We are a nation of proud gas guzzling, coal burning, hydrofracking freedom lovers. Next to guns, Americans love their cars and trucks more than any other people on earth and the bigger the better (fuel economy be damned, right?). Why we even have a special model legislation writing, political lobbying, non-profit organization, ALEC, to ensure that we will always have a place for oil and coal and natural gas in our energy future (and a big place at that), and that our children will learn the truth the real truth about those nasty climate change scientists who want to destroy our economy.
Sadly, there exists a ‘fifth column’ in our very midst whose sole purpose is to take away our freedom to inhale exhaust fumes. They are promoting an agenda that would forever change the American way of life, and some of them work at Stanford University.
Now, Stanford is the home of The Hoover Institution, a proud, right-thinking organization devoted to expanding economic opportunity around the globe for the benefit of us all.
Unfortunately, Stanford also seems to have an infestation of anti-American no-gooders, so-called ‘climate’ and ‘earth science’ jokers who seem to believe they can act against Koch Industries our nation’s best interest, by promoting the ‘silly’ idea that “anthropogenic climate change” is a cause of the current severe drought in California. These traitors hide behind their ‘academic credentials’ and their ‘scientific research” to promote crap “studies” like this one to fool us into giving away our liberty:
(cont. below the fold)
The atmospheric conditions associated with the unprecedented drought currently afflicting California are “very likely” linked to human-caused climate change, Stanford scientists write in a new research paper.
In a new study, a team led by Stanford climate scientist Noah Diffenbaugh used a novel combination of computer simulations and statistical techniques to show that a persistent region of high atmospheric pressure hovering over the Pacific Ocean that diverted storms away from California was much more likely to form in the presence of modern greenhouse gas concentrations.
The research, published on Sept. 29 as a supplement to this month’s issue of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, is one of the most comprehensive studies to investigate the link between climate change and California’s ongoing drought.
“Our research finds that extreme atmospheric high pressure in this region – which is strongly linked to unusually low precipitation in California – is much more likely to occur today than prior to the human emission of greenhouse gases that began during the Industrial Revolution in the 1800s,” said Diffenbaugh, an associate professor of environmental Earth system science at Stanford and a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.
Okay, taking off my ‘snark’ cap now. Is anyone who has followed the science and research on climate change surprised by this study’s conclusions? I know I am not.
Their research studied the phenomenon known as the “Triple R” shorthand for “Ridiculously Resilient Ridge.” The Triple R is an unusually strong and long-lasting “blocking ridge” (which is an atmospheric condition in which “regions of high atmospheric pressure … disrupt typical wind patterns in the atmosphere”) that has been preventing precipitation from reaching California. They then analyzed the data about this this extreme and rare phenomenon with respect to the increase of greenhouse gas emissions over the last 150 or so odd years. They sought to determine if the probability of such extreme atmospheric conditions such as the Triple R has increased thanks to global warming. Or as the primary statistician associated with the study, Bala Rajaratnam, put it:
“We’ve demonstrated with high statistical confidence that the large-scale atmospheric conditions, similar to those associated with the Triple R, are far more likely to occur now than in the climate before we emitted large amounts of greenhouse gases,” Rajaratnam said.
The extreme weather we have been dealing with isn’t just a coincidence, folks. Or as Professor Diffenbaugh says, much more bluntly than I have:
“In using these advanced statistical techniques to combine climate observations with model simulations, we’ve been able to better understand the ongoing drought in California,” Diffenbaugh added. “This isn’t a projection of 100 years in the future. This is an event that is more extreme than any in the observed record, and our research suggests that global warming is playing a role right now.”
That’s right. Our warming planet is playing a major role in creating the conditions for these extreme events, such as California’s drought, to occur more frequently right now. This isn’t a problem for future generations to solve (or hope to live through), for we are being affected today, this very second. It is time for the Climate Deniers to be shoved aside, and removed from the airwaves where they practice their art of lies and propaganda purely for the purpose of protecting the profits of obscenely wealthy and evil people, such as the Kochs.
For the record, here are the credentials of the main author of this study:
Associate Professor, Environmental Earth System Science
Senior Fellow, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment
Affiliate, Precourt Institute for EnergyDr. Noah Diffenbaugh is an Associate Professor in the School of Earth Sciences and Senior Fellow in the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University. He studies the dynamics and impacts of climate variability and change. Much of his work has focused on the role of fine-scale processes in shaping climate change impacts, including studies of extreme weather, water resources, agriculture, human health, and poverty vulnerability.
Dr. Diffenbaugh is currently a Lead Author for Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and a member of the National Academy of Sciences Ad Hoc Committee on Effects of Provisions in the Internal Revenue Code on Greenhouse Gas Emissions. He also serves on the Executive Committee of the Atmospheric Sciences Section of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), as an Editor of Geophysical Research Letters, and as a Member Representative to the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR). He has provided scientific briefings to State and Federal lawmakers, and in 2011 was named a Google Science Communication Fellow. Dr. Diffenbaugh is a recipient of the James R. Holton Award from the American Geophysical Union, recognizing outstanding research contributions by a junior atmospheric scientist. He has been recognized a Kavli Fellow by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and is the recipient of a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation and a Terman Fellowship from Stanford University. Before coming to Stanford, he was a member of the faculty of Purdue University, where he was a University Faculty Scholar and served as Interim Director of the Purdue Climate Change Research Center (PCCRC).
Stanford’s team of scientists, and their research into the link between climate change and the drought was funded in part by the US Air Force, among other sources of support:
Diffenbaugh’s group was supported in part by a National Science Foundation CAREER Award and by a grant from the National Institutes of Health.
Rajaratnam’s group was supported in part by a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, a DARPA Young Faculty CAREER Award, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the UPS Fund.