Small town sees big role in future; West Point says it’s now or never to craft political, economic changes
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 7, 2008 at 7:29 amFrom Stockton’s Record:
It sounds like an action thriller movie plot: a band of unlikely allies joins forces in a depressed former logging town to thwart grave robbers, restore the town’s industrial base and battle global climate change.
But the two dozen state, local, federal and nonprofit agency leaders who met Friday in a tiny office in West Point are deadly serious. And they say the new administration about to be sworn in in Washington as well as anticipated federal spending to create jobs, repair infrastructure and aid conversion to a more energy-efficient economy make this the time to craft a plan and set it in motion.
What, exactly, are they anticipating?
What they will do is draft a plan that would use federal infrastructure spending and other funding sources to solve long-standing problems, such as the risk of catastrophic forest fires and to create new industries like biomass electricity generation plants fueled with the small-diameter brush that must be removed to restore forests to health.
“I think we have a big role in it,” Skalski said of the Stanislaus National Forest and its 900,000 acres.
To put it in a nutshell: Political and economic changes now happening may finally prompt the larger society that benefits from wood, water and clean air the region provides to pay for proper care of the Sierra and its forests, some officials say. Several of those at Friday’s meeting said that climate change, and the likelihood that President-elect Barack Obama’s administration will agree to international limits on discharges of carbon into the atmosphere, will be key to that future.
Read the full text of this story from The Record by clicking here.
Mike Chrisman Commentary: The climate has to be top priority
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 6, 2008 at 8:25 amFrom the Sacramento Bee, this commentary by State resources secretary Mike Chrisman:
How the world adapts to climate change takes center stage this month as international leaders meet in Poznañ, Poland for the United Nations Climate Change Conference. Just as it did last month in Los Angeles, during Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Global Climate Summit, the world will again come together in the face of its most pressing common problem.
No longer is the science in dispute. No longer can there be debate about the link between climate impacts and human behavior. No longer are these problems ours alone. Success in the face of this great challenge will be achieved only through working together with the world community.
In the days prior to the U.N. Conference and the Governors’ Global Climate Summit, Schwarzenegger signed executive orders to improve planning for sea-level rise and to streamline renewable-energy projects. During the summit, the governors of California, Illinois and Wisconsin signed an agreement with governors from six states and provinces in Indonesia and Brazil to reduce and eliminate unsustainable deforestation.
Read more of this commentary by Mike Chrisman by clicking here.
Sierra Nevada climate changes feed monster, forest-devouring fires
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 30, 2008 at 7:23 amFrom the Sacramento Bee:
Driving home from Lake Tahoe, Leah Wills watched the column of ash-gray smoke from the Moonlight fire grow and grow – until finally she was under it. Overhead, the sky that September afternoon in 2007 turned eerie pink. Orange-red flecks of burning bark streaked like missiles through the air. And the smoke – eye-watering and acrid – was inescapable.
“It was like a nuclear cloud,” said Wills, 59, a policy analyst for the Plumas County Flood Control District who lives near the tiny hamlet of Genesee. “I’ve been to Denali and Kilimanjaro. I grew up with tornadoes. I’ve seen some big things. I never saw anything that big in my life.”
Wildfire has marched across the West for centuries. But no longer are major conflagrations fueled simply by heavy brush and timber. Now climate change is stoking the flames higher and hotter, too.
That view, common among firefighters, is reflected in new studies that tie changing patterns of heat and moisture in the western United States to an unprecedented rash of costly and destructive wildfires.
Among other things, researchers have found the frequency of wildfire increased fourfold – and the terrain burned expanded sixfold – as summers grew longer and hotter over the past two decades.
Read the rest of this comprehensive article from the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.
California bulks up defenses against tide of global warming
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 24, 2008 at 6:30 amFrom the Sacramento Bee:
California is building a second line of defense against global warming, one that will prepare the state for a harsher environment while the other continues to cut climate-changing emissions. The two-front approach acknowledges that rising sea levels, bigger floods, greater loss of species and other harsh effects of warming are inevitable, if not already occurring – no matter the state’s success in slashing greenhouse gases.
Unlike the pioneering save-the-planet mandates to tighten automobile exhaust limits and renewable energy standards, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is not loudly trumpeting these defense moves:
• The state Transportation Department is proposing to move a 3-mile stretch of ocean-hugging Highway 1 in Big Sur up to 475 feet inland, to keep ahead of the accelerating tidal rise and bluff erosion.
• State wildlife officials are deliberating plans for “triage,” to decide which species should be saved from global warming and which can’t be saved.
• The state’s San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission is consulting with Dutch engineers and holding an international contest to create designs for flood- resilient buildings.
On Nov. 14, Schwarzenegger issued an executive order to identify the state’s biggest vulnerabilities to rising sea levels and draft an “adaptation strategy.” State, federal and local managers of transportation, public health, wildlife, water and power supplies are being tapped for this task, along with business and public-interest groups.
“It’s saying we need to take action today,” Anthony Brunello, the state deputy secretary for climate change, said of the governor’s directive. “We need to figure out what we should be doing.”
Read the rest of this comprehensive article from the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.
The Rising Tide in California: It’s not the extra few feet of water that make sea level rise so dangerous; It’s the extra few feet during a storm during El Niño during high tide, say researchers
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 23, 2008 at 7:24 amFrom the California Progress Report, this article by Robert Munroe, UC California San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography:
In “Dover Beach,” the 19th Century poet Matthew Arnold describes waves that “begin, and cease, and then again begin… and bring the eternal note of sadness in.” But in the warming world of the 21st Century, waves could be riding oceans that will rise anywhere from 0.5 meters (19 inches) to 1.4 meters (55 inches), and researchers believe there’s a good chance they will stir stronger feelings than melancholia.
Several scientists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego are finding that sea level rise will have different consequences in different places but that they will be profound on virtually all coastlines. Land in some areas of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States will simply be underwater.
On the West Coast, with its different topography and different climate regimes, problems will likely play out differently. The scientists’ most recent conclusions, even when conservative scenarios are involved, suggest that coastal development, popular beaches, vital estuaries, and even California’s supply of fresh water could be severely impacted by a combination of natural and human-made forces.
Scripps climate scientists often consider changes in average conditions over many years but, in this case, it’s the extremes that have them worried. A global sea level rise that makes gentle summer surf lap at a beachgoer’s knees rather than his or her ankles is one thing. But when coupled with energetic winter El Nino-fueled storms and high tides, elevated water levels would have dramatic consequences.
The result could transform the appearance of the beaches at the heart of California’s allure.
“As sea level goes up, some beaches are going to shrink,” said Scripps oceanographer Peter Bromirski. “Some will probably disappear.”
Read more from the California Progress Report by clicking here.
Scientists plan Colorado River Basin’s future
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 21, 2008 at 5:43 amFrom Phoenix’s East Valley Tribune:
Scottsdale played host this week to a major symposium aimed at creating more flexible and detailed management plans for the Colorado River Basin, which supplies water to much of the Western United States, including Arizona.
The goal of the symposium was to develop oversight plans for the basin that can be adapted based on new research and continuous monitoring, said Leslie Gordon, U.S. Geological Survey spokeswoman.
Previously, the U.S. Department of the Interior developed static management plans based on finite studies, she said.
Gordon said participants discussed drought and climate change, as well. “There are trends that we’re observing, not only warmer, but drier. The important thing is to be aware that it is changing and will continue to change,” she said. “There’s still a lot of uncertainty exactly how it will play out.”
Read more from the East Valley Tribune by clicking here.
Death bloom of plankton a warning on warming
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 21, 2008 at 5:17 amFrom the San Francisco Chronicle:
Vanishing Arctic sea ice brought on by climate change is causing the crucially important microscopic marine plants called phytoplankton to bloom explosively and die away as never before, a phenomenon that is likely to create havoc among migratory creatures that rely on the ocean for food, Stanford scientists have found.
A few organisms may benefit from this disruption of the Arctic’s fragile ecology, but a variety of animals, from gray whales to seabirds, will suffer, said Stanford biological oceanographer Kevin R. Arrigo. “It’s all a question of timing.” Arrigo said. “If migratory animals reach the Arctic and find the phytoplankton’s gone, they’ll have missed the boat.”
Phytoplankton throughout the world’s oceans is the crucial nutrient at the base of the food web on which all marine life depends; when it’s plentiful, life thrives and when it’s gone, marine life is impossible.
Arrigo and his colleagues gathered 10 years of observations from six NASA satellites to study changes in the evidence of chlorophyll - a key to measuring the annual abundance and disappearance of phytoplankton blooms - at the surface of the oceans. The satellite network has also recorded the yearly appearance and disappearance of vast expanses of sea ice and the increasing areas of open ocean all around the Arctic, an indication of how climate change is taking hold in the northern reaches of the globe.
Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle by clicking here.
From deserts to ice sheets to outer space, Desert Research Institute has outgrown its name: President Stephen Wells discusses our biggest environmental challenges
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 20, 2008 at 3:15 pmFrom the Reno News & Review, an interview with Dr. Stephen Wells, the director of the Desert Research Institute, located in Reno, Nevada. Here’s an excerpt from the interview:
Q. Most people know Desert Research Institute is here, but I don’t think everyone realized the breadth of your research—that you’re studying Walker Lake but also Antarctica, for example.
A. The name is interesting. We grew formally 50 years ago from a desert home doing desert research. But now our desert home is working on all kinds of environmental problems. This is a real interesting time for environmental problems because, first of all, I don’t think ever in the history of the earth have some of the challenges we’re facing now been as profound … and never before in the history of humanity have people, from all levels, understood this. It’s pretty remarkable. So the problems and the acute awareness of them make this a really interesting time for an institution going into its 50th anniversary, and in that 50th anniversary, we celebrate research that—it’s hard to encapsulate it in a few key points, but I’ll try to give you some of the remarkable diversity: We have people who look at the impact of nuclear tests, which the history of Nevada has been nuclear tests—we’ve been ground zero for that—and they try to understand the migration of radionucleides and what that means for the water resources in the state of Nevada. We have people who’ve done remarkable ground testing and modeling of that.
Some of the more recent types of activities we’ve been doing—assembling a team of biologists, microbiologists and ecologists to look at life in the extreme environments, from the coldest parts of the polar regions to the hottest parts of the Earth’s systems: deep sea vents where waters come out related to volcanic activity. The commonality there is what kind of microbes live in those environments, were they similar, and if they are similar, what does that mean for life in general and how it might not only exist here on Earth but also on other planets. So our work takes us actually beyond our planetary boundaries to life on other planets and other moons. So that gives you that remarkable range we have. We do everything from understanding how cloud seeding can help bring water resources to the state … to potentially understanding the relationship of pollution—small particles in the air and how that might actually end up reducing precipitation because it changes how individual raindrops accumulate and ultimately make it to the Earth’s surface.
We have the range of understanding how air pollution impacts human health here in the state, particularly in Clark County and Las Vegas, to how air quality impacts the terra cotta soldiers—the 2,000 year-old clay soldiers in China and how it’s helping to degrade those. So the direct application is not only to human health but also to cultural preservation.
We do work at looking at how algae exists in streams and the impacts of the algae on the health of the ecosystem, all the way to looking at how the entire watershed works, whether it’s the Walker River watershed or the Lake Tahoe watershed. … So we can provide data so decision makers can make more informed decisions about the future and what they need to do to protect our water resources or our ecology. That gives you the great sort of scale we have here.
On the climate front, we look at everything from the impact of the climate on the growing season of Oklahoma prairie vegetation. We have large pods of soil actually taken out of an Oklahoma prairie. … We brought them here and put them in our lab and looked at what climate change would do to the growing season of one of the largest ecosystems in North America. So we have that to people looking at the how climate change will impact people living in desert regions, not only here in the United States, but also in the Middle East, in terms of desertification and looking at alternate futures and planning. Does that give you an idea? That really is the tip of the iceberg for this institution—tremendous range and depth and innovation.
Read the full text of this interview in the Reno News & Review by clicking here. You can find out more about the Desert Research Institute by clicking here.
California leads fight against climate change on global level; ‘We have got to do something worldwide here,’ says the Governor
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 20, 2008 at 6:02 amFrom the Los Angeles Times:
California formally moved to spread its can-do global warming gospel around the world, signing a declaration Wednesday with 11 other U.S. states and provinces or states in five other countries to help them slash their greenhouse gas emissions.
Fighting climate change shouldn’t just go “nation by nation,” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told a climate summit in Beverly Hills attended by more than 700 delegates from 19 countries. It must go “province by province. . . . We have got to do something worldwide here,” he said.
California’s unusual state-level diplomacy comes as President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to invigorate U.S. participation in negotiations for a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which took effect in 2005 — and which the Bush administration declined to join.
Talks on a new climate treaty resume in Poland next month, and final agreement is expected to be signed in Copenhagen in December 2009. But success is far from assured as industrial nations, which have caused much of the world’s global warming, battle with fast-growing developing nations such as China to determine who should cut emissions.
Read more from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.
Editorial: State needs to be ready for warming
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 19, 2008 at 3:36 pmFrom the Sacramento Bee, this editorial:
In responding to climate change, California can’t just lead on efforts to reduce greenhouse gases. As a state that is already vulnerable to floods and droughts, it must be ready to adapt to ever more extreme forces that a warming world will unleash.
As the world’s temperature rises and ice caps melt, scientists expect sea levels to rise, inundating parts of the San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Heat waves will likely become more frequent and extended. The power grid will be tasked like never before.
There will also be increasing impacts on agriculture and natural flora and fauna. Snow will fall less reliably in the Sierra, adding to water shortages. Erosion will increasingly threaten houses and roads built on fragile coastal bluffs.
None of these impacts will occur overnight. And that’s the good news. California has time to prepare and adapt. But the decisions the state makes now – such as the height of bridges in coastal areas and development in flood plains and fire zones – need to reflect the future uncertainties.
Read the rest of this editorial from the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.
California wildfires and the urgency of combating climate change
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 19, 2008 at 3:27 pmFrom the California Progress Report:
While this recent spate of wildfires have been put relatively under control today, the devastation is pretty severe. The number of houses destroyed in Yorba Linda shot up yesterday, the fire in Montecito claimed several dozen more homes, and the mobile home park in Sylmar is a near-total loss:
“Even without getting back to his home, Mr. Grieb is fairly certain that all is lost. He and his neighbors have seen aerial photos of the devastated development and, in stark black and white, a chalkboard at an evacuation center lists the homes, by lot numbers, that were spared. About 124 out of 600 homes are on the list, and Mr. Grieb’s home is not among them.”
For the park’s residents, it was as if an entire village had vanished in the flames. “”I used to refer to it as our little Mayberry,” said Tracey Burns, 47. She and her partner, Wendy Dannenberg, 46, lived in Oakridge for 15 years. Ms. Burns’s parents lived nearby in a part of the complex that was spared by the fire.
“It was just a very nice community,” Ms. Burns said. “Someplace safe with a lot to offer from the pool to the tennis courts to bingo on Tuesday nights. It was a very nice way of living. People waved not because they had to but because they wanted to. We always took offense to people calling it a trailer park because you had a yard, a porch, a garage, a garden. It was a home, not a trailer.””
While some scientists are dismissing the idea that climate change has something to do with the increasing frequency of fires in the region, clearly the reduction of the snowpack in the Sierras, combined with the extended drought conditions, have extended the fire season to the point where it is year-round and unsustainable. And that is expected to only worsen in the future:
“The current drought in the Southwest may simply be part of the normal cycle of wet and dry spells. But looking over the next century, Cayan said, regions with a Mediterranean climate such as Southern California are expected to get drier. “I have to believe that is going to make us more vulnerable to some of these more intense fire episodes.””
Read more from the California Progress Report by clicking here.
PPIC releases two reports on California and climate change
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 19, 2008 at 7:40 amOoops, sorry folks. Yesterdays postings only included one of the two reports PPIC released on climate change.
The first report, Climate Policy at the Local Level: A Survey of California’s Cities and Counties, is a survey of over 300 of the state’s cities and counties to see how they are dealing with climate change. The researchers determined that while there is considerable local involvement, these efforts are focusing on municipal and operations and facilities, instead of the broader community. You can read this report from the PPIC by clicking here.
The second report, Adapting California’s Water Management to Climate Change, was written in conjunction with the Preparing California for a Changing Climate project: “Among the potential impacts of climate change, accelerated sea level rise and a reduced Sierra snowpack are the most certain. Both will pose significant challenges for water supply and flood management. Water utilities have already begun to plan for these changes, but flood control agencies are lagging behind and face greater regulatory constraints. State leadership is needed to resolve some threats, including the risk of catastrophic failure in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.” You can read this report from the PPIC by clicking here.
Both of these reports will be added to the Research and Publications page on the Information Desk under the heading, “Climate Change”.
Obama’s video message energizes climate conference: “Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response.”
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 19, 2008 at 6:19 amFrom the Los Angeles Times:
President-elect Barack Obama sent an explicit message Tuesday to international negotiators of a new global warming treaty that, under his administration, the U.S would move to slash its own greenhouse gas emissions by more than 80% by mid-century, and “help lead the world toward a new era of global cooperation on climate change.”
The videotaped message, played to a conference on climate change in Los Angeles, electrified more than 700 delegates from 19 countries gathered to debate strategies for cutting planet-warming pollution.
“It looks as if we’re about to have a climate emissions Terminator in Washington,” panel moderator Steve Howard, chief executive of the London-based nonprofit the Climate Group, told the conference, which was convened by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Several European countries reportedly approached Obama’s transition team to ask that he signal his intentions to diplomats who will gather in Poland next month to craft a successor to the 2005 Kyoto Protocol. Some environmentalists have called publicly on the president-elect to attend the talks, even though the Bush administration will be in charge of the U.S. delegation.
In his message, Obama pledged “a new chapter in America’s leadership on climate change . . . that will start with a federal cap and trade system. We will establish strong annual targets that set us on a course to reduce emissions to their 1990 levels by 2020 and reduce them an additional 80% by 2050.”
The pledge echoed Obama’s campaign positions, but tying them explicitly to the Poland talks “puts wings on the negotiations,” said Annie Petsonk, international counsel to the Environmental Defense Fund, a U.S. advocacy group. “It sends a clear message to the international community that the U.S. will back cap and trade.”
Read more from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.
Schwarzenegger opens climate change summit
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 18, 2008 at 1:23 pmFrom the San Francisco Chronicle:
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger opened his climate change summit on Tuesday by telling attendees from around the world that they can balance environmental protection with economic growth.
Schwarzenegger, a Republican who has led efforts to cut global warming in California, hopes the summit will influence negotiations over a new climate treaty during a U.N. gathering in Poland next month.
Just how countries will cut emissions remains a topic of intense debate, especially as the world grapples with the worsening financial crisis. U.S. and foreign businesses, as well as some European countries, have questioned whether cutting emissions will cost too much.
Schwarzenegger said states, provinces and countries can cut emissions by forming partnerships, as he has done as governor. “I still have friends in the business world that come to me and say that this is going to hurt the economy,” Schwarzenegger said in his opening remarks. “But of course, we believe very strongly it is going to help the economy.”
Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle by clicking here. More about the conference and Governor Schwarzenegger in this related story by clicking here.
State unprepared for effects of warming, a new PPIC report says
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 18, 2008 at 7:43 amFrom the San Francisco Chronicle:
Despite its tough goals to reduce greenhouse gases, California is not prepared to deal with the flooding, coastal erosion and loss of wildlife habitat that scientists are predicting in the coming decades as a result of higher global temperatures, a new report says.
Inundation of the coastal shoreline from accelerating sea-level rise and storm surges threaten property, recreational activities and wildlife enclaves, yet agencies are just starting to assess these climate risks and inform local communities, said a study released Monday by the Public Policy Institute of California, a nonprofit research group.
The report examines the state’s capability to provide water and electricity to the public as well as protecting coastal resources, air quality, public health and ecosystems in response to climate change and extreme weather events such as wildfires. It is based on previous studies done by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, UC Davis and Scripps Institution of Oceanography, among other researchers.
“We need to help agencies get prepared to deal with climate change,” said Louise Bedsworth, a research fellow at the institute and co-author of the report. “In some areas, we need to be acting now.”
Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle by clicking here.
From the PPIC Press Release:
Some California institutions, such as water agencies and electrical utilities, are already preparing for the inevitable effects of climate change. But others have yet to prepare effectively for the challenges of a warmer California, according to a report released today by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC).
Even if the state’s ambitious efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions are successful, California needs an integrated policy to prepare for climate changes that will affect the economy, the environment, and the daily lives of residents, the report recommends.
PPIC also released a second report, a survey of California city and county governments that finds roughly three-quarters of those surveyed are involved in activities related to climate change. This survey was conducted in association with the Institute for Local Government.
The first report, Preparing California for a Changing Climate, explores California’s readiness for the increasing storm surges, heat waves, droughts, wildfires, and other inevitable effects of global warming. The report concludes that some institutions have been more responsive than others. For instance, water agencies and electrical utilities, which are obligated to provide direct services to the public, are actively trying to increase their readiness. In addition, the Coastal Commission and Bay Conservation and Development Commission are currently addressing the challenges of sea level rise. But much remains to be done in other areas – including flood management, ecosystem conservation, public health, and air quality planning.
Read the rest of this press release from the PPIC by clicking here. You can read the PPIC Report by clicking here. (Please note: this report will be added to the “Research and Publications” page on Aquafornia’s Information Desk under the heading “Climate Change”.)
Is climate change to blame for string of Southland fires?
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 18, 2008 at 7:30 am
From the Los Angeles Times:
Is climate change to blame for the string of destructive fires that have hit Southern California in recent years? Research has shown an increase in large wildfires in some western forest regions in recent decades, particularly in the northern Rocky Mountains and, to some extent, California’s Sierra Nevada.
Warming is reducing the snowpack there and causing it to melt earlier, resulting in a longer, drier fire season. But scientists say no definitive link has been demonstrated between rising temperatures and wildfires in Southern California’s chaparral country.
Read more from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.
OK, rule out climate change. So we’re back to groundwater abuse, curses from God, Al-Queda, or the vast government weather tampering conspiracy …..
Picture is the Sayre fire as viewed from the blessedly upwind location of Aquafornia’s home base Santa Clarita.
Report outlines how to adapt to climate change
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 18, 2008 at 5:38 amFrom the San Diego Union-Tribune:
Scientists and policy experts yesterday unveiled San Diego County’s first blueprint for adapting to rising sea levels, altered rainfall and other “catastrophic” changes linked to global warming.
“A Regional Wake-up Call” offers detailed projections about how the climate will change by 2050 and offers suggestions for how to lessen those effects. “While climate change is a global issue, . . . the San Diego region is uniquely threatened,” says the 177-page report, billed as the first comprehensive assessment of climate change’s effects across the region.
…
A couple of years ago, The San Diego Foundation started pulling together regional leaders to describe the local effects of global warming and outline possible responses. The 40-member group doesn’t have regulatory authority, but its report is likely to influence politicians and bureaucrats as they prepare for potentially major challenges.
“In general, this region has been . . . behind what our expectations were in terms of climate planning,” said Bill Kuni, chairman of the foundation’s Climate Change Initiative committee. “We have to start now if we want to see some significant progress five years from now.”
Read more from the San Diego Union-Tribune by clicking here. You can read the report yourself by clicking here.
Schwarzenegger orders climate change strategy
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 15, 2008 at 7:38 amFrom the San Francisco Chronicle:
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed an executive order Friday directing state agencies to study the effects of global warming and recommend how the state needs to adapt to such changes in land use planning and building new infrastructure.
“Given the serious threat of sea level rise to California’s water supply, population and our economy, it’s critically important that we make sure the state is prepared,” Schwarzenegger said in a written statement.
The executive order was signed after a conference Friday in Long Beach on global warming and water infrastructure that was sponsored in part by the state Department of Water Resources, said Tony Brunello, a deputy secretary for climate change and energy for the state Resources Agency.
While California has embarked on an ambitious goal to reduce greenhouse gases that cause global warming, the effects of climate change - higher temperatures, less precipitation and higher sea levels - are inevitable, Brunello said.
Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle by clicking here.
From the San Diego Union-Tribune:
The executive order calls on state officials to develop a “comprehensive climate adaption strategy” to cope with rising sea levels, higher temperatures, increased flooding, changing precipitation patterns and more extreme weather events.
“We have to adapt the way we work and plan in order to manage the impacts and challenges that California and our entire planet face from climate change,” Schwarzenegger said in a statement.
Read more from the San Diego Union-Tribune by clicking here.
You can read the Governor’s press release by clicking here.
Governor Schwarzenegger issues executive order directing state agencies to plan for sea level rise and climate impacts
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 14, 2008 at 3:49 pmFrom the Office of the Governor, this press release:
Given the serious threat of sea level rise to California’s water supply and coastal resources and the impact it would have on our state’s economy, population and natural resources, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today issued an Executive Order (EO) S-13-08 to enhance the state’s management of climate impacts from sea level rise, increased temperatures, shifting precipitation and extreme weather events.
“We have to adapt the way we work and plan in order to manage the impacts and challenges that California and our entire planet face from climate change,” Governor Schwarzenegger said. “Given the serious threat of sea level rise to California’s water supply, population and our economy, it’s critically important that we make sure the state is prepared when heavy rains cause flooding and the potential for sea level rise increases in future years.”
There are four key actions in the EO including: (1) initiate California’s first statewide climate change adaptation strategy that will assess the state’s expected climate change impacts, identify where California is most vulnerable and recommend climate adaptation policies by early 2009; (2) request the National Academy of Science establish an expert panel to report on sea level rise impacts in California to inform state planning and development efforts; (3) issue interim guidance to state agencies for how to plan for sea level rise in designated coastal and floodplain areas for new projects; and (4) initiate a report on critical existing and planned infrastructure projects vulnerable to sea level rise.
One key benefit that the EO will facilitate is California’s first comprehensive climate adaptation strategy. This effort will improve coordination within state government and adapt the way work so that better planning can more effectively address climate impacts to human health, the environment, the state’s water supply and the economy.
Another benefit from the EO includes providing consistency and clarity to state agencies on how to address sea level rise in current planning efforts, reducing time and resources unnecessarily spent on developing different policies using different scientific information.
The EO and its actions carry on the Governor’s environmental leadership by continuing to address climate change adaptation in coordination with our climate change mitigation policies as outlined in AB 32. The states of Washington and Oregon, as well as Canada and Mexico, along with several global institutions have expressed interest in coordinating our climate change adaptation policies as outlined in this EO.
California’s Energy Commission, the California Ocean Protection Council and Caltrans are conducting numerous scientific studies on the impact of climate change, including new sea level rise impact projections that are being used to develop the state’s climate change adaptation strategy.
Click here to read EXECUTIVE ORDER S-13-08
California gets dire warning on global warming
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 14, 2008 at 2:07 pmFrom the San Jose Mercury News:
Global warming will have a broad and devastating impact on California’s economy over the next century, according to a report released Thursday. Roads and bridges, the water supply, agriculture, public health and even winter skiing all will be affected by global climate change, said the report by University of California-Berkeley agricultural and resource economics professors David Roland-Holst and Fredrich Kahrl.
The report said damage could reach many billions of dollars per year. In real estate alone, up to $2.5 trillion of the state’s $4 trillion worth of homes and other buildings are at risk from rising sea levels, wildfires and other extreme weather events occurring as the world gets warmer, it said.
The 127-page report was funded by the nonprofit Next 10 foundation that studies California’s future and the intersection of the economy and the environment.
This is the first time a major academic institution has attempted to put a price tag on the potential climate damage in California between now and the year 2100, the researchers said.
In an interview, Roland-Holst said that despite the staggering numbers, he didn’t want his research to be seen as a doomsday report. “It’s not Chicken Little. It is a wake-up call,” he said. “The estimates at the moment have a lot of uncertainty, but we really have to take this seriously.”
Read more from the San Jose Mercury News by clicking here.
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- Restore the Delta & Environmental Defense Fund react to Nature Conservancy’s endorsement of the peripheral canal
- Where water reuse isn’t a dirty word: For 30 years, Northern Virginia treatment plant puts purified sewage into reservoir
- Imperial Irrigation District is unhappy with Imperial County filing
- California’s Water Plan 2009 begins public review & USBR begins basin studies in the Western U.S.
- La Niña just part of Southern California’s water picture
- Sewage plants, industry discharging toxic pollutants into L.A. County waters
- Helix district sued over habitat; Partnership objects to delayed plans
- Eastern Municipal Water District OKs modified tiered rate system
- Mystery malady hitting brown pelicans along West Coast
- Shell stakes claim to Yampa River; Energy company files for water rights for future oil shale needs
- Court cancels EPA Clean Water Act Exemption for pesticides
Aquafornia's Mission
Aquafornia's mission is to educate readers about the complex and often controversial issues surrounding water in California.
Aquafornia is affiliated with the Water Education Foundation, an impartial non-profit organization, whose mission is to create a better understanding of water issues and help resolve water resource problems through educational programs.
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