Climate impacts on California

Capital Press, via Associated Press: … Throughout California, residents will have to adapt in similar ways to warmer temperatures. Because California is a coastal state with myriad microclimates, predicting exactly what will happen across a land mass a third larger than that of Italy by the end of the century is a challenge. But through a series of interviews with scientists who are studying the phenomenon, a general description of the state's future emerges.

By the end of the century, temperatures are predicted to increase from 3 degrees to as much as 10 degrees Fahrenheit statewide. That could translate into even less rainfall across the southern half of the state, which already is under pressure from the increased frequency of wildfires and relentless population growth. Hotter, drier temperatures would threaten the state's $30 billion agricultural industry.

…Because the Sierra snowpack accounts for so much of California's water supply, the changes could lead to expensive water disputes between cities and farmers. Without consistent water from rivers draining the snowmelt, farmers in the Central and Salinas valleys could lose as much as a quarter of their water supply.

…In one of the ironic twists that global warming could bring, the northern part of the San Joaquin Valley actually could see more water - just the wrong kind. Rising sea levels will imperil the vast Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, forcing sea water from San Francisco Bay farther inland and impeding the flow of the northern rivers. The result could be a huge inland lagoon in what is now a mix of farms, rivers and suburbs.

… In the central and southern Sierra, the giant sequoias that are among the most massive living things on earth might be imperiled.…"I suspect as things get warmer, we'll start seeing sequoias just die on their feet where their foliage turns brown," said Stephenson, the Geological Survey scientist. "Even if they don't die of drought stress, just think of the wildfires. If you dry out that vegetation, they're going to be so much more flammable."

What will happen along California's famed coastline will affect the rest of the state, yet is among the biggest unknowns. Will the rising seas swamp the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, the nation's busiest port complex, turning them into a series of saltwater lakes? Will funky Ocean Beach, an island of liberalism in conservative San Diego County, become, literally, its own island?

Among the more sobering projections is what is in store for the marine life that hugs the state's shoreline. The upwelling season, a time when nutrient-rich waters are brought from the ocean's depths to the surface, creates a food chain that sustains one of the world's richest marine environments along the California coast. That period, which spans from late spring until early fall, is expected to become weaker earlier in the season and more intense later. Upwelling in Southern California will become weaker overall.

Changing seas will present trouble for much of the state's land-dwelling population, too. A sea level rise of 3 to 6 feet will be enough to inundate the airports in San Francisco and Oakland. Many of the state's beaches are expected to shrink as sea levels rise and winter storms carry away sand. "If you raise sea level by a foot, you push a cliff back 100 feet," said Jeff Severinghaus, professor of geosciences at the