Picture a desert spring with water striders gliding across its surface and emerald green dragonflies coursing through the air like fighter planes. Springs are the liquid gold of the desert, but how will climate change affect these hydrological jewels and the wildlife that depends on them?

The National Parks Conservation Association and the Palm Springs Public Library are hosting the Palm Springs Climate Change Speaker's Series to explore the question of diminishing water in the desert, to examine how climate change could transform our desert national parks and to consider the role that locally generated renewable energy can play in addressing climate change.

The series couldn't come at a more relevant time: the California Climate Adaptation Strategy — a report by the California Resources Agency that predicts California will see a significant increase in temperature, a possible 35 percent decrease in precipitation and a rise in sea level by 2050.

Reliable models accurately and uniformly demonstrate flooding, catastrophic wildfires and property loss as stress on ecosystems accelerates. The rate of climate change is dependent on whether we act now to curb our greenhouse gas emissions or pollute in a “business as usual” manner.

There's no doubt that climate change will affect the way we Californians do business, grow crops, build homes and pursue leisure activities. The wildlife and natural wonders that we cherish — from giant sequoias to Joshua trees — will be affected. The hotter, drier conditions associated with climate change will cause higher seedling mortality in both plants. And the choices we make as energy consumers will influence how our children and grandchildren will experience the world.

No one knows this better than engineer Bill Powers, a featured speaker at the Palm Springs Climate Change Speaker's Series and an expert in environmental engineering and power plant operations. Powers believes that California could permit homeowners with rooftop solar to sell power back to the utilities as an incentive for us to retrofit our houses.

The more power that can be generated from local solar panels, the less we'll depend on greenhouse-gas-emitting coal plants.

Robin Kobaly, another speaker and director of the Summertree Institute, will explore how the changing climate may affect the natural cycles of plants and pollinators in our desert and in Joshua Tree National Park.

The question of whether climate change may cause ecological mismatches between insect pollinators and flowering plants is vital to whether plants will be able to create the seeds and fruit necessary for reproduction in the future.

Plants may be the foundation of the Mojave Desert ecosystem, but without enough water, the future of every living thing is in question.

The critical importance of water is why the Mojave National Preserve has conducted an annual assessment of natural springs and why the National Park Service and the University of Nevada at Reno are studying the relationship between mule deer populations in the Mojave National Preserve, water supply and forage. The Mojave National Preserve's science adviser, Debra Hughson, another featured presenter at the speaker series, will describe these projects and how climate change will test the capacity of the National Park Service to protect critical water resources.

Our collective future depends on how well we as citizens, scientists and policy-makers understand the issues that confront us. We are all on the front lines of climate change, and nowhere are our challenges and opportunities so great as in the California desert. Join us for the Palm Springs Climate Change Speaker's Series. We owe it to our children and grandchildren to leave them a world with national parks, oases and Joshua trees — a world as beautiful as the one we inherited.

Seth Shteir is the senior air and climate coordinator for the National Parks Conservation Association. For more information about the Palm Springs Climate Change Speaker's Series please go to http://www.npca.org/take_action/upcoming_events/palm-springs-climate-change.html or contact Seth Shteir at sshteir@npca.org.