California Feeling The Impact Of Urban Heat Island Effect

Increases in average temperatures are mostly caused by urbanization and not greenhouse warming argue authors of a recent study.

1 minute read

March 30, 2007, 12:00 PM PDT

By Christian Madera @http://www.twitter.com/cpmadera

"Average temperatures across California rose slightly from 1950 to 2000, with the greatest warming coming in the state's big cities and mostly caused by urbanization -- not greenhouse gases -- authors of a study released on Wednesday said.

The study found that average temperatures in California rose nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit (nearly one degree Celsius) in the second half of the 20th century, led by large urban centers such as San Francisco and Southern California.

"Everybody's talking about the carbon coming out of the SUV exhaust or the coal plant, but in the past 50 years in California the bigger impact has been urbanization and suburbanization," said Bill Patzert of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, one of the study's authors."

FULL STORY: Study: California being warmed by urbanization

Thursday, March 29, 2007 in Reuters

Environment Land Use California

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