Sunday, March 22, 2015

California Governor Beclowns Himself

Governor Brown said today that Ted Cruz' stance on global warming should be disqualifying for president:
Responding to comments made by Cruz on "Late Night with Seth Meyers," Democratic Governor Brown said of Cruz, "That man betokens such a level of ignorance and a direct falsification of the existing scientific data. It's shocking and I think that man has rendered himself absolutely unfit to be running for office"...

Brown said the drought being experienced in California could be traced to the buildup of carbon from coal and other sources, and that leaders need to take measures to prevent dire consequences. 

          
"Could be"?  If Brown likes science (and government) so much, perhaps he should pay attention to NOAA:
Natural weather patterns, not man-made global warming, are causing the historic drought parching California, says a study out Monday from federal scientists.

"It's important to note that California's drought, while extreme, is not an uncommon occurrence for the state," said Richard Seager, the report's lead author and professor with Columbia University's Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory. The report was sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The report did not appear in a peer-reviewed journal but was reviewed by other NOAA scientists.

"In fact, multiyear droughts appear regularly in the state's climate record, and it's a safe bet that a similar event will happen again," he said.
That he has been elected to so many offices in California, so many times, shows that the drought isn't necessarily California's biggest problem.

5 comments:

pseudotsuga said...

Wow...it's like he's a science denier or something...
Poor California...My birthstate, which we left when I was very young. What happened to you in the space of my lifetime?

maxutils said...

I'm not even going to argue about climate change … because my position is and will continue to be that it doesn't matter whether we're causing a change -- we should still be doing REASONABLE things to develop renewable energy and reduce waste and emissions. But … if you don't think the drought is the most pressing problem in California right now? You're not looking hard enough. For three years, we've been saying, "Oh, I'm sure it will rain next year," and we've been wrong every time. Read Dan Walter's column in the Sac Bee from Sunday, if you haven't already. And he is hardly a liberal. As to Cruz? I agree with a lot of his positions … but I don't like him. There's something wrong there.

Darren said...

You dodge the point that NOAA says that global warming is *not* causing our drought.

maxutils said...

Not really. I don't think it matters what is causing our drought, if anything. What matters is that we have one. Even if CA wee to take every step possible to prevent climate change recommended by those (and fairly, the majority) who believe it, it would not have a significant enough impact to matter. Which doesn't mean we shouldn't take steps where we can, to conserve and reduce pollution …

But you missed the easy point to slam him on: now that the gas tax, per gallon, has had the desired impact of getting people to choose more fuel efficient cars, the Democrats now want to change it t a per mile driven tax … which would have the opposite effect.

Darren said...

You keep sidestepping the point: Brown, an "environmentalist", ignores a NOAA report by claiming that California's drought is caused by global warming. He beclowns himself.

You're adding the rest, which wasn't *my* point at all.