Ann Foley Scheuring & Joseph B. Knox 
Global Climate Change and California 
Potential Impacts and Responses

California’s extraordinary ecological and economic diversity has brought it prosperity, pollution, and overpopulation. These factors and the state’s national and international ties make California an essential test case for the impact of global climate change—temperature increases, water shortages, more ultraviolet radiation. The scientists in this forward-looking volume give their best estimates of what the future holds.


Beginning with an overview by Joseph Knox, the book discusses the greenhouse effect, the latest climate modeling capabilities, the implications of climate change for water resources, agriculture, biological ecosystems, human behavior, and energy.


The warning inherent in a scenario of unchecked population growth and energy use in California applies to residents of the entire planet. The sobering conclusions related here include recommendations for research that will help us all prepare for potential climate change.

About the author

Joseph B. Knox, division leader of atmospheric and geophysical sciences at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, is Director of the National Institute for Global Environmental Change in Davis, California. Ann Foley Scheuring is a professional editor and writer affiliated with the University of California, Davis.