LOS ANGELES — For the first time, planers in the California Energy Commission will consider the impact of global warming when calculating future water supply and water need scenarios.
The coming global warming crisis could take many forms: massive storms, melting mountain snowcaps, rising seas, say scientists, according to the Contra Costa Times.
But until now, they haven't been able to tell local planners how to respond to these uncertain scenarios. That is changing, the newspaper said.
Recent advances in regional climate models, combined with growing scientific consensus and political acceptance that temperatures are rising, have prompted several California agencies to examine trends so they can respond before it is too late, said the article.
"What we're talking about now is not whether it is or isn't (warming), but how bad is it going to be," Kelly Birkinshaw, director of environmental research for the state Energy Commission, told the Times.
The newspaper said the state's water agency will include global warming in its new forecast of California's water future for the first time, and the Department of Natural Resources has created a task force to prevent global warming from getting worse and react to its possible devastating outcomes.
The energy commission has devised a comprehensive research plan to allocate up to $4 million a year toward specific regional climate models, more exhaustive studies of economic and ecosystem effects, and, perhaps most importantly, a clearer picture of future rain and snowfall, said the article.
It may be the first state agency to ever fund global warming research on an ongoing basis, the newspaper said.
"The political and scientific planets are aligned," said Peter Gleick, director of the Pacific Institute in Oakland, who has studied climate change and water issues, told the newspaper. "We are already seeing evidence of climate change, and it just going to get worse and worse the longer we wait to do things about it."
Despite these moves, the realities of global warming haven't become policy for many local water agencies and cities, where warming's impact might be felt most, the Times reported.
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