WEATHER OR WHETHER?

There continue to be people who cannot and will not learn from history. This has been going on for a long, long time. We may think that all really dumb ideas come from modern day liberals with great new plans based on the illusion of science. That is not accurate. Really dumb ideas have been around for as long as man has been recording history.

Anyone who has read the Bible knows the story of Joseph. He was the man who convinced Pharoah to use common sense. Some thought this was because of prophecy, and perhaps it was. But it sometimes prophecy comes to those who are just paying attention. Joseph told the Pharoah that they would have seven years of good weather and seven years of drought. He suggested building huge granaries to store food during the good years. Then, Egypt would have food during the coming drought. It worked. Egypt had food while almost everyone else was starving.

Weather has been like this a long time. It moves in cycles. Sometimes there are long periods of drought. Sometimes there are long periods of rain. Everyone knows this. That is why the Indians developed the rain dance. It was necessary.

Anyone who has even attempted to study the history of California quickly sees these patterns. In 1862 it rained so much there was a flood that went from Marysville to Bakersfield. The Governor of California was rowed to his inauguration, which took place on the second flood. If you go to old town Sacramento, look around. In many cases what you think is the first floor is actually the second floor. That is because after all this wet weather in 1862, they made everyone build a retaining wall 13 ft high between their building and the street. This this was filled in to keep the roads dry. Eventually the space between the road and the buildings was covered over. If you take a tour of underground Sacramento, you can see this for yourself.

Folsom Dam was built in the 1950s. The people who built it relied on weather models from the previous 30 years. Those years are affectionately known as the “dust bowl.” It was hot, very hot, for years. So, they grossly underestimated how much water we could get here in the Sacramento area. When Folsom Dam was completed in 1956, they predicted it would take more than a year to fill. It took about a week. Folsom Dam came close to overflowing in 1989. One will note that this was 33 years after 1956. Coincidence? Those of us who live here notice that they spent about a billion dollars building an emergency bypass system for Folsom Dam. That was just completed, you guessed it, about 30 years after 1989. The people who actually study weather patterns in California know it runs in cycles that last for years, even decades. This is climate change; it has just been going on for hundreds of years.

The earth has been getting warmer, since about 1600. That is a good thing, because the cold weather killed a lot of people But, this started long before the industrial revolution and odds are the amount of CO2 in the air was a minor factor. We consistently overestimate our ability to change the weather.

But what we can  and did do was make really stupid mistakes. Just two years ago, Folsom Lake was actually over 100% of normal. They never let the lake get totally full because they fear it overflowing. That is a legitimate concern, because we can get an incredible amount of water here is a very short period of time. But they do let it fill so that it stores enough water to handle several years of drought.  I have seen estimates that it is designed to store enough water for up to five years of intense drought. But here we are, less than two years later, and Folsom Lake is extremely low? Why? It is not because of global warming. While we have had some hot spells, many of the records being broken were set in the 1930s or even the late 1800s. There is also considerable debate over how much of the temperature increase is because of all the buildings and roads etc., which all make everything hotter. Now I am not a meteorologist and don’t claim to be, but some things are obvious. The reason Folsom Lake is so low is not because of the weather, it is because of the whether. The people who are in charge of our water have been allowing a lot of it to just flow to the sea, instead of saving it, as designed. Their explanation is that they wanted to restore the Salmon population. They predicted that this could result in up to 1,000 more salmon. Of course, this had the undesired side effect of making it very hard on farmers and irrelevant things like people who need drinking water.

So, if you look at Folsom Lake, it is a visible reminder of something important. Those who do not believe in God are most prone to try and micromanage his creation. They should have listened to Joseph. Oh, it probably felt great to release all that water. After all, those salmon are really pretty and important. In addition, by doing this, they can blame everything on Donald Trump, although that is a reach. So, they blame it all on climate change and then blame Donald Trump because he doesn’t believe in science, so he doesn’t believe in climate change.

We should all be grateful that such brilliant people are in charge. Thank God, oops…sorry, that they thoughtfully let all that water flow to the sea. When you are limited to seven gallons of water a day, your lawn is dying, and people start to stink, remember it is all for a good cause. We are just too stupid to understand the need to follow the science. Just like so many people don’t listen when told to wear a mask, even outdoors, or indoors, or while eating because this is absolutely necessary to stop COVID. The fact that states when didn’t have these mask requirements got the same results is not relevant. It is California that is following the science.

I look at Folsom Lake and I don’t see evidence of a drought. I don’t see evidence of climate change. I see evidence of stupidity. I see evidence of people who arrogantly ignore the science and then lecture us on the need to listen to them. This is not about the weather; it is about the whether. Whether we continue to put people in power who cannot and will not learn any lessons from history. Some people call them Democrats, but that is an insult to many of the Democrats I know, who have different opinions on a lot of subjects, but are not actually stupid.

TDM