Bill
Patzert, scientist
By Debra Sass
“It
never hurts to have a geek talk to you.” So advises one of the world’s
preeminent oceanographers and satellite data experts—Bill Patzert.
In May 2000, Patzert first addressed Metropolitan’s board of directors
as part of a panel discussion on climate change. His expertise in climate
forecasting, and involvement with linking seemingly anecdotal weather
events to decade-long weather patterns which produce events like El Niños
and La Niñas, made him an especially topical and relevant speaker.
A scientist on staff at Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena
for 20-plus years, Patzert has studied the global climate system all of
his professional life. Patzert tries to balance his propensity toward
science with an inherited sense of social responsibility.
“The ultimate test of any science is if it has a credible use for
public policy,” he says. People listen to Patzert because what drives
ocean currents and climates also happens to drive the economy.
Urging water planners to consider climate patterns in their long-range
planning drew Patzert into the water managers’ circle.
Today, climate uncertainties are factored into Metropolitan’s long-range
planning documents such as the recent update to the 1996 Integrated Resources
Plan. Uncertainties in supply, linked both to natural and man-made limitations,
have prompted creation of a greater buffer made up of a mix of both imported
and local supplies such as those culled from desalinated water.
Patzert believes that water managers of the West have a tremendous challenge
in formulating what he insists should be a 50-year plan for managing resources.
“The one limiting thing for civilization is water,” Patzert
said “As the population of Southern California doubles in the next
40 years, and in the coastal zones potentially triples in the next 50
years, the amount of water will be finite—it will wax and wane,
but the population will double and the water supply will never double.
The question becomes how do you balance all these needs with a finite
water supply?”
One clear answer, and something Patzert credits Metropolitan for is doing
the “c-word.” Conservation, he says, is the socially responsible
thing to do.
“Southern California has the most modern delivery system in the
world. And along with that, there has been this growing recognition that
what we have to do is manage more wisely.”
Along these lines, Patzert finds a lot of nice things to say about Metropolitan’s
native and California Friendly plant campaign. “We could substantially
cut our urban water usage if we get away from our impatiens and our big
green lawns,” he said.
Patzert said that managing water, and life in general, has a lot to do
with understanding power and its limits.
“You must have a respect for the limits of nature,” he said.
“There are powerful forces out there that bring us changes in the
climate, El Niños and La Niñas, big surf, and changes in
temperature and rainfall. I think you have to learn how to understand
and respect what those natural forces are.”
And, he warned, “If we don’t evolve in our thinking and the
way we behave, both in private and public policy, we’ll be in deep
trouble.”
A self-described “environmentalist at heart,” Patzert said
he feels responsibility for not just this week or next year, but for the
future.” He enjoys his work with Metropolitan because it brings
him full circle.
“It’s good to be a scientist in an ivory tower, but the long
term goal of any scientist is to understand, in this case how the climate
system works, and to test your theories by making credible forecasts and
predications, “ he explained.
Patzert became involved in the Quantification Settlement Agreement negotiations
by explaining that the numbers that had been used to calculate allocations
a long time ago were faulty.
“A lot of people took what I said seriously and I believe it played
a part in turning around negotiations towards a settlement,” he
said.
It is not really a stretch to find Patzert influencing water policy. He
has had a connection to water in some way, all his life. He claims he
was a “water baby.”
Patzert’s father was a sea captain, of fishing boats and in the
Merchant Marines. The family first lived on Long Island, and Patzert said
he learned to swim before he could walk. Next, they moved to the Midwest
and lived on Lake Michigan where Patzert would lifeguard every summer.
That was until he dropped out of college his freshman year, and hopped
onto a freighter heading out of New Orleans to ship grain to Indonesia
for the U.S. Agency for International Development programs. The freighter
eventually took Patzert around the world before he returned to Purdue
and finished his degree.
Throughout his science studies and later jobs, Patzert kept up with his
passion for surfing. Which has more than a hint of serendipity since he
would eventually turn his focus to oceanography.
“Surf is meteorology and serendipity,” he’s been quoted
as saying. “As long as we’ve got wind and water, we’ll
have surfers sitting out there waiting for a perfect set. Some days waves
will be perfect, some days the ocean will be flat, but the good waves
are definitely coming, like they always have.“
The same could be said for water policy decisions: plan for the dry years;
enjoy the wet years. Plan for both!
“The power of geekdom is understanding,” he reminds us.
