The Crush - December 2018 - 3

[ FROM THE PRESIDENT ]

California and Climate Change Consequences
WATER STORAGE SOLUTIONS NEED TO BE A PRIORITY
By John Aguirre
United Nations Secretary General António Guterres opened
the recent 24th annual U.N. climate conference with a sober
statement: "We are in trouble. We are in deep trouble with
climate change."
Also, this month I heard a presentation by Radley Horton,
Ph.D., a climate science professor at Columbia University,
who delivered an equally serious message. And, finally, in the
same week, the Trump Administration released a report titled,
"Findings of the U.S. Global Change Research Program Climate
Science Special Report" (CSSR). Again, the outlook is not good.
There is no significant disagreement among climate scientists
around the idea that human-caused greenhouse gas emissions
are fueling changing climatic conditions. The CSSR confirms,
"Thousands of studies conducted by researchers around the
world have documented changes in surface, atmospheric and
oceanic temperatures; melting glaciers; diminishing snow cover;
shrinking sea ice; rising sea levels; ocean acidification; and
increasing atmospheric water vapor."
The consequences for California are significant. Heat waves have
become more frequent since the 1960s, while cold temperatures
and cold waves are less frequent. In other words, the extremely
cold days and extremely warm days we experience in California
are expected to become warmer. Scientists have found the annual
average temperature in the United States has increased by 1.8
degrees for the period of 1901 to 2016, with an additional rise of
2.5 degrees in annual average temperatures anticipated for the
period 2021 to 2050.
Warming temperatures will likely mean decreases in surface
soil moisture and the increased likelihood of long-duration
hydrological droughts by the end of the century.

California to adapt? Actually, quite a
lot of work is underway to safeguard
our state's transportation assets,
vulnerable communities and natural
resources, and to enhance emergency
response systems. But, the state is
falling far short on one of the most
obvious and necessary responses:
build more water storage.
This year, the California Natural
Resources Agency published the "Safeguarding California Plan:
2018 Update California's Climate Adaptation Strategy," based
on the contributions from 38 state agencies. The report states,
"Climate impacts like unpredictable water availability, rising
minimum and maximum temperatures, extended heat waves,
changes in the prevalence of plant and livestock pests and
diseases...poses a significant threat to California, which grows
over 33 percent of the U.S.'s vegetables and two-thirds of its
fruits and nuts."
Our state's nearly 1,500 surface reservoirs can store up to 43
million acre-feet of water, a year's supply for farms and cities,
but we need much more. Voters approved Proposition 1 in 2014,
which provides up to $2.7 billion in water bond funding for
various water projects. Unfortunately, what voters thought they
were voting for and what we are getting are two very different
things.
This past July, the California Water Commission awarded $816
million in bond money to build Sites Reservoir. If built, as
originally envisioned, it would be the state's seventh largest
reservoir and cost $5.2 billion. However, the lowball funding
amount means Sites is likely to be smaller than envisioned and
deliver far less water for cities, agriculture and the environment.

For California, the CSSR predicts substantial reductions in
our snowpack associated with earlier spring melt and more
precipitation falling as rain. More of our precipitation will be
delivered by "atmospheric rivers" (aka the Pineapple Express).
This means an increased potential for concentrated periods of
rainfall and flooding.

Sites is precisely what we need in response to climate change.
California will receive less snow and more precipitation in the
form of high intensity rain events that result in more peak flows
in the Sacramento River. In the face of climate change and no
Sites Reservoir, a lot of water that would otherwise be stored
as snowpack will flow through the Sacramento Delta out to the
Pacific. This is an obvious problem with an obvious solution.

If leading climatological science groups in the United States and
around the world are correct in their consensus view that humancaused climate change is occurring, then what are we doing in

Climate change is happening and our state's policies and
priorities need to reflect that reality.

DECEMBER 2018 / 3

The Crush - December 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Crush - December 2018