Gorgeous Southern California weather like we’re having today makes me wonder why everyone hasn’t already moved here — until I remember that we’ve got plans underway to prepare for more heatwaves, wildfires, droughts and floods — and other effects of global climate change.

 

After all, while we do need to keep working on reducing CO2 emissions, we’re already seeing the effects of climate change. “Over the last century in California, the sea level has risen by 7 inches, average temperatures have increased, spring snowmelt occurs earlier in the year, and there are hotter days and fewer cold nights,” reports The Guardian. More changes are coming our way, even as we work to shrink the state’s carbon footprint — which is why the state’s working on a comprehensive climate adaptation strategy.

 

Fellow Angelenos: Curious what we can expect to happen in L.A.? Then get to “How Will Climate Change Transform L.A.?” a Zocalo Public Square panel happening Thurs., Oct. 29 at 7:30 p.m. at The Huntington, 1151 Oxford Rd., San Marino, Calif.

 

The panelists — CalTech professor of environmental science Tapio Schneider, UCLA associate professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences Alex Hall, and Pulitzer Prize-winning environmental writer Usha McFarling — will “discuss the challenges Los Angeles faces as temperatures rise, what we can do to address global warming now, and to ask, if Los Angeles and the world continue on their current path, how the city might survive a hotter future.” The event’s free, but RSVPs are required.

 

Not a Californian? Contact your state’s environmental agency to find out what’s being done to mitigate the effects of climate change where you live!