And the record heat, fires and pollution all have one thing in common: They were made worse by climate change. The credit is from a state government program that requires power plants and other large industries that emit greenhouse gases to buy carbon pollution permits from auctions managed by the California Air Resources Board. Climate change is also causing more humid heat waves. The new numbers come as the insurance industry struggles to adjust to the effects of climate change. SACRAMENTO – Recognizing that climate change poses not only a clear and immediate environmental risk but also a financial risk to long-term investment stability, Governor Gavin Newsom today announced that the Department of Finance has released the California Climate Investment Framework, which integrates the climate risk strategies of the state’s three largest pension funds into … "If climate change hasn't affected us personally yet it will, and it's projected in 80 years to affect food supply farming, coastal cities and wild fires," she said. As rain patterns change, forests will become drier and susceptible to more frequent and intense fires. A sizzling summer: Hottest August on record in California. “The state can either pursue energy intensive climate adaptation measures such as desalination or develop a portfolio of measures that maximize water conservation potential. Antonio is about to take a sip of cold bottled water, after arriving home from a long day’s work in the pistachio fields. Photo by @mettelampcov. Climate change is already contributing to increased air pollution, deforestation, ocean acidification, more wildfires, droughts, heat waves and sea-level rise, which threaten our health, our livelihoods and our future. As one 1988 internal Shell Oil Co. document noted, “by the time the global warming becomes detectable it could be too late to take effective countermeasures to reduce the effects or even to stabilize the situation.”. Millions are suffering from some of the worst air quality in years due to heat-triggered smog and fire smoke. CA. It was no coincidence that ozone pollution levels in downtown Los Angeles spiked to their highest levels since the mid-1990s on a day in which temperatures reached an all-time high for the county, said Cesunica Ivey, an assistant professor of chemical and environmental engineering at UC Riverside who studies air quality. team of international scientists projected that during the next 100 years, third United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, As one 1988 internal Shell Oil Co. document noted, spiked to their highest levels since the mid-1990s, ‘Gender reveals’ are all the rage amid COVID-19. The pandemic has fueled pet adoptions, “one of the few silver linings to COVID,” one animal rescue official says. ©2020 California Public Utilities Commission and California Energy Commission. Los Angeles County had its hottest temperature on record when Woodland Hills hit 121 degrees Sept. 6. Statewide. The evidence for rapid climate change is compelling: Global Temperature Rise. “These stressors are happening at the same time. Specifically in California, extreme heat waves — like the ones of recent weeks — are now 3 to 4 degrees Fahrenheit warmer due to climate change. Learn how to make your house more energy efficient and comfortable through home improvement measures, and start lowering your utility bills here. The climate of California varies widely from desert to alpine depending on latitude, elevation and how close the area is to the coast.Most of the coastal and southern parts of the state have a Mediterranean climate with somewhat rainy winters and dry summers. News tips? That activity (our use of fossil fuels) has resulted in dramatically increased levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. “People who have lived in California for 30, 40 years are saying this is unprecedented, it has never been this hot, it has never been this smoky in all the years I’ve lived here.”, Los Angeles suffers worst smog in almost 30 years. So I’m concerned about the future. We have to find ways to work together to make real, substantive changes to protect what we have today and preserve our natural resources for future generations. “An extreme heat event that would have been 100 degrees is now 102.5 or 103 degrees, and that is actually a pretty big difference in terms of the impacts on people.”. “When you add COVID, extreme heat, wildfires and air pollution all together, they’re all detrimental to public health, and it just makes things worse,” said Yifang Zhu, a professor of environmental health sciences at UCLA Fielding School of Public Health who studies air pollution and its effects. The global rise in temperatures observed over decades is also occurring locally, she said, “and these frequently occurring heat waves, this upward trend in basin-wide average temperature, is contributing to ozone exacerbation.”, Rarely have so many Californians been exposed to such gloomy, unhealthy air. Tony Barboza is a reporter who covers air quality and the environment with a focus on Southern California. Climate change is real but it's not the end of the world. ‘Cinderella story for a dog’: Bidens’ shelter pet gives adoption trend a boost. California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment (Fourth Assessment) advances actionable science that serves the growing needs of state and local-level decision-makers from a variety of sectors. Climate change appears to beDiffenbaugh et al. Southern California regulators have seen decades of progress fighting smog stymied in recent years by hotter weather and stronger, more persistent inversion layers that trap pollution near the ground. “California has a choice in how it wants to adapt its water sector to the impacts of climate change,” Deshmukh stated. "Just come to the state of California. Why some older people are getting the vaccine in Southern California but others are striking out. Now, with Joe Biden and Democrats taking power, no state is more influential in setting a policy agenda. “I’m only sorry that in 1989, I could not get an audience for what I wanted to communicate,” said Jim Hansen, a retired NASA researcher and early climate change scientist, of testimony he made to Congress about the issue. Climate Change and California’s Water Managing water is at the forefront of climate change adaptation in California. Learn how global warming is affecting California and the western states, and the solutions states are taking to address the growing risks of climate change. This time last year, California saw 4,927 fires that burned 118,000 acres, Gov. Climate change threatens to make such heat waves more frequent. And it’s that atmospheric warming that has set the stage for the fires raging throughout the western U.S., said Park Williams, a hydroclimatologist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. Since the 1980s, government and oil industry scientists have been anticipating the events that have transpired across the state this past month. We all need to play a part in successfully increasing energy efficiency, embracing clean energy and supporting clean technology. Susanne Rust is an award-winning investigative reporter specializing in environmental issues. now add weight to the accumulating evidence that anthropogenic climatic changes are already influencing the frequency, magnitude, and duration of drought in California.increasing the likelihood of a large-scale atmospheric pattern that yields warm, dry weather in California. They are known locally as Santa Lucia winds and can increase temperatures by 5.5 degrees for every 1,000 feet they descend. What precisely is driving changes such as elevated smog levels can be hard to tease out in the middle of an extreme event because so much is happening at once, with multiple hazards piling on top of each other in a vicious feedback loop. The California Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) is convening a virtual scientific workshop to inform the next update of the Indicators of Climate Change in California report, scheduled for release in 2021. “It was just rip-roaring hot,” said Lindsey, who has forecast weather along the Central Coast since 1991. And that’s somebody who’s very skeptical.”. That’s a double whammy when it comes to the hydrological balance … now add weight to the accumulating evidence that anthropogenic climatic changes are already influencing the frequency, magnitude, and duration of drought in California.increasing the likelihood of a large-scale atmospheric pattern that yields warm, dry weather in California. 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