Welcoming winter with lots sun

By Torilynn Qualls |Staff Writer|

At the start of the new year, temperatures reached an alarming 40 to 60 degrees below zero along the east coast.

I wouldn’t trade my 70 degree winter and sandals for snow boots and frost bitten toes.

However, some wouldn’t mind experiencing a true winter season instead of having an additional summer or spring in California.

Experts are wary of California’s hot climate due to the affects it has on climate change.

According to The Sacramento Bee, “The most serious threat is a decrease in fresh water and an increase in intense wildfires.”

“Wildfires are very likely to be larger in extent due to increased drying of vegetation during the summer season,” as stated by The Sacramento Bee.

High temperatures in the winter months have affected animal hibernation patterns as well.

Hope Hamashige writes in National Geographic that when an animal is in hibernation their metabolism drops and they require very little energy to live.

When the animal awakes from its hibernation its metabolism returns to normal.

But the animals have started to wake from hibernation earlier and the plants that they eat have yet to bloom.

“I am very concerned about the animals waking up from hibernation early,” said student Christina Mendoza.

“If they become extinct it will affect their circle of life and in turn will affect our own.”

Jennifer Witherspoon and Erin McKenzie of the Environmental Defense Fund argue that the warm California weather will create a drought and affect natural non-irrigated forage production for livestock.

In other words, naturally flowing water won’t sustain growing shrubbery in which some livestock eat as their food source.

Livestock owners who rely on this natural free food source will have to supply their cattle with the nutrition they need either out of pocket or by growing the food themselves.

Experts explain that warm California winters are a result of climate change, but the state and its citizens must make due with the excess sunlight.

The extra sunlight that California receives is good for health. Studies show that sun exposure increases Vitamin D levels.

According to Sydney Epstein of The Active Times, “Vitamin D can prevent cancer, provide higher energy levels and keep your bones strong and healthy.”

Epstein points out that researchers at Central Washington University claim, “77 percent of people are Vitamin D deficient because they don’t get enough sunlight.”

A sunny day can increase levels of a natural antidepressant in the brain, according to WebMD.

“The brain produces more of the mood-lifting chemical serotonin on sunny days than on darker days,” states WebMD

Living in Southern California is a privilege, where else in the world can you snowboard in the mountains until midday and after take a short drive to the beach and enjoy a relaxing dinner by the sea all in the same day?

California’s warm winters are a treasure to behold they define the state, help to support it economically, and make California a unique place to live.