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California Climate Change Report Prompts Action

As most people know by now, climate change is a pressing issue that will incur serious consequences unless swift action is taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, especially in the United States, one of the biggest contributors to the problem.

With the federal government slow to respond, at least one state has stepped up to the challenge on its own. California has created a state-funded climate research center, the California Center for Climate Change, which recently issued a report summarizing the results of 17 studies that look at how global warming will affect this coastal area.

Unless steps are taken now to greatly reduce emissions, California will suffer more frequent coastal floods, rising sea levels, dramatic and costly beach erosion and disruptions to important wetlands, the report found. Research shows sea levels could rise as much as three feet by the 21st century, inundating the state’s 1,100 miles of coastline with salt water, quickening the pace of erosion and threatening levees and inland water systems with flooding.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenneger has called for biennial studies on the impacts of global warming in California and has set aggressive goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

To see a copy of this report, click here.

For more information on this story, click here.   

For more information on what you can do to reduce climate change impacts, go to www.fightglobalwarming.com.

To read more about this and other environmental health issues, go to: www.environmentalhealthnews.org, www.ourstolenfuture.org, or www.healthandenvironment.org