Global warming is baaaack

Oct. 18, 2012

By Katy Grimes

First there was “global warming.” Then it became “climate change” when warm temperatures cooled.

But in California, the California Environmental Protection Agency is promoting global warming again.

“State releases plan to deal with extreme heat caused by global warming,” the CalEPA press release stated. “In the wake of the hottest July ever recorded in the United States, California state agencies today released a plan to deal with extreme heat caused by global warming,” the CalEPA warned.

The hottest July ever recorded in the U.S.? What about California? It wasn’t that hot in our state in July.

“Every year people in California succumb to extreme heat,” said California Environmental Protection Agency Secretary Matt Rodriquez, who chairs the state’s Climate Action Team, the press release reported.

Demonstrative of an agency looking for a problem to solve, the CalEPA’s proposed plan states:

“Some of the proposed recommendations in this draft document include:

*update California’s Green Building Standards to include heat mitigation measures; expand the use of cool pavements and surfaces where possible;

*promote and expand urban greening; improve heat-health alert warnings;

*work with utilities and local health departments to ensure that senior housing and cooling centers can be made exempt from rolling blackouts whenever possible;

*augment training of employers and employees in industries with outdoor work;

*evaluate work conditions such as reducing physically demanding work during hot times of the day, and addressing the work/rest cycle during periods of high heat.”

 These people are serious.

Climate Change and sustainability

It appears that CalEPA and the Air Resources Board are trampling on each others’ toes and falling all over each other to do the lions share of the climate change work.

But the bottom line is that the state of California is working diligently to curb greenhouse gas emissions based on bad science, and following the United Nations plan for sustainable development. Groups of unelected bureaucrats are making these decisions because they have been appointed to important positions in the state.

Climate Action Reserve is one group that CalEPA cites. Self-described as “the premier carbon offset registry for the North American carbon market,” the Climate Action Reserve is setting policy about agriculture, coal mining, forests and even Mexico’s livestock and landfills policy.

Take some time to click on the links. CAlEPA has them all on its Portal page. Be sure to read An Assessment of California’s Agriculture’s Readiness for Climate Change.

One of the conclusions in the study merely promotes more studies.

“California has made considerable progress towards understanding how climate change may impact the state’s agriculture sector. But too few research studies have been conducted on how agriculture might respond effectively to reduce GHG emissions, sequester carbon and adapt to a changing  climate. And fewer studies still take a sustainable and organic agricultural perspective. Moreover, the state’s ability to provide technical assistance and conservation incentives for farmers and ranchers is woefully inadequate to meet the complex challenges of climate change after decades of budget cuts have reduced staffing levels and eliminated programs.”

Is this why Gov. Brown so desperately needs to raise taxes?  This is your state government at work.