Author Héctor Tobar used the pages of The New York Times to confess his "sins against Mother Nature" and promote the unproven claim that the California drought is the consequence of carbon emissions and climate change.
In his May 22 op-ed, "The Sins of Angelenos," Tobar said the "endless summer" in California is his "punishment."
"As a native of Los Angeles, I am significantly more responsible for global warming than your average resident of planet Earth," Tobar said. "We pioneered an energy-guzzling lifestyle for the masses and taught the world to follow our lead. Now a parched, endless summer is our punishment."
Tobar piled on the self-loathing guilt, declaring that "in a kind of planetary karma, our bad behavior is rebounding on us."
He claimed the unseasonable warmth and winter that felt like spring, which caused a series of problems including insects surviving to ravage birch trees is "climate change at work."
"The plague of insects is my fault," Tobar lamented. Other catastrophes he and L.A. are responsible for? "The poor snow season in Oregon resorts, and Hurricane Sandy, and the rising tides threatening assorted Micronesian islands."
Tobar joins the ranks of Gov. Jerry Brown and President Barack Obama, who have both tried to connect the California drought to manmade climate change. But those claims lack proof.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released report in December 2014, which found that computer models of global warming showed an increase in winter rains. NOAA concluded a La Nina weather pattern was the primary driver of drought, The Guardian (UK) reported December 8, 2014.
Even the liberal Times rebutted Obama’s drought claim in February 2014. In that news article, the Times including Columbia University climate scientist Richard Seager who said, "I'm pretty sure the severity of this thing is due to natural variability."
Scientists have also disputed his Hurricane Sandy claim. While the media have certainly linked Sandy to global warming, Climatologist Dr. John Christy pointed out that it was a "minimal hurricane." It struck a location that was heavily populated though.
"So, it is in no way indicative of arising trends in hurricanes that might be attributed to global warming," Christy said. In addition, Colorado State University researchers William Gray and Phil Klotzbach told National Geographic that human activity on the formation and intensity of Atlantic hurricanes "is likely to be negligible."
That didn’t stand in the way of Tobar suggesting more radical measures than water restrictions.
In response to the drought emergency, the state it trying to force people to use less water, but "only the bravest California politician would suggest we force people to drive less to fight global warming," Tobar said.
