

"RESOLUTION TO BE INTRODUCED TO THE CITY COUNCIL
The people of San Juan Capistrano, California, have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. San Juan Capistrano’s public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the City of San Juan Capistrano conserves and maintains them for the benefit of all the people. Therefore, it is resolved that the technology known as hydraulic fracturing (fracking) used to recover oil and gas from shale formation, including the use of injection wells for the storage of fracking waste water and fluids, are permanently banned within the city limits of San Juan Capistrano and its adjacent ocean."

It has been presented to each of our City Council members, but they remain silent on the subject.  In the meantime, the Governor and Metropolitian Water District tell us to reduce our water consumption by 20% while the oil and gas companies consume millions, if not billions of gallons of water needed to sustain life.