One thing you can say about the Los Angeles Times, they are consistent in their miscoverage of global warming.

On January 27, they committed “journalistic malpractice,” as climatologist Michael Mann tweeted, for omitting any mention of global warming whatsoever in their article seeking to explain why the U.S. “seems to have largely escaped winter.”

On Groundhog day, coincidentally enough, they did it again.  Hmm.  Maybe this is like the movie and they are just going to keep making the same mistakes over and over and over again…..

As the L.A. Times “explains” in the article:

“It’s mild,” said Pastelok, a meteorologist from AccuWeather, in one of the bigger understatements of the season.

“The departures have been way above normal this season, maybe in a top five or top 10 category,” he said when asked to rank how unusual the winter from the Plains eastward had been in terms of temperatures and lack of snow.

The situation has stymied forecasters, who study previous years’ patterns to predict the future. This year has been unique because even when there have been cold snaps, they have been extremely brief and followed by long, mild stretches.

If only scientists had predicted years ago that spewing billions and billions of tons of heat trapping greenhouse gases into the air would cause more frequent extreme heat waves — ones that covered a bigger area and lasted far longer than before.

And no, confusionists and their enablers, those scientists didn’t say that global warming would be responsible for 100% of all heat waves.  But we are now pushing so far beyond the historical norm that we are seeing  unprecedented uber-extreme heat waves (see Hansen et al: “Extreme Heat Waves … in Texas and Oklahoma in 2011 and Moscow in 2010 Were ‘Caused’ by Global Warming”).

The good news is that while the L.A. Times remains clueless, NBC news got the story just right — global warming piles the heat on top of whatever natural variability, like La Niña, we see.  Here’s their excellent story on the heat wave so unusual, people were “calling it JUNuary”:

Again, one can always tell the difference between good  journalism and not so good journalism by whether they quote real climate scientists who have actually studied the issue in question.

In this case, they went to the source, Dr. Gerald Meehl of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).  You can read about his work here:  “Record high temperatures far outpace record lows across U.S.”  NCAR explained their findings in a news release:

Spurred by a warming climate, daily record high temperatures occurred twice as often as record lows over the last decade across the continental United States, new research shows. The ratio of record highs to lows is likely to increase dramatically in coming decades if emissions of greenhouse gases continue to climb.

“Climate change is making itself felt in terms of day-to-day weather in the United States,” says Gerald Meehl, the lead author and a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). “The ways these records are being broken show how our climate is already shifting.”

Of course, it’s not warm winters that cause the big problem, it’s the blistering summers.

Here’s a Stanford release for Climatic Change study (PDF here) I wrote about in June:

Stanford climate scientists forecast permanently hotter summers

The tropics and much of the Northern Hemisphere are likely to experience an irreversible rise in summer temperatures within the next 20 to 60 years if atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations continue to increase, according to a new climate study by Stanford University scientists….

“According to our projections, large areas of the globe are likely to warm up so quickly that, by the middle of this century, even the coolest summers will be hotter than the hottest summers of the past 50 years,” said the study’s lead author, Noah Diffenbaugh, The study, based on observations and models, finds that most major countries, including the United States, are “likely to face unprecedented climate stresses even with the relatively moderate warming expected over the next half-century.”

I interviewed Diffenbaugh for my book, Hell and High Water, and in 2008 wrote about his earlier work in a post titled, “When can we expect very high surface temperatures?”

Bottom line: By century’s end, extreme temperatures of up to 122°F would threaten most of the central, southern, and western U.S. Even worse, Houston and Washington, DC could experience temperatures exceeding 98°F for some 60 days a year.

The peak temperature analysis comes from a Geophysical Research Letters paper that focused on the annual-maximum “once-in-a-century” temperature. The key scientific point is that “the extremes rise faster than the means in a warming climate.”

The results, depicted above (in °C), are quite remarkable, especially when you consider that this is just the A1B scenario. In 2100, A1B hits about 700 ppm with average global temperatures “only” about 3°C (5 F) warmer than today.

In fact, on our current emissions path, a 3C temperature rise will happen much sooner (see Hadley Center: “Catastrophic” 5-7°C  warming by 2100 on current emissions path and M.I.T. doubles its 2095 warming projection to 10°F — with 866 ppm and Arctic warming of 20°F).   And remember, the worst-case scenario is that this happens by mid-century [see Royal Society special issue details ‘hellish vision’ of 7°F (4°C) world — which we may face in the 2060s!]

On our current emissions path, these record temperatures could be seen closer to 2060 than 2100:

… values in excess of 50°C [122°F] in Australia, India, the Middle East, North Africa, the Sahel and equatorial and subtropical South America.

As you can see from the map, extreme temperature peaks are only slightly lower over large parts of this country. The study notes:

Such temperatures, if lasting for some days, are life threatening and receive relatively little attention in the climate change debate.

On our current emissions path, we may well exceed the A2 scenario and hit A1FI, 1000 ppm (see here).  In a terrific March 2010 presentation, Climate scientist Katherine Hayhoe has a figure of what the A1FI would mean:

Mother Nature is just warming up.

The time to act is yesterday.

Related Post:

• Science stunner — On our current emissions path, CO2 levels in 2100 will hit levels last seen when the Earth was 29°F (16°C) hotter:  Paleoclimate data suggests CO2 “may have at least twice the effect on global temperatures than currently projected by computer models”

Trulia's released its latest Metro Movers Report, which looks at where people live now and where they're searching for houses--it covers October 1 through December 31, 2011 (the last edition showed Angelenos were itching to get to Riverside). Besides finding that everyone seems to want to move to Florida, this time around they looked at where locals want to move within their own cities. Here are the top five zip codes that Angelenos are checking out in Los Angeles:

-- 91436, Encino
-- 90036, Fairfax/Mid-Wilshire/Hancock Park
-- 90066, Mar Vista
-- 90064, West LA/Cheviot Hills/Rancho Park
-- 91604, Studio City

Where people are who are looking to move to LA

And the report also looks at which out-of-towners are checking out houses in LA. The top four locations are all SoCal:

And it analyzes where Angelenos are looking to move when they look to move out of town. Riverside has been dethroned by Santa Ana/Anaheim/Irvine, but still comes in second. Number three is that bastard New York:

· Where Are House Hunters Searching? [Trulia]
· Report Shows That Angelenos All Want to Flee For Riverside [Curbed LA

The Silver Lake Reservoirs Conservancy has been instrumental in the many improvements to the Reservoir complex over the past few years—the new path along Silverlake Blvd. is one of them, along with the opening of the Meadow last year. In this top photo, we see some folks enjoying the path, or at least getting their important daily dose of exercise!

The popularity of the Meadow (just go there any weekend afternoon and see all the kites and kids!) made it imperative to provide a safe way to cross busy Silverlake Blvd., especially since all the parking spaces are located across the street from the Reservoir complex. Thanks to Councilmen Eric Garcetti’s and Tom LaBonge’s help, the City of Los Angeles installed a pedestrian crosswalk by the classic Neutra ” VDL” house just across the boulevard from the Meadow (bottom photo). 

Come on out and enjoy with us!

Tix:                   $30 in advance at…

If you’ve ever wanted to get fit, tour Culver City and/or talk turkey with the mayor, here’s your opportunity.

The Culver City Bicycle Coalition together with Mayor Micheal O’Leary have come together to create a Mondays with the Mayor morning community bike ride.

According to the coalition’s blog, every Monday morning those interested can hop on their bikes and take a tour of the city while discussing community issues with the mayor, including how to improve bike conditions in the city.

Barring inclement weather, cyclists will meet every Monday morning at 8 a.m. Syd Kronenthal Park at the east end of the Ballona Creek Bike Path, 3459 McManus Avenue, Culver City, 90232 beneath the canopies near the community room.

Cyclists should be ready to leave by 8:10 a.m. and the coalition promises that the ride will be an easy one.

Be sure to like Culver City Patch on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. 

Look before you cross.

Especially if you're jaywalking, because it's dangerous and illegal—and starting today through the end of February, Santa Monica Police Department's motor officers will pay extra attention to you if you do.

Specifically, they'll zero in on pedestrians who jaywalk, walk against a red light or "don't walk symbol" and who fail to yield to the right-of-way of oncoming traffic.

Each month throughout 2012, the department's traffic enforcement division is cracking down on different illegal driving habits. Last month, it was cell phone use. Although not a driving behavior, "pedestrian violations" are one of the leading causes of collisions.

• Related: Pedestrian Safety: 8 Simple Rules

The greater Los Angeles area is considered to be one of the most dangerous metropolitan areas in the country for pedestrians, according to data tracked by the national advocacy group, Transportation for America.

Santa Monica itself is notorious for such accidents. Walkers are routinely hit—sometimes killed—as they cross without traffic lights on major thouroufares and in busy downtown intersections. In August of 2011, Transportation for America mapped out 24 pedestrian deaths as having occurred in Santa Monica from 2000-09.

Last year, there were 105 such collisions in Santa Monica. Five people died:

• Unnamed Homeless (next of kind have not been located): Struck Oct. 26 while crossing against a red light at Lincoln Boulevard and Santa Monica Boulevard;
• William Smerling, 82, of Los Angeles: Struck July 20 while walking in a crosswalk at 26th Street and Georgina;
• Corina Montero, 80, of Los Angeles: Struck July 14 while walking outside of a crosswalk on Pico Boulevard and 26th street;
• Melissa Del Aguila, 24, of West Los Angeles: Struck by a taxi driving while running into the street in the 2400 Block of Wilshire Boulevard;
• Lewis Williamson, 64, Homeless in Santa Monica: Struck Feb. 21 while crossing Ocean Avenue north of Arizona

A New York hedge fund manager's plan to demolish an eye-catching steel-and-glass home in Malibu and build a two-story California Mission-style residence has neighbors in a lather over the potential loss of ocean views and what some decry as the waste of a perfectly good house.

The blaze damaged about 10 lockers in the boy's locker room in a school gymnasium after it was reported shortly before 2 p.m., the Santa Monica Police Department said. No injuries were reported, but the fire caused moderate smoke damage to the room.

Arson investigators from the Police and Fire departments were trying to determine a cause. No other information was immediately available.

Anyone with information is asked to call Det. Robert D'Andrea at (310) 458-6679 or the main line at the Police Department at (310) 458-8495.

ALSO:

L.A. Councilman Eric Garcetti being tweaked by fake tweets

The 47-year-old is described as African American, 5'10", 195 pounds, with brown hair and eyes.

Santa Monica Police Department officers responded to Chase Bank located at 1333 4th Street regarding a report of a robbery at about 1:25 p.m. on Jan. 17.

Witnesses reported that a suspect had entered the bank, approached a teller and demanded money by way of a demand note. After receiving cash from the teller, the suspect fled the location on foot.

This is an ongoing investigation and anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of Mr. Cardwell is asked to contact Detective Robert D'Andrea at (310) 458-2201 ext. 6679, Detective Larry Nicols at (310) 458-8939, or Sergeant Ira Rutan at (310) 458-8959 or the Santa Monica Police Department (24 hours) at (310) 458-8495. The public can also call the Federal Bureau of Investigation Agent Steve May at (310) 864-7394.

If you wish to remain anonymous, you can call WeTip at 1-800-78-CRIME (1-800-78-27463), or submit the tip online at www.wetip.com. You will remain completely anonymous and may be eligible for a reward, up to $1,000.00, if your information leads to an arrest and conviction.

Callers can also contact Crime Stoppers by either calling (800) 222-TIPS, texting from your mobile, or by visiting their website at www.lacrimestoppers.org. Callers may remain anonymous and may be qualified to receive a $1,000.00 reward by Crime Stoppers.

The potential leak was detected about 4:30 p.m., and the unit was completely shut down about an hour later, Southern California Edison said.

In Sunset Junction, where locals are still confused about the near-surprise demolition of a block of businesses a few months back, a six foot tall wall has just been constructed on one of the busiest sidewalks in the city. The concrete blocks, eating up a chunk of sidewalk at Sunset and Sanborn, are part of an addition to Cafe Stella--owner Gareth Kantner says he got the proper permits and neighborhood council approval for the wall, which will have dark blue stucco, a wooden door, and bougainvillaea added to it, according to Eastsider LA. But a rep for City Councilmember Eric Garcetti's office tells Curbed that, "A complaint was filed regarding the wall on January 27, so the Department of Building and Safety is investigating the situation."

Many locals, including one mystery person who tagged the wall recently (see photo), are obviously annoyed--commenters at Eastsider call the wall "intrusive" and "ugly." Kantner, who owns the whole red Sunset Junction complex, tells the blog that the wall will shield passing children from the sight of alcohol and give drinkers privacy.
· Silver Lake restaurant owner responds to a wall of criticism [Eastsider LA]

A woman who was fatally shot at a Thai restaurant in Hollywood was identified Monday by the the coroner's office as 44-year-old Jitrujee Buatet of Los Angeles.

Her male companion who was shot underwent surgery for his wound or wounds and was expected to live, Lt. Marc Reina at the Hollywood Station said. His name was withheld.

The shooting at the Pink Pepper, 1638 N. La Brea Ave., near Hollywood Boulevard, was reported at 10:17 p.m. Friday, Los Angeles police Office Norma Eisenman said.

Three shots were reportedly fired, Eisenman said, shattering patio glass.

Police initially said they were looking for two male suspects that fled in a black sedan but that has since been ruled out, Reina said. No suspect description was available.

A Culver City man was convicted today of two counts of second-degree murder for driving drunk and causing a New Year's Eve wreck that killed a husband and wife.

Jorge Alberto Molina, 28, could facing 50 years to life in prison when he is sentenced on March 15. A jury also found him guilty of a hit-and-run charge for leaving the scene of the Dec. 31, 2010 crash that killed Kelvin and Demetria Dorsey.

Prosecutors said Molina, who was driving a Geo Prism, ran through a red light at Florence Avenue and Crenshaw Boulevard in the Hyde Park area of Los Angeles before slamming into an Infiniti SUV driven by Demetria Dorsey.

Molina was being pursued by police who had seen him run another red light while heading west on Florence at Van Ness Avenue.

The Infiniti flipped over three times. Dorsey, 50, and her 54-year-old husband both died as a result of blunt force trauma suffered in the crash.

Molina got out of his car and tried to run away, but was quickly arrested by pursuing officers.

Be sure to like Culver City Patch on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. 

The 15-acre and $35 million Legacy Park in the center of Malibu has been awarded the state’s “Project of the Year” by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The relatively new park was just completed in 2011, and features a state-of-the-art stormwater/urban runoff system capable of treating over 2.5 million gallons of the stuff a day.

“The creation of Legacy Park is one of the many ways the City has shown its dedication to helping create a cleaner environment and protecting the health of our nearly 13,000 residents and the approximately 15 million visitors gushed the city’s mayor Laura Rosenthal. "We thank The American Society of Civil Engineers for recognizing our commitment to environmental stewardship and our leadership in innovative construction.”

Legacy Park will now be in the running for The American Society of Civil Engineers’ National Project of the Year award.

"Malibu Legacy Park is an innovative example of incorporating sustainability, showing environmental responsibility, and using forward thinking in a project that improves water quality at the adjacent creek, lagoon and beaches," added Kathy Haynes, committee chair of the ASCE. 

Picture by Matt Kline.

Join the forum discussion on this post

WESTWOOD (CBS) — Authorities Sunday continued to search for a man suspected in a sexual assault on UCLA’s campus last week, City News Service reported.

Campus police say the attack occurred just after 2 a.m. Friday near the popular Saxon Trail.

According to authorities, a female student was approached by a man named “Claude.”

After a brief conversation, the victim was pulled down onto the grassy area and sexually assaulted, according to police.

She escaped without physical injury.

The suspect is described as a white male, 6 feet tall and 150 pounds, approximately 21 years old with short brown hair and blue eyes.

UCLA police issued a crime alert and safety warning to students Friday.

With no arrests yet, many female students are on guard while others are taking extra safety measures on the trail and even considering alternate foot routes.

It is still unclear whether this case is isolated or connected to other sexual assaults that have taken place in the last two years.

Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to contact UCLA campus police at (310) 825-1491.

RELATED POST:
» Alleged Sexual Predator On The Loose At UCLA Campus