I could have titled this “A River Used to Run Thru it”.
The metaphors write themselves. Follow along with me.
Nebraska had its driest year on record in 2012.
And it was the warmest year on record for the state:
The result: In 2012, the red state of Nebraska got a lot redder. On 3 January 2012, none of the state was in extreme or exceptional drought (and less than 1% was in moderate or severe drought). By 1 January 2013 over 96% of the state was experiencing extreme or exceptional drought – and most of that (over 77%) was in exceptional drought. See the map below for the situation on 22 January 2013,
(D3-D4 drought, bright red and dark red on the map).
Adding insult to injury, the Republican River – which runs from Nebraska into Kansas – ran dry. The discharge for the Republican River near Orleans, Nebraska, in September 2012 was 0.00 cubic feet per second. It stayed that way for the month of October. Not until mid-November did the rate substantially increase – but still the Republican River is flowing “much below normal.”
Below: Streamflows for the Republican River near Orleans, Nebraska.
From: http://ne.water.usgs.gov/drought/drought-sites/06844500.html
Below: Republican River at zero flow
Which would all be very amusing except, it’s not a metaphor, it’s not a spoof, it’s not The Onion – it’s where we are in 2013, and another indicator of where we’re headed.
I thought that River was located in Africa silly me. You would think it would be difficult for the Republicans to muddy the waters of the current climate situation in the US. But unfortunately that River runs too deep.
I can hear it now!(Joe Bastardi) Peter, it was much worse in the 1930s. Your claims resulting from this series of hot and dry summers ignores the fact that more state heat records were set in the 1930s than all other decades of the last century combined. Anyone remember the Dust Bowl? All the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projections for our climate have proved to be wrong. Global temperatures have stopped increasing and are nowhere near estimates made a decade ago. The IPCC incorrectly predicted Arctic sea ice would disappear by now.
The real facts about man-made global warming can be found at real-science.com , wattsupwiththat.com and climatedepot.com . Not here at Climate Denial Crock of the Week
Perhaps when the Atlantic flips cold, we will be hearing Ice Age scares again as we did in the 1970s.
Slightly modified quote from;_)
From Opposing view: Natural cycles trigger extremes in weather, http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/opinion/story/2012-07-31/Joe-Bastardi-WeatherBELL-Analytics/56623728/1
Joe Bastardi is chief forecaster at WeatherBELL Analytics, a meteorological consulting firm. And is considered one of the most intellectual experts in climate and weather (on the side of, denial that is). He received his bachelor of science degree in meteorology from Penn State in the 1970s. (Too smart for a more advanced degree like a Masters or PhD in the field of atmospheric physics or climatology)
Bastardi’s grip on reality demonstrated here:
I respectfully disagree with you. You just make him seem wrong in your video in reality he’s closer to the fifth shade of reality. Maybe I am a little bit prejudiced probably because I have the unfortunate experience of dealing with him about 30 years ago. Of course it actually might have a medical cause, wrestling is his main hobby (or was) and too many choke holds to the brain could be the reason for his so called oddity. I feel that he is on par with Christopher Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley. As we publicly enter into the fifth stage of conservative climate change grief. Denial, denial, denial, denial, and acceptance quoting Stephen Colbert in his tonight’s w0rd “The New Abnormal”. You need to start addressing the new reality there’s absolutely nothing we can do about it so let’s just adapt phase from these guys.
Look at the misinformation in that quote
The dust bowl was mostly a man-made climate event (agricultural practices) and a comparison of those years is not practical. Even so we broke more temperature records this last year than at any other time of recordkeeping in the USA (for high temperatures) .
Arctic sea ice IPCC projections were more towards the end of the 21century (a complete denial of reality)
The fabrication of global warming has stopped in the last decade.
Fabrication of an ice age projections in the 1970s
On top of this, his irrational explanation of global warming being caused by PDO, AMO and other related nonsense which he keeps saying in his studies! He has yet to produce any despite many requests for his so call work on this topic.
Fabricating we are entering a new cooling period and or new ice age.
So Peter you need to keep up! 2013 is the year of acceptance. Just the other day on the topic of climate change on FOX News, They were suggesting putting Jam inside Pampers Diapers because they are toast. That was ether(gas) an adaptation or they just don’t want them to be confuse with the French versions
“Fabrication of an ice age projections in the 1970s”
FALSE
SIX times as many research papers predicting global warming, in the 1970s.
That idea of cooling was not promoted to the public by scientists. It was promoted and hyped by NewsWeek and Time magazines.
There were 7 research papers concerned with the possibility of cooling from the aerosols like sulpher oxides, that are emitted from burning fossil fuels.
There were 42 papers predicting global warming from human emissions of greenhouse gases.
SIX times as many research papers predicting global warming, in the 1970s.
The reason people remember the cooling story is because NewsWeek did a story on it.
The 2007 IPCC report on global warming was based on over 10,000 research papers, and there have been thousands more since then. Between 1991 and 2012 there were 13,950.
Compare those thousands of research papers with 7 papers from 35 years ago.
We have somewhat reduced our emissions of aerosols, because they also create acid rain and smog. But we still emit these aerosols and they mask or offset some of the warming from CO2 emissions. These aerosols only stay in the air for a short time though, a few years, compared with the hundreds of years that CO2 stays resident in the atmosphere.
Well, I just realized I misread your first comment, thinking you supported Bastardi’s view. Oh well, consider it educational for others.
The mistake is more likely mine. Due to my ### limitations, I use a voice recognition software on top of that my southern accent advanced age and the fact that I have been a little congested makes matters even worse. It’s been so bad of late that it has sued for divorce due to my abusive language at her; however I think I will probably win because of her incompetence of the use of simple words like “do due how who it it’s….” and placing them somehow in the wrong order. Also it is extremely frustrating trying to go back and edit previously spoken words that I actually don’t bother anymore especially in this excuse for a text box on these websites.
“The IPCC incorrectly predicted Arctic sea ice would disappear by now.”
FALSE
They predicted the Arctic Sea might be ice free for part of the summer by 2100.
That now looks likely in 10-20 years, maybe even less.
—–
“Global temperatures have stopped increasing ”
FALSE
Every year starting with 2001 and through 2012, has been warmer than any year in the 20th century, before 1997
The last decade was the warmest ever recorded.
Eight of the top ten warmest years have occurred in the last decade.
2012 was the warmest year on record with a cooling La Nina event
2011 was the second warmest year on record with a cooling La Nina event
2012 was the 9th or 10th warmest year on record, (depending on data set)
There have been 333 consecutive months of global avg temperture over the 20th century mean.
That’s 27 years of months.
——-
Hottest 16 years on record in order of warmest first. (through 2011)
2010
2005
1998
2003
2006
2009
2002
2007
2004
2001
2011
1997
2008
1995
1999
2000
2010 was warmer than 1998 in GISTEMP, NCDC and in HadCRUT4
——————-
Ten warmest years – NOAA -NCDC (including 2012
2010
2005
1998
2003
2002
2006*
2009*
2007*
2004
2012
*tied for 6th
2012 ranked as the warmest “La Niña year”, surpassing the previous record set in 2011
LOL. ANYONE can take the spin from right-leaning sites and “news”papers. I’m surprised you didn’t do better than this. But sooner or later EVERYONE will deal with climate change.
Reblogged this on Echos from a Pale Blue Dot and commented:
Really, I thought this was a spoof. It’s not.
I’m guessing the republican spin merchants will argue:
Clearly rivers drying up is not the fault of climate change, but Obama’s fault
Or god’s punishment for not endorsing the Keystone pipeline
🙂