California Carries on in its Path to Climate Resiliency

In the United States of America, federal, state, and private sector employees have been working to curb climate change for years. It’s been a slow but necessary transition as much of the population seems to be at least concerned about it’s possibility and similar concern can be seen in other countries around the world. Meaning, this isn’t just U.S. politics, it is a legitimate turn in the global marketplace.

When President Trump was elected he asked a federal agency to release the names of every employee who was working on climate topics. It would be an understatement to say that federal government employees were nervous that their projects were going to be cut short, or that they may even lose their jobs entirely, as I heard from some scientists.

Since then, it’s been clear that the President isn’t on track to back these projects. For one thing, Scott Pruitt is the head of the Environmental Protection Agency — a department he has sued over a dozen times during the Obama Administration. President Trump’s budget all but killed federal climate initiatives. The internet and federal agencies are being scrubbed for climate language. And I’m not holding my breath to see if we’ll keep the Paris Agreement.

Is California leading the country on climate change?

According to the New York Times, California is the “leading edge of the Democratic resistance to the Trump administration.” In some ways I agree, the state did host and participate in a high level global pact to “limit the increase in global average temperature to below 2 degrees Celsius.” Our state legislation has an impressive (often criticized) list of legislation with an undeniable hopefulness to limit CO2 emissions. And on the social side, in Sacramento May is Bike Month. I can say from personal experience that the bike racks in Davis are regularly filled, even more than in the picture below, on a day to day basis.

But in some ways, I don’t necessarily agree that California is “leading the country” on climate. After all, it is one of ten U.S. states to have entered into the global pact to limit temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius. Other states, like Vermont and Minnesota, have awesome climate change programs and policies too. Not to mention, private business is championing the nationwide efforts in a major way.

But there is one glaring difference in California’s buy-in that let it weigh in more heavily that some other entities.

Not only does California contribute more that any other state to the nation’s GDP (13+%), but it also spends a ton of money. This means that California, can be on a more level playing field with other countries than smaller states in terms of its climate policies affecting a large number of people, businesses, and state programs. In other words, it has more money to develop and implement policies which in turn can have a large impact on global efforts.

This isn’t to say that smaller states have an insignificant impact on climate efforts. Every contribution is significant, no matter how small.

California’s climate change projects probably reach a lot of us, whether we realize it or not. Anyone who’ll be using the San Francisco International airport will likely benefit from its adaptation to sea level rise in the future. Sonoma County, known for its wine, is installing large rainwater catchment systems to irrigate farms and enhance water security in the region. Alameda County is adopting climate-resilient management strategies and sustainable grazing practices, which ultimately improves our food security as a state and country.

The last point I’ll make is this: most people working on climate topics never meant to be a rebel or set out to fight the power. Private, state, and federal entities have only responded to the needs of the people they serve. And as much as California may be seen as a point of “resistance” to the rest of the country or to the White House, it’s really much less dramatic.

We’re just carrying on our normal daily operations.

Because Climate wants to tell personal stories about how climate change is affecting the lives of Californians.

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