There’s a new scientific paper by John Christy and colleagues at the University of Alabama at Huntsville in the Journal of Climate that analyzes and compares temperature trends in California’s Central Valley and surrounding foothills and concludes that the warming trend in the valley is likely caused by land-use changes and not by greenhouse warming (that is, warming caused by higher levels of greenhouse gases). California’s governor and legislature have hung their incredibly restrictive emissions reduction plan on the rapid temperature increases largely in the Central Valley. In turn, others have called on the nation to follow California’s lead. So much for science telling us what we should do.