. . .  Show Me The Rain

Bill Patzert, a climatologist from JPL, was our guest speaker.  The title of his talk was “Skeptics be damned!”, Show me the Rain?  Bill says we are currently at a level 2 water shortage, meaning our water supply/reserves have diminished dramatically in the last several years.  At this time we import 70% of our water supply from other sources, i.e. the Colorado River project and the Northern California Delta, Owens Valley.  This is Impact 101, our fossil fuels are sources burned for power and transportation.  Currently we are at CO2 levels of 380 PPM, which over the last fifty years is the highest in two billion years, that’s right, billion.  In the 19^th century, during the agricultural revolution we cut forests down causing CO2 levels to rise, then in the 20^th century with 80% rise in industrial pollutants the warming effect is well documented even showing a rise in our oceans.  In the last 100 years sea levels have risen 8”, but in the next 100 years the rise is expected to be 3-6 feet.  With every 1” of rise we loose 100”’s of beach

He explained the El Nino and La Nina effects as warm during El Nino (current drought conditions), and cool during La Nina phase.  This is known as Pacific Decadal Oscillation.  He showed Lake Mead at 120 feet lower since 1984 due to positive PDO.  The L.A. Histogram shows that we have experienced a 60% dry, 40% wet period between 1878-2007; with a mean rainfall average of 15.1”.  He showed that between 1950-1970 we have had 20%-40% less measure of snowpack resulting in less runoff and less water.  With the U.S. population doubling in the last 50 years and California population increasing by 4 fold we are facing serious demands on our water sources.

What a great eye opener we must all work to understand and conserve.