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Panetta, local officials, criticize Paris Climate Agreement pullout

June 1, 2017

Moss Landing >> The decision to pull out of the Paris Climate Accord has state and local officials worried not only about the ramifications for the country at large but what it will mean for the Central Coast.

Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-Carmel Valley, said Thursday the president's action posed a threat to the country's environmental, economic, and national security. Panetta was at the Moss Landing Marine Lab taking part in one of multiple roundtable discussions he has on his docket addressing climate change.

Thursday's discourse centered around what the withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord would mean. The agreement deals with the mitigation and adaptation of greenhouse gas emissions. Signed by 195 members of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the pact went into effect in November and was in part brokered by President Barack Obama.

"To turn back and abandon a significant international agreement when it comes to climate change is to risk our national security," said Panetta, noting that the communities and economies on the Central Coast will continue to feel the effects of it. "Climate change is real and I want to make sure people understand that. The effects of rising temperatures, coastal erosion and sea level rise are on our economy, both our hospitality and our agricultural industries."

Panetta joined UC Santa Cruz professor Gary Griggs, Patrick Barnard, coastal geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey Pacific Science Center and Charles Lester, UCSC researcher and former executive director of the California Coastal Commission at Thursday's meeting.

"We know that the coast is eroding and we're going to accelerate that," said Griggs.

Their remarks came despite comments made by President Donald Trump during his earlier press conference that the Paris Agreement was less about the climate and more about other countries gaining advantage over the United States.

"The agreement is a massive re-distribution of U.S. wealth to other countries," said Trump, noting that under the agreement the country's energy reserves were effectively being put under lock and key.

The president also said he was willing to re-negotiate the country's way back into the agreement or negotiate a new deal.

Still, those sentiments didn't seem to calm the anxiety of those like Monterey Bay Aquarium Executive Director Julie Packard who noted in a statement released Thursday that the aquarium was one of the organizations cheering less than two years ago when 195 of the world's 197 nations agreed to act together to limit the burning of fossil fuels.

On Thursday, Packard said aquarium officials stand with leaders in California, and other states and nations, to advance global climate action grounded in science and that the non-profit would be taking that message to the United Nations next week when aquarium officials will participate in the first U.N. Ocean Conference.

"The ocean absorbs much of the carbon dioxide we produce when we burn fossil fuels, buffering us from the full impact of global climate change … as sea levels rises in a warming ocean, we'll face other significant threats to our national security, as people worldwide are displaced from their homes along the coast," said Packard.

Locally, Nick Stong, the Educational Programs Manager at the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History noted the same concern.

"Just with so many people living coastally, sea level rise is an effect on climate change that will eventually end up displacing people and causing erosion concerns," said Stong. He noted the discussion at a recent Pacific Grove City Council meeting that centered around the city's 30-year erosion plan calling for a new walking trail because the one along Ocean View Boulevard will eventually be washed away.

Similarly, the effects of climate change could even be seen on the monarch butterflies that have come to symbolize Pacific Grove and have already seen steady declines, noted Stong.

"Their reliance is on milkweed and if climate changes and shifts its abundance or availability or if the weather and climate they rely on to trigger reproduction and migration changes, they could be more threatened," said Stong. "So as climate triggers those things, who knows how they will respond."

On Thursday, while Griggs espoused the potential of renewable energy for the Central Coast, noting that the state is already a leader in wind and solar power, and Packard said the aquarium would be redoubling its efforts to support policies safeguarding the ocean, Panetta noted his plans to continue working on legislation to combat sea level rise and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"This is an example of having politics driving policy," said Panetta. "When you step back clearly it creates a vacuum that countries like China are willing to step into and undermines our credibility."

Issues:Environment