You can make a difference, in your town or your city, to the hurt being caused by climate chaos and the great extinction event! Reuse this information! This is the letter for week 13 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 all the strike letters, see this story.
STRIKE FOR THE PLANET
Because there’s more than one meaning to being underwater.
Greed and opportunism, unleashed by capitalism, got us into this mess, and this mess is going to destroy capitalism and the ability of the planet to support life, too, unless we stop it. Need proof?
This week’s topic is FINANCIAL RISK.
So, what do the money people have to say about climate chaos?
Breckinridge Capital Advisors:
Sea level rise is a serious issue that could have direct implications for municipal credit ratings, which may in turn affect the value of some municipal bonds. Also, if the tax base contracts substantially, that could weaken the ability of municipalities to pay back bond investors.
How many 30-year bonds does SF have out? Will we be able to pay those bonds back given the clear models and physics of climate chaos? Or will we go bankrupt with no bailouts available?
Sean Becketti, chief economist, Freddie Mac:
It is less likely that borrowers will continue to make mortgage payments if their homes are literally underwater. As a result, lenders, servicers, and mortgage insurers are likely to suffer large losses.
Illinois Farmers Insurance Company and Farmers Insurance Exchange sued 12 Illinois municipalities for failing to prevent and mitigate flood damage caused by climate chaos.
The Bank of Canada’s annual FSR, released May 16, 2019:
Economic activity and the environment are intertwined.
Chris Newton of IFM Investors:
The long-term nature of the challenge has, in our view, met a zombie-like response by many. This is a recipe for disaster as the impacts of climate change can be sudden, severe and catastrophic.
Standard and Poor’s:
Climate change has already started to alter the functioning of our world.
Bank of England governor Mark Carney, Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau, and a Dutch central bank executive director, Frank Elderson:
No country or community is immune. The prime responsibility for climate policy will continue to sit with governments. And the private sector will determine the success of the adjustment. But as financial policymakers and prudential advisors, we cannot ignore the obvious risk before our eyes.
Danae Kyriakopoulou, chief economist at OMFIF:
It’s an issue of financial stability.
Cynthia L. McHale, director, Ceres:
As risks increase, insurers will pull out of markets, limit coverages/increase deductibles/raise rates. Coastal real estate will lose value, local markets will become soft, and some homeowners/businesses will declare bankruptcy and/or walk away from property. And when significant volumes of property value decline and mortgage delinquencies increase, there are major ramifications for our entire financial system as we experienced in the 2008 financial collapse caused by the mortgage-market meltdown.
John Miller, PE, CFM, CSM, MS, Univ of Pennsylvania:
[With the inevitable impacts from rising seas] I believe that we will see credit downgrades sooner than later.
Philip K. Stoddard, PhD, mayor of South Miami
Moody’s is planning downgrades in coastal cities, which will make the cost of infrastructure bonding higher. The combination will intensify the squeeze on our local tax bases, at which point the only viable economic strategy is for people to bail out and for planners to retract to high ground…. Coastal communities must no longer allow construction that cannot accommodate sea level rise. That’s our best hedge against market forces taking us out.
We have building code for earthquakes and fire – what are SF’s building codes for climate chaos?
Michael D. Berman, a senior advisor to Shaun Donovan who chaired the Hurricane Sandy Task Force:
Short-term thinking and a simple view of the world tends to prevail in our culture, including our business and political cultures—climate change is long term and complex. If the risks were presented as more immediate and more simple along with a range of potential solutions, it might be easier for decision-makers to engage in the issues. Denial is partly a function of fear as well as ignorance.
All right, so what does SF need to do?
1. Join the Network for Greening the Financial System.
2. Join and support the Science to Climate Action Network.
3. Divest all SF funds from fossil fuels entirely and invest in renewables.
4. Conduct financial exposure stress tests across all city and county functions.
5. Switch to natural capital accounting for all city and county functions.
6. Identify environmental financial tipping points and plan for them.
7. Reduce and eliminate SF’s carbon footprint.
8. Establish and fund local and regional climate and ecosystem studies now, and act on the data.
9. Act now!
There’s so little time left. This is absolutely the moment to panic, and then to act!