ABSTRACT
California produces nearly half of all US-grown fruits, nuts, and vegetables. California’s agricultural sector uses an estimated 80 per cent of the state’s water supply. Systemic risk has increased because systems are more interconnected – by heightened mobility and new technologies, scale and concentration, fragmenting governance, and the lack of policy frameworks for managing systemic risks. Systemic risk calls for decision-makers to think in terms of interconnectedness, but also to recognise the limits of their understanding and to adopt much more precautionary approaches, particularly regarding seemingly unlikely but highly destructive ‘black swan’ events. The Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act requires regions to plan to reduce greenhouse gases via a smart growth, anti-sprawl approach, by reducing car use, new transport options, denser housing, and green infrastructure. However, at the time of writing, drought may be returning to California.
