Climate change is rapidly accelerating in California, state report says
California can’t turn its back on the climate crisis. But we can still slow a warming climate for the sake of the poor, the economy and the economy’s stability.
California can’t turn its back on the climate crisis. But we can still slow a warming climate for the sake of the poor, the economy and the economy’s stability.
With the global climate system in crisis and accelerating global rates of heat-related deaths and health effects, the problem of extreme weather is getting more extreme, and the impacts are increasingly felt and costly to the economy.
In a new report released today by UC Berkeley’s Center for International Earth Science Information Services (CIESI) and the state of California, they say that California is in the midst of a major “hot, dry and extreme” event expected to occur between 2030 and 2060 that could cause tens of billions of dollars in damages.
Their report says California is now one of only 25 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands in the world that have failed to implement policies to adapt to climate change or significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The report also says in the coming decades, California is going to experience an “ongoing transition to a new and uncertain world in which the effects of climate change will have profound, and increasingly negative, economic and public health consequences” and that these consequences will be much greater than other high-emissions and low-emissions countries that are currently facing similar impacts.
It says the current state of California is not sustainable. It’s also the first state-by-state analysis of its own policies needed to meet California’s stated targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to near-zero, and to adapt and mitigate against the impacts of climate change for years to come.
The report, California’s New Chances for Adaptation to Climate Change, highlights that California relies on a variety of government agencies and other public and private partners for adaptation, ranging from the state’s Department of Parks and Recreation to its water distribution to transit systems to its forest lands and its urban systems.
But it shows in a stark way just how much California can still do.
“California is already at a crossroads with our global climate,” said Jennifer Marohasy, CIESI director. �