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Anticipated El Nino storms may indicate wet winter to come ….
An irony of global warming is the unpredictability of weather patterns such as alternating hot and cold, wet and dry, windy and sultry, etc. While last year we experienced the driest season of 120 years of record, a San Jose Mercury News article on May 8, 2014, stated, “Citing a huge mass of warm water that continues to move east toward South America, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration increased its probability for El Niño developing next winter to 78 percent, up from 66 percent last month, and 36 percent in November.” The article then quoted a NOAA scientist as saying it is still too soon to tell how much rain we will get, since El Nino can take place at various intensities. In the meantime…..
Water conservation needs well publicized
Giving credit where it is due, because of Sonoma County Water Agency’s extensive year long media campaign calling for voluntary conservation, it’s hard to imagine that many water users in our County do not know we have been experiencing the worst drought of recorded history, even when substantial rain finally poured on our parched area in February and March.
Thankfully, after only 8.5” of rain in Santa Rosa during all of 2013 (normal is 32”), we were graced with over 17” rainfall so far this year and maybe more to come. (Numbers higher in western Sonoma County.) Lake Mendocino, with water supply pool less than one third full at the end of January, is now at 50%, still causing severe water shortages north of Dry Creek, including Healdsburg.
April is the month we celebrate the Earth, it’s bountiful resources, its diverse creatures and cultures and all its beauty. It is also the time when we need to consider the interrelationship of all life forms. Yet we tend to compartmentalize information and struggle to comprehend the vast web we all weave, seldom noting that every thing is connected to everything else, and every action reverberates through life’s web.
Small amounts can have huge consequences…
Endocrinologists discovered awhile back that minute exposures to endocrine disrupting toxins (such as most pesticides, herbicides, etc.) can have cataclysmic effects on fetal development and adult organ systems; it can cause reproductive cancer; it can feminize male frogs; it can masculinize female sea gulls; it is suspected of causing heart disease, autism, Alzheimer’s, obesity, and more. The problems created by these chemicals may cause as much harm as global warming, since effects can be carried down through unborn generations.