California Governor Calls for Climate Change Preparedness

As a complement to the state’s aggressive greenhouse gas reduction efforts, Gov. Schwarzenegger says the state must make preparations for the environmental effects of unchecked global climate change.

In December the governor announced that he is convening a panel to recommend actions that would help protect communities and infrastructure and preserve resources if temperatures increase and sea levels rise.

The panel was among the recommendations in the recently released California Climate Adaptation Strategy, which warns of possible temperature increases of 5 degrees Fahrenheit and sea level rises of 18 inches by as soon as 2050.

The report recommends that state emergency planning include preparedness for the effects of global warming. Additionally, it suggests that the most at-risk areas of the state be identified and a plan put in place to finance prevention and mitigation efforts.

Among the report’s general recommendations are water conservation, the cultivation of food closer to populations that consume it, aggressive actions against invasive species that harm agriculture and infrastructure planning that takes higher projected water levels into consideration.

The panel, whose members include former Gov. Pete Wilson and William K. Reilly, a former EPA administrator, is expected to make specific recommendations by next July.

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