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The Center for American Progress reports
On [April 8], L.A. mayor Eric Garcetti released an ambitious plan that puts environmental, economic, and equality issues front and center in helping determine the trajectory of the city, which plans to add another half-million residents by 2035.
[...]A few of the plan's highlights include: becoming "the first big city in the nation to achieve zero waste" by 2025, fully divesting from coal-powered electricity by 2025, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, having zero smog days by 2025, and making it so that 50 percent of all trips taken by city residents are by bike, foot, or public transportation by 2035. The plan also makes commitments to reduce energy use in all buildings by 30 percent by 2035.
[...]The plan calls for a reduction of the urban heat island effect differential--the difference between the temperature of the city and the surrounding area--by 1.7°F by 2025 and 3°F by 2035.
[...]20 percent of L.A. is covered in rooftops and 40 percent in pavement of some form. Changing the reflective capacity of these areas and adding more greenspace will play a big role in reducing the heat island effect. [Executive director of the L.A.-based Climate Resolve and a former commissioner at the L.A. Department of Water and Power, Jonathan Parfrey] and other city officials have already been pushing for these changes. In December 2013, the Los Angeles City Council unanimously passed a building code update requiring all new and refurbished homes to have cool roofs--which use sunlight-reflecting materials--making L.A. the first major city to require such a measure.
[...]The city's new sustainability plans calls for 10,000 of these cool roofs to be in place by 2017.
The full plan spans 108 pages, covering everything from reducing potable water use by 10 percent in city parks to ensuring that 50 percent of the city's light-duty vehicle purchases are electric vehicles by 2025. With the drought in full swing and no reason to believe that prayers for rain will bring lasting results, the city is hoping to reduce overall municipal water use by 25 percent by 2025 and 30 percent by 2030.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Sunday April 12 2015, @04:13PM
At the rate we're going, there's a decent chance that California is completely screwed.
Certainly the Central Valley is screwed. Right now, because their cheap imported water rights are running dry, all the farms there are pumping out groundwater as fast as they can ... which will mean they will run out of groundwater soon too, in classic Tragedy of the Commons style. It was absolutely daft to build farms in a desert, but they built 'em anyways, just to show 'em!
Most of the rest of the population of California is at severe risk of flooding as the sea level rises. Those that aren't will get caught with wildfires.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 2, Funny) by redneckmother on Sunday April 12 2015, @04:31PM
So, problem solved? ;-)
Mas cerveza por favor.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday April 12 2015, @04:52PM
Most of the rest of the population of California is at severe risk of flooding as the sea level rises. Those that aren't will get caught with wildfires.
How would sea level rise affect them? Most of the population of California lives well above sea level. And wildfires are quite manageable.
(Score: 2) by Dunbal on Sunday April 12 2015, @05:30PM
Sea level rise, lol. Yeah I hear those 6 cm over the next couple hundred years are going to be a real killer.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Monday April 13 2015, @12:46AM
They could import water by boat?
Of course at that point it starts being insane..
As an alternative one could start massively power hungry osmosis plants or continental pipelines. If one can be built in Alaska, why not California?
Dryfornia? :D
(Score: 2) by wantkitteh on Monday April 13 2015, @08:42AM
Bill Hicks will be miffed - the lizard scum will escape before The Big One brings us all Arizona Bay.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday April 13 2015, @05:45PM
How about earthquakes?
I'm just sayin that when its federal handout time, if San Fran had the big one and was completely leveled in 1990, it would superficially appear to be a no brainer for the rest of the country to bail out all those idiots. Also the country was wealthier back then, compared to now.
But in 2020, post dotcom 2.0, post housing bubble, the century long drought getting worse yet also still barely started, THEN getting leveled by a quake, followed by the idiots holding their hands out for our money... I donno, I 'm thinking it'll be a harder sell. Depends how corrupt .gov is, nobody ever underestimated the corruption level of the .gov, then again, at some point, CA pretty much has to be cut off. All trends that can't continue forever, do eventually end.
Look how "well" we've rebuilt new orleans outside the tourist areas, and that city at least has an economic reason to exist.