Climate change affecting Rio Grande water supply (clueless gov. bureaucrats, media lapdog)

The Albuquerque Journal ^ | December 12, 2013 | John Fleck

[CedarDave]

Rising Rio Grande Basin temperatures, already increasing faster than at any time in more than 10,000 years, are projected to sap the basin of one-third of its surface water supply by the end of the century, according to a new report by federal scientists.

“It is sobering,” said Assistant Secretary of the Interior Anne Castle, who was in Albuquerque on Wednesday morning for the release of the Upper Rio Grande Impact Assessment, done by a team of scientists from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the Army Corps of Engineers and Sandia National Laboratories.

The study projected average temperature increases of 4 to 6 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the 21st century, with decreasing snowpack, increased evaporation and shrinking river flows converging on federal, state and local water management institutions. “That has ripple effects throughout the system,” Castle told a group of area water managers and community members Wednesday.

The assessment is the latest and most detailed in a series of analyses that have all come to the same conclusion: that rising greenhouse gases, which are driving up temperatures and changing the region’s climate in other ways, are likely to cause substantial reductions in the region’s already skimpy water supplies.

[CedarDave]

... projected average temperature increases of 4 to 6 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the 21st century ...
... conclusion: ... rising greenhouse gases, which are driving up temperatures and changing the region’s climate in other ways, are likely to cause substantial reductions in the region’s already skimpy water supplies.

All are drinking the AGW Kool-Aid. As government bureaucrats they depend on government funding so dissent from the company line on global warming/climate change is not allowed. And, of course, looking at actual facts might cause them to question their conclusions so better to dismiss these and remain ignorant. Calling them "scientists" is really a stretch.

[CedarDave]

NM list PING!

I may not PING for all New Mexico articles. To see New Mexico articles by topic click here: New Mexico Topics

To see NM articles by keyword, click here: New Mexico Keywords

To see the NM Message Page, click here: New Mexico Messages

(The NM list is available on my FR homepage for anyone to use. Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from the list.)
(For ABQ Journal articles requiring a subscription, scroll down to the bottom of the page to view the article for free after answering a question or watching a short video commercial.)

[facedown]

...by the end of the century,...

These people have become a self-parody.

[elkfersupper]

Idiots.

Perpetuating a known myth.

[Don Corleone]

If they don’t publish they perish. Its as simple as that! IOW say something. It doesn’t matter if it makes any sense.

[fireman15]

I guess that they must have missed the memo from the IPCC and basically all of the official climate data sets... the earth has experienced no statistically significant warming in nearly twenty years.

[CedarDave]

*PING*

[CedarDave]

I guess that they must have missed the memo from the IPCC and basically all of the official climate data sets... the earth has experienced no statistically significant warming in nearly twenty years.

Must have extrapolated data from Michael Mann's hockey stick graph.

[cripplecreek]

Meanwhile here in Southern Michigan the fishing shanties have started popping up on the lake about 2 weeks early.

[skeeter]

The Rio Grande has been drying up for decades, but not because of global warming. These idiots are just looking around for anything to try to make their point, however unrelated.

[CedarDave]

Idiots. Perpetuating a known myth.

For everyone's information, John Fleck is the Journal's science writer who publishes without question articles about man-caused global warming.

Here's a link to an article from this past Monday questioning whether the computer models used to simulate the impact of rising greenhouse gases may actually be underestimating the effect of global warming on long duration doubt in the southwest.

Is the IPCC underestimating the risk of southwestern drought?

[Foolsgold]

... projected average temperature increases of 4 to 6 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the 21st century ...

Last spring the pundits were claiming severe drought here in California, because the rivers were down. Last spring it didn't get warm enough to melt the snow pack until much later.

[Pontiac]

The study projected average temperature increases of 4 to 6 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the 21st century, with decreasing snowpack, increased evaporation and shrinking river flows converging on federal, state and local water management institutions.

What this says is that the study is based on assumptions of future events for which they have not basis is science to make.

Innumerable future events and natural processes will impact CO2 in the atmosphere and man’s contribution to CO2 in the atmosphere. They can not know what future events will or will not impact the Earth’s climate. Natural processes like volcano eruptions and plant growth stimulated by rising CO2 levels have a much greater impact on climate than do the activities of man.

These ‘scientists’ mental masturbation contributes absolutely nothing to science or the progress thereof.

[mountainlion]

Colorado had major flooding the the weather service missed. Global warming? The flood was quite high until they opened the flood gates at Lake Estes and sent another 10 feet of water down. That would be enough to flush El Passo.

[cripplecreek]

That would be enough to flush El Passo.

If it doesn't freeze before it gets there.

[familyop]

There are some unusual temperature fluctuations in both directions, but the north exists, too. Most fluctuations have been more toward cold and are likely to be that way, until sometime after the current extended solar minimum is passed. For now, we’re in the period of the usual solar max, so it’s likely to get much colder at times over the next 9 years or so, at least.

[cripplecreek]

Yup. Its January/February cold here now and that sucks.

We’re at about 10 degrees right now but we’re getting a moderating effect from the great lakes till they cool down.

[CedarDave]

Colorado had major flooding the the weather service missed. Global warming? The flood was quite high until they opened the flood gates at Lake Estes and sent another 10 feet of water down. That would be enough to flush El Passo.

Ahh, but they cover their a$$es with this statement:

But while overall average water supplies will decline, the region is projected to experience an increasing range of wet and dry periods, with more severe droughts accompanied on occasion by more severe floods.

Of course, that is the history of the southwest - drought caused the Anasazi to move from Chaco Canyon about the time of Columbus and in the early 1940's, following depression era drought in the central US, large rainfall events filled Elephant Butte lake to overflowing.

Drought then heavy rainfall followed by drought is nothing new in the SW - only man's settlement in the southwest has changed the equation slightly (e.g. urban heat islands with thermometers located near heat sinks [i.e. black pavement], and first suppression of fires followed by logging bans causing mammoth forest fires which sterilize and cement the soil). These result in hotter days and nights in city areas and increased flooding when rain does fall. None of this is due to increases in CO2 or carbon in the atmosphere.

[mountainlion]

If it doesn't freeze before it gets there.

It almost got up to 50 today. Golden has some ice dam problems but the water won't get near El Passo the Missouri and Mississippi get the water.

[Dusty Road]

there a hearing going on as we speak between Texas and New Mexico, the claim is southern New Mexico is using too much water from the rio for irrigation.