(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Inertia -- Strike for the Planet week 102 [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-11 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. You can push your local politicians to act. It will make a difference! This is the letter for week 102 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 of the topics for all the strike letters, see this story. Meanwhile… STRIKE FOR THE PLANET 421. 421. 421. 421. 421. 421. 421. This week’s topic? Inertia. What is inertia? An object in motion will stay in motion and an object at rest will stay at rest, unless acted on by an outside force. This is inertia, as defined in Newton’s 1st law of motion.1 What does this mean? Once something is moving, it takes energy to stop it.2 The bigger that something is, the more energy it takes to get it going or to stop it.3 And it takes more energy to stop something when it’s going fast than when it’s going slow.4 How does inertia relate to saving the city? We’ve got two different types of inertia at play here. They are physical inertia, as per Newton above, and human inertia. To figure out their impacts on SF, we need to look at each of these individually and how they interact. Physical inertia first. Imagine a steep hill. There’s a boulder at the top of it. Something moves and the bolder begins to roll down the hill. It’s easy to stop the bolder if you do it at the top, right when it’s first starting to move. Put a few stones in front of it, lean against it in the opposite direction, and you’re good. But, because there is a force adding energy to that bolder (gravity), the longer you let it roll, the harder it’s going to be to stop, the more energy stopping it is going to take, and the greater the destruction not stopping it will cause. Want to stop it halfway down the hill? You’ll need steel landslide draped and anchored mesh, flexible fencing, and probably spray-concrete.5 Want to stop it at the bottom, before it hits a road or slams into a town? Yeah, that’s not gonna work. If you wait, you won’t be able to stop it and that boulder is going to have a destructive finish. Think Hwy 1. Guess what — climate change has physical inertia. In fact, it is the biggest boulder we’ve ever seen and it’s already rolling. We’re not at the top of the hill. We’re halfway to doubling the amount of preindustrial atmospheric CO 2 ,6 putting us at the point when the boulder is starting to pick up real speed, when easy solutions will no longer work, when it’s going to be hard to stop this thing, and it’s already doing damage. The longer you put off acting, the worse it’s going to get.7 How does human inertia fit into this? It’s why you are not doing what you need to do to stop the bolder. Human inertia is the tendency to do nothing, to find comfort in the familiar no matter how destructive it is, to pick habit as the default correct operating mode, and to be afraid of change.8 You know how to be politicians in an SF dominated by pirate capitalism9 in the bed of a fossil-fuel owned California. You know how to make enough noise to get noticed, but not the kind of noise or the kind of notice that will alienate you from the political powers-that-be at the state level, powers who are pushing for more climate change, not less.10, 11, 12, 13 That’s why you act against the have-nots14 and have-a-littles15 instead of the robber barons. That’s why you focus on emotionally-charged yet niche, “quality of life” issues instead of the needed but unsexy big actions. In this way, you are very very like the Board of Ed. The problem is that these two forms of inertia are in no way equal. Physical inertia wins. It doesn’t matter what you think or proclaim or want or don’t want; if you don’t act now on the things that have to be done to slow down and maybe stop that boulder, SF loses. What does all this mean for SF? The obvious. Acting sooner is easier than acting later, Acting sooner is cheaper than acting later, Acting sooner is more effective than acting later, Acting sooner has better and more impact than acting later. And the actions must be about building the city up to deal with climate chaos (the bolder) and not “news-worthy” but minor trivia (a pebble lying off to the side or a cloud you see over another hill or the color of your fingernails.) Blackwater recycling, local green renewable energy, a robust native and near-native urban forest, green pathways, the retreat from the coasts, planting marsh and seagrass buffer zones, enacting a “cars last” policy, etc. — these are the big things you need to do. There are 101 weeks of strike letters that lay out the non-sexy things that will protect SF from the worst of the boulder, but they only work if you do them now. We’re already in bad shape. The fog is gone, we’re in a megadrought and a great extinction event, the amount and kind of pollution we are exposed to is staggering, the sea is dying and rising, the poor and disenfranchised are being impacted the hardest first, and then there are the fires. Not acting will only make all of these, and so much more, so much worse. What more do you need to overcome your inertia? How about one more science idea? This is an exponential graph: Exponential vs. Linear Growth, graphed I hope you’ve seen one of these before. It shows a specific kind of non-linear change over time called exponential growth. In exponential growth, the rise rate is based on the current value, not the value at the starting point. So things start out slowly but then they pick up rapidly. It’s like the grains of rice on chess squares problem.16 Got it? Now here’s a graph of global CO 2 levels over time: interactive graph created by the 2 Degrees Institute Look familiar? It should. Act now while acting can still accomplish anything. So what was all of this about 421 at the top of the letter? That’s the daily average CO 2 level as measured in parts per million at Mauna Loa on April 3 this year. It’s the highest ever measurement.17, 18 The CO 2 level for the majority of human existence was between 180 and 280 ppm. The CO 2 level that James Hansen and the IPCC said is the upper safe limit is 350 ppm.19 The amount of CO 2 in the atmosphere is rising rapidly; the graph is an exponential curve. Exxon knew about all of this in the 1980s.20, 21 They figured inertia and lying would carry them through, and it has so far. The fossil fuel robber barons are depending on your inertia and, so far, you’re doing just what they want, no matter the cost. But you can act. Local government is where the decisions that effect us the most are made. So please act SF can make the right choices, but will you?22 You’ve taken oaths to act for the good of SF. You say you are bound by the Precautionary Principle. The costs of climate change are huge23, 24, 25, 26, 27 and your not acting is hurting SF. It’s now or never Damage is already being done and it’s only going to get worse.28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 You have to fight for the people of SF now while accomplishing anything is still possible! FOOTNOTES 1. sciencefix. “7 Inertia Demos”. YouTube. 29 April 2011. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1ux9D7-O38 . The video is just over a minute long and pretty thorough at showing the standard high school classroom demos. 2. Pumpkin Interactive. “Forces and Motion The Physics of Car Crashes (preview)”. YouTube. 2 July 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV2UTkkQ0Fg . 3. Emily Marie. “Newton’s 2nd Law Demo”. YouTube. 21 April 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaq_Y01HlPo . Technically, the 2nd and 3rd laws require an inertial frame of reference and so can be seen as elaborations of the first; they tell us more of what to expect from a universe with inertia. 4. ScienceGonnaGetYou. “Newton’s Second Law (force, mass & acceleration)”. YouTube. 17 May 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81ack33i4cU . 5. “Slope Stabilization”. Trumer Schutzbauten GmbH. Accessed 7 April 2021. https://trumerschutzbauten.com/slope-stabilization/ . 6. Matthew Cappucci and Jason Samenow. “Carbon dioxide spikes to critical record, halfway to doubling preindustrial levels”. The Washington Post. 5 April 2021. https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/04/05/atmospheric-co2-concentration-record/ . 7. Associated Press. “Warming already baked in will blow past climate goals, study finds”. NBC News. 5 January 2021. https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/warming-already-baked-will-blow-climate-goals-study-finds-rcna216 . 8. One of MANY sources on this is Ralph Ryback. “Why We Resist Change”. Psychology Today. 25 January 2017. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-truisms-wellness/201701/why-we-resist-change . 9. Isaac Kamola. “Pirate Capitalism, or the Primitive Accumulation of Capital Itself”. Millennium: Journal of International Studies”. 31 May 2018. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0305829818771525 . 10. Dan Bacher. “Oil & Gas Scorecard will document industry’s influence on California politics”. Red Green and Blue. 2 April 2021. http://redgreenandblue.org/2021/04/02/oil-gas-scorecard-will-document-industrys-influence-california-politics/ . 11. Alexandria Herr. “An oil well right next to your house? The California Senate says that’s OK.” Grist. 19 April 2020. https://grist.org/politics/an-oil-well-right-next-to-your-house-the-california-senate-says-thats-ok/ . 12. Stephen Stock, Robert Campos, Mark Villarreal, Michael Horn, and Tony Rutanashoodech. “Oil and Gas Money in ‘Green’ California Politics?” NBC Bay Area. 27 October 2018. https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/oil-gas-money-green-california-politics/207288/ . 13. Robert Dam. “How Much Could CalPERS Lose to Fossil Fuels?” Fossil Free California. 13 October 2020. https://fossilfreeca.org/2020/10/13/how-much-could-calpers-lose-to-fossil-fuels/ . 14. Candice Elliott. “The High Cost of Being Poor”. Listen Money Matters. Accessed 7 April 2021. https://www.listenmoneymatters.com/the-high-cost-of-being-poor/ . 15. Heather Knight. “Golden Gate Park’s main drag has been closed to cars during the pandemic. The fight over its future is heating up”. San Francisco Chronicle. 7 April 2021. https://www.sfchronicle.com/local/heatherknight/article/Golden-Gate-Park-s-main-drag-has-been-closed-to-16081726.php . 16. Michael Hartley. “The Rice and Chessboard Story”. Dr. Mike’s Math Games For Kids. Accessed 7 April 2021. https://www.dr-mikes-math-games-for-kids.com/rice-and-chessboard.html . 17. Matthew Cappucci and Jason Samenow. “Carbon dioxide spikes to critical record, halfway to doubling preindustrial levels”. The Washington Post. 5 April 2021. https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/04/05/atmospheric-co2-concentration-record/ . 18. Alexandra Kelley. “Carbon dioxide in atmosphere has spiked to record-setting new level”. The Hill. 6 April 2021. https://thehill.com/changing-america/sustainability/climate-change/546653-carbon-dioxide-in-atmosphere-has-spiked-to . 19. Bill McKibben. “Remember This: 350 Parts Per Million”. The Washington Post. 28 December 2007. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/27/AR2007122701942.html . 20. Peter Dockrill. “One Oil Company Expertly Predicted This Week’s CO2 Milestone Almost 40 Years Ago”. Science Alert. 15 May 2019. https://www.sciencealert.com/exxon-expertly-predicted-this-week-s-nightmare-co2-milestone-almost-40-years-ago . 21. dana1981. “In 1982, Exxon accurately predicted global warming”. Skeptical Science. 19 June 2019. https://skepticalscience.com/1982-exxon-accurate-prediction.html . 22. Richard Procter. “San Francisco Knows How to Stop Global Warming — Will It?” SF Weekly. 11 September 2019. https://www.sfweekly.com/news/san-francisco-climate-change-emissions /. 23. Harper’s Index. March 2021. https://harpers.org/archive/2021/03/ . 24. Harper’s Index. March 2021. https://harpers.org/archive/2021/03/ . 25. Dana Nuccitelli. “New report finds costs of climate change impacts often underestimated”. Yale Climate Connections. 18 November 2019. https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2019/11/new-report-finds-costs-of-climate-change-impacts-often-underestimated/ . 26. Rebecca Hersher and Nathan Rott. “What Are The Costs Of Climate Change?” NPR. 16 September 2020. https://www.npr.org/2020/09/16/913693655/what-are-the-costs-of-climate-change . 27. Samantha Fields. “Insurance increasingly unaffordable as climate change brings more disasters”. Marketplace. 31 August 2020. https://www.marketplace.org/2020/08/31/insurance-increasingly-unaffordable-as-climate-change-brings-more-disasters/ . 28. Matt McGrath. “Climate change: 12 years to save the planet? Make that 18 months”. BBC News. 24 July 2019. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-48964736 . 29. Heather Smith. “Climate Change: Even Worse Than We Thought”. Sierra. 8 October 2018. https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/climate-change-even-worse-we-thought-ipcc-report . 30. Michael Grose and Julie Arblaster. “Just how hot will it get this century? It’s worse than we thought”. Phys Org. 18 May 2020. https://phys.org/news/2020-05-hot-century-worse-thought.html . 31. Amelia Urry. “The scientist who first warned of climate change says it’s much worse than we thought”. Grist. 22 March 2016. https://grist.org/science/the-scientist-who-first-warned-of-climate-change-says-its-much-worse-than-we-thought/ . 32. Rafi Letzter. “Today’s Climate Change Is Worse Than Anything Earth Has Experienced in the Past 2,000 Years”. Live Science. 25 July 2019. https://www.livescience.com/66027-climate-change-different.html . 33. John D. Sutter. “Vanishing”. CNN. Accessed 30 June 2020. https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2016/12/specials/vanishing/ . 34. Peter Castagno. “Biodiversity Loss Worst in Human History — 1 Million Animal Species Risk Extinction”. Citizen Truth. 6 May 2019. https://citizentruth.org/biodiversity-loss-worst-in-human-history-1-million-animal-species-risk-extinction/ . 35. Kristen Callihan. “Earth’s Currently Ongoing Sixth Mass Extinction Is Worse Than We Thought”. OutwardOn. 7 August 2017. https://www.outwardon.com/article/earths-currently-ongoing-sixth-mass-extinction-event-is-worse-than-we-thought/ . 36. Lauren Frayer. “Scores Are Feared Dead In India After Himalayan Glacier Breaks Away”. NPR. 7 February 2021. https://www.npr.org/2021/02/07/965046888/scores-are-feared-dead-in-india-after-himalayan-glacier-breaks-away . It’s now looking like it was a landslide which makes the situation worse. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/11/2197851/-Inertia-Strike-for-the-Planet-week-102?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/