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Climate Strike -- [1]

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

Date: 2023-08-16  

This is the letter for week 54 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…

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.

STRIKE FOR THE PLANET

The number of weeks left in which we can act are rapidly diminishing.

So this week’s topic is CREATING A PROCESS FOR FAST ACTION.

Why Do We Have To Act Fast?

By now, the following list should haunt your days and infect your sleep; it is the stuff of nightmares. It is our present and our immediate future.

UN reports : We have slightly under 10 years before climate change becomes runaway and irreversible 1 , we are in an accelerating mass extinction event 2 , we are destroying our ability to feed ourselves 3 , and this is resulting in increasing mass displacements of people and wars over resources. 4

: We have slightly under 10 years before climate change becomes runaway and irreversible , we are in an accelerating mass extinction event , we are destroying our ability to feed ourselves , and this is resulting in increasing mass displacements of people and wars over resources. Ice : Ice is rapidly vanishing. 5 This is an immediate issue because glaciers provide freshwater supplies for over 1/6 th of the human population. 6

: Ice is rapidly vanishing. This is an immediate issue because glaciers provide freshwater supplies for over 1/6 of the human population. Water : Our freshwater sources are both increasingly contaminated 7, 8, 9, 10 (with assistance from the American federal government 11 ) and shrinking. 12, 13

: Our freshwater sources are both increasingly contaminated (with assistance from the American federal government ) and shrinking. Pandemics : Climate change and ecosystem destruction create human pandemics. 14 Covid-19 was caused by humans. 15 There will be an increasing number of pandemics because of our past and current actions. 16, 17

: Climate change and ecosystem destruction create human pandemics. Covid-19 was caused by humans. There will be an increasing number of pandemics because of our past and current actions. Extinctions : We are in, causing, and accelerating the rate of the 6 th mass extinction event. 18, 19

: We are in, causing, and accelerating the rate of the 6 mass extinction event. The Ocean : We are killing the ocean at an astonishing speed. 20, 21, 22

: We are killing the ocean at an astonishing speed. Heating : It’s getting hotter than we thought, faster than we thought, to the point that great swathes of the globe will become uninhabitable in the very near future. 23

: It’s getting hotter than we thought, faster than we thought, to the point that great swathes of the globe will become uninhabitable in the very near future. Weather : Ocean heat waves are becoming more common 24 , hotter, and more destructive not just to marine ecosystems 25 but to land ecosystems. 26

: Ocean heat waves are becoming more common , hotter, and more destructive not just to marine ecosystems but to land ecosystems. Megadrought: We are at the start of a megadrought we’ve caused.27 Megadroughts last decades.

But How Does This Impact SF?

All the above will:

directly hurt SF’s access to food,

increase the size, duration, elevation, and intensity of flooding events in SF,

damage freshwater supplies and greatly reduce our access to freshwater,

greatly increase both the numbers of fires and fire impacts,

produce increasing numbers of heat deaths and other health impacts on all things living in SF,

contribute to a great increase in homelessness,

most hurt those already most disenfranchised, abused, and on the environmental frontlines,

and threaten the ability of the city to continue functioning, for a start.28

So How Can We Act Fast?

We must create a streamlined Process For Action and use it for every decision. This Process For Action must be applied consistently, transparently, and be adjustable as the science necessitates. In order to proceed, EVERY decision must:

Result in a measurable permanent cut in SF greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (as per City Environment Code Chapter 9, greatly in need of updating29), Make a positive countable change for environmental justice, Net create job/s and/or save money for SF,

And be in line with the goals adopted in SF’s Climate Emergency Declaration that include:

planning and acting jointly with groups and cities, GHG reduction numbers, setting and revisiting science-driven priorities, training and retraining, investments in disenfranchised communities, and investments overall.30

​​​​​​​How would this Process For Action work? Let’s try an example.

Idea: Should SF switch from natural gas to electricity in all buildings?

Does switching from CH 4 to electricity result in measurable permanent cuts in SF GHG emissions? Yes.31 Does it make a positive countable change for environmental justice? Yes.32, 33 Will it create job/s and/or save SF money? Yes.34 Is it in line with SF’s Climate Emergency Declaration goals? Yes.35

Clearly switching to electricity is a good choice. And using a Process For Action means we can easily defend this choice based on science, health, economic considerations, SF’s goals and priorities, what the neighboring municipalities are doing, and need.

We Must Act Because We’ve Created A New World Not Conducive To Life.

Apply the Process For Action. What else do we need to do NOW?

Blackwater recycling, Plant an SF native urban forest, Switch to all electric and clean energy transportation, Ban all plastics in SF, Make all our energy local, and carbon-neutral or carbon-negative, and Make SF resilient and self-sufficient.

You’ve seen and heard me for over a year; now there isn’t even a full year left to us to act. We have 34 weeks.36, 37 Act now!

FOOTNOTES

1. “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 .

2. “UN Report: Nature’s Dangerous Decline ‘Unprecedented’; Species Extinction Rates ‘Accelerating’”. United Nations. 6 May 2019. https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2019/05/nature-decline-unprecedented-report/ .

3. “Shrinking biodiversity poses major risk to the future of global food and agriculture, landmark UN report shows”. UN News. 22 February 2019. https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/02/1033331 .

4. “Flagship UN study shows accelerating climate change on land, sea and in the atmosphere”. UN News. 10 March 2020. https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/03/1059061 .

5. “Special Report On The Ocean And Cryosphere In A Changing Climate: Summary for Policymakers”. IPCC. 2019. https://www.ipcc.ch/srocc/chapter/summary-for-policymakers/ .

6. Renee Cho. “The Glaciers are Going: Why This Matters - Center for Climate and Life”. Columbia University. 8 May 2017. http://climateandlife.columbia.edu/2017/05/08/the-glaciers-are-going-why-this-matters/ .

7. Damian Carrington. “Plastic fibres found in tap water around the world, study reveals”. The Guardian. 5 September 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/sep/06/plastic-fibres-found-tap-water-around-world-study-reveals .

8. Kelly Crowe. “Drinking water contaminated by excreted drugs a growing concern”. CBC News. 22 September 2014. https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/drinking-water-contaminated-by-excreted-drugs-a-growing-concern-1.2772289 .

9. Marize de Lm Solano, Cassiana C Montagner, Carolina Vaccari, Wilson F Jardim, Janete A Anselmo-Franci, Ruither de Og Carolino, Joāo Fl Luvizutto, Gisela de A Umbuzeiro, & Joāo Lv de Camargo. “Potential endocrine disruptor activity of drinking water samples”. www.tandfonline.com/...

10. Gayathri Vaidyanathan. “Fracking Can Contaminate Drinking Water”. Scientific American. 4 April 2016. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fracking-can-contaminate-drinking-water/ .

11. Brady Dennis and Juliet Eilperin. “EPA overhauls mercury pollution rule, despite opposition from industry and activists alike”. The Philadelphia Inquirer. 16 April 2020. https://www.inquirer.com/politics/nation/epa-mercury-pollution-20200416.html .

12. “Groundwater Decline and Depletion”. USGS. Accessed 6 May 2020. https://www.usgs.gov/special-topic/water-science-school/science/groundwater-decline-and-depletion?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects .

13. “Climate Impacts on Water Resources”. EPA. 19 January 2017. https://19january2017snapshot.epa.gov/climate-impacts/climate-impacts-water-resources_.html . [Note: This is the website and scientific work of the EPA before the Trump takeover.]

14. “Climate change and human health”. World Health Organization. Accessed 6 May 2020. https://www.who.int/globalchange/climate/summary/en/index5.html .

15. Charli Shield. “Coronavirus pandemic linked to destruction of wildlife and world’s ecosystems”. Deutsche Welle. 14 April 2020. https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-pandemic-linked-to-destruction-of-wildlife-and-worlds-ecosystems/a-53078480 .

16. Rebecca Thiele. “How Climate Change Increases Our Risk For Pandemics”. WFYI Indianapolis. 24 March 2020. https://www.wfyi.org/news/articles/how-climate-change-increases-our-risk-for-pandemics .

17. John Vidal. “Destruction Of Habitat And Loss Of Biodiversity Are Creating The Perfect Conditions For Diseases Like Covid-19 To Emerge”. 17 March 2020. ENSIA. https://ensia.com/features/covid-19-coronavirus-biodiversity-planetary-health-zoonoses/ .

18. Damian Carrington. "Earth's sixth mass extinction event under way, scientists warn”. The Guardian. 10 July 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/10/earths-sixth-mass-extinction-event-already-underway-scientists-warn .

19. “Halting The Extinction Crisis”. Center for Biological Diversity. Accessed 6 May 2020. https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/biodiversity/elements_of_biodiversity/extinction_crisis/ .

20. Alister Doyle. “We’re Killing The Oceans Even Faster Than We Thought”. Business Insider. 3 October 2013. https://www.businessinsider.com/were-killing-the-oceans-even-faster-than-we-thought-2013-10?op=1 .

21. “See the Staggering Impact Humans Have Had on the World’s Oceans”. Time. 2019. https://time.com/collection/davos-2019/5502588/oceans-in-peril/ .

22. Matt Simon. “We’re Killing the Oceans, and We’ll Pay Dearly for It”. Wired. 25 September 2019. https://www.wired.com/story/ipcc-oceans-report/ .

23. Jonathan Watts. “One billion people will live in insufferable heat within 50 years - study”. The Guardian. 5 May 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/05/one-billion-people-will-live-in-insufferable-heat-within-50-years-study .

24. Mario Picazo. “Ocean ‘heat waves’ on the rise, destroying entire ecosystems”. The Weather Network. 5 June 2018. https://www.theweathernetwork.com/us/news/articles/ocean-heat-wave-global-warming-climate-change-coral-reef-forest-loss-marine-ecosystem-rise-temperature-pacific-atlantic/99993 .

25. Jonathan Lambert. “The ‘Blob,’ a massive marine heat wave, led to an unprecedented seabird die-off”. 15 January 2020. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/massive-marine-heat-wave-blob-unprecedented-seabird-die-off .

26. Jonathan Belles and Brian Donegan. “2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season Expected to B e More Active Than Normal, Colorado State University Outlook Says”. The Weather Channel. 2 April 2020. https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/2020-04-01-2020-atlantic-hurricane-season-april-outlook .

27. Bob Berwyn. “The Parched West is Heading Into a Global Warming-Fueled Megadrought That Could Last for Centuries”. Inside Climate News. 16 April 2020. https://insideclimatenews.org/news/15042020/megadrought-american-west-south-america-drought-climate-change .

28. For more specifics, please see the Strike letters Water (wk 1), Elevation (wk 5), Insects (wk 9), Money (wk 10), The Coasts (wk 11), Early Financial Risks (wk 13), Environmental Justice (week 15), Municipal Bonds (wk 19), Access to Water (wk 20), and Delta Tunnel (wk 46).

29. Chapter 9: Greenhouse Gas Emissions Targets and Departmental Action Plans”. San Francisco Environment Code. 13 April 2008. http://library.amlegal.com/nxt/gateway.dll/California/environment/chapter9greenhousegasemissionstargetsand?f=templates&fn=default.htm&3.0&vid=amlegal%3Asanfrancisco_ca .

30. San Francisco Board of Supervisors. “Declaring a Climate Emergency in San Francisco.” File No. 190222. 18 March 2019. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EqH0w2sYOxKipJwytOhPIcnTJhbPAxHz/view .

31. India Murphy. “IEA: switching to natural gas reduces emissions". Energy Magazine. 22 July 2019. https://www.energymagazine.com.au/iea-switching-to-natural-gas-reduces-emissions/ .

32. Wendee Nicole. “Cooking Up Indoor Air Pollution: Emissions from Natural Gas Stoves”. Healthy Indoors. 9 July 2018. https://healthyindoors.com/2018/07/cooking-indoor-air-pollution-emissions-natural-gas-stoves/ .

33. “Do Gas Appliances Impact Asthma?” Asthma Education Clinic. 21 November 2014. http://www.asthmaed.com/journal/2014/11/21/do-gas-appliances-impact-asthma .

34. Justin Gillis and Bruce Nilles. “Your Gas Stove Is Bad for You and the Planet”. The New York Times. 1 May 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/01/opinion/climate-change-gas-electricity.html .

35. It reduces GHG emissions, it promotes working with neighboring municipalities to effect reductions, it invests in disenfranchised communities in SF, it invests SF in clean tech, and it can lead to job retraining and local job growth if we’re smart about how we do it.

36. See the Action Timeline in the report in “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 .

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