Tag Archive for: Climate Change

How Native Tribes are Taking the Lead on Planning for Climate Change

/in , , /by /Yale Environment 360by Nicola Jones

On a hot summer’s day, marine ecologist Courtney Greiner walks the shore of a rocky Washington beach at low tide with a handful of staff and interns. They stake out the ground and hunch down, digging up the top two inches of mud, silt, and gravel looking for baby clams.

For thousands of years, the indigenous peoples of the West Coast would build rock walls at the low tide line, allowing sand to pile up behind them, making the slope of the beach gentler, and expanding the area of the intertidal zone that clams like to call home.

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Southern California Climate Change Over 100,000 Years

/in , , /by /Eos by Kate Wheeling

Southern California is one of only a few places outside the Mediterranean Basin to enjoy a Mediterranean-like climate. Mild summers and wet winters have long supported some of the state’s (and the country’s) most bio diverse locations. But Southern California is warming faster than nearly anywhere else in the contiguous United States, and climate projections for the state forecast higher temperatures and increasingly erratic precipitation—conditions that could drive the Mediterranean region farther north and leave in its place a subtropical desert.

 

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Meet the Veteran Insider Who’s Shepherding Gov. Newsom’s Plan to Bring Climate Resilience to California Water

/in , , /by /Western Water / Water Education Foundationby Gary Pitzer

Shortly after Gov. Gavin Newsom called on state agencies to deliver a Water Resilience Portfolio to meet California’s urgent challenges — from unsafe drinking water, flood and drought risks from a changing climate to severely depleted groundwater aquifers and declining native fish populations — he appointed Nancy Vogel, a former journalist and veteran water communicator, to get it done. In an interview with Western Water, Vogel explains how the draft portfolio released Jan. 3 came together and why it should matter to average Californians.

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2020 Snow Report

/in , , /by /Climate Central

A new Climate Central report analyzes snowfall trends over the past fifty years, finding that snowfall has been decreasing in the spring and fall seasons across much of the U.S. but with clear regional differences.

The impact of climate change on snow can be a tricky story to tell. While warming winters would suggest that more precipitation will fall as rain instead of snow, a warming climate is also associated with increased precipitation which, in cold regions, can lead to an increase in snowfall. A new report from Climate Central aims to make sense of this challenging subject—analyzing snowfall data collected between 1970 and 2019 from 145 stations across the country.

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Newsom Administration Trying Again for a River Flow Deal

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Bettina Boxall

The Newsom administration Tuesday floated a proposal to avert a protracted legal battle over new state standards that would make some of California’s biggest water users cut their river diversions to help struggling fish populations.

State officials see a settlement as the linchpin of administration water policies that have been bogged down in the perennial conflicts over the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a source of water for much of California and home to some of its most threatened native fish.

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Indigenous Tribes are at the Forefront of Climate Change Planning in the U.S.

/in , /by /Grist by Naveena Sadasivam

Temperatures in Idaho’s Columbia, Snake, and Salmon rivers were so warm in 2015 that they cooked millions of salmon and steelhead to death. As climate change leads to consistently warmer temperatures and lower river flows, researchers expect that fish kills like this will become much more common. Tribal members living on the Nez Perce reservation are preparing for this new normal.

“The biggest and most poignant impact for Nez Perce tribal members has been the loss of fishing and fish,” said Stephanie Krantz, the climate change coordinator for the tribe. “For tribal peoples, they are absolutely essential for survival.”

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Opinion: California’s Water Department Must Face The Reality of Climate Change and Diverse Needs

/in , /by /The Sacramento Bee by Bill Dodd

As we enter a new decade, California faces increasing environmental challenges caused by climate change, creating an uncertain future for our water resources. We need bold leadership to address these impacts. It is time for California’s Department of Water Resources (DWR) to implement water policy for the state that shores up our precious waterways and diversifies water supplies in the face of these imminent threats.

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“Building a Resilient Tomorrow” Authors on Climate Change and Resilience

/in , /by /Empire KVCR by Benjamin Purper

You may hear the word “sustainability” used a lot when talking about climate change, but what about “resilience?” KVCR’s Benjamin Purper spoke with the authors of the new book “Building a Resilient Tomorrow: How to Prepare for the Coming Climate Disruption” about what it means to be resilient in the face of climate change.

Authors Alice Hill and Leonardo Martinez-Diaz both served as senior officials in the Obama Administration working on climate change issues. Their new book discusses climate resilience.

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Opinion: California’s Water Department Must Face the Reality of Climate Change and Diverse Needs

/in , /by /Sacramento Beeby Bill Dodd

As we enter a new decade, California faces increasing environmental challenges caused by climate change, creating an uncertain future for our water resources. We need bold leadership to address these impacts. It is time for California’s Department of Water Resources to implement water policy for the state that shores up our precious waterways and diversifies water supplies in the face of these imminent threats.

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Water Authority Developing 2020 Urban Water Management Plan

/in , /by

January 23, 2020 – The San Diego County Water Authority’s Board of Directors on Thursday authorized work on the 2020 Urban Water Management Plan. The Board approved a contract with the firm Woodard & Curran to provide support services for preparation of the plan, which documents the region’s approach to ensuring a safe and reliable water supply.

For a video of how the Urban Water Management Plan works, go to: https://www.sdcwa.org/urban-water-management-plan-1

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