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Old 09-19-2009, 11:31 AM
 
4,267 posts, read 6,157,314 times
Reputation: 3579

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Why Red-Colored Snow on the Rockies Is a Major Warning Sign That the West Is Drying Up | Water | AlterNet

 
Old 09-19-2009, 03:07 PM
 
16,433 posts, read 22,102,049 times
Reputation: 9622
Genuinely alarming.
 
Old 09-19-2009, 05:32 PM
 
8,317 posts, read 29,357,988 times
Reputation: 9305
A very sad but largely spot-on accurate article. I saw the "reddish snow" in the southwest Colorado mountains this spring--you couldn't miss it. I've also had to wash my car umpteen times this spring and summer to get the mud off of it--not mud from driving through wet ground, but mud that fell from the sky in sprinkly rainstorms falling through dust-laden atmosphere. In western Colorado, as the article noted, this spring and early summer was abnormally wet and August--normally the wettest month--nearly bone-dry in my area. It has been dry enough that it appears that the aspen aren't going to have much color this year--the leaves may just turn brown and drop, thanks to the extremely dry late summer. That would be the trees not already killed by Sudden Aspen Decline, there are plenty of trees already dead from that.

I read an article a few years back written by a prominent climate historian (I wish I had the citation for it--the article was a gem). He was discussing the western US climate. His studies indicated that the Western climate had been "abnormally normal" for about 300 years prior to about the 1930's. Since then, it has become increasingly variable and unpredictable. If true, that is very disturbing, since as the article referenced above notes, modern Western America's latter-day development has been entirely predicated on "normal" climatic behavior that apparently is not going to be normal any longer. I personally believe that global warming--some natural, but aggravated by greenhouse gases--will intensify the increasingly unstable and unpredictable Western climate patterns.

People need to understand that we are seeing epochal events in Western climate and ecology--things that only occur every few centuries or millenia--if ever. They are no longer the relatively mild kinds of variations and events one would expect from "normal" climatic behavior. Put bluntly, what we are seeing now could easily evolve into the events that make things--including maybe us--extinct, at least in this region.
 
Old 09-20-2009, 01:49 PM
 
2,253 posts, read 6,957,630 times
Reputation: 2653
Wink Red colored snow


Thank you for an interesting and relevant article.

Something I would largely agree with, and all too true. I do wonder if snowpack accounts for 90% of fresh water use, with the heavy use of aquifers, etc., but perhaps in how this measured. It is quantifiable that snow packs in Colorado are melting several weeks earlier in spring than historically the case. This article accurate in noting some of the resultant disruptions to agriculture, water supplies, and our environment.

Seattle, WA will likely not have the climate of Sacramento, CA anytime soon, this an exaggeration. One might see Seattle's climate will simply not warm that much: "In the coming century, average annual temperatures in Washington are projected to rise at a rate of 0.1 to 0.6 °C (0.2 and 1.0 °F) per decade." [1] Some are prone to latch onto such discrepancies to dismiss the reality of climate change, and how it occurs, out of hand, but this would be a grave error.

This same report also goes on to say that, "Global average temperatures have increased by 0.7 °C (1.3 °F) over the last century and are projected to rise between 1.1 and 6.4 °C (2.0-11.5 °F) by 2100" [1] I have seen this projection cited elsewhere, and it is possible several reports citing the same source, itself possibly in error, without verifying the validity. But in looking a general consensus begins to emerge, with the best sources providing not only a great deal of data, but reliably relating this to observed changes we are experiencing today. As the IPCC notes, "The linear warming trend over the 50 years from 1956 to 2005 (0.13 [0.10 to 0.16]°C per decade) is nearly twice that for the 100 years from 1906 to 2005." [2] What this denotes is an exponential curve, very much like what you would experience with compound interest: changes accumulate slowly at first but after a time come in huge increments. Right now, this moment, we are at the distinct upward curve of such a graph, with precedence before having been relatively mild, but laying a foundation for rapid changes we will accrue henceforth.

The variance of projected temperature increase by 2100 of between 2ºF and over 11ºF indicate our chance. At the lower level what we might limit changes to, if acting decisively now, the upper ranges that likely if we choose to ignore that we know and continue as before, if briefly. Because such unprecedented, rapid changes in overall temperature will in expression of mega wildfires, flooding and droughts, and severe disruption to the basis of the economy, simply not allow business as usual. Increasingly, it will be a matter of triage. [3]

Citizens of the Rocky Mountain West and Colorado might be advised to pay particular attention. While no area of this planet are immune to such changes, they will not be uniform, and often heightened in continental interiors. In that sense Colorado is not more isolated from external and international influences, but indeed in some important ways more susceptible. Seattle has a more temperate climate than Denver, CO, and even as it, too, warms, resultant changes will not be as severe as in the interior West. Particularly in the western portion of Washington state, they also enjoy far more leeway in precipitation than the relatively arid interior West. Moreover, these changes are accentuated generally by latitude and elevation. Alaska and the Arctic are experiencing significantly greater change than the continental United States, but the highest elevations, being the better part of Colorado, are unfortunately also experiencing such rapid change.

It is understandable why people's eyes would have long since begun to glaze over when confronted with a plethora of unpleasant data. All the more when they can still turn on the kitchen faucet and take a drink of clean, fresh water, looking out the window at a beautiful green landscape (save perhaps this in the midst of a dying forest). But it is easy enough to find commentators on television willing to question such realities, to conveniently dispel them towards other more pleasurable pursuits. If in doubt, why bother?

Well, because more than a few of us really would prefer to continue more or less as we have. If Colorado more populated than it should be, if traffic less than ideal at times, the economy hopefully better, still in sum the citizens of this state have never had it so good before. Our predecessors might have enjoyed more open space and liberty, perhaps less stress, but most of them would probably have happily opted for the average life here today. So any of this discussion should really be viewed in that light, in an attempt to retain a good deal that we have, in time hopefully improving it for the betterment of all. Those pointing out signs of unusual change allude to that anyone else might see if looking. Scientific projections cited have been established through a great deal of effort and the labor of more than a few who really care, and in more than a few cases in a position to know of that they speak.

One might at last ask, beyond any question of environment, who is most business oriented, or otherwise concerned with this society: those seeking to preserve the best aspects of it, or those willing to ignore its inevitable destruction if fundamentals not addressed?


1) 'Climate Change and the Future of Biodiversity in Washington'
http://www.biodiversity.wa.gov/docum...port-final.pdf

2) 'IPCC Fourth Assessment Report'
IPCC - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

3) 'Climate Change Impacts in the United States'
Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States - Home
 
Old 09-20-2009, 04:23 PM
 
Location: Missouri Ozarks
7,394 posts, read 19,275,550 times
Reputation: 4067
I suspect that the monthly water bills are sky high too?
NM has a big water problem and I'm sick of the high monthly bills just to have the water.
 
Old 09-23-2009, 04:18 PM
 
Location: Pueblo - Colorado's Second City
12,259 posts, read 24,350,175 times
Reputation: 4395
Exclamation Water board wraps up bond measures

Depends where you live, in Pueblo we have cheap water and the city has plenty for future growth. Here is the article in today's Pueblo Chieftain that talks about it.

The decision is part of the board’s long-range plan to provide water for future growth in Pueblo. The board also will realize a net gain of nearly 6,000 acre-feet - about one-fifth of Pueblo’s existing annual potable water demand - from the transactions.



The link: http://www.chieftain.com/articles/2009/09/23/news/local/doc4ab9aa17d84eb059372302.txt
 
Old 09-24-2009, 07:03 PM
 
Location: NOCO
532 posts, read 1,561,853 times
Reputation: 237
Quote:
Originally Posted by Josseppie View Post
Depends where you live, in Pueblo we have cheap water and the city has plenty for future growth. Here is the article in today's Pueblo Chieftain that talks about it.

The decision is part of the board’s long-range plan to provide water for future growth in Pueblo. The board also will realize a net gain of nearly 6,000 acre-feet - about one-fifth of Pueblo’s existing annual potable water demand - from the transactions.



The link: http://www.chieftain.com/articles/2009/09/23/news/local/doc4ab9aa17d84eb059372302.txt
Do you work for a land speculation or tourism company in pueblo?
 
Old 09-28-2009, 08:55 AM
 
Location: Pueblo - Colorado's Second City
12,259 posts, read 24,350,175 times
Reputation: 4395
Talking Water board to close Bessemer contracts

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ticky909 View Post
Do you work for a land speculation or tourism company in pueblo?
LOL No I dont.

More news on water for Pueblo.


When finishing, Pueblo will own a quarter of the ditch’s shares.

The Pueblo Board of Water Works will begin the task of closing contracts for purchase of shares on the Bessemer Ditch this week.

The Link: http://www.chieftain.com/articles/2009/09/28/news/local/doc4ac03dfa19b25191687203.txt
 
Old 10-01-2009, 10:40 AM
 
Location: Pueblo - Colorado's Second City
12,259 posts, read 24,350,175 times
Reputation: 4395
Default Conduit gets funding

This is good news for the economy of southeastern Colorado. I hope it gets built soon.

More than 40 years after Congress first authorized the construction of the Arkansas Valley Conduit, federal lawmakers are poised to appropriate the first $5 million to build the long-awaited pipeline from Lake Pueblo down the Arkansas Valley.

The link: http://www.chieftain.com/articles/2009/10/01/news/local/doc4ac431991e956462183483.txt
 
Old 10-03-2009, 11:02 AM
 
90 posts, read 261,272 times
Reputation: 62
The alernet article "Why Red-Colored Snow..." was interesting. Thanks for posting it. Question I have about the article though is about the real reason for the red-colored snow those backcountry skiers reported seeing an increase of. Watermelon snow is mentioned but this is apparently(google search) a term used for snow that looks reddish or pink (and actually smells like watermelon) and caused by a type of algae, not dust.
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