Stop Telling Kids Climate Change Will Destroy the World

[jamestroll]

I tend to be quite confident that technological advances will help us mitigate climate change. People who are currently teenagers probably will not see a place like Miami become completely cover by the ocean until the twilight of their lives.

I tend to be a bit dismissive of inflation right now as much of it is external factors. Looking at the big picture, shortages of necessities and food are unlikely on a wide scale in the United States.

The largest impact of climate on the United States would be if the western drought continues. Want to see major food shortages in the United States and extreme inflation on our most basic need? That could happen if the Colorado River system collapses. That could this decade year and even within a couple of years.

[jamestroll]

I spent about 1/4 of my life in the American West and it is very sad to me that entire cities collapse.

If the Great Salt Lake runs dry the toxic chemicals in the air could cause mass sickness in the Wasatch Front, there would be no longer a great salt lake effect which would exacerbate the long range decline in snow pack in the Wasatch Mountains. Contrary to popular belief, moisture levels themselves have not dramatically decrease and could not change much at all.  The problem is that Salt Lake City exists because the snow pack was efficient in creating a stable and secure water supply for the region. Rainfall in the Wasatch Mountain gets sucked up by PLANTS and does not roll down to reservoirs as efficiently.

Rainy April and Mays in the Wasatch do little to nothing for water supply. Even if it does make the mountains look green.  Like this picture I took about a month ago near Sandy, Utah



Last October, I went to Colorado and I planned to visit the Colorado River head waters near La Poudre Pass. It was bitter sweet, but I was unable to due to heavy amounts of snow and I was hoping it was the start of a strong snow pack season across the west.  

In fact I remember looking towards the direction of La Pourdre Pass and seeing this snow and storms



But after a strong start there was a dry spell in January and February and a warm spring across the west.

And I came back to the west at the end of the snow pack season only to see this:



A horribly low lake between Summit and Wasatch counties in Utah that looks far drier than I remember it. The Wasatch Back has Alpine forests and desert landscaping within sight of each other, so the deserty vegetation does not alarm me, but the lake level does! Though, I will say it is a bit brown in the landscape for May.

And that lake is one of the many lakes that provide water to Salt Lake County and a part of Utah County.

If we do not get a strong snow pack this winter we could headed towards a national emergency with regards to food supply and entire cities being short on water.

But the good news is this: There will be an abnormally wet year eventually. 2019 was actually well above average in the west and 2010 was an epic in snow pack.

We never know if we will have a year like 1983 which nearly destroyed the city of Salt Lake and it only survived due to the city coming together and sandbagging US-89 and creating the State Street river. If we had a year like 1983 this upcoming winter, there would be virtually zero chance of that being needed as all that water would flow into reservoirs, Utah Lake, and the Great Salt Lake.



**Not my own picture



***Not my own picture.


Long live the west and let's hope Utah receives a winter like 1983 this upcoming winter.

Utah is the center of my worries of the American west because

1) Personal bias. I lived there a long time and a essentially a quasi local

2) Its location in the interior west makes it impractical to impossible to pump desalinated water from the Pacific Ocean or the Sea of Cortez. Especially with the elevation changes.

3) St. George, Utah is the most sizeable city that could literally run out of water in the United States.

4) The warming in Wasatch Front could destroy the system that allowed it to even exist.

5) The life style in Utah is heavily dependent on large water usage, and difficult to change quickly.

[jamestroll]

Most people in the US and other developed countries will be ok. It will be a significant problem and lead to lots of undesirable consequences, but it is survivable. Importantly, these countries can afford to implement measures that adapt to climate change. The countries that are really vulnerable to the impacts of climate change also tend to be poorer countries that will struggle to adapt to it. This will lead to a huge refugee problem in the coming decades, which will be worsened by the fact that impacts of climate change will cause more wars. This process has already started. We will be better off if climate change is reduced and the effects of it are reduced, and we absolutely can use our votes to achieve that.

The American West is my largest worry.

I am more worried about the fragile Colorado River than I am inflation, covid, crime, etc.  The system collapsing is a threat to the entire country on food supply mainly. But Lake Mead running dry could cause severe power shortages on the West Coast, and it if it happened during a very hot summer it could cause thousands of deaths and become a public hazard.

We need more toilet water. After treating the toilet water we should embrace what dogs do and DRINK and SIP the TOILET water.