What? There is no longer a La Nina - there is no ENSO signal. We are in a neutral phase.

Further, La nina generates colder than normal temps - both surface and aloft - which creates high pressure in summer which means dry conditions.

We are in the summer following a crashing La Nina winter which went from a strong La Nina signal to a neutral one - which means we have a summer following a very dry west coast winter -

But - can anyone name me a summer in recent memory [lets go back to 1885 along with Marty McFly] that was not hot and dry in summer? Its been a desert for a looooooong time folks - global warming, C02 and climate have little to do with it

All the Deniers will be out in force ...

Indeed ... we have seen a great example of a pseudo-science denier already.

When I was in management (I'm retired now) I recall going to one seminar where the emphasized point was that people don't actually change until they experience what was called, "A significant emotional event." If things just percolate along with occasional ups and downs, behavior stays the same. A person has to be engaged beyond some threshold before behavior can be expected to change permanently.

I think that cultures are somewhat the same. The American culture, for example, was permanently changed by the Great Depression and the attack on Pearl Harbor. But the S&L crisis of the 1970's, which resulted in 747 Savings and Loan associations going under and cost taxpayers $87.9 billion wasn't enough. We saw the same failure of sufficient banking oversight during Bush's administration which President Obama is now struggling to overcome.

So it is with Climate Change. The deniers will continue to be "out in force" and the public as a whole will not be convinced enough to take action until something happens serious enough pass the "significant emotional event" threshold. After that, nobody will question it any more.

I actually have a guess about what the event will be.

I think that the most likely candidate will be a long enough and serious enough heat wave that will cook the southwest (and maybe even the east coast) to crash the power grid due to the impossible demand for air conditioning. The power grid will stay crashed long enough to cause deaths in the range of hundreds of thousands in the big cities like LA, Phoenix, Albuquerque, Dallas-Fort Worth, Atlanta ... Perhaps even into the millions.

Unfortunately, the 1% won't feel it at all. It will be the poor, sick, and elderly that will die. But they will die in numbers large enough to finally get the attention of the entire culture.

This is not unprecedented. In Europe, the 2003 heat wave caused deaths estimated at about 70,000. This is one big reason there are far few deniers there, but that number still isn't big enough.

Who knows. This summer may be it. I may be one of the casualties. We'll see. I recall predicting the disaster in New Orleans with exactly the same certainly. You can't tell exactly when it will happen, just that it will happen.

Given my perspective, I'm not expecting anything to rescue me or anyone else before it happens.

Porter - very interesting perspective. In fact, a recent Yale study shows that belief in climate change is gaining as more people are affected by violent/radical weather events. I think you are on to something, but let's hope your dire prediction of +1,000,000 casualties never comes to fruition.

Gaining, yes, but at what rate? (And how does that compare to the rate at which the climate is changing?) Definitive answers aren't available.

When it happens, I'd like to be able to post and say, "Yah, yah, I told ya so!" ... but ...

-> I'm likely to have other things on my mind.

-> A crashed power grid means no Internet too.

But thanks for thinking that it's interesting.

Summer forecast: hot and dry -- with western wildfires

So, what's your point. I guess you are blaming Bush for that, eh?

Subliminal:

That is precisely the point, Bush has nothing to do with anything, if anything slowing the course of heightened understanding and human progress by Bush, Cheney, Koch by pushing the use of coal and oil without regard for the environment?

Time will tell.

Porter, I understand. But we have something that few others take advantage of. We are free to spiritually live each moment we have, to rage against the light, as it were. The Treachery of the GOP has been revealed, from Environmental disasters and devastation, to economic policy, these traitors have quite possibly brought us to the brink of a mass extinction, in spite of the voices for change. We have nothing left to lose by standing for what is truly correct, community, stewardship, compassion whatever the cost. Since it has only been my spiritual existence that has brought me through a physical and material onslaught going on 45 of my scant 50 years, I know that there is a way to survive and inherit what the fools have destroyed, but that is only through divine will. Don't be afraid to die, be afraid of not living, we are all going to die anyway, you know. But if I could I would hug you and say this, every bit of your struggle matters. It creates the heart of God, because you keep a good heart. It has not gone unnoticed. Please live it with joy the best you can, you deserve joy.

Oh NC I like how you think. I don't share your belief in God, but I do share your spirit.

It truly amazes me that some of the poor and middle class still support the GOP. The GOP CLEARLY is out to use them and abuse them, take what little money and dignity they have and run with it. Historically, the GOP has done nothing but cover the interests of the rich and powerful.

It makes me angry when I hear the GOP politicians say what it's like to be American, because "They AINT it!" The GOP is just like the ruling communist party in China. They are one and the same. It would not surprise me one bit, if down the road an undercover story comes out that the GOP and the Communists are in bed together. A Bohner (boner) in China. ;-)

I don't share your belief in god either, but I also share your spirit.

I've taken my "spiritual" (ie ... emotional in non-religious terms) guidance from a story told by the Buddha called, "The parable of the strawberry". (I'm not Buddhist either ... but there is some good advice there. You can search for that title on the web and find it easily.) It basically says, "No matter how bad things get, find the best thing that you can find and enjoy that thing."

We can enjoy our out of season weather along with our out of season diets. Remember the days when you got certain fruits and vegetables at certain times of the year? Remember when tornadoes happened in spring and maybe fall? Hurricanes were in summer. Now it's everything all the time.

@Porter- that was the way the Chinese delt with their civil war period though Buddhism didn't originate with them. These people never knew what day would be their last but they were determined to live it. It works well for these times too.

Thanks, Rufus.

I enjoy farming my small plot in the community garden and eating the things I grow when they ripen.

I'll check it out, Porter. I came to my beliefs from the logic that if one puts their conscious energy into creating good in any given moment, they increase the net good in the world. I wanted to be a contributor to the good rather than a creator of ill. To determine what is good in any given moment, I relied on meditation, philosophical study and experience. Attending Native American ceremony came into my experience and solidified my interpretations of spirit and spiritual beings. The big reveal? Love is always good, hate is always ill. Shocker, huh?

whoa, whoa, whoa Chad. I am white and over 50. What are you saying? I wouldn't watch Fox News if it was the only channel. My point is that you can be a nut at any age or color.

Amen Bill! I am white and over 60 and I would not watch those friggin' idiots on FOX if I was paid...

This is good! It's beginning to look like we can start to get together, get the GOP out, and start taking care of the business of cleaning up the messes they made with real gusto!

sadly chad, as a 50 year old whiteboy, i am constantly pummelled by 20 to 40 year olds and seniors that continually vote against their own interest because the get their info from FAUX NEWS. we need some kind of mandate in place that when it affects an election the information must be true and fact checked by 3 reliable sources. not some dim wits opinion. i was amazed when mcdonalds allowed tv viewing in their restaraunts but was saddened to see FAUX NEWS displayed on 2 out of 3 tvs. also all cable providers have many JESUS stations + FAUX NEWS but not any other viewpoint. if you have one there should be the other.

LOL, Faux News. I haven't heard that before. It truly amazes me when people I know will only listen to Faux News like it's the word of God himself. They refuse to read or listen to any other source because as they say, they other sources are all lies and Faux News is the only real source of the truth. I'm not friends with those people anymore. They are too aggravating. I simply can't take it. I guess it must be true what they say about ignorance being bliss.

Fits the geography, if you don't like the heat, don't live in the desert.

I love Arizona and I love the heat we get here, it keeps all the whiners up north! I really really wish that man made global warming was real, if it was, I would be burning fossil fuels non stop just so I could see California sink into the ocean!

Your argument is a mere 13 yo weather pattern? Really? I guess if you think the world is only 7000 years old that is a long stretch......

I could care less if people don't believe in "global warming" as long as the scientists inform environmental policy and as long as these people don't get in the way of sustainability development....it won't matter.

I don't think that's the point of the article. Maybe attempting to teach you reading comprehension and grammar was also a waste of money.

Dinosaur flatulence?

No, wait. How could that be? The earth is only 5,000 years old.

Even so, what was the aberrant event: the formation of the ice (the Ice Age) or the melting of the ice? I seem to recall stories of wooly mammoths found in Alaskan ice, undigested food still in their stomachs. So my guess is that the rather atypical Ice Age was the exceptional event and the melting was the slow return to "normal" or "average" earth climate.

But what do I know? I'm just a retired housewife and mother.

LOL, and the T-Rex was a veggan....LOL. That's what the Intelligent Design people say. Are they blind??? They must be. They can't even see their teefers. How can you be a veggan with those teeth??? They would starve to death. OH WAIT. They DID! LOL... Only 65 million years ago. DOH!

Old cousin lived in Texas. He said the further west in Texas, the flatter, hotter and drier it was. 110 was not unusual to him.

I have a buddy that transferred to Texas. Him and his wife stayed there about a year and a half. His wife said she didn't like it there at all because it was so hot all the time none of the neighbors ever came out during the day because it was just too hot. They moved back to the same neighborhood here.

I'm originally from Ohio, but lived almost everywhere once or twice. Even in Central Texas, we were getting 110+ days last summer. I just hate the Northern winters. Had my share of snow, I guess.

Wally:
What are you so afraid of, to come up with such a simple minded analysis of America's 2 camps? Porter was talking about human behavior and not some political argument. Several generations have noted how our crazy species waits until we are nearing some obvious crisis before we actually do anything productive.

You seem to be more concerned with winning a childish argument vs. real problem solving.

Wally:

And fortunately, conservatives give much to charity, unlike like progressives that do not.

Ok...some numbers please. Bless your heart if your a conservative that gives. Are we talking 10% or more?....or are we talking about some clothing items toted to organizations that distribute to the needy, etc., etc.

Do you suggest someone stands by the doors of donor organizations and counts the packederms and donkeys that enter? Then you tally the conservative and progressive donations?

remember wally, Christ had Liberally Progressive qualities and traits. as for your misguided facts about donations, if you had any real facts maybe more folks would believe you. anyone can say anything but that doesn't make it true. it's also a shame that when these folks will need the safety net the most it has been devastated so horrendously. guess these folks are all just welfare bums looking for a FREE handout. hopefully when they go to the polls this fall they will remember who decimated the programs they will be in need of.

Wally, you have no idea whether or how much I contribute to my community. That you choose to throw insults anyway tells everyone a lot more about you than it does about me.

Good response! I have read Voltaire and you are the first I have encountered here mentioning Candide. I wondered when it would happen.

Are you calling the guy who started this fire a mother? Lol.

God bless the USA you say? Or is it Satan blessing the USA? From what i see it is not the first choice..

GREAT post ron. one other thing to add. several years ago i read an article that stated during a study it was found that as the great civilizations that cleared much land of forests declined and the forests reclaimed previously cleared land the global climate cooled. they cited europe after the plague killed the eurorean overpopulation & the mayan/aztec disappearances. as the forest grew back it removed millions of tons of CO2 from the atmosphere and cooled the worldwide climate.

So true Ron about heat sink in the concrete jungle. The air temp is kinda cool at night, but the ground soaks up so much heat during the day that at night it heats up my house. It'll be 60 degree outside, but inside the house even with all the windows open, it never gets below 70. Mid summer is worse. The house is a sauna at night. I cannot imagine what it's like in a city in the south.