Today Governor Schwarzenegger and the California Natural Resources Agency is announcing CalAdapt, a new Google Earth-based tool designed to help Californians learn more about climate impacts and adaptation. The Stockholm Environmental Institute (SEI) helped develop the CalAdapt prototype with support from the California Energy Commission and Google.org. SEI has been a leader in developing an international network of interactive climate adaptation tools, as you can see at WeAdapt. CalAdapt is still in Beta, but the goal for this interactive tool is to bring science to the people.
And California has the science. The California Climate Change Center is one of the few state-funded climate research programs in the country. The Center has provided critical support for research and collaboration among scientists and resource managers in a series of state-wide climate assessments.
Don't miss Gov. Schwarzenegger's narrated Google Earth tour, which shows the risks of continued climate change for Californians and the important actions state and local agencies are taking to address these. See the short video version below (and the longer one here) or download the full tour for Google Earth here. You can learn more about California's response in its Climate Adaptation Strategy, which was also released today.
We're pleased to see California's continued leadership in addressing climate change.
Dr. Amy Luers, Senior Manager, Environment, Google.org