Desalination, reclamation and conservation. That's what water-hungry Southern California is going to need a lot more of, as the climate in Western states gets hotter in coming decades.
Yet another study about the likely effects of global warming has shown that California's vast, but fragile water supply network is going to be disrupted by warmer temperatures. This study, published in the Nov. 17 issue of Nature, was performed by Tim Barnett and Jennifer Adam of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, and Dennis Lettenmaier of the University of Washington. Read about it here: tinyurl.com/8xhby.
The study corroborates previous work suggesting that warmer winters will cause more rain and less snow. California's network of reservoirs was designed to catch water over a period of months, as snow gradually melts in the spring. With more precipitation coming as rain, the reservoirs will fill up too early, causing much of the water to be lost. The problem is not limited to California, but extends to other Western states and even to Canada.
Although this study isn't groundbreaking, it's still important. Science progresses by accumulating facts and insights that are interpreted over time by the scientific community. It takes many studies to build a consensus. The current scientific consensus that global warming is taking place and will significantly alter the world's climate has evolved over three decades.
Even with the mountain of evidence collected over that time, there are still global warming debunkers. They are largely sponsored by right-wing think tanks, energy companies and their supporters. They are opposed to the Kyoto protocols that limit production of "greenhouse gases." There's nothing wrong with that, if they provide their own alternative solutions.
But instead, these groups push pseudo-scientific research that concludes the problem doesn't even exist. See tinyurl.com/bfav2 for examples of this junk science. And see Real Climate (www.realclimate.org) for global warming science without the political spin.
Truth is, we no longer have a choice about stopping global warming. Perhaps we never did. Studies have shown that global warming will continue even with the protocols, or with even more drastic cutbacks in the use of greenhouse gas-producing fossil fuels.
Our most important issue is how to minimize the disruptions that global warming will cause. And while the advocates of the Kyoto protocols didn't come up with a practical and effective solution, they are at least trying to face the issue.
For Southern California, the biggest threat from global warming is to the reliability of our water supply. So desalination, which provides an ultra-reliable water supply, is one obvious solution. Reclamation and conservation extend our water supply.
Instead of denying a problem that is increasingly obvious, the energy industry should put its efforts into working with scientists, government and the public to find solutions we can all live with.
Contact staff writer Bradley J. Fikes at (760) 739-6641 or bfikes@nctimes.com.
