First Principles

This wasn’t the headline on the article that appeared on the front page of today’s Reno Gazette-Journal. But following the logic of most of the alarmist pieces about “global warming,” it should have been. After all, there is the “undeniable truth” that the planet is warming, and stuff is happening in our environment at the same time – doesn’t that mean one necessarily follows the other?

While they can’t say for certain why, researchers from the University of California, Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center said the pace of clarity loss eased significantly between 2001 and 2007.

Well, I’m glad they’re showing a little restraint in what they can and can’t be certain about. Although substitute “2001” for “2000,” and they would have to admit that the lake has actually gotten somewhat more clear.

The article ended with this little bit of silliness:

“Climate change poses a very real threat to the Tahoe Basin’s environment and economy,” Schladow said. “But the new data that we are presenting today, and other models, suggest that the lake’s clarity can be improved, even in the face of gradually warming temperatures.”

I remember just a few months ago when this very paper published an alarmist piece from these same yahoos at Davis who insisted that Global Warming was going to murk up Tahoe irreparably in just 10 years unless we took drastic action NOW NOW NOW!!! Back then, there was no hint of uncertainty in the cause of the problem. Shockingly, it’s now clear they were wrong. But there was no apology from the Davis “scientists”. No correction in the RGJ. No link from the paper to the previous piece, which would present a much clearer context for the story.

What’s also interesting is that the lake is more clear since at least 1997. Its clarity certainly doesn’t seem to be trending in any significant way in this decade. Here’s the sidebar from the story in the paper:

Researchers measure lake clarity every 10 to 14 days, in part by recording the depth at which a dinner plate-size disk lowered from the surface disappears from sight.
2007: 70.2 feet
2006: 67.7 feet
2005: 72.4 feet
2004: 73.6 feet
2003: 71 feet
2002: 78 feet
2001: 73.6 feet
2000: 67.3 feet
1999: 69 feet
1998: 66 feet
1997: 64 feet
1968: 102.4 feet

So if global warming is an ever increasing threat, and Lake Tahoe is warming as a result of it in recent years, as these researchers assert, why isn’t there a clear trend-line showing the clarity decreasing? And if this data has been available to the Davis researchers for so many years, and it so obviously doesn’t match their hypothesis, why have they not re-thought it?  Why did they not mention this data in their previous report?

The questions really answer themselves, and it’s no secret any more that the Global Warming-ists hold good scientific practices secondary to propagandizing their religion.

But what disturbs me is that Lake Tahoe really is an incredibly special wonder of nature that is under serious threat from artificial environmental degradation. But it’s not because of CO2 emissions – the real threat is far, far more local. Too much local development along the shores of the lake increase road runoff and other pollutants really can kill fish, reduce clarity, and poison the water quality. Those are immediate threats, and utterly preventable, whereas global warming is neither.

So the threat comes from the global warming nonsense, which diverts time, energy, and resources away from actually addressing the real problems. Ironically, by latching on to the “climate change” absurdity, the Davis researchers are putting this unique natural wonder at even greater risk.

It’s not the worst tragedy that will befall the world if we follow this horrible junk science to its logical conclusion. But it would be a tragedy nonetheless.