Climate Change: Impacts

The effect of climate change over recent decades is apparent worldwide. Around the globe, seasons are shifting, temperatures are climbing and sea levels are rising. If the current trend continues, climate change will have substantial effects on human society and natural environments and will dramatically impact the lives of future generations.

Warming is already evident in California. Over the past decade, we have seen:

• More extreme heat days;
• More large fires, more often;
• Less Sierra snowpack;
• Rising sea level; and
• Ecosystem changes.

This, in turn, affects our environment, our health and our welfare. An increase in the number of extreme heat days, for example, is associated with more heat-related illness and death. Increases in the number and frequency of large fires means more property damage and insurance claims. Less Sierra snowpack impacts our limited water resources and our winter recreation opportunities. Rising sea level threatens to take back our infrastructure, e.g., parts of Highway 101, and changes in ecosystems, including species extinction, impacts us in ways we simply cannot predict.