Posted on 08/08/2013 7:43:49 AM PDT by Avoiding_Sulla
Rising ocean waters. Bigger and more frequent forest fires. More brutally hot summer days.
These aren't the usual predictions about global warming based on computer forecasts. They're changes already happening in California, according to a detailed new report issued Thursday by the California Environmental Protection Agency.
Climate change is "an immediate and growing threat" affecting the state's water supplies, farm industry, forests, wildlife and public health, the report says. The 258-page document was written by 51 scientists from the University of California, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, U.S. Geological Survey and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, among other agencies and institutions.
"Climate change is not just some abstract scientific debate," said California EPA Secretary Matt Rodriquez. "It's real, and it's already here."
Most Californians seem to agree. In a poll last month by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, 63 percent of the state's residents said the effects of global warming are already being felt, while 22 percent said they will happen in the future. Eleven percent said they will never happen.
Although California has done more than nearly every other state to reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases, the report found, if it were a country, it would still rank as the 13th largest source of greenhouse gases in the world, ahead of France, Brazil, Australia and Saudi Arabia.
What the public may not realize, experts say, is how extensive the impact of climate change already is.
Since 1950, the report found, the three worst forest fire years in California -- measured by acres burned -- all have occurred in the past decade: 2003, 2007 and 2008. And the average number of acres scorched every year since 2000 is almost double the average of the previous 50 years -- 598,000 acres annually now, compared with 264,000 acres a year then.
"A report like this is Paul Revere. It provides an early warning, an early indicator of the challenges we face," said Matthew Kahn, a UCLA economics professor.
Kahn said that just as in past eras when Americans rose to meet threats, entrepreneurs in California will see opportunities to help reduce the impacts of climate change while making money, through industries such as electric vehicles, wind turbines, ocean desalination projects, better air conditioning systems and denser housing in coastal areas, which will remain cooler than inland areas as both warm in the decades to come.
"It's not like the Titanic where we just collide with the iceberg," Kahn said. "Most people want their children and grandchildren to have a great quality of life. We are going to get future Amazons, Apples and Facebooks out of this that will address the challenges."
But while opportunities may be going up, so are mercury readings.
Since 1895, annual average temperatures in California have increased about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit and continue to rise, the report found. The length and severity of summer heat waves are increasing.
The sea level at the Golden Gate, home to the oldest continually operating tidal gauge in North America, rose 8 inches over the past century as the world's glaciers and ice sheets have begun melting. Higher seas increase the risk of floods during storms in low-lying communities around San Francisco Bay, from Treasure Island to Alviso.
At Lake Tahoe, there are now 30 fewer days a year compared with a century ago when air temperatures average below freezing, the report found. And while 52 percent of the precipitation at the lake fell as snow in 1910, today only 34 percent does.
"Most Californians get it," said Kathryn Phillips, executive director of Sierra Club California. "The thing I find so frustrating is how bought in elected officials are to the belief they can't do the right thing because it will disturb oil companies and some of the most powerful interests in the state."
Among other changes, Phillips said, the state needs more incentives for solar and renewable energy and mandatory rules requiring more energy-efficient buildings.
In 2006, then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a landmark law, AB32, requiring California to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, a drop of about 25 percent.
So far, however, emissions are up 3 percent since 1990, although they have dipped in the past five years because of the Great Recession and increased use of high-mileage cars as well as solar and wind power.
When it comes to the state's water supply, there's some good news: There is no clear trend in the amount of precipitation over the past 100 years, the report found. So California isn't getting less rain.
But the Sierra Nevada's glaciers have, depending on their location, shrunk from 22 percent to 69 percent over the past century. And spring runoff to the Sacramento River has decreased by 9 percent. That's because more precipitation is falling as rain rather than snow during California's warmer winters, the report found. And less runoff means less water for farms and cities.
Rodriquez said the amount of warming in the coming decades can be limited if the state, nation and world do more to reduce emissions and transition away from fossil fuels.
"We're doing what we can in California to address climate change," he said. "It's our hope that we can avoid some of the more extreme effects."
Paul Rogers covers environmental issues and resources. Contact him at 408-920-5045. Follow him at Twitter.com/PaulRogersSJMN.
I love science, but I’d rather be a witch-doctor than a climatologist.
I dunno. Some insane asylum inmates aren’t that crazy.
Obviously, OBVIOUSLY, that says more about the land management practices since 1950 than some the climate,.
Even the UN IPCC says you are all lying... no warming in 15 years and Arctic Ice larger this year than in the past 100 years and the globe is cooling... even saw a show on Discovery where some Glaciers are growing. STFU liars.
Isn’t Mauna Loa a volcano (albeit extinct). Is it possible CO2 is coming OUT of the volcano, not the atmosphere?
No. 631
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
by Lani Cohan and H. Sterling Burnett
Federal mismanagement of U.S. forests has increased the number, size and cost of wildfires over the past decade. Historically, the national forests have been logged to provide lumber for commercial activities, to promote forest recreation, species protection and management, and to prevent wildfires.
In recent decades this has changed. Pressure and lawsuits from environmental lobbyists have prevented or delayed both commercial and salvage logging, turning many of our national forests into tinderboxes.
http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba631/
No silly, volcanoes are our friends.
And all that machinery during WW2 ran on pixxy dust.
So sad. If California would only levy a tax on carbon, it would stop Global Warming in its tracks.
Someone posted a very good video explaining what a crock the “sea is rising” claim is:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3050991/posts
They don't clear the brush or the trees. Bark Beetles have been a big problem too. Also a large number of the fires were started by arsonists.
We never hear anything about the damage caused by radical enviromental policies.
These so called scientists are a disgrace.
Interesting that "global warming" has resulted in a cooler than normal summer here.
Limited to Fantasyland.
While we appreciate the “compliment”, we bow to the most worthy Washington DC.
This fraud has been spewing this CHERRY PICKED and MANIPULATED DATA for years. It doesn’t do any good to point out the facts to this brainwashed socialist democratic drone because it doesn’t register in his liberal brain. Paul, I still remember the one about the field mice moving 200 yards up the hill to avoid global warming. That one is hard to stop.
BTW, a good article (Sea Level Rise Surprise (S. Fred Singer)) was posted on here a couple of days ago and a graphic from it is posted below:
(18 cm = 7.1 in., 140 cm = 4.6 ft., 600 cm = 19.7 ft., conversion: 1 in = 2.54 cm)
I have often wondered how many of these fires were caused by illegal alien encampments and/or pot farm accidents.
It’s not like the Titanic where we just collide with the iceberg,” Kahn said. “Most people want their children and grandchildren to have a great quality of life. We are going to get future Amazons,Apples and Facebooks out of this that will address the challenges.”
If we keep letting idiots like these into polite society, we will likely be praying for a catastrophic disaster to take us and ours out so our children won’t have to suffer what morons like these bring about.
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