The Bush administration has taken steps to open the Californian coast to oil exploration and drilling in as few as three years. The move could potentially tap more than 10 billion barrels of oil, enough to power the U.S. for 17 months.

The proposal has been greeted with horror in environmental circles, wary of the threat of oil spills, air pollution and increased shipping traffic in an area rich with migrating whales, millions of seabirds, sea otters, fish and crab feeding grounds. According to Richard Charter, a lobbyist for the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, “You couldn’t design a better formula to create adverse impacts on California’s coastal-dependent economy.”

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A new report says that global warming could cost the Californian economy billions of dollars each year, through a combination of rising sea levels, and the increased frequency of wild fires and extreme weather events.

The comprehensive study (PDF), published by researcher’s at UC Berkeley, also claims that $2.5 trillion of Californian real estate assets are at risk. The clear message, says co-author Prof. David Roland-Holst, is the strong economic case for timely action to slash carbon emissions and adapt to the already unavoidable effects of climate change.

“Our report makes clear the most expensive thing we can do about climate change is nothing,” he said. “As we learned in New Orleans, turning your back on the threat of natural disaster doesn’t make it go away.”

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