UCS: California Enacts Nation’s Toughest Global Warming Bill
by Union of Concerned Scientists on 09. 4.06
Late last week, the California Legislature passed landmark legislation to create the nation’s first economy-wide cap on global warming emissions, and Governor Schwarzenegger has agreed to sign the bill into law.
The new law codifies the state's goal to reduce its global warming emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, a 25 percent reduction from business as usual. The state will phase in an enforceable statewide cap on global warming starting in 2012.
Under the law, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) will develop regulations and a mandatory reporting system to track and monitor global warming emissions. CARB will make sure benefits and costs are distributed fairly, ensure that there are no increases in air pollution in local communities, protect entities that have already reduced their emissions, and allow for coordination with other states and countries to reduce emissions.
The mounting scientific evidence gathered and produced by California’s scientific community helped build the political will that led to the bill’s passage.
Our Changing Climate, a scientific analysis developed by the State's California Climate Change Center in collaboration with the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), demonstrated that if heat-trapping emissions are not reduced, California faces a future of poorer air quality, a sharp rise in extreme heat, a less reliable water supply, more large wildfires, and expanding risks to agriculture.
A recent study by the University of California at Berkeley shows that climate action can not only protect California from the most severe impacts of global warming, it can also boost the economy. The study projects that meeting AB 32’s emissions limits can boost the Gross State Product (GSP) by $60-74 billion and create 17,000-89,000 new jobs.
Visit www.climatechoices.org to read:
--Our Changing Climate: Assessing the Risks to California, the UC Berkeley study, and a summary of the historic legislation.
--more on California climate impacts, economics, and solutions.
--about UCS’s behind-the-scenes work on the bill that included shepherding an open letter by 60 Ph.D. economists from across California urging climate action and organizing “Parties for the Planet” for 2,000 people in 50 cities across the state.
[This is the first post on TreeHugger by the Union of Concerned Scientists. They're great and we're very happy to have them contribute! Check out their website. -Ed.]
'Union of Concerned Scientists demonstrated that if heat-trapping emissions are not reduced, California faces a future of poorer air quality, a sharp rise in extreme heat, a less reliable water supply, more large wildfires, and expanding risks to agriculture.' I do not know how it is now in California, but I know how it is here where I live in central Spain. And all the risks facing California are the same for Spain; however, here in Spain these risks are present now. These negative impacts are already occuring and getting worse yearly.
Extreme summer heat is getting to be the norm. Today it is almost 40 degrees C where I live, with hot suffocating air. And the summer seems to start earlier and end sooner. This year there were a few weeks in early spring when the temperatures hovered in the mid-30s - luckily they fell back down for a month before shooting back up. And they are predicting that this month will also be exceptionally hot.
The water supply is in crisis. The water reserves are at historical lows after 2-3 years of drought with this coming year expected to also bring drought. Political infighting has erupted between drier regions and those with adequate water supplies over how much water supply should be transferred and for what purposes. Water restrictions are intermittently placed on and off for different uses. Many farmers are losing crops for lack of irrigation water. It has become a central political issue both on a national and regional levels. The water table level in my bore well keeps going down year after year. Two weeks ago I had to lower my well-pump because the level had gone so low.
The extreme heat and drought are quickly drying out grasses and bushes and weakening trees. The heat, drought, dry and weak vegetation, plus hot high winds make any little spark or glass bottle turn into large forest fires. We've had hundreds of forest fires in Spain and Portugal this year. There are more and more each summer and getting bigger and more deadly. I drove through Portugal in July and had to drive through two fires. Near my home there have been five this summer. The last one being yesterday. The fire was so far away that I couldn't see the plume, but it was so big that it covered the sky over my house with a thick cloud of ashes that blocked most sunlight. It stunk of smoke throughout the night.
The extreme heat, the drought and fires are decimating agricultural production in many areas. More and more farmers are demanding emergency relief from the government to deal with these negative effects.
And the summer air quality is dropping. Yesterday, with the hot dry suffocating air and the smoke and ashes in the air, it was extremely uncomfortable to be outside. Luckily my house has vents for replacement air that have good filters.
I hope the negative effects of global warming don't have to become so preposterously devastating before skeptics determine that actions need to be taken to curb it. I'm glad California has pushed through the federal government's obstinacy. It goes to show that many Americans want action now, including many (maybe most) Republicans. And that the problem in America is certain groups of Republicans (and Democrats) that represent economic special-interest groups opposed to the necessary changes.