What's behind the weirdly warm and dry weather in the West, and the weirdly wet and cold weather in the East? Two studies point to a huge "warm blob" of water that's been lurking off the U.S. West Coast. The long-lived patch, which measures about 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) wide, is about 2 to 7 degrees Fahrenheit (1 to 4 degrees Celsius) above normal . . . .
This past week, I've heard countless news stories about the power cuts that have occurred in California, and how dozens and dozens of people died as a result of it (mostly elderly).
The entire time, the blame has all turned to Global Warming, and also towards Trump and his inaction on Global Warming.
I have to ask, at any point, are the Democrats in California going to take responsibility for the problems in their state? The lack of generators at health facilities, the lack of land clearing to create a fire break and prevent the spread of mass wildfires, or even common sense things like redundant power systems?
California has become a total **** -hole. Absolutely no one wants to go to LA anymore. Since Snake Pliskin's escape, the place has only gotten substantially worse. Even San Francisco was a shithole when I was last there. The public restrooms (those weird computer controlled single-occupancy bathrooms on the main street) were covered in **** inside (even though they are self cleaning), there were homeless people everywhere, and the streets were riddled with potholes... which is amazing because it almost never rains, and never snows. Nearly all their cities are bankrupt, despite insane property values and tax revenue. California is quite literally, a Democrat super-majority. They have what... 17 Republican local state representatives out of a total of 80? As the Democrats have been able to continually push Republicans out more and more, the state has only declined further and further in every category you can imagine. They're even starting to lose "Silicon Valley" as the tech industry is desperately seeking alternatives in Austin, Raleigh, and South Florida. Upon seeing the disaster that is California, they're looking to everyone but themselves, instead blaming the rest of the country for their problems, or blaming the entire world.
I moved to Florida in 1996 when it was run almost entirely by Democrats. The place was kind of a **** hole. Over the years, it's become more and more Republican, to the point where today there's a sizeable Republican majority in the House, and a simple majority in the Senate. Over the past 23+ years my life has been centered around Florida, I've seen the state emerge into a paradise from what previously looked like a 3rd world country with a few bouts of advanced civilization.
California constantly has wildfires, and yet they seem totally and completely un-prepared every single time... like it's the first time it's ever happened. Florida gets hit continuously by major hurricanes, and the VERY LAST ONE that had any substantial impact was the one that hit Homestead in 1992, under Democrat Governor Lawton Chiles. Building codes weren't really a thing, and the entire city was devastated. You'd think that they'd fix this, but they didn't until Republicans got into control and they passed mandatory hurricane building codes (modeled after Miami/Dade) in 2002. Florida also mandates generators at all major health institutions, particularly those who care for the elderly, as well as hospitals. Gas stations which run generators also get annual tax breaks to help keep the peace during a major power outage.
Why can't California mandate simple requirements like this too so that people in the hospitals don't die as a result of natural disaster?
It just irks me to no end how California seems to blame everyone but themselves. Take two states, California and Florida, and you look at their progression over the past 25 years:
I know for a fact, that much of So Calif has mandatory brush cleaning regulations in place and have had for years. Each landowner has to keep a fire break area clear of brush all around their property. It's enforced by the individual counties and the fine for not following the regs is pretty substantial. As far as gensets go....are you nuts??? those things pollute the air with both exhaust and and noise!!!
I know for a fact, that much of So Calif has mandatory brush cleaning regulations in place and have had for years. Each landowner has to keep a fire break area clear of brush all around their property. It's enforced by the individual counties and the fine for not following the regs is pretty substantial. As far as gensets go....are you nuts??? those things pollute the air with both exhaust and and noise!!!
I know the last part is a joke... but this is what I'm talking about Mary Jane.
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Map of State versus Federally Managed "public" land in California:
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Map of at-risk Fire Prone and Common Wild-fire Areas:
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The maps clearly have some consistency there. The State "public" land area, in which the fire breaks would be performed by state funds and state-sanctioned personnel... are not being maintained as they should be. The consistency of the fires in these regions clearly line up with the areas that should be maintained by the state. After one of the more recent devastating wildfires, Trump criticized Brown for not meeting their end of the bargain on wildfire / brush maintenance.
The past decade, California has continued to cut spending on wildfire maintenance, instead relying on the Federal government to put more effort on their end into building these fire breaks in the land-bordering areas. California does this while expanding *some* minimal funding in other areas to fool people into believing that they're actually increasing spending on brush fires. Like, they'll buy a couple of helicopters and then say they've increased funding for fighting wildfires. In response, Trump has threatened to cut wildfire funding for the state of California (since the state has shifted the burden onto the Federal Government), but seeing a potential no-win political situation, recanted.
As is typical with Democrat-run areas... they cut funding on maintenance, which in turn ends up costing them exponentially more money in the long run. Spending to fight wildfires in California have nearly tripled in the past decade, and California Democrats will quickly state this is because of Global Warming, but what they aren't telling you, is that it's as a result of their failure to maintain state lands. They cut funding on maintenance, and then spend three times as much fighting the fires that spread as a result of lack of maintenance. Pretty much everything else in California is run this way...
[This message has been edited by 82-T/A [At Work] (edited 10-16-2019).]
Originally posted by maryjane: I know for a fact, that much of So Calif has mandatory brush cleaning regulations in place and have had for years. Each landowner has to keep a fire break area clear of brush all around their property. It's enforced by the individual counties and the fine for not following the regs is pretty substantial.
For a dry and warm state prone to fires, regular clearing measures removing this vegetation should be common sense. However, California has enacted several laws that heavily restrict such vital fire-preventing measures as logging, removal of dead trees, and clearing of dry underbrush.
During a congressional hearing in May, California congressman Tom McClintock blasted environmentalists for having fervently opposed such measures since the early 1970s. Instead, they have been advocating that forests be left to their own devices – despite the fact that thousands of years of history shows that forests need to be appropriately maintained in order to reap all their benefits and reduce the risk of fires.
When a 2013 environmental impact report advocated the benefits of large-scale vegetation management in San Diego County, activists violently rejected its conclusions. As in the decades before, concerns over wildlife and environmental impacts were ultimately more important than the safety of fellow citizens, with the result that brush and dead vegetation were allowed to accumulate unimpeded for more than forty years.
Ironically, 2013 also saw a range of massive wildfires across California that were exacerbated by the U.S. Forest Service failing to follow through on crucial tree-thinning projects. The same happened immediately before the recent devastating fires, with the U.S. Forest Service once again neglecting to clear brush in the woods around Los Angeles as originally planned.
As timber harvesting permit fees went up and environmental challenges multiplied, the people who earned a living felling and planting trees looked for other lines of work. The combustible fuel load in the forest predictably soared. No longer were forest management professionals clearing brush and thinning trees.
Having spent nearly half of my life in and around the lumber industry, I have come to understand that there are two methods to manage forests, the natural way or human intervention. The natural way is fire. I prefer the human way.
I was speaking strictly of privately owned lands, not public lands.
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Each landowner has to keep a fire break area clear of brush all around their property.
Willie is right tho. The adage in Calif, Oregon, Idaho and Wash State's ag/timber producing sectors has long been "Graze it, harvest it or watch it burn".
[This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 10-16-2019).]
The "BLOB" is BIG. The region of the Pacific Ocean that is "BLOB" is somewhere between SIX and SEVEN times greater than the surface area of the largest of the United States, Alaska.
The "BLOB" is DEEP. During recent years, the BLOB has manifested as suspiciously elevated ocean water temperatures from the surface, down to a depth of 1000 feet, although the most recent report that's found its way to my desk describes its current incarnation as reaching down to about 260 feet below the surface in the Gulf of Alaska.
For those who may wish to converse about the current incarnation of the BLOB using more formalistic terminology, it can be referenced as the "Northeast Pacific Marine Heat Wave of 2019."
The undersea alien flying saucer base in that area had a problem with its power plant. Don't worry, there is nothing you can do to change the situation.
QUOTE In the fall and winter of 2015-2016 [when I started this Pennock's Topic or thread], the North Pacific experienced an incredible marine heatwave. Nicknamed "the Blob," this catastrophic event brought devastation, including the death of over 1 million birds and a huge loss to marine life. Researchers of a new study in Science now say the occurrence of these events is dramatically linked to the climate crisis.
The team from the University of Bern in Switzerland tracked marine heatwaves around the globe from September 1981 to December 2017 and found a 20 times increase in the occurrence of these heatwaves. The strongest heatwave used to happen once every hundreds to thousands of years, yet as we approach the fateful increase of 1.5°C (2.7°F) warming, heatwaves will begin to occur every 10 to 100 years.
. . . END QUOTE
That's almost half of this very brief report from IFLScience(.com).
Without a subscription, the full text is not available (like you'd really want it ) but there is a summary or overview paragraph and a more precisely written Abstract paragraph at that page link.
I don't have a subscription, and as I never grow tired or weary of disclosing, I am not a scientist.
Towards the end of August, KPBS Television (affiliated with San Diego State University) was reporting "Blob-like conditions" just offshore of San Diego. https://www.kpbs.org/news/2...ure-san-diego-coast/
I'm sure these "Blobs" are easier to take than a hurricane or major tropical storm making landfall, but that's a very short term perspective. As Blobs continue to Blob'ulate at a newly elevated pace and intensity as another symptom of Global Warming--well, it can't be good for the Seafood aisle of your favored fishmonger, grocery or supermarket.
I'm "on it"--so you don't have to be.
[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 09-25-2020).]
"Researchers Finally Tracked Down The Source of The Deadly Pacific Ocean 'Blob'"
New report prompts me to "bump" an old forum thread. Because no horse is too dead to beat. Because "No Blob Left Behind."
It's a brief article, so I won't duplicate any of the text, but it "pulls no punches" when it comes to the effects of planet-warming greenhouse gases. The article presents (briefly) the researchers' "theory of the case", in terms of the exact conditions and events that caused the "Blob", and their assessment that the "Blob" was an unmistakable fingerprint (so to speak) of global warming—and not some merely "rando" short-term climate fluctuation.
"Researchers Finally Tracked Down The Source of The Deadly Pacific Ocean 'Blob'"
New report prompts me to "bump" an old forum thread. Because no horse is too dead to beat. Because "No Blob Left Behind."
It's a brief article, so I won't duplicate any of the text, but it "pulls no punches" when it comes to the effects of planet-warming greenhouse gases. The article presents (briefly) the researchers' "theory of the case", in terms of the exact conditions and events that caused the "Blob", and their assessment that the "Blob" was an unmistakable fingerprint (so to speak) of global warming—and not some merely "rando" short-term climate fluctuation.
I wasted five minutes reading the article (that I should be charging you for). They found no conclusive proof or scientific evidence, they just blame global warming.
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Researchers Finally Tracked Down The Source of The Deadly Pacific Ocean 'Blob' TESSA KOUMOUNDOUROS 28 JUNE 2022
Like its movie namesake, the horrific marine heatwave nicknamed the Blob destroyed much in its path during its peak, causing mass deaths of fish, birds, and many other marine animals, threatening fishing industries.
Since then, the Blob has at least briefly reared its head twice, hinting at an underlying persistence to its cause.
Now, researchers have identified the systematic warming in the Pacific Ocean that fueled the Blob's rise, and their modeling confirms that – as previously suspected – it is not the result of natural climatic variation.
"Discovery of the long-term warming pool will now provide us with crucial information on the likelihood of such extreme events in the future," says Universität Hamburg atmospheric scientist Armineh Barkhordarian.
Barkhordarian and colleagues detected a persistent pool of warmed water in the Northeast Pacific with increased annual mean temperatures of around 0.4 °C per decade. Summer water temperatures now linger for 37 days longer than 20 years ago.
The team also discovered a decline in low clouds – which usually have a cooling effect on the waters below – over this region during the cold season. This strengthens the atmospheric high-pressure systems above the warm water pool during winters.
Using multiple models, the team calculated that there is a less than a 5 percent chance this high-pressure system has been unusually strengthened during winter because of natural variation.
Their modeling also revealed a less than 1 percent chance the Blob could have formed in 2019 without all the excess greenhouse gasses humans have pumped into our atmosphere. Temperatures reached up to 6 °C above average during this marine heatwave.
These findings are backed by previous research that found marine heatwaves like the Blob are 20 times more likely now because of human-induced climate change.
"This warming pool will continue to increase the water temperature in the future, increasing both the frequency and intensity of local marine heatwaves. The sharp increase in average water temperature is pushing ecosystems to their limits," explains Barkhordarian.
The suffocating, hot blob of water that began in 2013 decimated marine life, killing more than 100 million Pacific cod, thousands of seabirds, and other animals not even accounted for. It also fueled massive toxic algal blooms that shut down fishing industries and may have contributed to a 75 percent decline in whale mother-calf encounters.
The mysterious sea star wasting syndrome also just happened to start nearby at the same time as the appearance of that first Blob.
What's more, these marine heatwaves are by no means confined to the north Pacific. Similar rapid ocean warming events are causing havoc on fisheries and ecosystems from the Atlantic to southern seas.
Beyond their immediate impacts on wildlife, marine heatwaves can also contribute to severe droughts on nearby land.
"More frequent and extreme marine heatwaves are a serious burden for affected ecosystems, '' warns Barkhordarian. "This not only poses a tremendous threat to biodiversity; it can also push these marine ecosystems past a tipping point, after which they can no longer recover."
We still have the power to reduce the impact and severity of these marine heatwaves, and many people around the world, from researchers to activists are fighting to do so.
This research was published in Communications Earth & Environment.
Originally posted by RWDPLZ: I wasted five minutes reading the article (that I should be charging you for). They found no conclusive proof or scientific evidence, they just blame global warming.
What would you like to charge me?
That was based on a much longer and more detailed report that was published as research in a specialists' or professional journal. It's a statistical argument. The research report includes images, and tabulated data and bar charts, along with mathematical equations or formulas, and a list of 77 previous publications that they are referencing. They provide documentation of NOAA and other external databases that they used, and they also document the computer algorithms and software that they used to process numerical data and support their assertions.
I'm too far behind the "8-ball" to want to invest the many minutes that I would need to make any further sense of it, and much of it is clearly "over my head."
The entire research report (not just the abstract) is freely available online. It was just published a few days ago. So, likely, if there are going to be any "takedowns" or rebuttals of this research paper, that is still in the future.
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Recent marine heatwaves in the North Pacific warming pool can be attributed to rising atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases
Abstract
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Over the last decade, the northeast Pacific experienced marine heatwaves that caused devastating marine ecological impacts with socioeconomic implications. Here we use two different attribution methods and show that forcing by elevated greenhouse gases levels has virtually certainly caused the multi-year persistent 2019–2021 marine heatwave. There is less than 1% chance that the 2019–2021 event with ~3 years duration and 1.6 ∘C intensity could have happened in the absence of greenhouse gases forcing. We further discover that the recent marine heatwaves are co-located with a systematically-forced outstanding warming pool, which we attribute to forcing by elevated greenhouse gases levels and the recent industrial aerosol-load decrease. The here-detected Pacific long-term warming pool is associated with a strengthening ridge of high-pressure system, which has recently emerged from the natural variability of climate system, indicating that they will provide favorable conditions over the northeast Pacific for even more severe marine heatwave events in the future.
) but there is a summary or overview paragraph and a more precisely written Abstract paragraph at that page link.
