States with poor climate policy ‘overlap’ with those seeking to limit rights, Kamala Harris says
As California officials work to address the state’s drought, they’re also being confronted with a new challenge: To build the resilience of their state’s economy, they must recognize the role climate change can play in helping them respond to the impacts of water shortages.
But it’s not just water that’s scarce in California. As the state has seen extreme weather events, it has seen an increase in wildfires, damage from earthquakes, and floods.
When it comes to public policy, California, like any place in the country, has a long history of trying to make people aware of the climate emergency and then acting on it. But it also has an unusually clear record of how well that works.
While the state’s greenhouse gas emissions are in decline, its economic growth has stalled in recent years, the state is feeling the impact of the growing number of wildfires, some are beginning to think that climate change is contributing to the drought, and it is also being buffeted by a surge in California’s population.
And in an attempt to address the potential impacts of climate change, and to build the resilience of California’s economy, the state is looking to make sure that people are aware of what the climate is doing and how it is doing it, Kamala Harris said.
“All of us in California are under the threat of climate change,” Harris said. “We have no choice but to build resilience against the impacts of climate change — the costs of climate change and the risks of climate change.”
The US has “got to show that we’re committed to the task” of addressing climate change, Harris said. “We have to show, in every policy piece, we’re committed to taking action.”
And while it is true that California has made progress in addressing its greenhouse gas emissions and climate risk, Harris said, the California public “should be able to see what our climate is already doing — and the challenges it is already facing — if we