It has been like a 1950s science fiction thriller: "THE ATTACK OF THE GIANT POLAR VORTEX!"....Coming to all the theaters near you, for an extended stay. It sends chills up your spine!
As I huddle before my furnace enjoying record high heating bills this endless winter, I squint at three foot plus drifts of snow in the yard and icicles clinging from the roof. News reports echo record snowfalls and record frigid temperatures, and even weather reporters seem to tire of the weather. Both water service lines and the entire Great Lakes are frozen.
Yet, many politicians continue to assert that warming climate change is upon us, and they call for embrace of their proposed regulatory agendas. However, I remain a climate change skeptic--not only because the polar vortex has turned me into a human snowman. As one report has it, the polar vortex has wiped out 95% of the stink bugs in the Washington, DC general area. I am happy that I survive to pay the heating bills.
But, wait there is more. As recently reported in the Wall Street Journal by two professors of atmospheric science: *
" The warming numbers most commonly advanced are created by climate computer models built almost entirely by scientists who believe in catastrophic global warming. The rate of warming forecast by these models depends on many assumptions and engineering to replicate a complex world in tractable terms, such as how water vapor and clouds will react to the direct heat added by carbon dioxide or the rate of heat uptake, or absorption, by the oceans.
"We might forgive these modelers if their forecasts had not been so consistently and spectacularly wrong. From the beginning of climate modeling in the 1980s, these forecasts, have, on average, always overstated the degree to which the Earth is warming compared with what we see in the real climate."...
"The models mostly miss warming in the deep atmosphere--from the Earth's surface to 75,000 feet--which is supposed to be one of the real signals of warming caused by carbon dioxide. Here, the consensus ignores the reality of temperature observations of the deep atmosphere collected by satellites and balloons, which have continually shown less than half of the warming shown in the average model forecasts."
Again, this reminds me of the Chicago television weatherman who invented the "Vice President In Charge Of Looking Out The Window" to confirm that reality matched his forecast models.
So, how should water utilities respond to allegations of climate change? The importance of respecting and conserving ground water and surface water sources of supply cannot be overstated and exists today separate and apart from climate change concerns. Accordingly, it really is not a matter of being bullied by panic over climate change assertions. Instead, for water utilities, it should be a matter of continued protection of freshwater resources, through such measures as encouraging use of more efficient water appliances by users, implementation of rate structures that give proper signals, implementation of expanded desalination facilities and recycling, installation of meters where they are not installed, etc. These, and many other, steps are needed, not because of climate change fears but because fresh water is such an essential but limited resource.
I am putting on another sweater and welcoming the return of the polar vortex this week with numb arms and hot chocolate. Then I will look out the window and watch for any melting of snow which has buried the outdoor Christmas lights and decorations, including the smiling Santa face, probably until April or May...if the climate ever changes by then.
__________________________________________________________________
* McNider and Christy, "Why Kerry Is Flat Wrong on Climate CHange", February 20, 2014, P. A15
No comments:
Post a Comment