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Climate Strike -- Covid-19 (week 47) [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-08-08  

You can make a difference to the hurt being caused by climate chaos and the great extinction event, in your town or your city! How? Reuse, repurpose, and recycle this information.

This is the letter for week 47 of a weekly climate strike that went on for 4 years in front of San Francisco City Hall, beginning early March 2019. For more context, see this story. For an annotated table of contents to see topics for all the strike letters, see this story. Meanwhile…

STRIKE FOR THE PLANET

Covid-19 is bad.

But ecocide, from climate chaos and mass extinction, is many million times worse.

This week’s letter is on WHY WE NEED ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION NOW.

Why now, with everything else that is going on?

Because, though Covid-19 is expensive,

In China, car sales are down 92% 1 and Lunar New Year celebrations that produced $200 billion in revenues in 2019 were canceled in 2020. 2

and Lunar New Year celebrations that produced $200 billion in revenues in 2019 were canceled in 2020. By February 20, France already had a 30-40% reduction in tourism, at a huge price to their economy. 3

All the cancelled sports events, shows, movies, parades, festivals, conferences, and more have had and will continue to have massive economic impact on San Francisco. 4, 5

Minority communities will be hardest hit.6

…Ecocide is more expensive.

Extreme weather driven by climate change alone has cost the U.S. at least $240 billion/yr for over a decade. 7

More than 500,000 Californians and $150 billion in property are at risk from the coastal flooding forecast in modest ocean level rise estimates. 8 And those estimates are based on a steady rate of sea level increase that is not happening; instead, the rate of sea level rise is accelerating. 9

And those estimates are based on a steady rate of sea level increase that is not happening; instead, the rate of sea level rise is accelerating. Since 2000, 20% of the earth’s vegetated surface has become less productive, at great economic cost.10

Covid-19 kills people,

In Iran, there are at least 1000 deaths so far. 11

In Italy, there are 2,503 deaths so far. 12

In China, there are at least 3,237 so far.13

…But ecocide is far deadlier.

A warming planet increases the impact and number of human pandemics (at a cost of $0.7 trillion by 2025) 14

The amount of death directly from temperature increase alone will rise by at least 257%. 15

And ocean dead zones are already killing people, and will kill many more.16

Clearly Covid-19 destroys economies,

Coal consumption at power plants, intensity of night lights at industrial parks, containers waiting to be offloaded, wholesale food prices, property sales, and passenger traffic in China were all greatly impacted by the pandemic. 17

The outbreak has paralyzed the Italian economy. 18

And the odds of a global recession are increasing daily.19

…But ecocide destroys life itself.

We’re now experiencing one climate crisis disaster every week. This is much faster than had been predicted. 20

We’re already facing international food crises, and these will worsen. 21

And the biodiversity crash is currently causing and will cause an increasing amount of irreversible economic22, social23, and environmental calamities.24

Why does San Francisco need to take action now?

Because cities can and must act, and can do so quickly. We can cut carbon emissions substantially, we can rewild inside and out, we can grow our own food, we can prepare for sea level rise and heat, and we can and must do so much more.25 Because we have a moral duty to do everything we can.26, 27 Because resiliency and self-sufficiency are the only ways we will survive.28, 29

​​​​​​​​​​​​ Because time has run out.30, 31

So what does SF need to do?

We need to already be starting on: massive native tree plantings, black water recycling, all electric and clean energy transportation, getting rid of plastics, switching to all local carbon-neutral or carbon-negative energy, and resilience and self-sufficiency. They all tie together, they all provide jobs at safe distances to people unemployed by the pandemic, and they all make a difference in SF’s ability to weather both this pandemic and everything else we’ve bought for ourselves now and in the future.

We are now living in a world very different from what we had created pre-pandemic. Our former way of life is destroying the planet. We cannot go back to it. We must go on to build a new world if we’re to have a world to live in at all.

There are only 41 weeks left.32, 33

FOOTNOTES

1. Coronavirus Outbreak Deepens Its Toll on Global Business. The New York Times. 21 February 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/21/business/coronavirus-global-business.html .

2. Issaku harada. “China’s Lunar New year travel plunges 50% to 20-year low”. Nikkei Asian Review. 20 February 2020. https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Coronavirus/China-s-Lunar-New-Year-travel-plunges-50-to-20-year-low .

3. Diane Swonk in interview on PBS News Hour. “Why the economic impact of COVID-19 might outlast the outbreak”. 24 February 2020. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-the-economic-impact-of-covid-19-might-outlast-the-outbreak .

4. KGO. “Coronavirus Impact: Cancellations, closures related to COVID-19 in San Francisco Bay Area. Microsoft News. 17 March 2020. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/coronavirus-impact-closures-cancellations-related-to-covid-19-in-san-francisco-bay-area/ar-BB10QRrb .

5. Bryan Pietsch and Katie Canales. “San Francisco is in a state of emergency as confirmed coronavirus cases hit 18. Here’s everything we know and the steps the city is taking to address the outbreak”. Business insider. 13 March 2020. https://www.businessinsider.com/san-franciscos-state-of-emergency-coronavirus-covid-19-city-impact-2020-2?op=1 .

6. Kori Hale. The Economic Impact of COVID-19 Will Hit Minorities The Hardest. Forbes. 17 March 2020. https://www.forbes.com/sites/korihale/2020/03/17/the-economic-impact-of-covid-19-will-hit-minorities-the-hardest/#68ebf7010c0e .

7. Stephen Leahy. Hidden Costs of Climate Change Running Hundreds of Billions a Year. National Geographic. 27 September 2017. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/09/climate-change-costs-us-economy-billions-report/ .

8. Rosanna Xia. “Must Reads: Destruction from sea level rise in California could exceed worst wildfires and earthquakes, new research shows”. Los Angeles Times. 13 March 2019. https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-california-coast-storm-damage-20190313-story.html .

9. Katie Weeman and Patrick Lynch. “New study finds sea level rise accelerating”. NASA. 13 February 2018. https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2680/new-study-finds-sea-level-rise-accelerating/ .

10. Kimberly Amadeo. How the Sixth Mass Extinction Affects the U.S. Economy. The Balance. 12 August 2019. https://www.thebalance.com/mass-extinction-definition-events-economic-effect-of-6th-extinction-4589742 .

11. Michelle Mark. “The coronavirus has caused a full breakdown in Iran, with an unknown death toll, infected leaders, and massive burial pits visible from space”. Business Insider. 17 March 2020. https://www.businessinsider.com/iran-coronavirus-covid19-deaths-cases-updates-2020-3 .

12. Saheli Roy Choudhury and Weizhen Tan. “Coronavirus live updates: China reports new cases, Taiwan to bar entry to most foreigners”. CNBC. 17 March 2020. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/18/coronavirus-latest-updates.html .

13. “2019-20 coronavirus pandemic in mainland China”. Wikipedia. Accessed 17 March 2020 at 10:23 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019–20_coronavirus_pandemic_in_mainland_China.

14. Dante Disparte. If You Think Fighting Climate Change Will Be Expensive, Calculate the Cost of Letting It Happen. Harvard Business Review. 12 June 2017. https://hbr.org/2017/06/if-you-think-fighting-climate-change-will-be-expensive-calculate-the-cost-of-letting-it-happen .

15. Press Association. “Heat-related deaths will rise 257% by 2050 because of climate change”. The Guardian. 4 February 2014. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/feb/04/heat-related-deaths-climate-change .

16. Damian Carrington. “Oceans suffocating as huge dead zones quadruple since 1950, scientists warn”. The Guardian. 4 January 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jan/04/oceans-suffocating-dead-zones-oxygen-starved .

17. The COVID-19 Coronavirus And Its Economic Impact. Capital Economics. 18 March 2020. https://www.capitaleconomics.com/the-economic-effects-of-the-coronavirus/#china . Note: Scroll down to the second set of graphs.

18. Giulia Carbonaro. “Italy facing recession after COVID-19 hits the country’s economic powerhouse”. CGTN. 3 March 2020. https://newseu.cgtn.com/news/2020-03-03/Italy-facing-recession-after-COVID-19-hits-its-economic-powerhouse-OvRe9PCXyU/index.html .

19. Jeffrey Frankel. “Will coronavirus trigger a global recession?” The Guardian. 26 February 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/feb/26/will-coronavirus-trigger-global-recession-donald-trump-trade-policy .

20. Fiona Harvey. “One climate crisis disaster happening every week, UN warns”. The Guardian. 7 July 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/07/one-climate-crisis-disaster-happening-every-week-un-warns .

21. Emma Newburger. “Climate change could trigger an international food crisis, UN panel warns”. CNBC. 8 August 2019. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/07/un-climate-panel-urges-land-use-changes-to-avert-food-crisis.html .

22. Ishan Daftardar. Why Bee Extinction Would Mean the End of Humanity. Science ABC. 26 November 2019. https://www.scienceabc.com/nature/bee-extinction-means-end-humanity.html .

23. “How does Biodiversity loss affect me and everyone else?” World Wildlife Fund for Nature. 2020. https://wwf.panda.org/our_work/biodiversity/biodiversity_and_you/.

24. Sabrina Shankman, Georgina Gustin, and John H. Cushman Jr. Humanity Faces a Biodiversity Crisis. Climate Change Makes It Worse.” Inside Climate News. 6 May 2019. https://insideclimatenews.org/news/05052019/climate-change-biodiversity-united-nations-species-extinction-agriculture-food-forests .

25. John Vidal. “The climate crisis in 2050: what happens if cities act but nations don’t?” The Guardian. 10 October 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/oct/10/the-climate-crisis-in-2050-what-happens-if-cities-act-but-nations-dont .

26. Chris Maser. The Economics of Extinction. 2006. http://www.chrismaser.com/extinction.htm .

27. Carissa Hickok. Juliana V. United States: The Latest on the Fight against Climate Change. Sundrenched NEWS. 6 June 2019. https://sundrenchednews.com/2019/06/06/juliana-v-united-states-the-latest-on-the-fight-against-climate-change/ .

28. Kevin MacKay. The Ecological Crisis is a Political Crisis. 25 September 2018. resilience. https://www.resilience.org/stories/2018-09-25/the-ecological-crisis-is-a-political-crisis/ .

29. Stephen Zacks. Long-Term Plans: To Build for Resilience, We’ll Need to Design With—Not Against—Nature. 8 January 2020. Metropolis. https://www.metropolismag.com/architecture/landscape/resilience-sustainability/ .

30. Jonathan Watts. “Destruction of nature as dangerous as climate change, scientists warn”. 23 March 2018. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/23/destruction-of-nature-as-dangerous-as-climate-change-scientists-warn.

31. David Wallace-Wells. The Uninhabitable Earth. New York Magazine. 10 July 2017. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/07/climate-change-earth-too-hot-for-humans.html .

32. Only 11 Years Left to Prevent Irreversible Damage from Climate Change, Speakers Warn during General Assembly High-Level Meeting. United Nations. 28 March 2019. https://www.un.org/press/en/2019/ga12131.doc.htm . See the action timeline in the report.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/8/2185624/-Climate-Strike-Covid-19-week-47

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