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With raging wildfires, widespread drought, historic floods, freak snowstorms and heat waves wreaking havoc in recent years, the climate change debate increasingly has become a deliberation over how to best reduce carbon pollution and deal with the climate impacts already here and those that are coming.

As climate change continues to alter historical temperature and precipitation patterns, it is critical that states develop comprehensive plans to address its challenges. Many states have conducted some level of planning to reduce the carbon pollution that contributes to climate change, yet others resist responsibly dealing with climate vulnerabilities. Shockingly, only 10 states have thus far developed comprehensive climate change preparedness plans. As those forced from their homes by extreme weather can attest, the time to prepare for climate change has come.

NRDC's Getting Climate Smart: A Water Preparedness Guide for State Action is a guide to assist water managers and state governments as they ready themselves for wide-ranging changes for their communities and ecosystems. Getting Climate Smart mixes practical guidance, planning tools, case studies and a holistic toolbox of strategies covering everything from agriculture, to energy, to public health and infrastructure. By following these steps, states can better prepare for future climate variability and better position themselves to tackle the inevitable challenges of a changing climate.

last revised 4/22/2013