Obama's energy secretary outlines dire climate change scenario

[Turborama]

Source: Guardian (UK)

Steve Chu's warning the clearest sign to date of the greening of America's political class under Obama

Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington

Wednesday 4 February 2009 19.28 GMT

Barack Obama's point man on energy issued a wake-up call today, warning that California with its agricultural bounty could be reduced to a dust bowl and its cities disappear unless there is timely action on climate change.

The apocalyptic scenario sketched out by Steve Chu, the Nobel laureate appointed as energy secretary, was the clearest sign to date of the greening of America's political class under Obama.

In blunt and frightening language, Chu said Americans had yet to fully understand the urgency of dealing with climate change.

"I don't think the American public has gripped in its gut what could happen," he told the Los Angeles Times in his first interview since taking the post. "We're looking at a scenario where there's no more agriculture in California."

He added: "I don't actually see how they can keep their cities going."

California's department of water resources warned last week that the state could be facing its worst drought in modern history, because of reduced snow pack.

Chu's doomsday descriptions were seen today as further evidence that, after eight years of denial under George Bush, the Obama White House recognises the severity of climate change.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/04/steven-chu-obama-climate-change-drought

[BOSSHOG]

1. This is just more liberal nonsense

It was 28 degrees this morning and we live way south, so that proves there is no such thing as global warming or climate change, everything is just fine we don't have to do anything, but keep burning fossil fuels and drive like there is no tomorrow. Liberals and there education and smarts and "intellectual curiousity" are whats wrong.

I hope I don't need the sarcasm emoticon.

[Fovea]

2. Where does L.A. Gray water go again?

and their Brown water?

You wanna live arid? You drink your pee like Fremen in Dune.

[Turborama]

15. Or you use the gray/brown water to sort this problem out...?

California faces 'grimmest water situation ever'

Drought causes the state's agriculture industry to disappear while residents continue to consume water at high levels


Sprinklers water wheat crops in Bakersfield, California.
The state is facing a severe water crisis.

Dan Glaister in Los Angeles

Bill Diedrich, a fourth-generation almond grower in California's Central Valley, expects that many of his trees won't make it through the year. "It's one of the grimmest water situations we've ever faced," he said. "It's an absolute emergency and anything to get water flowing quickly is needed."

The 400-mile Central Valley is many things: the world's largest agricultural area; the "salad bowl", where half of the country's vegetables are grown. But this year, with water shortages of a severity not seen for decades, many farmers and others are echoing the recent words of energy secretary Steven Chu: if current weather patterns continue, Californian agriculture could disappear.

John "Dusty" Giacone, another fourth-generation Central Valley farmer, was forced to abandon his vegetable crop and divert his scarce water to save his 4,000 hectares of almond trees.

"Taking water from a farmer is like taking a pipe from a plumber," Giacone told the Associated Press. "How do you conduct business?"

But many farmers are choosing the opposite course, abandoning their almond trees for a season in the hope that the good times, and a wetter than normal spring, might return. In the meantime, the trees are being left to die, or maintained just enough to survive.

The decline in the number of almond trees has led to an unintended consequence: a glut of bee colonies. Bees are used to pollinate almond trees, and beekeepers now face the prospect of an economic collapse as the almond market withers away.

"If it was just a drought, a big February or March could take this off the hook. But it's not just a drought," said Timothy Quinn, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies, referring to moves to restrict water flows through some of the Central Valley to protect endangered fish.

Lester Snow, director of the California department of water resources, told reporters that the state faced its most severe drought since at least the early 1990s. "We may be at the start of the worst California drought in modern history," Snow said. "It's imperative for Californians to conserve water immediately, at home and in their businesses."

The reality, however, is that Californians have been slow to reduce their water consumption. Central Valley farmer John Harris said that he had laid off about two-thirds of his workforce and had stopped cultivating most vegetables in order to concentrate on permanent crops. But despite overhauling his irrigation system, he remained critically short of water, a situation most people ignored, he said.

"Maybe when people turn on the shower and nothing comes out, that will be the final wake-up call, but agriculture will have taken devastating losses by the time that happens," he told agricultural publication Ag Alert.

While Chu warns that he can't see how California's cities could survive, their residents are steeped in a culture of challenging nature. Back in 1952, as drought reduced water levels, pulp science fiction writer Robert Heinlein wrote: "Angelenos committed communal suicide by watering lawns as usual ... The taps remained open, trickling away the life blood of the desert paradise."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/04/water-shortage-california-drought">Guardian.co.uk

[Romulox]

3. Subsidizing agriculture in California is a HUGE part of the problem.

Caldifornians having to live within their ecological means is not scaring me here...

[Ozymanithrax]

4. If California agriculture goes away, where does the food come from?

California Agricultural Statistics 2007 Crop Year
California’s agricultural abundance includes more than 400 commodities. The state produces about half of U.S.- grown fruits, nuts, and vegetables. Many crops are produced solely in California.

It is not just California living beyound its means. A lot of the food eaten by all Americans, and foreign nations, comes from California.

Also, where do the people in the devistated cities go? They become refugees without food or any means of support.

[madrchsod]

5. we will eat the way people did before california grew crops....

locally produced and stored.other states will pick up the slack like wisconsin who is second largest producer vegetables in the usa . a percentage of cropland will have to be switched back to fruit and vegetable production. the people of california will have to adapt or move to other areas of the usa.

[Ozymanithrax]

6. We have a much larger population.

What makes that large population possible is industrial agriculture. If you remove California's agriculture output you must bring in food from somewhere else.

If ecological collapse destroys California agriculture, there is no local production. Local producers rely on the same source of water.

Before Europeans, California supported an estimated 300,000 people who survived with a combination of hunter gatherer and sustenance farming. We have an estimate 36+ million now.

California, and the United States, has required increasingly larger industrial farms to feed the population. The famous orange train delivering oranges and orange juice began in 1948. Without it, most of the nation would have seen a fraction of the fruit they enjoy today.

An environmental crises that shatters the California Ecosystem will cause similar problems elsewhere across the West and into the Midwest. The watershed for most of the Great Plains and the North West would suffer similar degradation. Wisconsin can not make up for the loss of California agriculture, because it won't escape ecological devastation by the same forces that are working here in the West, even if it is less severe.

[Moostache]

12. There is an unstated assumption in your reply...("...must bring in...")

You assume that the former administration CARED if people starved on a massive scale...an assumption that I would not have been willing to make. Their policies and total lack of action for prevention or mitigation leaves us already on the precipice, but can anyone be sure there is time or opportunity still to pull back?

There is no doubt in my mind that the Obama administration cares, the problem is that after 8 years of denial, neglect and inaction, I am not so sure that enough COULD be done (let alone will get the necessary political and economic backing) any more.

[Romulox]

8. From non-arid climates not dependent on massive diversion of water, hopefully. nt

[Ozymanithrax]

10. Climate disruptions are going to be felt everywhere.

The predictions show California and most of the Midwest turned into deserts similar to the Sahara or the Mohave. A lot of land up in Canada and Russia will become available, but it would require a massive expenditure of energy and funds to create an entire new agricultural distribution system that will take time to build.

The predictions are for California but the problems are World Wide. We won't know exactly where these areas will be because everything will be changing everywhere.

For Wisconsin:
Global Warming in Wisconsin

Every state is going to go through changes and none of them appear to be good.

[Romulox]

11. Well, the solution to this is not to enable the worst abusers

simply because we are all going to suffer the consequences of their excess. California is unsustainable.

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. Then why this headline???????????

Breaking: Sen. Boxer makes clear U.S. won’t pass a climate bill this year.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, chair of the Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, released her “Principles for Global Warming Legislation” at a press conference today. But her remarks contained the real news — no chance of climate legislation be enacted into law this year.

Greenwire (subs. req’d) reports:

“Copenhagen is December,” Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) told reporters. “That’s why I said we’ll have a bill out of this committee by then.”

… Boxer added that she could move to mark up legislation quickly given her committee’s large Democratic majority, but she would wait for now to build up support.

So Boxer’s goal is to have an EPW bill by December. Then, of course, it has to go through Senate debate, get modified, and actually pass. And then, of course, it must be reconciled with the bill that comes from the House led by Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA):

http://climateprogress.org/2009/02/03/sen-barbara-boxer-global-warming-legislation-principles/#more-4794

[Delphinus]

13. Rome burns while Nero fiddles.

I expect more from our Democrats.

[Coexist]

9. .

[Tashca]

14. I like this guy.

I think he is using the current drought in California as an exclamation point to emphasize the need for action. I have no problem with that.
The thought of Agriculture in California collapsing is hard to comprehend. The devastation would undoubtedly be much larger than one state. Would we then change our diets??...turn to Asia or South America? I guess maybe skyrocketing prices would cut consumption and force a change in diets.

Now about those unsustainable cities....wow...I don't have a clue.