Reuters 14 Nov 08;
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday ordered preparations for rising sea levels from global warming, a startling prospect for the most populous U.S. state with a Pacific Ocean coastline stretching more than 800 miles.
Recorded sea levels rose 7 inches during the 20th century in San Francisco, Schwarzenegger said in the executive order for study of how much more the sea could rise, what other consequences of global warming were coming and how the state should react.
California is considered the environmental vanguard of government in the United States, with its own standards for car pollution and a law to cut emissions of carbon dioxide, the main gas contributing to global warming.
"The longer that California delays planning and adapting to sea level rise the more expensive and difficult adaptation will be," Schwarzenegger said, ordering a report by the end of 2010.
(Reporting by Peter Henderson; Editing by Peter Cooney)
California to Plan Climate Change Strategy
Felicity Barringer, The New York Times 16 Nov 08;
SAN FRANCISCO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has instructed state agencies to prepare for climate change, especially rising seas, as they plan to replace, upgrade and repair the system of pipelines that distributes water around sewage treatment plants and low-lying airports, among other things.
“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,” Mr. Schwarzenegger, a Republican, said on Friday after issuing the executive order.
Other jurisdictions, including Florida, Maryland and New York City, are also looking at the future with an eye toward climate change, but California officials believe this order goes further in calling for both studies and actions.
“We’ve got a huge budget deficit,” said Anthony Brunello, deputy secretary for climate change and energy at the California Resources Agency. “We don’t want to be investing in infrastructure that could be underwater in 20 to 30 years.”
The executive order came a day after the release of a report by an economist at the University of California, Berkeley, predicting that the state, if it fails to act, could suffer tens of billions of dollars in damage to its real estate, transportation systems and industries from water, fire and other climate-driven calamities by the century’s end.
An example of vulnerable systems, Mr. Brunello said, is the infrastructure of pipes and canals that deliver fresh water from the Sierra Nevada snowmelt to communities and agricultural areas from the San Francisco Bay Area to the southern part of the Central Valley. A rise in the sea level could mean the inundation of these freshwater systems with salt water.
Under the order, the state, he said, would first request a scientific study of its specific vulnerabilities from the National Academy of Sciences, then use the data, expected to be ready by 2010, as the basis for long-term planning. At the same time, state agencies are directed to begin preparing recommended strategies for coping with rising seas, using various models for how high the water would rise.
The order may be the country’s most sweeping in pushing state agencies for concrete plans, but it is not alone in its examination of the problem. In April 2007, Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland, a Democrat, established a climate change task force with the assignment of determining how to reduce the state’s emission of greenhouse gases and assessing the its vulnerabilities.
Washington State agencies have also been sketching out plans for anticipating a rise in the sea level, including raising the height of the wharves at the Port of Tacoma.
Governor tells staff to prepare for warming
Matthew Yi, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau SF Gate 15 Nov 08;
(11-15) 04:00 PST Sacramento --
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.
Two years ago, Schwarzenegger signed the landmark legislation AB32, which requires the state to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2020. The California Air Resources Board, which has been charged with implementing AB32's goals, is set to consider Thursday its draft blueprint on how to limit California's greenhouse gas emissions.
"But even if we were to stop emitting greenhouse gases in California today ... the carbons that have already been emitted would still be with us and those impacts are still going to happen," Brunello said.
He said that while figuring out how to limit green house gas emissions has been receiving a lot of attention, how to adapt to the changing climate has been largely ignored. And while there are other states and nations that are researching how to adapt to the effects of global warming, Schwarzenegger's order is among the first directing agencies to put together a comprehensive plan, he said.
The executive order directs the Department of Water Resources, the California Energy Commission and the state's coastal management agencies to submit a request with the National Academy of Sciences for a sea level rise assessment report to be completed by Dec. 1, 2010.
The order also requires state agencies that build new infrastructure, such as roads and bridges, to factor in rising sea levels in their planning.
The governor also wants the California Department of Transportation to figure out which transportation projects would be vulnerable to the effects of climate change and has ordered that state agencies use a uniform standard in measuring the effects of climate change. He has also asked state agencies to develop a process on how to better coordinate planning efforts in the future.
Bill Magavern, a lobbyist for the Sierra Club, said he agrees with the governor's notion that the state needs to prepare for climate change.
"He's doing the right thing by calling for sound science and coordination among different government agencies," he said. "As we see impacts like rising sea levels and diminishing snowpack, we're going to have to adapt."
