While climate change remains an abstract notion to many, here in Santa Barbara County climate change has presented itself in stark relief. Those who would deny climate change — or worse, those who know it exists yet fail to prepare for its unavoidable impacts — invite greater consequences if we don’t heed the warning signs we all witnessed in real time.
California is a recognized leader in efforts to fight climate change. Our state has set the national and international standards for understanding and addressing this global threat. Nearly every thoughtful jurisdiction in California has taken steps to comply with California’s visionary carbon-reduction requirements.
We in Santa Barbara County must do our part to not just comply with the minimum requirements but set an example of climate leadership befitting a community long understood to be one of the most environmentally forward thinking in the world.
