UCLA Professor Lectures PPCC on Climate Change

A UCLA climate change expert spoke to the Pacific Palisades Community Council on Feb. 9 about his concerns for the Pali neighborhood.

Glen MacDonald, director of the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, told the council he was concerned about the following:

• The rise in sea level between two and three feet submerging beachfront properties and threatening Pacific Coast Highway. 
• Persistent drought conditions that steadily increase the threat of wildfires and diminish Southern California's main water supply.

MacDonald warned that global warming is a very real phenomenon that likely will cause significant problems within the next 100 years.

"Our studies at UCLA where we've been working on the last 2,000 years of climate change using various records [that] show exactly the same thing: from about 0 A.D. to now, temperatures in the northern hemisphere and in the Arctic show an amazing rise in the late 20th century," MacDonald said.

Referring to skeptics who deny the validity of scientific data indicating that fossil fuels have had an impact on the planet's relatively recent heightened warming trend, MacDonald said "I can guarantee you that these [UCLA] students aren't part of some large hoax or cabal. They're just good, solid science students making measurements biological and physical in nature."

He acknowledged that predictions and estimates about climate change and fossil fuel consumption are inexact and replete with variability.

"But one thing that's interesting—almost every single climate model ... shows warming will occur as we continue to add greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere," said MacDonald.

PPCC member Steven Boyers heads the council's Climate Change Committee. He, along with other committee members, arranged for MacDonald's presentation.

"Our purpose is to eventually create a series of criteria and objectives for Pacific Palisades in terms of what changes, what adaptations we can suggest we need to take," Boyers said.