California Drought: Will There Be Water Rationing? and More Importantly – Should We Blame Gay People?
March 20, 2015
Out here in California — for those of us now living directly “on the front edge of a climate crisis”, as MSNBC’s Chris Hayes describes it in the interview below — it’s both extraordinarily unusual and incredibly welcome to hear a politician with ambitions for higher office speak as frankly as Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) does here.
But with temps in the high 90s over the past week here in Southern California (in March!) and new data from NASA finding the state may well run out of surface water completely in just a year’s time, it’s very good to see someone with the courage to say what needs to be said.
Newsom describes the state’s voluntarily water conservation measures to date, in the face of our record-shattering drought, as “small ball”.
“I think we’re going to have to move to mandatory rationing,” he notes bluntly. Hayes appears surprised in response, noting that calls for mandatory rationing are “essentially anathema in American political vocabulary.”
“This is serious,” Newsom responds in turn, detailing the crisis the state is now facing. “This is Code Red”.
“We can call for voluntary rationing because that polls better, or we can lead. And I guess at the end of the day, we have to ask ourselves ‘Are we just stewards? Or are we gonna step up and step in and actually share our private thoughts — trust me, private thoughts are ample around some requirements for mandatory reductions — or we can continue to play the finger in the wind politics that, frankly, has put us in this crisis in the first place.”
Meanwhile, in the far reaches of Denierville – this from Right Wing Watch:
End Times broadcaster Rick Wiles knows what is to blame for the record California drought: gay people and legal abortion.
While discussing the drought on his “Trunews” radio show yesterday, Wiles said that measures to conserve water are not going to help the state since it is currently experiencing divine punishment.
“Rain will follow repentance,” Wiles said. “The state is in the forefront of spiritual rebellion against God: abortion; homosexuality; pornography; Hollywood’s movies that promote sexual immorality, violence, bloodshed, witchcraft, occult practices; the television industry; the crime and street violence in California cities. All of it has combined to reach a level of depravity that has reached Heaven and God has no other choice but to cut off the rain. So let’s see how long Californians will suffer without water before they humble themselves, repent of their sins and call upon God to save them.”
I’ve been saying for a long time that the next refuge of deniers, after “I’m not a scientist”, and “oh well, it’s too late”, will be “See? God’s doing it to punish our sins.” The exact causative sin will depend, of course, on the wack fundamentalist religious perspective of your choice, but I can predict with serene confidence that, across all fringe theological boundaries, gay people and sassy women are going to be high on the list of scapegoats for bringing down God’s wrath.
As the inevitable recognition that all is not well sets in, be on the lookout for another variety of science denial tailored to the “Left Behind” crowd. Climate Change, in this formulation, is not a result of greenhouse gases, but rather comes from God’s anger with the gay, muslim, socialist rays emanating from the White House, New York, and Los Angeles.
And it’s not computer modeled, it’s “prophecied”.
Warning: State of the art fundamentalist climate denial Rants below:
Climate Denial Crock of the Week 
March 21, 2015 at 5:40 am
Interesting post, mixing together religion, morality and water shortages. Well did God direct us to retrieving fossils and releasing carbon into the air ? I think not.
Water shortage is a growing problem not only in California, but worldwide and a dose of reality is needed, of course it is not gays or porn causing it, please do not confuse sex or sexual orientation with precipitation and water supply. If God could be outraged surely slavery would have blown his mind as an ultimate sin.
Technical support is at hand and it is called desalination, there are large scale solutions and small scale solutions available, you can choose whatever is needed. We do not need to burn more fossils to desalinate water there are choices using alternative technology available now.
Please do not continue to waste precious water in industrial practices to get more oil and gas though, and learn from the dry lands of the world who have already adapted to the shortage of precipitation.
You can do it if you try.
“UN warns world could have 40 percent water shortfall by 2030”
http://phys.org/news/2015-03-world-percent-shortfall.html
March 21, 2015 at 7:57 am
They have the causation reversed. It’s a proven fact that a lack of hydration leads to sin as desperation leads to violent acts and the sure signs of heavens’ indifference leads to an equal indifference to heavens’ laws.
Of course the complete irrelevance of your bronze age cult to reality could also have something to do with it.
March 21, 2015 at 8:28 am
“…..gay people and sassy women are going to be high on the list of scapegoats for bringing down God’s wrath.”
True enough. But don’t forget science teachers who taught evolution, Democrats and liberal-progressive legislators who tried to make Jesus’s teachings a reality, and especially climate bloggers who deny that AGW is part of God’s divine plan and that man can actually do something about it. Save me a seat in first-class when the plane takes off for Hell.
PS Newsom is merely demonstrating that he has a three digit IQ. When the SHTF and CA runs out of water in the next year or two, he will be well positioned to say “I saw it coming and tried to warn you—vote for me because I’ve got as good a chance as anyone to fix it—next to zero”.
March 21, 2015 at 9:54 am
Yesterday I saw a segment on Fox News that blew me away. It was around 2pm Eastern time.
The Fox weather guy was talking about the snow storm heading towards the east coast and bending over backwards, in the uniquely “laugh at the thought we are way to intelligent for this” Fox News way, explaining that that particular snow storm was not unusual and no indication of climate change in any way (which may be true).
Then the conversation switched to the California drought. The tone of news anchor and weather guy changed immediately to heartfelt concern and wonder about the duration of the drought and it’s devastating effects for not only the west coast of the state, but also the rest of the country. Suddenly is was no laughing matter. Must have screwed up someone’s ski vacation.
March 21, 2015 at 11:07 am
Some good signs in one of the videos. Back in the Middle Ages when the plague hit, people eventually lost confidence in the church as a source of redemption. They prayed, scourged, sacrificed etc. all to no avail. The plague only got worse. Eventually, this led to the Enlightenment and the development of science.
Note the second video warned of weather as an act of God. That’s a good first step. Now have the old fools finally note who first predicted the biblical weather and had a rational explanation for it. Nothing like ineffective solutions to “acts of God” to destroy credibility.
March 21, 2015 at 1:54 pm
Channel surfing yesterday (3/20) I ran across Pat Robertson. They were talking about something completely unrelated, but when they turned to him he somehow turned the conversation to Climate Change, ending with “I am a Climate Change Denier”. And, clearly, he meant it pugnaciously: a stark statement of absolute faith, as incapable of being changed as Inhofe’s “God is still up there!” (as if CC is some proof that God has moved or something). And then they cut to the other moderator, she gave a short ‘knowing’ chuckle, and diplomatically moved the discussion to something else.
There are some ‘old soldiers’ out there, and it is waaay past time for them to ‘fade away’.
March 21, 2015 at 2:50 pm
Robertson has been “fading” in many ways for a looong time. To bad we can’t speed up the process. What I don’t understand is why they even bother to have him there—-if he brings up climate change when they are talking about “something completely unrelated”, he is obviously too far into dementia to make any contribution. Was he there to be laughed at?