Obama's 'Drought' Ignorance

Desperately needing to strengthen the Democrat's environmental base in advance of the 2014 elections, Obama burned tons more carbon dioxide -- more than you or I would use in our lifetimes -- by flying Air Force One and its companion plane to the West Coast in order to link California's drought to climate change.  There, awaiting the President's arrival, was an entourage of heavy, armor-plated and extremely low-mileage limousines that had been advance airlifted in a  massive gas-guzzling military cargo plane.

Then after surveying some of the dry earth in the area,  the President stepped in front of the cameras and used the California drought as an example of climate change.  He even said that science had predicted it.  After that, his entourage whisked him off to one of the 9 well-manicured and deep-green golf courses in the area that are responsible for using up 17% of all the available water in that county.

Now, it's quite rare that the always-simpatico New York Times would ever take this President to task; but, they did this time.   And, well they should.   This is because he was so off base in linking California's drought to climate change or global warming that even the "Times" couldn't hold its tongue.  As the paper pointed out, computer modeling had never predicted a drought for California.  Instead, the "state" was supposed to have warmer and much wetter weather. Further, the same scientists that didn't see the drought coming, also can't predict when it will end.

Droughts, since the history of time, are an ever occurring fact of nature. Long before the itsy-bitsy carbon footprints of this country's first pilgrims arrived here, there was the Medieval period from 900 to 1500 A.D.  During that time, California had numerous and decades long droughts. In the 1950's, it was so bad that many of the Golden State's natural lakes were mere mud puddles.  The worst drought ever in the recorded history of this country took place during the dust bowl years of the 1930's.  Maybe, this most intelligent President overlooked Steinbeck's Classic "The Grapes of Wrath".

The bottom line is that California doesn't have a climate change problem when it comes to water. They have a population problem. A water usage and planning problem and, an environmental activism problem.

If the state's population was even 10% less than it is today, the drought wouldn't be an issue. The state has not built a single, new water retention facility in the last 30 years.  Yet, during that time, their population has grown by more than 32%.  On top of that, environmentalists have forced California to dump billions of gallons of excess reservoir water into the oceans in an effort to keep a few environmentally protected habitats from being flooded.  Additionally, they have blocked  desalinization of sea water, which would provide an endless source of fresh water, because the process might adversely affect sea life. Fortunately, the state's first desalinization plant is scheduled to go on line 2016.

Once again, the politicization of climate change by using false linkages, makes it less believable.  Though, to an ideologue like Obama, that doesn't seem to matter.


References:

New York Times: Science Linking Drought to Global Warming Remains Matter of Dispute: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/17/science/some-scientists-disagree-with-presidents-linking-drought-to-warming.html?_r=0

Time.com: Scientists fear California's long-ago era of mega-droughts could be back: http://science.time.com/2014/01/23/hundred-years-of-dry-how-californias-drought-could-get-much-much-worse/

Drought In the United States: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drought_in_the_United_States

The Man-Made California Drought: http://naturalresources.house.gov/issues/issue/?IssueID=5921

Desalination isn't the answer to California's water problem: http://articles.latimes.com/2013/nov/13/news/la-ol-ocean-water-desalination-20131112