What’s ahead for climate change adaptation?
As I write this column there is forecast of a “bomb cyclone” and atmospheric river heading toward the West Coast and Santa Cruz. In fact, your Sunday paper may have arrived soggy if you are old fashioned like me and still like a real paper to read and enjoy with my coffee. These types of events tie our coastline to the larger systems of the vast Pacific Ocean and the tropical storm systems originating from the western Pacific mixing with storms in the northern Pacific. Will this storm be the relief we need from the extensive drought all of California finds itself in? We will all be waking up to see. It is a relief to see snow hitting the Sierra once again.
These storm events along with heat events and wildfires are our new normal in California. Though I was born in Tahoe during a time when my parents briefly owned a carpet store there, I was raised in Sacramento where hot summers and freezing tule fog winters were the norm. We were ski fanatics and were often piled into the station wagon at dawn and driven through walls of snow along Highway 80 to get a day of skiing in at Homewood.
I remember multiple times of being snowed in and unable to leave the Tahoe Basin for multiple days as storm after storm swept over the Sierra. When I moved the Santa Cruz in 1983 in what was a wet and wild winter on campus.
I learned to love the fog and the ecosystem of the redwood forest — dependent on that fog and threatened now the length of it’s range from Big Sur to the northern reaches of California. The past five summers I have seen so many of the places I backpacked and camped destroyed by wildfires.
The snowcapped Sierra and wet, misty redwood forests are iconic California images. What’s next for California and how do we as a city plan for climate change? Decisions now, in fact this very week in Washington D.C., will have lasting effects on what our future holds here in Santa Cruz. The infrastructure that keeps our city safe (levees and pump stations), provides our water supply (primarily from rain), and processes our wastewater are all susceptible to
disruption from climatic events such as the atmospheric river forecast to hit Santa Cruz.
Yet these atmospheric rivers are critical for recovering from the drought we are currently in. The trick is looking to adaptation pathways to keep our city infrastructure operating smartly and efficiently and preparing our urban landscape and coastal areas and beaches to avoid the catastrophic impacts some cities experience.
We need investment in our infrastructure to do that. We need to modernize our water system, our wastewater system, and think of our urban landscape as a place for investment and management. Santa Cruz is well on its way I am proud to say through the leadership of our Climate Action Program led by Tiffany Wise West and guided by the completion of the 20182023 Climate Adaptation
Plan and Local Hazard Mitigation Program and the current work on the Climate and Energy Action Plan 2030.
Action on facing climate change takes place in multiple city departments. It focuses on reducing carbon emissions in city facilities and vehicles, requiring building electrification in new buildings, exploring micro-energy systems and battery storage systems, planting more trees and taking care of our existing trees through our recently adopted Urban Forest Plan, and managing our forested open spaces in partnership with neighborhood Fire-Wise Groups to avoid damaging wildfires.
The city also must measure and monitor sea level rise and the impacts to our beaches, West Cliff Drive, and our low lying neighborhoods in the beach area and along the river. The city can only plan for the future by measuring the incremental changes brought on by climate change and its associated impacts of heat, precipitation, and sea level rise. Support of these efforts is critical from our national and state governments.
Now is the time to become involved in the next Climate Action Plan currently under development by the city. Tagged as “Resilient Together,” there are many activities still to come and be involved with including the Pathway to Carbon Neutral Phase and Community Engagement Phase. To check out the city’s website, visit cityofsantacruz.com.
Santa Cruz has always been a city surrounded by nature — hemmed in by the redwoods and Douglas firs, oak woodlands and the Pacific ocean. Our future relies on being able to work with what nature brings in times of climate change and to be resilient and aware of the natural systems that bring our water supply and cool our town. This is the work ahead for the city and its residents.