California's Department of Environmental Protection issued a new report today on the "Indicators of Climate Change in California. The "indicators" are the "large amounts of scientific data" collected by monitoring and research activities by state and federal agencies, universities and other research institutions. This report makes it clear that "climate change is not just some abstract scientific debate. It's real, and it's already here." This is actually the purpose of a blogathon we are having at Daily Kos in September. Some people look at the climate change impacts documented by statistics, graphs, and charts, and view it as an abstract issue. But those numbers represent what is happening to people, wildlife and natural resources. So, our blogathon will be focused on how these impacts are affecting people today, including environmental justice and racism.
The California study documents climate change impacts happening now in our state:
The study, written by 51 scientists, tracked a variety of indicators and found widespread evidence of the toll climate change is taking across the across the state, including more frequent and intense wildfires, rising sea levels, shrinking glaciers, warmer lakes and oceans, and hotter temperatures. These ripple effects of these changes threaten communities, industry, public health, and the state’s prized natural resources.
Months ago, we noticed here in Southern California that the foothills and mountains surrounding our subdivision were dry, brown fire fuel so much earlier in the year. We've had two fires in my county in the past couple months, one a few blocks from our home. Our wildfire season started back in
April, a month or so earlier than usual.
The report also stated how "Californians are already suffering from a growing number of heat-related illnesses and deaths and those figures are projected to rise along with temperatures."
Additional impacts include: Our coastal waters are more acidic, the fall-run Chinook salmon in the Sacramento River is on the decline, conifer forests on the slopes of mountains have moved to higher elevations, butterflies emerge earlier in the spring, glaciers in Sierra Nevada have shrunk, spring runoff from snowmelt that is crucial for downstream farmers has decreased, lakes are warming, sea levels rising, animals migrate to higher ground, and average annual temperatures have increased.
This is only a partial listing of climate change impacts now happening in California. Most impacts then have additional impacts rippling from the primary impact. For example, sea level rise:
"Sea-level rise could lead to flooding of low-lying areas, loss of coastal wetlands, erosion of coastal beaches, saltwater contamination of groundwater aquifers and impacts on roads, sewage treatment plants and other coastal infrastructure," the report warns.
People in California have
noticed:
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. …What the public may not realize, experts say, is how extensive the impact of climate change already is.
A
new poll shows that people in California are ready to
take steps now to address climate change, including spending money on projects to clear the air in lower income communities:
A new poll from the Public Policy Institute of California finds that 75 percent of California voters think we need to take steps to counter global warning "right away." And an astonishing 83 percent say it is important to spend money raised by the state's cap-and-trade program on projects that will clean the air in lower-income and disadvantaged communities.
It's no secret that environmental racism is why so many poor and minority communities are suffering the impacts of fossil fuel industries and climate change. In 2006, California enacted the Global Warming Solutions Act or AB 32 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by monitoring and regulations as well as market-based compliance mechanisms or allowances despite the usual opposition by the powerful and well-financed fossil fuel industry. All monies, except for fines and penalties, collected by the State Air Resources Board, from the auction or sale of allowances are deposited in a Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to be available for appropriation by our legislature to further the goals of AB 32 and "a certain percentage must be used to
improve environmental conditions in lower-income and disadvantaged communities." State Senator Ricardo Lara (D-Long Beach) has introduced
SB 605 to "appropriate a specified amount of those moneys that are unencumbered to the state board from the fund to be expended consistent with the act on projects and programs that are located within and benefit disadvantaged communities." SB 605 has passed the State Senate but now faces the Assembly, which has an important committee hearing on August 12.
SB 605 says let's get to work now:
SB 605 guarantees that if the carbon auctions bring in money beyond that initial $500 million, the first $125 million will go to projects in disadvantaged communities. It puts the neighborhoods most in need of clean air and good jobs at the front of the line, giving substance to the promise that a clean energy economy will help struggling communities build economic security and prosperity, a goal that my colleagues at The Greenlining Institute are always looking to advance.
You can
send a letter of support for SB 605 here to the Chair of the Natural Resources Committee so that communities receive "prompt investment of these revenues into pollution reduction programs, such as for home weatherization, public transit, rooftop solar, urban greening, affordable homes near transit, and other under-funded existing programs that reduce emissions and create jobs." As
Meteor Blades says, delay is denial. We don’t have to wait on D.C. We need to take actions now to mitigate and adapt to climate change impacts happening now.