Group says California climate change panel needed

California's new governor is being urged to create a climate risk council to plan for rising sea levels, declining water supplies and increasing numbers of wildfires.

The Los Angeles-based Pacific Council on International Policy, a group of policymakers, scientists and business leaders, says in a 77-page report that its crucial that Jerry Brown plan for unavoidable impacts of climate change on California's landscape and economy in coming generations.

Council co-chairman John Bryson told the San Francisco Chronicle on Monday that the accumulations of greenhouse gases in the past and prospective emissions that are inevitable make adaptation a necessary reality.

Information from: San Francisco Chronicle

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