Future Imperfect

Future Imperfect

In your mind’s eye, picture wild coastline, giant rivers, farms and ranches, redwood trees and forest lands stretched across 20,000 square miles, including millions of acres of federal land. 40% of the state’s natural runoff water, including a lot of the water that feeds farming in the southern part of the state. This area makes up 11.5% of California’s land but it’s home to less than 1% of the state’s population.

The North Coast, as it’s defined in California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment, stretches over 20,000 square miles and includes six counties: Mendocino, Humboldt, Del Norte, Lake, Trinity, and Siskiyou. This episode explores how climate change is projected to affect life in the North Coast region.

Future Imperfect

In California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment, the Sacramento Valley region, from Shasta down to the delta, is home to about 2.4 million people – 6% of the state total. More than half of those people – 1.5 million of them – live in and around Sacramento, our state capital. This episode explores the ways climate change is projected to affect day-to-day life for people in the Sacramento Valley Region.

Future Imperfect

The San Francisco Bay is the westernmost of three interconnected bays - the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bays - that carry water from the state’s central river valley out to the ocean. In California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment, the San Francisco Bay Area includes the nine counties that ring these bays, from Sonoma County in the north, to Solano and Contra Costa Counties in the east, to Santa Clara county in the south.

 7.2 million people live here. That’s about 18% of the state population and 30% of the state’s economy. Many of the world’s best-known tech companies are based here – Google, Apple, Tesla, Facebook, plus two major ports, three international airports, and a thriving wine industry.

In this episode we’re going to explore how climate change will alter the San Francisco Bay Area.

Future Imperfect

In California’s Fourth State Climate Change Assessment, the Central Coast region is a long strip of land that runs from Santa Barbara in the south to Santa Cruz in the north. About 1.5 million people live here, spread across five counties. Most of the land is undeveloped natural areas: redwood forests and mountains. There are a handful of medium-sized cities. Plus agricultural areas, like the Salinas Valley, made famous in the 1930s by the author, John Steinbeck. 

This episode explores how climate change will affect life in California’s Central Coast region.

Future Imperfect

In California’s fourth climate change assessment, the Sierra Nevada region is huge, extending along the eastern edge of the state from the Oregon border all the way down to Death Valley in the southeast. It includes 14 entire counties, plus the eastern parts of 4 others. The discovery of gold here in the mid-1800s led to many thousands of people pouring into the area, but today only 3% of it is cities or agricultural areas. The remaining 97% is grasslands, shrublands, forests, and, in the south, high desert. Four young people spoke with me and helped me understand how climate change is likely to affect day-to-day life in this region.