Have we seen global warming in Santa Maria? Yes, we have.
I remember yearly frosts on the lawn in the mornings after a below-freezing night. In previous years, I’ve lost plants to freezing weather.
But it hasn’t happened in years. That could be a short-time anomaly, but likely it’s the world warming, bit by bit.
If this can happen in a few years, imagine within your child’s or grandchild’s lifetime of 50, 60, or more years.
Higher temperatures send any rain water back into the atmosphere as water vapor. No groundwater means no agriculture, and that means no food for humans.
Hundreds of Guatemalans tried to enter the U.S. over the last two years because drought caused their crops to fail. They couldn’t survive and in desperation tried to enter America.
These are early signs of global warming caused by excessive burning of fossil fuels, and it’s happening faster than predicted.
In the decades ahead, unstoppable millions could come to our southern borders from Central and South America. By then, food may be scarce here, too.
Ask elected representatives—who are supposed to protect us at the local, state, and national level—exactly what are they doing to prevent certain chaos.
So far the answer is nothing. Emissions of CO2 in the U.S. are increasing, not decreasing.
William Gloege
Santa Maria
This article appears in Dec 19-29, 2019.
I am reminded by this writer that personal awareness is not how to gauge weather conditions or changes over time.
I have always remembered an 11 year drought ended in 1963 when I drove the highway fro Big Bear and saw a green vista to the south for the first time since returning to southern California from Alaska in 1952. On previous trips down the mountain, what you saw below was generally brown. I remember thinking. “So this is what greeted travelers coming to California after crossing the desert”. No wonder they were thrilled with our ‘Golden State” and eager to grow citrus fruits.
Well, with the just ended with our lakes still at record low levels, I researched Droughts in California and learned that drought of the 1950s into the 1960s did not last 11 years as I thought. Yes, there was a long drought but it was interrupted with “normal’ rainfall once [and maybe twice] during that time span. So, my memory was faulty. I also learned that what I thought was “normal’ annual rainfall was incorrect as well. I remember the low records and thought they were the “normal’ . Much lower than what the records show to be “normal’ rainfall.
Don’t be so sure you know from experience what is “normal” or a change from the past. You could be incorrect like me.