California Already Confronting ‘Significant’ Impacts of Climate Change

Though past projections may not have swayed climate change skeptics, new evidence from the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment confirms dozens of ongoing environmental changes associated with global warming.

"The nature of these changes is that they're occurring gradually, but the impacts are significant and growing," say Sam Delson, a spokesman with the California EPA.

Although sea level rise and other changes from global warming may occur irregularly, the overall shift clearly indicates a warming planet. "It's not something that's 100 years away; it's already starting to play out," says climate scientist Dan Cayan.

Updating a similar survey published in 2009, the report identifies “10 additional problems now linked to climate change, including ocean acidification, tree deaths in the Sierra Nevada and zones of higher temperatures within cities that are known as 'urban heat islands',” writes Tony Barboza.