Climate Change in California
Google Earth Outreach, Christiaan Adams
Location: California, USA
Themes: Emissions Policy, Adapting, Water, Wildfires, Coasts, Green Economy
Summary: This tour, narrated by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, shows what California has been doing to reduce the effects of climate change through progressive emissions and adaptation policies. It shows what organizations in the state are doing to prepare for changes to the water supply, wildfires and coasts.

Tour Resources
(Explore me later)

Tour Placemarks

Climate Change in California
Location: California, USA
Themes: Emissions Policy, Adapting, Water, Wildfires, Coasts, Green Economy
Summary: This tour, narrated by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, shows what California has been doing to reduce the effects of climate change through progressive emissions and adaptation policies. It shows what organizations in the state are doing to prepare for changes to the water supply, wildfires and coasts.
Emissions Policy, Adapting, Water, Wildfires, Coasts, Green Economy
This tour, narrated by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, shows what California has been doing to reduce the effects of climate change through progressive emissions and adaptation policies. It shows what organizations in the state are doing to prepare for changes to the water supply, wildfires and coasts.

Temperatures on the Rise
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Temperature Rise in California
During the late 20th Century
For more information visit:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=7596
High Resolution Map (1.6 MB JPEG)
Source: NASA image adapted by Robert Simmon, based on data from Richard Medina, University of Utah

Los Angeles Temperature Trend
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Over the Last 125 Years
For more information visit:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=7596
High Resolution Graph (110 kB PDF)
Source: NASA image adapted by Robert Simmon, based on data from Bill Patzert, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

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AB32
Reducing California's Greenhouse Gases
AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006

California Air Resources Board
For more information, visit:
http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/ab32/ab32.htm

High Speed Rail
For more information about California's proposed high-speed train system visit:
http://www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov

Climate Adaptation Strategy
For more information about California's Climate Adaptation Strategy, visit:
http://www.climatechange.ca.gov/adaptation/

CA Climate Change Portal
California Climate Change Portal
Learn more by visiting:
http://www.climatechange.ca.gov

DWR Climate Video
VIDEO: A Climate of Change
California Department of Water Resources
Click here to:
Download & Watch the Video
(101 MB .wmv file)
For more information visit:
http://www.water.ca.gov/climatechange/

El Dorado Irrigation District
Adapting to climate Change
El Dorado Irrigation District:
http://www.eid.org
Climate Change Award:
http://www.eid.org/doc_lib/features/climate_change_award.pdf
Water Evaluation And Planning system:
http://wikiadapt.org/index.php?...

Pacific Institute
Sea Level Rise Research
Learn more at:
http://www.pacinst.org/reports/sea_level_rise/

Tesla Motors
Learn more about Tesla Motors by visiting:
http://www.teslamotors.com

Green Jobs
California's Green Economic Boom
Learn more about California companies involved in green business, energy generation, energy efficiency and transportation by contacting the Environmental Defense Fund:
http://www.edf.org
California's Green Economy Maps:
http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=40388

Learn More
at the California Climate Change Portal
California Climate Change Portal:
http://www.climatechange.ca.gov
For more Google Earth layers and visualization tools, visit:
http://www.climatechange.ca.gov/visualization/
and:
Wikiadapt: Google Earth Project California

Temperature Change - Past
Temperature Change in California
1950 to 2000
More information here:
>> Temperature Rise Balloon
Source: NASA Earth Observatory

Legend

Text - TempPast Legend

Screen background - temppast legend

Polygons

+2.6 deg F

+2.3 deg F

+2.1 deg F

-1.1 deg F

Labels

Temperature Projections - Future
Avg Summer Temperature - A2 Scenario
Average Summer Temperature
Ensemble Average model
A2 scenario
Data Source: Maurer, et al. (2007) Santa Clara University
Images obtained from: ClimateWizard.org

Past 50 years

Map Image - past 50 years

Legend Background Box

Legend image

Mid-Century (2050)

Map Image - Mid Century (2050)

End-Century (2100)

Map Image - End-Century (2100)

Impacts images

Smog in LA
Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LosAngelesSmog.jpg

Dry Riverbed

Coastal Flooding
Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hermosa_Beach_03.jpg

Wind Farm
Not to scale, simplified models, for visualization purposes only.

Simple Wind Turbine

High Speed Rail
Source: cahighspeedrail.ca.gov
CA High Speed Rail
www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/
By linking all major cities in California with a state-of-the-art new transportation choice, high-speed trains will move people and products across our state like never before.
See the link abolve for the official site of California's proposed high-speed train system.
Maps of the proposed route:
http://www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/google-map/

CHSRA Route - detailed

Pacheco Pass.dgn

Merced to Fresno

Modesto to Merced

San Jose to Merced

NukeMe

CHSR Route - one line

CHSR Stations

San Francisco Transbay Terminal

Millbrae - SFO Airport

Redwood City

Palo Alto

San Jose Diridon

Sacramento

Stockton

Downtown Modesto

Downtown Merced

Fresno Downtown

Bakersfield

Palmdale Airport

Sylmar

Burbank

Los Angeles

Norwalk

Anaheim

Irvine

City of Industry

Ontario Airport

Riverside

Murrieta

Escondido

University City

Gilroy

San Diego

CHSR Visualizations

Fresno, CA
This 3D animation clip illustrates a conceptual design for the development that would likely occur around a high-speed rail station in Fresno Calfifornia.
YouTube | Flickr
source: http://www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/google-map/

Ontario Airport
This 3D animation clip shows a conceptual design for high-speed trains near the airport in Ontario, California.
YouTube | Flickr
source: http://www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/google-map/

Anaheim, CA (ARTIC)
This 3D animation clip demonstrates conceptual designs for high-speed trains and transit-oriented development at the proposed Anaheim ARTIC center.
YouTube | Flickr
source: http://www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/google-map/

Mission Bay, San Diego
This 3D animation clip demonstrates a conceptual design for high-speed trains along I-5 in San Diego, California.

Grade Separated Crossing, Anahiem, CA
This 3D animation clip shows a conceptual grade separation for high-speed trains traveling through Anaheim, California.

Tehachapi Pass
This 3D animation clip shows a conceptual design for high-speed trains through Tehachapi Pass near Mojave, California.

Grade Separated Crossing
This 3D animation clip illustrates a conceptual design for a grade separated crossing in Burbank, California.

Wasco, CA (BNSF)
This 3D animation clip shows a conceptual design for high-speed trains through Californias Central Valley. This train is shown traveling along the BNSF corridor near Wasco, California.

UPRR Central Valley
This 3D animation clip shows a conceptual design for high-speed trains through the Central Valley north of Bakersfield. The proposed route will follow along side existing Union Pacific tracks.

Pacheco Pass
This 3D animation clip shows a conceptual design for high-speed trains along the alternative route through Pacheco Pass, California.

SouthBay, San Francisco
This 3D animation clip shows a conceptual design for high-speed trains just south of San Francisco, California.

Altamont Pass
This 3D animation clip shows a conceptual design for high-speed trains along a possible route through Altamont Pass, California.

Sierra Snow Pack
Source:
April Snow Water Equivalent (cm)
Select "Sierra Snow Pack" folder and use time slider to move through decades.

Decades text

Wildfire Images

SoCal Fires
Image: NASA

SoCal Fires - closeup
Image: NASA

Fire Threat
Statewide Classification
California Fire Threat Classification
Data Source: California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF)
This statewide fire threat map (version v05_1), generated by CDF, combines expected fire frequency with potential fire behavior to create 4 threat classes. This attribute SHOULD NOT be used to calculate fire threats to people. For more information, follow the CDF link above.
The data shown here hass been a down-sampled for graphics performance. The scaled colors do not precisely represent the analysis output, but are meant for high-level visualization only.
For more information and to download the full resolution layer, visit the Fire section on WikiAdapt's "Google Earth Project California" web page:
Wikiadapt.org Google Earth Project California

Fire Threat overlay - downsampled

Legend background

Fire Projection
GFDL-CM21, SRES A2
Projected Fire Increase in California
Under the GFDL-CM21 climate projections, SRES A2 emissions scenario
This layer shows only two of the 12 overlays of modeled Burned Area into the future. For more information and to see the overlays for other climate projections and emissions scenarios, visit the Fire section on WikiAdapt's "Google Earth ProjectCalifornia" web page:
Wikiadapt.org Google Earth Project California
The overlays presented for two 30-year time periods centered on 2050, and 2085, relative to a 30-year reference period centered on 1975.
Values 0.0 to 4.0 represent the ratio of future burned area to the reference period - warmer colors represent higher burned area relative to the reference period. For example, a value of 4.0 corresponds to modeled future burned area at least four times as large as during the reference period.
This research was supported by the California Energy Commission via the California Climate Change Center, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Regional Integrated Science and Assessment Program for California, and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station

2050 Fire Projection
2050 projections of burned area under GFDL-CM21, SRES A2

2050 Fire Projection: GFDL-CM21, SRES A2

2085 Fire Projection
2085 projections of burned area under GFDL-CM21, SRES A2

2085 Fire Projection: GFDL-CM21, SRES A2

Sea Level Rise
SF Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Sea Level Rise
This map shows a color-coded representation of vulnerability to inundation by average yearly high-water levels for given amounts of sea level rise. The areas in dark blue are inundated or vulnerable to inundation under today's conditions. These comprise wetlands and areas protected by levees. Areas currently behind levees would be inundated only if those levees fail. The other colors represent areas that are not vulnerable today, but would be under the corresponding amounts of sea level rise. Click here for the full documentation of this dataset.
Source: Knowles, Noah. 2008. Potential Inundation Due to Rising Sea Levels in the San Francisco Bay Region. California Climate Change Center. CEC-500-2009-023-D.
URL: http://www.climatechange.ca.gov/climate_action_team.
Data from website: http://cascade.wr.usgs.gov
Note: This layer is a low resolution version of the full dataset, and is only for visualizing in this tour. The full resolution layer (and other datasets) can be found on this page: http://cascade.wr.usgs.gov/data/Task2b-SFBay/,
or downloaded directly here.

150cm (4.9ft) rise inundation vulnerability

100cm (3.3ft) rise inundation vulnerability

50cm (1.6ft) rise inundation vulnerability

0cm (0ft) rise (current) inundation vulnerability

Threatened Coasts

Infrastructure At Risk
Source: Pacific Institute
California coastal infrastructure at risk of inundation.
Source: Pacific Instititute
Documentation: http://www.pacinst.org/reports/sea_level_rise/

Schools
Schools at risk of innundation due to climate induced sea level rise
Source: Heberger & Herrera, 2009

Fire Stations
Fire Stations at risk of innundation due to climate induced sea level rise
Source: Heberger & Herrera, 2009

Hospitals
Hospitals at risk of innundation due to climate induced sea level rise
Source: Heberger & Herrera, 2009

Police Stations
Police Stations at risk of innundation due to climate induced sea level rise

Waste Water Treatment Plants
Waste Water Treatment Plants at risk of innundation due to climate induced sea level rise

EPA Listed Facilities
EPA Listed Facilities (toxic chemicals) at risk of innundation due to climate induced sea level rise

Levees

Levees - Existing

Levees - Needed

Levees - Legend

Wetlands
Wetland data for SF Bay area only. For complete datasets and documentation, see the Pacific Institute's study on the "Impacts of Sea Level Rise on the California Coast", at: http://www.pacinst.org/reports/sea_level_rise/.

Wetlands - Current

Wetlands - Migration
Areas where wetlands may migrate by 2100 if unimpeded.

Wetlands - Legend

Tesla Roadster

Tesla Electric Roadster Model
Simple textured model of a Tesla roaster, from the Google 3D Warehouse: http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/
View and download the model here: Tesla Roaster-Pulled.

Press to play tour

Screen overlays, models, etc.

Black Screen - no img

Main Title Screen

Governor Photo

Screen background - Voice of Governor

Text - Voice of Governor

Screen Photo - Peter Gleick
Peter H. Gleick, President and co-founder of the Pacific Institute inside his office in Oakland, California, June 2008. Photo credit: Carl Ganter, Circle of Blue.

Text - Peter Gleick, President of the Pacific Institute

Screen background - Voice of Peter Gleick

Text - Voice of Peter Gleick

California Polygon

Fire Photo

Time
Hi, I help historical imagery work in this tour... if you have it turned on.

Snow Pack - All
No TimeSpans: for use in tour