(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . It's Not Enough To Just Act -- Strike for the Planet week 118 [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-30 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 118 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 How are not acting and taking bad actions the same? They both produce baaaaaad results. That’s why this week’s topic is: It’s not enough to just act. Let’s agree, one, that not acting is bad You have 117 prior Strike letters with details on exactly how awful not acting is for San Francisco, but here are even more tidbits of information to add to the already mountainous pile of evidence that you have to act. Tidbit #1: A recent study found that San Francisco is the 5th worst urban heat island in the United States. The calculations by Climate Central looked at albedo, percentage greenery, population density, building height, permeable surfaces, and the average width of streets, among other factors. When compared to neighboring areas, SF bakes, and it’s mostly from heat trapped by tall buildings, impermeable surfaces, and population density. Our urban heat island score was almost identical to the three cities hotter than us — Houston (#4), New York City (#3), and Newark (#2).1, 2 And, for an added bonus, this isn’t just a heat island issue. Heat islands are positively linked to environmental racism in the U.S. (and in SF — see Strike letter 115 for details and specific neighborhoods.) Tidbit #2: It turns out that failing at Vision Zero (and SF is failing miserably at Vision Zero at the moment3, 4, 5) is an environmental racism issue as well because cars disproportionately kill Black people.6 Not acting it literally killing San Franciscans, and it’s hurting the most vulnerable the most. Two, that action is life-or-death necessary now When even the rich are dying from climate change, clearly it’s time for politicians to finally do something. The floods in Germany, the fires in Topanga, the heat dome in Canada — even the richest nations and richest people in those nations can’t escape climate change and governments need to act.7, 8, 9 Three, that not all actions are equally good For example, even though the tides are rising, sea walls are a terrible idea. They don’t work. Why they don’t work is basic physics: the water is coming10 and it has to go somewhere. Seawalls just ensure that communities wealthy enough to build the seawalls push more water into communities that are poorer. Ultimately the seawalls will fail to protect what they were supposed to protect anyway — the physics of erosion and fluid dynamics dictate this. When you’re working against and not with the water, you will fail.11 And four, that some actions make things much, much worse Witness the fossil fuel fools, running the climate into the ground for personal, short-term profits. They lie12, cheat13, 14, steal15, 16, and kill17, 18 to keep on destroying the biosphere. The conclusion is obvious You need to act now (because the status quo is killing the planet) and act smart at the same time. Why you? Because it’s your job. Because not acting is expensive19, and the costs of acting are much less than the costs of doing nothing.20, 21, 22 Because it’s never been clearer then now just what actions are the right actions and what actions are the wrong actions.23 We’ve already shrunk the atmosphere24 and shifted the poles25, we’re pissing away the water while letting CO 2 spewing death monsters run riot over the city: SF’s chances for survival are borderline at best, and require immediate action.26 You’ve taken oaths to act for the good of SF. You say you are bound by the Precautionary Principle. So act on the science already. Because it’s not about politics anymore, and it never was. It’s about survival.27 FOOTNOTES 1. Kerrin Jeromin. “These cities have the most stifling heat islands in the United States”. The Washington Post. 15 July 2021. 2. Climate Central. “Hot Zones: Urban Heat Islands”. Climate Central. 14 July 2021. https://medialibrary.climatecentral.org/uploads/general/2021_UHI_Report.pdf . 3. Roger Rudick. “Zero Progress on Vision Zero”. StreetsBlogSF. 7 January 2021. https://sf.streetsblog.org/2021/01/07/zero-progress-on-vision-zero/ . 4. Bay City News. “San Francisco not progressing to meet Vision Zero goals”. San Francisco Examiner. 14 July 2021. https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/san-francisco-not-progressing-to-meet-vision-zero-goals/ . 5. Leah Shahum. “Reaching Vision Zero : Analysis Shows it’s Achievable”. Vision Zero Network. 1 April 2021. https://visionzeronetwork.org/reaching-vision-zero-analysis-shows-its-achievable/ . 6. Adam Mahoney. “Car culture disproportionately kills Black Americans. The pandemic made things worse.” Grist. 7 July 2021. https://grist.org/transportation/racial-disparities-traffic-accidents-black-americans-covid/ . 7. Jena Brooker. “On the heels of Europe’s devastating floods, scientists warn more is yet to come”. Grist. 20 July 2021. https://grist.org/extreme-weather/europes-devastating-floods-scientists-warn-more-is-yet-to-come/ . 8. Somini Sengupta. “‘No One Is Safe’: Extreme Weather Batters the wealthy World”. New York Times. 17 July 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/17/climate/heatwave-weather-hot.html . 9. Roger Pielke, Jr. “The Key to Avoiding Future Climate Disasters? Adapting”. The Wall Street Journal. 16 July 2021. https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-key-to-avoiding-future-climate-disasters-adapting-11626443600 . 10. Roxy Bonafont. “Sea Level Rise a Major Threat to San Francisco”. SF Weekly. 15August 2020. https://www.sfweekly.com/news/sea-level-rise-a-major-threat-to-san-francisco/ . 11. Matt Simon. “Be very careful where you build that seawall”. Grist. 17 July 2021. https://grist.org/cities/be-very-careful-where-you-build-that-seawall/ . 12. Emily Pontecorvo. “Report: Corporate giants have been lobbying against their own emissions targets”. Grist. 13 July 2021. https://grist.org/accountability/report-companies-have-been-lobbying-against-their-own-emissions-targets/ . 13. Alex Kotch. “Oil and Gas Companies Get Enormous Welfare, Still Lay Off Workers and Enrich Executives”. The Center for Media and Democracy. 1 June 2021. https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2021/06/01/oil-and-gas-companies-get-enormous-welfare-still-lay-off-workers-and-enrich-executives/ . 14. Sharon Lerner. “How The Environmental Lawyer Who Won A Massive Judgment Against Chevron Lost Everything”. The Intercept. 29 January 2020. https://theintercept.com/2020/01/29/chevron-ecuador-lawsuit-steven-donziger/ . 15. Dave Johnson. “Koch And Native-American Reservation Oil Theft”. Our Future. 9 March 2012. https://ourfuture.org/20120309/Koch_And_Native-American_Reservation_Oil_Theft_ . 16. “Oil companies steal Khanti land”. Survival International. 30 September 2000. https://www.survivalinternational.org/news/114 . 17. Ed Pilkington. “Shell pays out $15.5m over Saro-Wiwa killing”. The Guardian. 8 June 2009. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/jun/08/nigeria-usa . 18. Cody Nelson. “‘Their greed is gonna kill us’: Indian Country fights against more fracking”. The Guardian. 10 June 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/10/new-mexico-fracking-navajo-indian-country . 19. Eric Roston. “The Massive Cost of Not Adapting to Climate Change”. Bloomberg. 9 September 2019. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-09/the-massive-cost-of-not-adapting-to-climate-change . 20. Starre Vartan. “The Cost of Tackling Climate Change Is Less Than the Cost of Doing Nothing”. Treehugger. 21 April 2020. https://www.treehugger.com/tackling-climate-change-will-help-economy-when-we-need-it-most-4865281 . 21. Andrew Hoffman. “Rising Insurance Costs May Convince People That Climate Change Risks Are Real”. Huffpost. 1 November 2018. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/insurance-costs-climate-change_b_5bd0a8d0e4b04d1f9a5582d9 . 22. Sébastien Roblin. “The U.S. military is terrified of climate change. It’s done more damage than Iranian missiles.” NBC News. 20 September 2020. https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/u-s-military-terrified-climate-change-it-s-done-more-ncna1240484 . 23. If in doubt, please refer to the prior 117 Strike letters, especially weeks 43 (recap), 51 (The Price Is Right), 54 (Taking Action Fast), 74 (Good, Cheap, Fast), 87 (a summary for winter), and 103 (Water & Energy). 24. 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 . 25. 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 . 26. 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/ . [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/30/2202295/-It-s-Not-Enough-To-Just-Act-Strike-for-the-Planet-week-118?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/