Steven Chu, new Energy Secretary, warns about the impact of global warming in California by the end of this century.  "We're looking at a scenario where there's no more agriculture in California," Chu says in an article in the LA Times this week.

He suggests that California's vaunted agricultural lands and vineyards could vanish with the disappearance of 90% of the Sierra snowpack.  Not that California's cities would do much better.  Chu said that the hope lies in educating the public on the dangers of complacency. 

"In the course of a half-hour interview, Chu made clear that he sees public education as a key part of the administration's strategy to fight global warming -- along with billions of dollars for alternative energy research and infrastructure, a national standard for electricity from renewable sources and cap-and-trade legislation to limit greenhouse gas emissions."

One might assume that Washington and Oregon may need to take up some of the agricultural slack but eastern Washington, in particular, is likely to be hit hard as well by global warming.  The US Climate Change Science Program projects that temperatures in the Pacific Northwest have already risen an average of 1.5 degrees since 1900.  "By 2100, both models project warming near 5F west of the Cascades, with much larger warming further east in the Canadian model."