Another temperature record today here in San Francisco, where we expect the mercury to hit 96 degrees. The previous record for April 10th was 94 degrees, set in 2022. A lot of records for April occurred in that year. San Franciscans are already crossing their fingers and hoping they won’t get a repeat of last year’s summer without the usual cooling fog.
In climate related news, several American western states will be continuing to meet tomorrow in Denver to discuss a new agreement on the sharing of the water from the Colorado River. The talks so far have been described as tense and unfruitful, as the situation is one where an increasing population is sharing a shrinking resource. One representative, who asked to not be named, said that in the first decade of the century, it was like we had two dozen cookies to split among seven people. Now we’re trying to split up five cookies between the same seven people, who have all gotten hungrier.
In New York, attorneys representing the World Oil Corporation have stated that they bear no responsibility for rising sea levels, and will not help pay for the Manhattan Sea Wall project. The state of New York had asked for $35 billion, or about half the annual profit of the Corporation. The current half meter rise in sea level was not expected to be reached for another twenty years, but unlike many other East Coast cities New York does not plan to abandon very much of the urban areas threatened by the ocean. In Florida, the Disney World levee has passed its semi-annual inspection by the Army Corp of Engineers. In a side note, Disney announced yesterday that Johnny Depp has agreed to participate in the eighth installment of Pirates of the Caribbean.
Now to the real Caribbean - In the Bahamas, the government has just announced approval of the first Sea City to be built in that region of the world. The massive construction project will be located just north of Nassau, and when finished it will house a population of 50,000 in a structure that will incorporate many elements to make it as self-sustaining as possible while offering full protection from the now frequent F5 hurricanes experienced in the Caribbean region. The United Nations has been following this project and similar ones now under construction in Indonesia closely, and is expected to propose construction of several more as new homes for the South Pacific island nations, whose entire populations are now refugees living in Australia, New Zealand, and other Asian nations.
Now for political developments in our own region: as the fifth anniversary of the Tri-State Secession and the formation of the Commonwealth of Pacifica approaches, representatives from Nevada, Idaho, and Montana will meet next week in Sacramento to discuss the formalization of the current ad hoc trade and commerce agreements with Pacifica. Also, the United States Defense Departments’ Chiefs of Staff have agreed to increase their payments for the right to continue operating their naval and air bases on Pacifica territory.
Down south, the new American state of Southern California, composed of Orange, Riverside, San Diego and Imperial counties, will be voting tomorrow on whether to dissolve their border with Arizona to create a new larger state, or to maintain their status as a separate state. This is a real nail-biter for political pundits, as the polls appear to be evenly split. The proponents of the referendum admit that they obviously have not communicated the benefits of the merge very well. We note that a commenter with the web handle “tamadou” has gotten their fifteen minutes of fame by suggesting the potential new state’s name, stating “I am going to vote no - I don’t want to live in a state called Calzone.” No matter how the demographics are parsed - men, women, white, Hispanic, or Asian, the results come back 50/50.
And next week we will see a contest where the odds are just as rough for participants. The fourth annual Atmospheric Surfing event will be held at the Spaceport in New Mexico. The contest organizers have instituted some additional safety measures, and are hoping this time all the surfers, who start their descent from 132,000 ft., will survive the event. The grand prize, equivalent to five million dollars US, goes to the surfer who lands closest to the target, which is more than 50 miles from the launch site. Last year’s winner, Randy Fevrey, came within six miles of the target, which was the closest result of all attempts. He will be watching this year from the Space Port. When asked why he didn’t try to improve on his score, he just smiled and said “Once was enough.”
And finally, good news from the Central Valley, where agri-business groups have detailed in their “State of the Valley” report that water intensive crops such as rice and cotton have been completely phased out of cultivation, but due to adopting Israeli-invented methods of irrigating crops in our increasingly arid climate, most of the crops we expect from the Central Valley growers will continue to arrive in our grocery stores. Furthermore, they state that when more irrigation water becomes available from the Columbia River pipeline they will not revert to the more water-thirsty crops, but instead will increase the acreage of the crops still approved for Central Valley cultivation.
That’s the major news for today, so stay cool, keep an eye on your older neighbors, and tune in again tomorrow.
(Author's note - I have seen the future, and it is already here! All the cherry blossom varieties in the Bay Area bloomed in early March, our Japanese maple leafed out last week, and the hummingbirds have already returned to our backyard.)