From "Lovely Weather Defined California. What Happens When It’s Gone?" by Farhad Manjoo (NYT).
It could be worse...
August 11, 2021
"But the importance we place on pleasant weather is exactly why an altered climate could be so devastating to this state’s identity."
"The Mamas & the Papas sang of California as an escapist dreamland untouched by gloom. You’d be safe and warm if you were in L.A. Not long from now, Los Angeles and elsewhere here might be more nightmare than dream — way too warm and none too safe, all the leaves burned, the sky ash gray."
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31 comments:
"But the importance we place on pleasant weather is exactly why an altered climate could be so devastating to this state’s identity."
Well, "we" don't. LA was an ecological mistake from the outset. Forcing non-Californians to fight climate change to preserve the state's "identity" would be doubly absurd.
In the long run, we'll need quite a bit more warming to prevent the next ice age from devastating Canada, Scandinavia, and the northern U.S.
Privilege! Why should California get the good weather in perpetuity? GW will move it elsewhere.. Seems equitable to me.
(Took multiple attempts to get blogger to accept post, because:
Input error: Memcache value is null for FormRestoration
Well alright then)
I've been hearing about wildfires and mudslides and droughts and the Santa Anna winds in California since the 70s. I've never been there, but I've always had the impression that the state's reputation of a perfect climate in some parts of the state was somewhat exaggerated.
I lived in Southern California for over twenty years, but left for good in 1996. The good climate was not enough to keep me there and it would take a lot more than good climate to lure me back. The luster of the once Golden State I knew when I arrived in 1971 has been diminished by the onerous combination of high taxes, exorbitant cost of living, oppressive regulation, environmental lunacy and insane politics. Even my children and their husbands, all born and raised in San Diego County were driven out by the early 2000's. Question is will anyone but the homeless, crazies and drug addicts be left to witness the presumed climate apocalypse. I have my doubts.
Always cool when cgi takes out one's own office building.
I was in LA and SF last week. Lovely weather. About 70-76 the whole time. Sunshine. An afternoon at the SF ballpark looking out into SF Bay.
But it is so hard to get around CA. LA is just filthy.
While Omaha was 100-90 the same time, I'll take Omaha.
Well, the new IPCC report AR6 is coming out. It represents some progress in terms of clarifying some issues that had been fuzzier till now. We'll see what the more skeptical commentariat make of it. My first impression is some good new, some bad. And as was already known, nothing that represents an existential threat. An expensive problem.
Hmmm, I guess the "We're all going to die!" approach was not doing the trick, so now we're going with the threat to pleasantness. I guess we'll see.
I would worry far more about the impact of Progressive politics on California than about the impact of climate change. The NYT is quite happy to disaster-monger regarding the indefinite future while overlooking the all to concrete present, if that's what its politics requires.
I’ve lived in California since 1956… in SoCal from ‘56 through ‘85 and then a move to Northern Cali in mid-‘85 to escape the traffic and bad air quality. Lived through fires, earthquakes, riots. Used to be paradise here. Now it’s just better than most.
“Everybody outside this state is bitching about this state.”
—- Gavin Newsom
It is now 1:15pm here, it’s 93 degrees, the pool is at 78 degrees, the beer is ice cold and we are retired. We good here…
I'm just over the ridge from Lake Tahoe at the moment. The Nevada side. Today is not so bad but a few days ago the smoke from the Dixie fire was making things uncomfortable. The elders here are saying it is same as it ever was...
I'm lectured to follow the science so I do. The science says severe weather is neither more severe or more frequent. The data backs up the science...
I suggest these people dump their real estate for pennies on the dollar and move to a ace that's still cold. Buffalo. Detroit. Yellowknife.
When my friends and I discuss climate change, questions I enjoy asking is "What average temperature should we be aiming for if we have the ability to actually affect temperature on a global basis? And why?"
In the past, the earth's temperature has been vastly colder and warmer than it is now with even with the "benefit" of human activity. What caused these variations to take place, and are these same causes at work today? If not, what has changed?
The issue with humans is that our timeframe is so short compared to geologic time -- two or three lifetimes are an immeasurable blip in the earth's history. A few hundred thousand years from now, after the next glaciation, what is happening today will be long erased.
That would be ironic. Everyone takes huge life-altering measures so that SoCal's weather stays perfect, then the big one hits and takes it all out anyway.
New England has been unseasonably cool and wet this summer. We're getting our first heat wave this week. The ponds and lakes are cooler than last summer extending the wetsuit season for skinnier wild swimmers.
The only bummer this year has been the wildfire smoke from out west.
Most of California has NEVER been the temperate paradise that people from other states think it is. Unless you live close to the ocean, summers and early falls are nearly as hot as in any Southwestern region. The San Fernando Valley -- L.A.'s "suburbs" 15 miles to the north -- is basically a bowl that collects heat and smog, and the hottest months can easily get above 110 degrees daily. It's nearly 100 there today, as it is in Sacramento, Riverside, and other eastern California cities. (Meanwhile, winter temps stay above freezing but can still get downright chilly at night, because it's basically a desert.) Of course, it really IS nice close to the ocean -- but unless you already live there, you can't afford it.
Not having a paid subscription I was unable to read what the author had to say. I was able to get a glimpse of the picture of the brush fire before the sign-up prompt came up. But, California's weather during the non rainy season has everything to do with high pressure systems. Brush fires included. During most of the time between mid April and October the high pressure system sits just off the SoCal coast, creating warm sunny days. But, sometimes the high shifts a little to the east, especially during late summer and fall. If the high moves a little north and settles above the Great Basin area, California gets strong NE Santa Ana winds and downed power lines. If the high pressure moves directly east and settles above the Four Corners area we get SE winds that bring in subtropical moisture and lightning strikes. Any wind that has an east component keeps the seabreeze at bay. In other words, it gets hot.
Is life so good and so boring for so many people that they need the excitement of the End Of The World dramatics? California always has had forest fires. It always had Santa Ana winds and scorching summers inland. It also always had earthquakes and mudslides. The weather,geology and forest fires are the same as before since time immemorial. What makes California unlivable is progressive government.
Oh, for fuck's sake. The weather in California is exactly the way it has been my entire life. What has changed is the way the state is managed. It is being overrun with locusts in suits and ties with law degrees and shit for brains.
You wonder who thought that music video was a good idea. "Watch our movie and see the same few shots over and over!"
If California is destined to be a horrible place to live in 20 years, real estate prices would be declining.
Climate change - the world getting colder - wasn't so good for the Vikings on Iceland.
Humans do better on this Earth when the weather is warmer.
Grew up in California. Palm Springs. All of interior Cali is hot and arid. Wildfires and landslides every year, been that way since Indian times. Droughts, too much rain, all a cycle that existed long before the introduction of climate religion.
I’ve lived in Newport Beach, Jenner and Russian river area. Santa Cruz and la Honda. Monterey and Carmel and Big Sur. Oh, and the city and Berkeley.
Was magical, then not. 59-81. It’s now partially Venezuela and a bit of east Germany. More people leaving than coming in now. Stand proud leftists, you didn’t build this yourself, it took decades to destroy it.
People leaving for other areas vote for same type idiots and expect different results.
cubanbob wrote: The weather,geology and forest fires are the same as before since time immemorial. What makes California unlivable is progressive government.
This is true. I lived there for 25 years until relatively recently. I was fed up with living on a university campus with the coerced kowtowing to BLM and anti-police forces; the nonstop in-your-face neighborhood posting, posturing and pandering to white guilt consciousness raising. Add in the obvious vote harvesting which flipped OC blue. They kind of made their own hell and deserve whatever comes their way.
I'll bet if you removed all progressives from California and sent them to Wisconsin, and replaced them with independents, conservatives, and old-fashioned classical liberals, the weather in California would be just fine, the streets would get cleaned up, the state would manage it's forests and water, the schools would return to teaching things that matter, and life would again get to be golden in California.
Meanwhile the Californians in Wisconsin would work hard to destroy the quality of life in Wisconsin and then bemoan how it's the end of things and wasn't it wonderful when Wisconsin had mild winters?
The public loves stories about the demise of California, so I guess the media keeps generating them.
Well, I've lived in LA on the Westside continuously since 2003. It's wonderful here and I would not want to live anywhere else.
Weather is almost always perfect, with the exception of some rain during winter months, and we are unaffected by wildfires. Prevailing winds blow East, and we get ocean breezes every afternoon and rarely need to run our AC or turn on the heat. I bought a home in April and already it has appreciated $165,000 in value (according to Zillow anyway). My commute to work is seven minutes, and I can ride my bike to the beach, or drive 20 mins and go hiking in the mountains. I can ride a motorcycle all year round. I'm 15 mins from LAX and can fly anywhere easily. Great restaurants all over the city, farmers markets with fresh fruits and veggies from the central valley, and excellent schools and universities. Great live sports, music and entertainment options. I stay plenty busy at work and make decent money. What's not to like?
Maybe it will prompt all of the non-natives to move back to where they came from. It would also solve our drought/homeless/you name it problems.
I'm tired of my state being overrun by weirdos.
I've seen the name Sia, but never heard her - wow - thanks for putting that up.
“I'm just over the ridge from Lake Tahoe at the moment. The Nevada side. Today is not so bad but a few days ago the smoke from the Dixie fire was making things uncomfortable. The elders here are saying it is same as it ever was...”
Where are you? I spent five years in the Minden/Gardnerville (NV) area, which is about 20 miles south of Carson City on US 395. Loved it. Moderate weather, but close to S Lake Tahoe.
I've been following Mr. McIntyre since he started his blog. I highly recommend his latest post. The opening and closing paragraphs:
Although climate scientists keep telling that defects in their “hockey stick” proxy reconstructions don’t matter – that it doesn’t matter whether they use data upside down, that it doesn’t matter if they cherry pick individual series depending on whether they go up in the 20th century, that it doesn’t matter if they discard series that don’t go the “right” way (“hide the decline”), that it doesn’t matter if they used contaminated data or stripbark bristlecones, that such errors don’t matter because the hockey stick itself doesn’t matter – the IPCC remains addicted to hockey sticks: lo and behold, Figure 1a of its newly minted Summary for Policy-makers contains what else – a hockey stick diagram. If you thought Michael Mann’s hockey stick was bad, imagine a woke hockey stick by woke climate scientists. As the climate scientists say, it’s even worse that we thought.
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I discussed many of these problems in July 2019, within a couple of days of publication of the underlying article (see here). While I don’t necessarily expect IPCC reviewers to be paying rapt attention to my twitter feed, one surely presumes that IPCC climate scientists, who are employed full time on these topics, to be competent enough to notice things that I was able to observe in my first day or so of looking at PAGES2019. But their obtuseness never ceases to amaze.
Essentially, the IPCC reports are rubbish.
No doubt the IPCC is politicized and biased. No doubt climate is inherently variable; on time scales of more than a few centuries, there is no "normal". But there is a hell of a lot of evidence that things have been getting substantially warmer for more than a century--in fits and starts, with surges and hiatuses. The recent hiatus seems to be over. The evidence points to continued warming.
The big question is what to do about it. With present technology we probably can't "stop climate change" without going to considerably more expensive energy, which means a (slightly) lower standard of living for people in the industrialized countries and a very, very hard road out of poverty for the larger number living outside them.
It is a cliche--a very true cliche--that modern economies depend on cheap energy.
Farhad grew up in the OC and currently lives in Palo Alto, both temperate places. But as Ted points out above, the inland areas have always been hot and uncomfortable during the summers. I wonder if Manjoo has ever ventured to The 909/Fontucky this time of year, or even Sacramento?
And I have to confirm Yancey's comment, "California is exactly the way it has been my entire life." I've lived in SoCal most of my life. Santa Monica Bay, La Jolla Cove still look the same as compared to my teen years of long ago. Where are these rising tides?
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