Climate change and loss of biodiversity pose an existential threat to California’s environment, habitats, wildlife, people, and natural landscapes — as vast as entire ecosystems and as limited to individual species.
We now know that climate change is also a public health issue impacting human well-being — resulting in increased respiratory illnesses, mental health impacts, cardiovascular failure, and more. Studies show that access to parks can reduce some of the primary public health challenges that are exacerbated by climate change.
The evidence is clear: climate change is having detrimental impacts on California’s people and places.
It will take our collective action to fight for a warming planet, and state parks and their supporters play a role in increasing California’s climate resilience. As we support California state parks, we help manage sea level rise, wildfires, invasive species, drought, and other climate threats.
Impact
of pollution for every acre of tree cover are removed in parks.
Like many places along California’s coastline, several coastal park units have already experienced the impacts of severe erosion and flooding. State Parks views these impacts as an opportunity to learn more about sea level rise now and adapt future actions to help preserve our treasured public lands so future generations can enjoy them.