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San Diego Aims for Resilience To Face Climate Crisis

A seawall is constructed along the beach in Del Mar to protect homes from rising ocean levels, May 21, 2018.
Matt Hoffman/KPBS News
A seawall is constructed along the beach in Del Mar to protect homes from rising ocean levels, May 21, 2018.
Heat, flooding, drought, wildfires. San Diego, facing the four horsemen of the climate apocalypse, has realized its own climate action plan won't be enough, so the city is looking for ways to be resilient, to mitigate the most dire effects of climate change in our future.

The city of San Diego has its own Climate Action Plan for reducing greenhouse gasses which foster global warming. But, as we face debilitating temperatures, bigger wildfires, sea-level rise, flooding and persistent drought, it has become as obvious as a burned hillside that we need more armor in this fight.

The city is creating a campaign, called Climate Resilient SD, which aims to create, prioritize, distribute and find ways to pay for a series of mitigations to help cope with the unwelcome assaults.

The city's challenges are several. There are, for instance, areas where air-conditioning is unaffordable, areas which will lose their prized beaches, and urban lands that interface with wildland.

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David Garrick, city hall reporter for The San Diego Union-Tribune, talked with KPBS Midday Edition about Climate Resilient SD. He noted the plan that results from the campaign will be presented to the San Diego City Council by the end of the year, and city planners would like your input.

The deadline for the first survey is this Friday, February 19. Go here to participate.