Extra Miscommunication from The Seattle Occasions

 I get bored with writing in regards to the Seattle Occasions, however their miscommunication is solely getting worse, and I believe it is best to find out about it.

Take the entrance web page of the web Seattle Occasions yesterday.   There’s a massive image exhibiting a dry-looking scene in japanese Washington with a headline that japanese Washington will face one other summer season of sparse water provides (see beneath).

The issue?  Their headline will not be true.  The proof is obvious and definitive.

After a really moist, cool spring, the soil moisture is above regular for many of japanese Washington, together with a lot of the dryland farming area, the place wheat and barley are grown.  Here’s a image taken within the Palouse final week by the very gifted skilled photographer Jack Graham.   Look any totally different from the image within the Seattle Occasions?

There may be close to regular soil moisture within the desert space from Yakima/Tri-Cities in direction of Moses Lake, the place most farming makes use of irrigation.

Soil moisture with inexperienced being above regular

What in regards to the water provides for irrigation?   The Yakima River reservoirs are means above regular in saved water and the Columbia River water forecasts are wonderful (see beneath).   Loads of water for irrigation agriculture and even farmers with junior rights shall be taken care of. Snowpack is nicely above regular.  Rivers are above regular.

In brief, the headline within the Seattle Occasions doesn’t mirror actuality and gives one other instance of the paper poorly informing its readership.

However poor Seattle Occasions journalism would not finish with false water shortages in japanese Washington.

Additionally on the Seattle Occasions entrance web page was a narrative that Colorado will lose half its snow by 2080 and appear like Arizona.    The analysis paper making these excessive claims has all types of technical issues, together with using completely unrealistic assumptions for will increase in greenhouse gases (RCP8.5).   Moreover, the fashions used shouldn’t have ample decision to correctly simulate the convective (thunderstorm) warm-season showers of the area, and the way such showers will change underneath international warming.

The Seattle Occasions is at all times operating “tales” in regards to the significance of native journalism.    I do consider that accountable, correct native journalism is essential.   How unhappy that Seattle Occasions hype, exaggeration, and advocacy, coupled with demonstrably fallacious info, is making an announcement towards the worth of native newspapers.