Jefferson County will be just fine even if the models predicting global warming prove accurate. We will face no inconvenience other than more rain.

Don’t take it from us. Listen to University of Washington meteorologist Cliff Mass. He has been working with a team of very able and qualified researchers, using the best computers, running the most reliable climate change models. He has found that Jefferson County, along with much of Washington State, will be in a “sweet spot” even if the most realistically dire computer scenarios come to pass. “A compelling case can be made that the Pacific Northwest will be one of the best places to live as the earth warms,” he and his team of researchers have concluded. Read their conclusions in more detail here and here.

Mass believes the earth is warming and that increased warmth in the atmosphere will induce a changing climate.  But he has stated repeatedly that “we do not face an “existential threat” and that there is no scientific basis for raising alarms about a “climate emergency.”

“There are so many local politicians, media outlets and activist groups painting a depressing, fearful picture of our future regarding global warming. They are wrong.” Dr. Cliff Mass, University of Washington meteorologist

What about dreaded sea level rise? Not a problem for the Olympic Peninsula or most of Washington, the UW team has concluded, except for the area around Long Beach. To the contrary, much of the Washington coast is RISING as we continue to emerge from the last Ice Age and the land springs back.

What about increasing drought and water scarcity? The opposite, increased flooding due to increased precipitation, is what the UW researchers predict. Mass and his team are urging better storm water channeling and construction of larger reservoirs.

What about increasingly “extreme weather”? Not to worry, Mass and his team of researchers assure us. We should not even worry about significantly worse wind storms.

Heat waves and more destructive wildfires? Governor Inslee has raised alarms about the state burning up as it dries out due to runaway temperature spikes and heat waves. But the scientists don’t see what Inslee sees. A cooling Pacific Ocean (it has been cooling for 35 years) will continue to produce moderate temperatures for the Pac NW. Increasing fires are likely only on the eastern slopes, and there the solution, according to Mass & Co., is reversing decades of forest mismanagement and discouraging building close to or within forest boundaries.

Mass and fellow researchers do see temperatures very slowly rising, but not rapidly and only noticeably towards the end of the century.

Local climate alarmists (dare we say, climate alarm manipulators and exploiters) who sit on the Jefferson County Climate Action Committee and the Public Health Board are talking about declaring a “climate emergency.” An emergency declaration could be used to restrict just about every personal and commercial activity, to increase taxes and fees and impose a wide array of regulations on land use and energy consumption.

The City of Everett is considering declaring a climate emergency as a prelude to draconian and unprecedented regulatory measures. Mass has criticized that effort on the grounds that Everett, like all of the Puget Sound, does not face a climate emergency, at least if you bother to consult the best science coming out of the University of Washington’s Department of Atmospheric Sciences.

In 2017 the Jefferson County Commission declared a “housing emergency” as an excuse to seek a property tax increase for the alleged purpose of providing affordable housing. Voters saw through that ruse and soundly defeated the scheme, known as “Prop 1.”

County Commissioner Kate Dean, who pushed the “housing emergency” and Prop 1 campaigns, is playing a central role in promoting a “climate emergency.”. Kees Kolff, chair of the Climate Action Committee, a hospital commissioner and member of the Public Health Board along with Dean, may be pushing even harder in order to accelerate implementation of strict measures called for in a climate action plan he helped draft.

Dean and Kolff intend to roll out their effort over coming months, perhaps culminating about the time of Earth Day with public hearings, a “charette,” that Dean discussed at the last Public Health Board meeting. Even though climate science is against them, they and local activists still seek to use their political power to achieve declaration of a climate emergency, followed by implementation of restrictions on the use of fossil fuels, wood burning, construction, vehicle choice and usage, the mill and marine industries, and a wide range of personal and commercial activities.

We will continue to follow their effort to declare a “climate emergency” in Jefferson County.

In the meantime, it is worth noting that Dr. Mass is not alone in decrying political maneuvering to declare a climate emergency. On September 29, 2019, 500 scientists delivered a letter to the United Nations very clearly stating, “There is no climate emergency.” You can read about that at this link. For the letter itself and list of signatories, click here.

Jim Scarantino

Jim Scarantino was the editor and founder of Port Townsend Free Press. He is happy in his new role as just a contributor writing on topics of concern to him. He spent the first 25 years of his professional life as a trial attorney, then launched an online investigative news website that broke several national stories. He is also the author of three crime novels. He resides in Jefferson County. See our “About” page for more information.