(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . If You Only Had The Nerve -- Strike for the Planet week 114 [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-25 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 114 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 You could change your habits, never more be scared of rabbits… This week’s topic: If You Only Had The Nerve Why did you get into politics? Was it for self-aggrandizement? Old school Democratic ideals? Money, power, and influence? Because someone told you that you’d be good at it? Whatever your reasons, they aren’t good enough. Because… The job is completely changed and still changing And you aren’t. No matter why you started in politics, what the job is currently and what it is becoming ain’t what you thought it was gonna be. What is the job, then? To act in this existential crisis where our continued existence is in question. Current problems are already bigger1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 than anything we as a species have ever faced. Ever. As a species. There are no precedents to this situation (unless you’re a dinosaur12) so there are no political models to follow. To do your job now requires inventiveness, ingenuity, a spine, and an understanding that your political future isn’t worth a hill of beans13 because the future of the entire species is in doubt. Action is vital, and the actions needed are big, immediate, and very different from the politics of even 2 years ago.14 So that’s it. Your job is to ensure our survival, by hook or by crook, in any way possible. We’re in a Climate Emergency15, and that means acting like we’re in an emergency16, as opposed to acting like it’s business as usual, rah rah the rich. Business as usual (aka vulture capitalism, aka colonialism, aka raping nature for wealth for a few), by the way, is precisely what created this emergency.17, 18 Nothing else matters. You have no other job because nothing is separate from this. Nothing. There are no routes to higher political office except through this crisis. And what those higher political offices are and what they look like is changing rapidly.19, 20, 21, 22, 23 You’re not doing your job How about some examples? Trees — SF is net losing trees. Trees are vital to dealing with heat, air quality, and mental health issues. Richer areas have many more trees than poorer or red- or yellow-lined areas.24 Red-lining in San Francisco. Cars — The Board is treating cars like sacred cows, damn the consequences, full speed ahead.25, 26 Take the upper Great Highway, for example. While the reasoning and odd choices the supervisors made around this issue were interesting (it’s not really kosher to rewrite someone else’s study, you know; if you didn’t do the work, you don’t get to change the findings — as should have been remembered from Trump27 and DeSantis28 activities in this vein), the main excuse for taking away from pedestrians and bicyclists and giving to cars seems to be that the upper Great Hwy is going to be closed down in 2023 anyhow and 2 more years will give MTA time to fix the road issues. Sure. Of course, we’ve known about the 2023 shutdown since 201229 so if 9 years wasn’t sufficient for planning I don’t see how 2 more will help. But 2 years can cause a lot of hurt — look at Surfside.30 Water — Megadrought. Water source is 167 miles, 3 major earthquake faults, and a rapidly drying out set of counties away. What could go wrong?31 Energy — Greater need for energy because of heat32, greater damage to the grid because of heat, and forest fires burning what’s left33 make SF’s need for locally generated and controlled energy inescapable. Equity — Climate change and the Great Extinction Event screw the poor, BIPOC communities, women, and the young the most.34 It’s easy to say you care about equity. But your actions negate your words. So, are you up to the job? If so, prove it. Are you worried about public opinion? Remember, you only need 25% of people to change a culture’s basic understanding of itself.35 We know that 66% of Americans are worried about climate change.36 We know that 85% of San Franciscans understand that climate change is happening.37 See? The numbers are there if you have the vision to finally ACT. Do your job! Because your job has never been about politics, it’s about survival.38 We’ve shrunk the atmosphere39 and shifted the poles40, and we’re pissing away freshwater while letting cars spew CO 2 with abandon. It’s all getting worse fast and there’s very little time to mitigate the damage.41 If SF is going to survive, you must act.42 You are bound by the Precautionary Principle, so you must act. You fought for this job, so you must act. To do otherwise is to engage in necropolitics43, which is not a good look for a politician, and so you must act. You must act, you must act, YOU MUST ACT. FOOTNOTES 1. Gabrielle Canon. “Historic heatwave, extreme drought and wildfires plague North American west”. The Guardian. 29 June 2021. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/29/pacific-north-west-heatwave-temperatures-weather-seattle-portland . 2. Amanda Coletta. “British Columbia reports ‘significant’ increase in deaths thought to be linked to heat wave”. The Washington Post. 29 June 2021. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/06/29/canada-heat-dome-deaths/ . 3. Sam Bradpiece. “South Africa’s third COVID wave could be the worst yet”. Al Jazeera. 29 June 2021. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/29/south-africas-third-wave-set-to-be-the-worst-yet . 4. Audrey Garric. “Climat : la France n’est toujours pas dans les clous pour atteindre ses objectifs en 2030”. Le Monde. 29 June 2021. https://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2021/06/29/climat-la-france-n-est-toujours-pas-dans-les-clous-pour-atteindre-ses-objectifs-en-2030_6086267_3244.html . 5. Oliver Milman. “‘The water is coming’: Florida Keys faces stark reality as seas rise”. Grist. 29 June 2021. https://grist.org/climate/the-water-is-coming-florida-keys-faces-stark-reality-as-seas-rise/ . 6. Lynda Mapes. “Canada announces big cuts to commercial fishing to protect wild salmon that Washington’s orcas eat”. The Seattle Times. 29 June 2021. https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/canada-announces-big-cuts-to-commercial-fishing-to-protect-wild-salmon-that-washingtons-orcas-eat/ . 7. EHN Staff. “Fractured: The body burden of living near fracking”. Environmental health News. 1 March 2021. https://www.ehn.org/fractured-series-on-fracking-pollution-2650624600.html . 8. News Editor. “Anger Rises Over Oil Drilling in Endangered Elephants’ ‘Last Stronghold’”. Environment News Services. 23 June 2021. https://ens-newswire.com/anger-rises-over-oil-drilling-in-endangered-elephants-last-stronghold/ . 9. Jeff Masters. “Tropics buzzing with activity more typical of August than June”. Yale Climate Connections. 29 June 2021. https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2021/06/tropics-buzzing-with-activity-more-typical-of-august-than-june/ . 10. Naveena Sadasivam. “Climate Change Puts Homeowners of Color at Greater Economic Risk”. Mother Jones. 26 June 2021. https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2021/06/climate-change-puts-black-homeowners-color-greater-economic-risk-flooding-mortgage/ . 11. Laura Höflinger. “There Is Hardly a Family that Has Been Spared”. Spiegel International. 2 June 2021. https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-coronavirus-in-india-there-is-hardly-a-family-that-has-been-spared-a-f0239e5f-9a87-40ef-8114-dead99613efe . 12. Bob Strauss. “The K/T Extinction Event”. ThoughtCo. Updated 28 February 2018. https://www.thoughtco.com/the-k-t-extinction-event-1092141 . 13. It’s sexist but still pretty compelling. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLQwphwP0ys . A movie made better by the people in it and working on it than the actual script itself. Of course, it helps that a lot of them were refugees. 14. Fiona Harvey. “Climate crisis: our children face wars o er food and water, EU deptuy warns”. The Guardian. 30 April 2021. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/apr/30/climate-crisis-we-must-make-sacrifices-to-avoid-future-wars-says-eu-deputy-frans-timmermans . 15. Joshua Sabatini. “SF to declare ‘climate emergency,’ bolster plans to reduce carbon emissions”. San Francisco Examiner. 27 February 2019. https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/sf-to-declare-climate-emergency-bolster-plans-to-reduce-carbon-emissions/ . 16. Remember how to do it? For a refresher, read Jason Hanna. “San Francisco declares state of emergency over coronavirus. Here’s what that means”. CNN. 26 February 2020. https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/26/health/san-francisco-coronavirus-emergency-declaration/index.html . 17. Séverine Kodjo-Grandvaux. “Colonialism, The Hidden Cause Of Our Environmental Crisis”. WorldCrunch. 14 February 2020. https://worldcrunch.com/culture-society/colonialism-the-hidden-cause-of-our-environmental-crisis . 18. Phil McDuff. “Ending climate change requires the end of capitalism. Have we got the stomach for it?” The Guardian. 18 March 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/18/ending-climate-change-end-capitalism . 19. Fiona Harvey. “Climate crisis to shrink G7 economies twice as much as Covid-19, says research”. The Guardian. 7 June 2021. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jun/07/climate-crisis-to-shrink-g7-economies-twice-as-much-as-covid-19-says-research . 20. Vann Newkirk II. “Cape Town Is An Omen”. The Atlantic. 11 September 2018. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/09/cape-south-south-africa-water-crisis/569317/ . 21. Peter Sutoris. “The climate crisis requires a new culture and politics, not just new tech”. The Guardian. 24 May 2021. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/24/climate-change-crisis-culture-politics-technology . 22. Felicia Jackson. “Politics Is Now The Battleground For Climate Change Says Leading U.K. Scientist”. Forbes. 24 June 2021. https://www.forbes.com/sites/feliciajackson/2021/06/24/politics-is-now-the-battleground-for-climate-change/?sh=68b7b42a6231 . 23. Emily Folk. “How will climate change politics?” Ecologist. 14 September 2020. https://theecologist.org/2020/sep/14/how-will-climate-change-politics . 24. Nuala Sawyer. “History of Redlining in San Francisco Neighborhoods”. Found SF. 3 June 2014. https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=History_of_Redlining_in_San_Francisco_Neighborhoods 25. admin. “12-year-old boy struck and killed by car in San Francisco”. Speedlux. 11 February 2021. https://speedlux.com/12-year-old-boy-struck-and-killed-by-car-san-francisco/ . 26. Dan McMenamin. “Medical examiner identifies woman killed by hit-and-run driver near City Hall”. Bay City News. 19 May 2021. https://sfbayca.com/2021/05/19/medical-examiner-identifies-woman-killed-by-hit-and-run-driver-near-city-hall/ . 27. Dartagnan. “Trump EPA rewrote and deleted warnings in scientific papers to get Monsanto herbicide approved”. Daily Kos. 27 May 2021. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/5/27/2032089/-Trump-EPA-rewrote-and-deleted-warnings-in-scientific-papers-to-get-Monsanto-herbicide-approved . 28. Stephen Luntz. “Scientist Who Blew Whistle On Covid-19 Numbers Raided By Police”. IFLScience. 8 December 2020. https://www.iflscience.com/policy/scientists-who-blew-whistle-on-covid-19-numbers-raided-by-police/ . 29. Vivian Ho. “Great Highway lane work delayed”. SFGate. 9 August 2012. https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Great-Highway-lane-work-delayed-3755415.php . 30. Tom Winter, Henry Austin, and Didi Martinez. “Engineer warned of ‘major structural damage’ years before Florida condo collapsed”. NBC News. 26 June 2021. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/engineer-warned-major-structural-damage-years-florida-condo-collapsed-n1272445 . 31. Last week’s Strike letter, and all the others on water and the megadrought before it, will give you a pretty thorough list of what can and will go wrong. 32. Clara Hill. “Train cables melt and roads buckle in Northwest’s 46C heatwave”. Yahoo! Finance. 29 June 2021. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/train-cables-melt-roads-buckle-143439997.html . 33. Sam Brasch and Miguel Otárola. “The Cold Isn’t The Biggest Threat To Colorado’s Power Grid — Other Climate Disasters Might Be”. CPR News. 20 February 2021. https://www.cpr.org/2021/02/20/the-cold-isnt-the-biggest-threat-to-colorados-power-grid-other-climate-disasters-might-be/ . 34. Irene Banos Ruiz. “Climate change reinforces inequalities - even in developed countries”. DW. 25 October 2019. https://www.dw.com/en/climate-change-reinforces-inequalities-even-in-developed-countries/a-50596957 . 35. Katherine Wei. “How Many People Do You Need to Change the Culture?” Sierra. 7 June 2018. https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/how-change-peoples-minds-25-percent-tipping-point . 36. Rebecca Klar. “Survey finds 66 percent worried about climate change even amid coronavirus”. The Hill. 19 May 2020. https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/498465-survey-finds-66-percent-worried-about-climate-change-even-amid . 37. Drew Costley. “Study: SF has highest percentage of people who think global warming is happening”. SFGate. 12 August 2018. https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/San-Francisco-climate-change-belief-Yale-UCSB-13149115.php . 38. Aiko Stevenson. “Can Human Beings Survive The Impending Climate Crisis?” Huffpost. 3 August 2017. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/can-humans-beings-survive-the-impending-climate-crisis_b_59829712e4b0396a95c874c5 . 39. Damian Carrington. “Climate emissions shrinking the stratosphere, scientists reveal”. The Guardian. 12 May 2021. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/may/12/emissions-shrinking-the-stratosphere-scientists-find . 40. Damian Carrington. “Climate crisis has shifted the Earth’s axis, study shows”. The Guardian. 23 April 2021. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/apr/23/climate-crisis-has-shifted-the-earths-axis-study-shows . 41. Doc Snow. “Climate Change: How Much Time Do We Have?” Soapboxie. 26 February 2020. https://soapboxie.com/social-issues/Climate-Change-How-Much-Time-Do-We-Have . 42. 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/ . 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