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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The last episode explored the basics of how local government works – the kinds of things California cities and counties are responsible for and who does what within a city government. In this episode we’re going to look at how and when you can most effectively interact with your local government. You’ll hear from some of the government officials I introduced in the last episode and from some new voices, including young people who have experience talking and working with local government.

This is the first of two episodes about local government. We’re going to begin here with the basic structure of local government so you can understand who does what. Then, we’ll look at what local governments are doing to address climate change. In the next episode, you’ll learn how you can get involved and influence these policies.

In the last episode, you learned how climate change is projected to affect air quality and heat in the San Joaquin Valley region. Another big projected change has to do with water. This episode is part two for the San Joaquin Valley region. It’s all about how changing precipitation patterns will affect life in the Central Valley.

In California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment, the San Joaquin Valley region includes all of San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Kings, and Tulare counties, plus parts of Madera, Fresno, and Kern counties. It stretches from Stockton in the north to Bakersfield in the south. About 4 million people live in this region. That’s a little over 10% of the state population. Because its agricultural economy is so intimately connected to the physical environment, climate change is going to have unusually profound effects on life in this part of the state. Part 1 focuses on air quality and heat in the Valley. Part 2 will tackle the incredibly complicated topic of precipitation – both drought and flooding.

Inland Deserts includes all of Imperial County, plus desert areas of Riverside and San Bernardino counties the lands of 12 different tribal nations. How will its borderland location, desert environment, and water supply interact with climate change to affect the lives of people in this area. You’ll hear from two young people whose personal experiences will help you glimpse the future in this region.