Cliff Notes on the News

Cliff Notes on the News

Veteran San Diego news director and reporter Cliff Albert shares his thoughts on the latest news and stories each weekday at 7:22am. Full Bio

 

Report Says California Storms Were Not Result of Climate Change

There’s been even more talk lately about climate change and what it means and what it doesn’t and what to do about it and how to do it.

This week, there was the story from the Voice of San Diego about the City’s climate change plan including the idea to replace gas stoves and gas furnaces in the future due to the pollution natural gas causes indoors and outdoors.

And there was President Biden on Thursday during his visit to central California to survey the damage from the series of atmospheric rivers the last few weeks, saying that the storms are the result of climate change.

But a report by the Los Angeles Times this week suggests that while the vast majority of scientists agree that the impacts of climate change are real, it is not the case with California’s recent storms.

Researchers interviewed by The Times said they had yet to see evidence of that connection. As the newspaper put it, “the unexpected onslaught of rain and snow after three years of punishing drought appears akin to other major storms that have struck California every decade or more since experts began keeping records in the 1800s.”

A climate scientist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography here in San Diego told the Times, “Assuming that these storms were driven by global warming would be like assuming an athlete who breaks a record was on steroids.”

No matter what the science behind them is, there is no doubt about California’s recent storms causing lots of damage and there’s no doubt they will happen again.

(Photo Getty Images)

Photo: Getty Images


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