Focus on Focus Earth: Risk of Floods and Drought In California Stirs Leaders to Action

Small island nations have been waging the loudest campaigns for governmental action on climate change, but they're not the only ones who are going to be drowned by rising sea levels if we don't stop it from getting worse, and the damage will hit right here at home. Warmer temperatures are likely to increase the flow of California's rivers during wet months, causing more frequent and intensive flooding much like what has already been experienced in the northern part of the state in the last few years.

Earlier this month, the governor unveiled a climate model in conjunction with Google showing that climate change could put Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco's baseball diamond, and two major Bay Area airports all underwater by 2100.

The model is a Google Earth application, based in part on research by the California Energy Commission showing that unless we slow global warming, we will see rising sea levels, greater wildfire risks, and less water supply over the next century.

Schwarzenegger isn't the only politician waging the flood-warning battle in California: Congresswoman Doris Matsui is calling for increased flood protection in the Sacramento area because without it—or even with it, according to some, like Stein Buer of the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency—the region is at serious risk, perhaps the greatest in the country.

According to the California Department of Water Resources, climate change is "already changing the weather patterns and water supply in California; a dwindling snowpack, bigger flood flows, rising sea levels, longer and harsher droughts." The department has been working to educate the population of California about the impacts of climate change and to develop adaptation strategies that encompass everything from individual water use to constructing adequate delta levees. Some in the transportation industry are calling for changes to the ports and shipping hubs, saying they are not prepared now for the rise in sea levels. Flooding of the state's third-largest port in Oakland, for example, would impede the movement of goods inland as well.

Always a fight When suggestions of restricting development in vulnerable areas were made, once again, the science of global warming is questioned. Republican Assemblyman Chuck DeVore cited the hurrah over the leaked email ridiculousness in Copenhagen as reason to not believe in global warming, and stands firmly against the idea of restricting development in areas vulnerable to flooding, fire or erosion. He said, "To use this all-encompassing rubric of climate change as a power grab to usurp property rights is something we shouldn't be doing."

Let's hope the more forward-thinking power players, in this case Schwarzenegger and Matsui, win the argument in California.

Watch the Focus Earth Episode: Climate Change and the Weather