STRIKE FOR THE PLANET
because right now is perilously close to too late.
It won’t be cheap, easy, politically feasible, pro-capitalist, or any of the rest of the nonsense we’ve let blind us so long to both the science and the screaming of the biosphere as it dies. But we have to do it, and we have to do it now. In the fight for the planet, life is losing.
So this week let’s talk about PLANTING.
San Francisco needs to actively fight sea level rise by drastically reducing both:
Short-lived pollutants such as soot, CH4, tropospheric O3, HFCs and
Long-lived pollutants such as CO2, N2O, and CFCs.
Some of this reduction in SF must be achieved by:
Eliminating all biomass burning
Outlawing wood fires
Stopping gas leaks
Eliminating all diesel engines and fossil fuel combusting motors
And some of this reduction can, and should, be quickly achieved by: Green roofs
Ubiquitous roadside planting
Rain gardens
Bioswales
Making SF a genuine urban forest
Parks of all sizes everywhere
City-scaled community gardens Drought-resistant landscaping
Building up bay and coastal plant habitats
This means we must: Make space for coastal species to move uphill as the waters rise
Update zoning and building codes and enforce them
Mandate, with jail and massive fines as teeth, strict green practices throughout SF Give up low-lying areas to parks, planted dunes, forest, and marsh
Actively plant and support aquatic natives such as kelp and tule
Bring more native plant species into all areas of SF (including downtown)
And, for some non-plant bonus actions, mandate and enforce light-colored roofing and pavement wherever there are not plants or green roofs to increase our albedo and decrease the urban heat- island effect, and fix and add to older buildings instead of tearing down and putting up new buildings to greatly reduce the amount of CO2 SF generates.