Woodman,
You said:
"One thing the "anti-climate change" folks will never be accused of is uncertainty. So Mike...there is one, non-peer reviewed website that we should believe over the overwhelming evidence of climate change.
"Even if you debate the degree to which anthropogenic effects are to cause, changes in the timing and magnitude of flows in Central Valley rivers are well documented. Pretending it isn't true doesn't really help anyone..."
On the contrary, most of the folks who question global warming alarmism emphasize the current uncertainty in the science of climate change. While it is true that there is overwhelming evidence that the climate changes--locally, regionally, globally, over both short and longer terms, and that it has done so throughout the history of the earth, and in many ways cyclically--there is no "overwhelming evidence" of DANGEROUS MAN-MADE global warming. Educate yourself.
"Peer review" is also not the authoritative stamp of truth some claim it to be; it is merely an indication that two to four other scientists thought an article was worth publishing. Peer reviewed articles are shown to be incorrect all the time (in many fields)--that's one of the ways science advances. In the case of climate science, the Climategate 1 and 2 emails reveal extreme perversions of the peer review process at multiple scientific journals by alarmist scientists ("pal" review of alarmist articles and gate keeping to prevent the publication of articles dissenting from the views of "the team.")
As to flows in the valley rivers: yes, flows have varied over the last century that we've been measuring them. They will continue to vary as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (an approximately 60-year cycle that affects the frequency of El Nino and La Nina events, among other things) and other climate influences affect the watershed. What I said was there was no reason to panic about them based on increasing levels of atmospheric CO2, which has not been shown to significantly affect the climate (despite the constant wails of alarm like the study reported in that Bee article).
California's climate has a documented history of both long and short term wet/dry cycles. Those will continue. Fish populations tend to suffer in the dry years. Water diversions (and other habitat changes we've caused) exacerbate the negative effects of low water years and increased diversions will worsen the effects.
Mike
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