SF Chron, LATimes, etc: In California, a Plan B for climate change
Yesterday California governor Schwarzenegger invited reporters, among others, to Treasure Island in the middle of the bay to announce creation of a panel of 23 experts to advise on what happens if global warming does its worst – or at least its very bad. Along with the panel came a boost for a recent report, linked below in Grist, by several state agencies on plausible scenarios of how conditions might change (including the map above, filched via screen shot and credited to Prof. Dan Cayan at UC Berkeley).
The event got handled various ways, including some that focussed on the initiative’s inclusion of Google mapping tools to make its point. That’s hard to figure – also as seen in Grist below, Google is beating the drums for its ability to map climate change. But this seems a minor aspect to the news. Google may have slipped a specific press release out that I cannot find. To write the story around Google seems to invite the story being shunted aside as yet another bit of consumer-computer-online-product fluff news. One does find the generic Google site set up just to help people understand COP15 (the Copenhagen meeting. COP stands for Conference of the Parties. The resonance with the city name is a bonus).
Public commentary to news stories note: It’s remarkable. In just two weeks reference to the hacked emails seem to have have replaced don’t you know – global warming stopped ten years ago? as the opening sentiment from readers who think GW is a hoax, or close to it, and that the press is clueless. Scroll down a bit for another post on the e-mail news eruptions.
California Adaptation Stories:
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San Francisco Chronicle – Wyatt Buchanan: Governor: Backup plan on global warming needed ; Ran big, top right on p.1A with abundant photos and illus. - Los Angeles Times – Maria L. La Ganga : Google offers a graphic glimpse of how climate change might affect California ; A blog post.
- Sacramento Bee – Kevin Yamamura: New model outlines climate change peril ;
- AP – Samantha Young: Google Earth explores climate risks to California ;
- Christian Science Monitor – Michael B. Farrell: Google Earth offers a vision of post-global warming California ;
- Reuters – Peter Henderson: Google map shows climate-changed California future ;
- KCBS (Bay area news station) : Governor Introduces Strategy on Global Warming ;
Grist for the Mill:
2009 California Climate Adaptation Strategy ;
Gov. Schwarzenegger’s office Press Release ;
GoogleEarth climate page, including a Schwarzenegger-starring video on the California angle.
- Charlie Petit
