Given all of the dire predictions by Gore, Flannery et al that have never materialised, it's doubtful that any but the silliest of people take any notice of climate alarmists these days.

Alarmism; it really frightens people and it sucks, but particularly when all the available and often entirely ignored evidence say they could be right?

The Sahara was once the granary of the Roman empire, now rain loaded clouds just traverse over it!

And crippling permanent drought is no new phenomena in California!

There is a immutable law called cause and effect; for every effect there is a cause and for every cause there is and effect!

So what are we being asked to give up to try and promote a different effect?

Not economic growth given some of the non carbon alternatives will more than halve the cost of energy!

Which in turn will allow us to halve the cost and carbon production associated with steel smelting, and render Aluminum smelting a carbon free process, as well as halve the cost of that, along with all other energy dependent light metals smelting.

And that is, given our resources, a massive economic gravy train we could get on before it leaves the station!

Alternatives like algae based fuel products can very profitably produce diesel and jet fuel for far less than halve what we pay now; and forever!

Yes sure, we might well have to reduce or even end our unhealthy reliance on coal and oil, both of which exist in finite quantities anyway, and will become far too expensive long before we run out of either!

You'd think smart folks would want to change over to these far less costly carbon reduced, carbon free or carbon neutral options ASAP, given the quite massive economic imperatives, to do so, and before any discussion about stuff which frightens folk is ever needed to be laid on the table!

Yeah sure, it frightens and it sucks for them; given a few coal and oil barons might do it tough, but only because they continued to, like diabolically demented demons, flog a dead horse, when they should have simply changed mounts and got back into the race; preferably before it thundered on by!
Rhrosty.

One part of your article you failed to touch on is that there is extensive groundwater contamination in California as a result of fracking.

http://rt.com/usa/194620-california-aquifers-fracking-contamination/