By Steve Goreham
Originally published in Judge Washington.
For more than three weeks, California has been hit by a series of hurricanes from the Pacific Ocean. Torrential rains, mudslides, power outages, and flooding plagued residents of states from north of San Francisco down to Los Angeles, 400 miles south. Scientists attributed the event to “atmospheric river” conditions in the Pacific Ocean. Many people also believe that this phenomenon is caused by human-caused climate change.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a atmospheric river is a long, narrow region of the atmosphere that can transport large amounts of water vapor, roughly equivalent to the average flow of water at the mouth of the Mississippi River. When atmospheric rivers make landfall, they release this water vapor in the form of rain or snow. An atmospheric river that forms in the tropics near Hawaii, sometimes called the Pineapple Express, can transport large amounts of water to the West Coast of the United States.
This winter’s atmospheric river has been disastrous. Ten different hurricanes have stranded the California coast for the past three weeks. More than 20 people have died, thousands have been forced to evacuate their homes and 25 million people are being watched for flooding. Government medium more than 11 inches of rain from late December to mid-January. A series of flooding storms came unexpectedly after years of severe drought in California.
Government leaders and some scientists blame human carbon dioxide emissions and climate change. In commenting on flood damage, Governor Gavin Newsom said California is “proof that the climate crisis is real and we must take it seriously.” While inspecting damaged areas last week, President Joe Biden said, “if anyone doubts the climate is changing, they’ve probably been asleep for the past few years.”
But this has happened before. Geological evidence suggests that major flooding occurs in California every one or two centuries. A catastrophic historical event is great overwhelm of the winter of 1861-1862. During December and January of that winter, a series of major storms hit the west coast of the state one after another. This happened after two decades of drought during 1840-1860. This event would also be known by scientists today as an atmospheric river.
During the great flood of 1861-1862, a hurricane brought record rainfall to California. 66 inches of rain fell on Los Angeles, more than four times the annual average. In early January, the state capital Sacramento was under 10 feet of water. Governor Leland Sanford moved the legislature to San Francisco on January 22 to wait for the flooding to subside. Sacramento remained flooded for months.
William Brewer toured California’s Central Valley in late January 1862 by boat. He wrote that the entire valley was a lake from the mountains in the east to the shoreline hills in the west to the tops of 20-foot telegraph poles. A quarter of the state’s estimated 800,000 cattle drowned in the floods.
Of course, the event of 1861-1862 could not have been caused by human-caused global warming. There are no coal-fired power plants or sport utility vehicles and only a handful of wood- or coal-fired locomotives. Most transportation is by horse and carriage. The world’s carbon dioxide emissions at the time were a million times smaller than emissions from industry today. The flood of 1861-1862 demonstrated the power of natural weather events in Earth’s turbulent climate.
Merriam-Webster dictionary provide one definition of superstition is “a misconception of cause and effect.” The current California atmospheric river event is very similar to the event that occurred in 1861-1862, which could not have been caused by human emissions. There is no evidence that the current atmospheric river event is caused by human emissions, but those who fear anthropogenic climate change are suggesting that this is the case.
It is worth noting that so many smart people claim that the disaster in California right now is caused by man-made climate change. University professors, government officials, and the mass media are among the believers. They seem to call every weather event “extreme”. They might also tell you that if we all drove electric cars and built wind turbines everywhere, we could eliminate atmospheric river phenomena. This can best be described as modern superstition, on the level of the past belief that witchcraft caused crop failure. Instead, Californians must adapt to the weather as they have throughout history.
Steve Goreham is an environmental, business and public policy speaker and author of book Outside the Green Box: Rethinking Sustainable Development.
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