As it becomes ever more clear that Congress has retreated
from climate change legislation faster than a Greenland glacier, cities and
states are starting to focus on adapting to the inevitable.

A report released this week by the California Adaptation Advisory Panel laid out the
myriad threats climate change poses to the Golden State — as well as strategies to
anticipate and prepare for rising sea levels, along with more wildfires, heat waves, and
water shortages.

“Failure to anticipate and plan for climate variability and
the prospect of extreme weather and related events in land development patterns
and in natural resource management could have serious impacts far beyond what
has already been experienced,” the report states.

In short, California needs to deploy monitoring technology
along its 1,100-mile coastline and overhaul its approach to land use
decision-making.

Eight cities and counties across the United States,
meanwhile, have joined what is being called the nation’s first climate adaptation
effort. The participants are Boston, Cambridge, Mass.,  Flagstaff, Ariz., Tucson, Ariz., Grand
Rapids, Mich., Lee County, Fla., Miami-Dade County, Fla., and the San Francisco
Bay Conservation and Development Commission.

Created by the ICLEI-Local
Governments for Sustainability, a Washington nonprofit, the Climate
Resilient Communities program gives the cities and counties planning and
database tools to prepare for rising temperatures and sea levels.

“Local governments have a responsibility to protect people,
property, and natural resources, and these leading communities wisely recognize
that climate change is happening now, and that they must begin planning for
impacts that will only become more severe in the coming decades,” Martin
Chávez, ICLEI USA’s executive director and a former mayor of Albuquerque, said
in a statement.

The idea is to create a standardized municipal planning
process to prepare for climate change.