STRIKE FOR THE PLANET
Because global change hurts SF and damages our ability to survive.
This week’s topic: BIOSPHERE COLLAPSE DIRECTLY ENDANGERS SF.
Last week I said that climate chaos and mass extinction are directly impacting San Francisco in a variety of ways. Need proof? This week we're looking at these impacts, one at a time.
Food
San Francisco’s food supply is endangered by, but not only by:
- Domoic acid and other algal bloom biotoxins1 poisoning top predators, including humans, and shutting down marine food sources.2 These toxic blooms occur more frequently in connection with climate change.3
- Plastic polluting the food web in ever-increasing amounts4, adding to the plastic we’re already incorporating in other ways.5
- Mercury pollution poisoning local fish6, 7 and wildlife.8
- Urbanization paving over9 and degrading local farm land10, causing decreased food production.11
- Megadrought substantially decreasing food production.11
- Export crops exporting our water.12, 13, 14
- Crop failures gutting our food supply.15
- Pollinator die-offs causing crop failures.16
- Soil loss17 and degradation producing farm loss18, decreasing the food supply.
- And rising amounts of greenhouse gases reducing crop nutrients.19
Flooding
Large areas of San Francisco, especially areas of fill, are endangered by increasingly frequent and large flooding events happening due to sea level rise and storm surge.20, 21
Freshwater
San Francisco’s water supply is extremely endangered by multiple factors, including:
- The megadrought,22, 23, 24
- An ever-decreasing Sierra snowpack (as climate change changes CA’s precipitation to rain),25, 26
- Increasing freshwater salinization (from saltwater level rises, agricultural pollution27, and water diversions),28, 29
- Plastics, pharmaceuticals, fracking fluid, and other pollution,30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35
- Unregulated groundwater pumping leading to dried out and collapsed aquifers,36, 37
- And saltwater intrusion caused by groundwater pumping where saltwater is present.38, 39
Fires
San Francisco is endangered both directly and indirectly by fire through:
- Smoke and particulate fallout40
- Air quality degradation41, 42
- Displacement43 and loss of housing44, 45
- And an increase in the number, length, and severity of fires.46, 47, 48
Heat
Increased heat endangers San Francisco via:
- Productivity losses49, 50, 51
- Increased energy usage for cooling52, 53
- Loss of wildlife and plants54, 55, 56
- And decreased habitability.57
Health
- Pandemics and moving disease vectors58, 59, 60
- Heat death, heat stroke, and other health impacts61, 62, 63
- Mental health64, 65
- Starvation66
Homelessness
Homelessness will increase due to economic collapse, and to people without resources coming to urban centers that have resources.67, 68, 69
Injustice
The disenfranchised, frontline communities, communities already with few resources who have been robbed of generational wealth, communities in poor health, living in food deserts, without access to capital and targeted by officially-sanctioned bullies and thieves (such as police and bank loan officers) are being hit and will continue to be hit the hardest.70, 71, 72, 73
Function
Climate change has caused cities to collapse before74 and it will again.75, 76
We Must Act Now.
- Blackwater recycling,
- Plant an SF native urban forest,
- Switch to all electric and clean energy transportation,
- Ban all plastics in SF,
- Make all our energy local, and carbon-neutral or carbon-negative, and
- Make SF resilient and self-sufficient.
Still feel like ignoring the obvious? There isn’t even a full year left to us to act. We have 33 weeks.77, 78 Act now!
FOOTNOTES
1. “Red Tides and Domoic Acid Toxicity”. The Marine Mammal Center. 2020. https://www.marinemammalcenter.org/science/top-research-projects/domoic-acid-toxicity.html.
2. Angela Fritz. “How climate change is making ‘red tide’ algal blooms even worse”. The Washington Post. 15 August 2018. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2018/08/14/how-climate-change-is-making-red-tide-algal-blooms-even-worse/.
3. Georgina Gustin. “Toxic Algae Blooms Occurring More Often, May Be Caught in Climate Change Feedback Loop”. Inside Climate News. 15 May 2018. https://insideclimatenews.org/news/15052018/algae-blooms-climate-change-methane-emissions-data-agriculture-nutrient-runoff-fertilizer-sewage-pollution-lake-erie.
4. R.H. Waring, R.M. Harris, and S.C. Mitchell. “Plastic contamination of the food chain: A threat to human health?” Maturitas. Volume 115, September 2018. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378512218303505.
5. Karen McVeigh. “Microplastics discovered blowing ashore in sea breezes”. The Guardian. 12 May 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/12/microplastics-discovered-blowing-ashore-in-sea-breezes.
6. Arwen Curry. “Mercury in San Francisco Bay”. KQED. 5 November 2015. https://www.kqed.org/quest/17506/mercury-in-san-francisco-bay.
7. Gretchen E. Gehrke, Joel D. Blum, Darell G. Slotton, and Ben K. Greenfield. “Mercury Isotopes Link Mercury in San Francisco Bay Forage Fish to Surface Sediments”. Environmental Science & Technology. 2011. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/es103053y.
8. “Mercury: Problem Statement”. California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Accessed 12 May 2020. http://www.dfg.ca.gov/ERP/wq_mercuryissues.asp.
9. “Bay Area Agriculture”. Greenbelt Alliance. 2020. https://www.greenbelt.org/barriers-to-farming-and-ranching/.
10. Peter J. Marcotullio, Ademola K. Braimoh, and Takashi Onishi. “The Impact of Urbanization on Soils”. Land Use and Soil Resources. 2008. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-1-4020-6778-5_10.
11. William K. Stevens. “Severe Ancient Droughts: A Warning to California”. The New York Times. 19 July 1994. https://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/19/science/severe-ancient-droughts-a-warning-to-california.html.
12. “California Agricultural Exports: 2017-2018”. CDFA. 2018. https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/statistics/PDFs/2017-18AgExports.pdf.
13. “Watch: Amid Drought, California Water Virtually Draining Away”. National Geographic. 9 April 2015. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/04/150409-water-agriculture-cattle-dairy-conservation-ngfood/.
14. Jenny Kehl. “The Hidden Global Trade in Water”. YaleGlobal Online. 13 February 2013. https://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/hidden-global-trade-water.
15. Marlene Cimons. “Crop Failure and Fading Food Supplies: Climate Change’s Lasting Impact”. LiveScience. 16 January 2016. https://www.livescience.com/53400-crop-failure-draining-food-supplies-as-planet-warms.html.
16. Peter Dockrill. “The World’s Pollinators Are Dying Out, And All Our Favorite Foods Could Go With Them”. ScienceAlert. 4 March 2016. https://www.sciencealert.com/the-world-s-pollinators-are-dying-out-and-all-our-favourite-foods-could-go-with-them.
17. Michael Singer. “Soil Erosion And Its Impact On Our Future”. California Institute For Rural Studies. 25 May 2015. https://www.cirsinc.org/rural-california-report/entry/soil-erosion-and-its-impact-on-our-future.
18. Erica Gies. “Soil Salinity Threatens California Farms”. Food and Farm Discussion Lab. 29 June 2017. http://fafdl.org/blog/2017/06/29/soil-salinity-threatens-california-farms/.
19. Merrit Kennedy. “Major Crops Are Losing Nutrients”. Morning Edition: NPR. 19 June 2018. https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/06/19/616098095/as-carbon-dioxide-levels-rise-major-crops-are-losing-nutrients.
20. Stas Margaronis. “Sea level rise could threaten California cities and ports by 2040”. American Journal of Transportation. 21 March 2019. https://www.ajot.com/insights/full/ai-sea-level-rise-could-threaten-california-cities-and-ports-by-2040.
21. Jeremy B White. “Sea level rise could be even worse for San Francisco than previously thought”. Independent. 8 March 2018. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/san-francisco-sea-level-rise-bay-area-flooding-climate-change-study-a8245101.html.
22. Dan Zukowski. “NASA: Megadrought Lasting Decades Is 99% Certain in American Southwest”. EcoWatch. 6 October 2016. https://www.ecowatch.com/megadroughts-2031955357.html.
23. Kevin Stark. “Megadrought Conditions Not Seen for 400+ Years Have Returned to the West, Scientists Say”. KQED. 16 April 2020. https://www.kqed.org/science/1962273/megadrought-conditions-not-seen-for-400-years-have-returned-to-the-west-scientists-say.
24. Jeff Berardelli. “Megadrought emerging in western U.S. could be the worst in 1,200 years, study finds”. CBS News. 17 April 2020. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-change-drought-california-western-united-states-study/.
25. The Associated Press. “Sierra snowpack: What the survey found in what is usually the peak week”. The Mercury News. 3 April 2020. https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/04/03/sierra-snowpack-what-the-survey-found-in-whats-usually-the-peak-week/.
26. Paul Rogers. “Water shortages ahead? Sierra Nevada snow pack on track to shrink 79 percent, new study finds”. The Mercury News. 15 December 2018. https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/12/15/water-shortages-ahead-sierra-nevada-snow-pack-on-track-to-shrink-79-percent-new-study-finds/.
27. “Pollutants from agriculture a serious threat to world’s water”. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 20 June 2018. http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/1141534/icode/.
28. Miguel Cañedo-Argüelles, Ben Kefford, and Ralf Schäfer. “Salt in freshwaters: causes, effects and prospects - introduction to the theme issue”. Philosophical Transactions B. 3 December 2018. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6283966/.
29. Ellen R. Herbert, Paul Boon, Amy J. Burgin, Scott C. Neubauer, Rima B. Franklin, Marcelo Ardón, Kristine N. Hopfensperger, Leon P. M. Lamers, Peter Gell. “A global perspective on wetland salinization: ecological consequences of a growing threat to freshwater wetlands”. ESA. 29 October 2015 Volume 6, Issue 10. https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1890/ES14-00534.1.
30. Christina Nunez. “Water pollution is a rising global crisis. Here’s what you need to know.” National Geographic. 24 January 2020. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/freshwater/pollution/.
31. Melissa Denchak. “Water Pollution: Everything You Need to Know”. Natural Resources Defense Council. 14 May 2018. https://www.nrdc.org/stories/water-pollution-everything-you-need-know.
32. Andrew Blok. “Freshwater is getting neglected when it comes to plastic pollution research”. Environmental Health News. 2 August 2019. https://www.ehn.org/freshwater-is-getting-neglected-when-it-comes-to-plastic-pollution-research-2639610931.html.
33. “Pharmaceuticals In The Water Supply”. American Rivers. 2019. https://www.americanrivers.org/threats-solutions/clean-water/pharmaceuticals-personal-care/.
34. Emily Folk. “The Environmental Impact Of Pharmaceuticals In Our Water”. The Environmental Magazine. 28 January 2019. https://emagazine.com/pharmaceuticals-in-drinking-water/.
35. Stephanie Osmanski. “Here’s How Fracking Causes Water Pollution”. Green Matters. Accessed 13 May 2020. https://www.greenmatters.com/p/fracking-water-pollution.
36. Dennis Dimick. “If You Think the Water Crisis Can’t Get Worse, Wait Until the Aquifers Are Drained”. National Geographic. 21 August 2014. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/8/140819-groundwater-california-drought-aquifers-hidden-crisis/.
37. Nathan Halverson. “9 sobering facts about California’s groundwater problem”. Reveal. 25 June 2015. https://www.revealnews.org/article/9-sobering-facts-about-californias-groundwater-problem/.
38. Julie Nico Martin. “Central Coast Groundwater: Seawater Intrusion and Other Issues”. California Water Foundation. 4 August 2014. https://water.ca.gov/LegacyFiles/waterplan/docs/cwpu2013/Final/vol4/groundwater/11Central_Coast_Groundwater_Seawater_Intrusion.pdf.
39. Brett Walton. “Here Comes the Sea: The Struggle to Keep the Ocean out of California’s Coastal Aquifers”. Circle of Blue. 23 September 2015. https://www.circleofblue.org/2015/world/here-comes-the-sea-the-struggle-to-keep-the-ocean-out-of-californias-coastal-aquifers/.
40. Sumi Hoshiko. “Health Effects of Wildfires”. California Climate Action Team, Public Health Workgroup. 10 June 2019. https://ww3.arb.ca.gov/cc/ab32publichealth/meetings/061019/cat_phwg_s_hoshiko_wildfire_and_health_06102019.pdf.
41. Michelle Robertson. “Here's why researchers say breathing San Francisco air today is like smoking 11 cigarettes”. SFGate. 16 November 2018. https://www.sfgate.com/california-wildfires/article/air-cigarettes-smoke-breathing-aqi-unhealthy-13399240.php.
42. Catherine Ho. “What will wildfire smoke do to my health? Long term, even experts don’t know”. San Francisco Chronicle. 28 October 2019. https://www.sfchronicle.com/california-wildfires/article/What-will-wildfire-smoke-do-to-my-health-Long-13399961.php.
43. Liam Dillon. “Thousands displaced by Northern California’s wildfires now face the region’s housing shortage”. Los Angeles Times. 19 October 2017. https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-me-santa-rosa-fires-housing-shortage-20171019-story.html.
44. Kirk Johnson and Conor Dougherty. “California Fires Leave Many Homeless Where Housing Was Already Scarce”. The New York Times. 15 October 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/15/us/california-fires-housing-shortage.html.
45. Jacob Passy. “California wildfire victims face new challenges finding housing". MarketWatch. 6 December 2018. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/california-wildfire-victims-will-face-unique-challenges-finding-new-housing-2018-11-16.
46. Chelsea Harvey. “Here’s What We Know about Wildfires and Climate Change”. Scientific American. 13 October 2017. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/heres-what-we-know-about-wildfires-and-climate-change/.
47. Dana Nuccitelli. “The many ways climate change worsens California wildfires”. Yale Climate Connections. 13 November 2018. https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2018/11/the-many-ways-climate-change-worsens-california-wildfires/.
48. Alejandra Borunda. “See how a warmer world primed California for large fires”. National Geographic. 15 November 2018. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/11/climate-change-california-wildfire/.
49. Renee Cho. “How Climate Change Impacts the Economy”. Earth Institute / Columbia University. 20 June 2019. https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2019/06/20/climate-change-economy-impacts/.
50. AFP/PTI. “Global warming to cause productivity loss equal to 80 mn jobs by 2030: UN”. Business Standard. 1 July 2019. https://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/warming-to-slash-equivalent-of-80-million-jobs-by-2030-un-119070100704_1.html.
51. Beh Lih Yi. “Too hot to work: global warming to cost $2 trillion in lost productivity”. Reuters. 19 July 2016. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-climatechange-costs/too-hot-to-work-global-warming-to-cost-2-trillion-in-lost-productivity-idUSKCN0ZZ1S9.
52. Chelsea Harvey. “Climate change could give San Francisco the climate of San Diego, scientists say”. The Washington Post. 4 August 2015. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/08/04/climate-change-could-give-san-francisco-the-climate-of-san-diego-scientists-say/.
53. Eric Niiler. “Is Air Conditioning Killing the Planet?” Seeker. 28 July 2015. https://www.seeker.com/is-air-conditioning-killing-the-planet-1770068863.html.
54. David D. Ackerly, Rebecca A. Ryals, Will K. Cornwell, Scott R. Loarie, Sam Veloz, Kelley D. Higgason, Whendee L. Silver, and Todd E. Dawson. “Potential Impacts Of Climate Change On Biodiversity And Ecosystem Services In The San Francisco Bay Area”. University of California, Berkeley. July 2012. https://ww2.energy.ca.gov/2012publications/CEC-500-2012-037/CEC-500-2012-037.pdf.
55. Sejal Choksi-Chugh. “Global Climate Change Is Already Affecting San Francisco Bay”. San Francisco Baykeeper. November 2015. https://baykeeper.org/news/column/global-climate-change-already-affecting-san-francisco-bay.
56. Peter Fimrite. “Climate change ruining California’s environment, report warns”. San Francisco Chronicle. 9 May 2018. https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/Climate-change-ruining-California-s-12899272.php.
57. Andrew Chamings. “How Climate Change Will Change the Shape of San Francisco”. The Bold Italic. 30 November 2016. https://thebolditalic.com/how-climate-change-will-change-the-shape-of-san-francisco-5b53c73aef9a.
58. Renee Cho. “How Climate Change Impacts the Economy”. Earth Institute / Columbia University. 20 June 2019. https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2019/06/20/climate-change-economy-impacts/.
59. Adam Frank. “Coronavirus and climate change: The pandemic is a fire drill for our planet's future”. NBC News. 27 March 2020. https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/coronavirus-climate-change-pandemic-fire-drill-our-planet-s-future-ncna1169991.
60. Renee Cho. “How Climate Change Is Exacerbating the Spread of Disease”. Earth Institute / Columbia University. 4 September 2014. https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2014/09/04/how-climate-change-is-exacerbating-the-spread-of-disease/.
61. Adam Brinklow. “San Francisco weather: Hotter heat waves in near future”. Curbed. 6 September 2017. https://sf.curbed.com/2017/9/6/16262900/heatwave-sf-climate-change-weather.
62. “How Climate Change Is Affecting California”. Climate Reality Project. 21 March 2018. https://www.climaterealityproject.org/blog/how-climate-change-affecting-california.
63. Ashley McClure and Amanda Millstein. “Open Forum: Climate change is already affecting your health”. San Francisco Chronicle. 3 October 2019. https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/Open-Forum-Climate-change-is-already-affecting-14487647.php.
64. Katherine Schreiber. “How Climate Change Affects Mental Health”. Psychology Today. 1 April 2017. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-truth-about-exercise-addiction/201704/how-climate-change-affects-mental-health.
65. “How Extreme Weather Events Affect Mental Health”. American Psychiatric Association. Physician review November 2019. https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/climate-change-and-mental-health-connections/affects-on-mental-health.
66. “The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment”. U.S. Global Change Research Program. Accessed 13 May 2020. https://health2016.globalchange.gov.
67. Erik Sherman. “Climate Change Is Already Helping To Drive Up Homelessness”. Forbes. 28 December 2018. https://www.forbes.com/sites/eriksherman/2018/12/28/climate-change-is-already-helping-to-drive-up-homelessness/#37ee322a4631.
68. Jim McDermott. “How homelessness, climate change and the California fires are all connected”. America Magazine. 18 December 2017. https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2017/12/18/how-homelessness-climate-change-and-california-fires-are-all-connected.
69. Admin. “Why Do Homeless People Live in Cities?” Homelessadvice. 4 June 2018. https://homelessadvice.com/why-do-homeless-people-live-in-cities-html/.
70. Adrian Daub. “Abandoned stores, empty homes: why San Francisco’s economic boom looks like a crisis”. The Guardian. 9 January 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/09/san-francisco-gentrification-second-wave.
71. Leif Dautch and Theo Ellington. "Hunters Point is a textbook case of environmental injustice”. San Francisco Chronicle. 15 May 2018. https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/Hunters-Point-is-a-textbook-case-of-environmental-12917354.php.
72. J. Perth Silvers. “Air Pollution and Environmental Injustice: Differential Burdens in San Francisco Bay Area Communities”. Air Quality Burdens in SF Bay Area. Spring 2016. https://nature.berkeley.edu/classes/es196/projects/2016final/SilversP_2016.pdf.
73. Greta Jochem. “San Francisco residents were sure nearby industry was harming their health. They were right.” Grist. 20 June 2018. https://grist.org/article/san-francisco-residents-were-sure-nearby-industry-was-harming-their-health-they-were-right/.
74. Stefan Lovgren. “Angkor Wat's Collapse From Climate Change Has Lessons for Today”. National Geographic. 5 April 2017. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/04/angkor-wat-civilization-collapsed-floods-drought-climate-change/.
75. Louis Doré. “Society will collapse by 2040 due to catastrophic food shortages, says study”. The Independent. 22 June 2015 . https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/society-will-collapse-by-2040-due-to-catastrophic-food-shortages-says-study-10336406.html.
76. Marike Boonstra. “Climate Change: Cause Of The Next Global Economic Collapse”. What’s Orb. 26 April 2019. https://www.whatsorb.com/climate/geoff-dembicki-climate-change-next-economic-collapse.
77. See the Action Timeline in the report in “Only 11 Years Left to Prevent Irreversible Damage from Climate Change, Speakers Warn during General Assembly High-Level Meeting”. United Nations. 28 march 2019. https://www.un.org/press/en/2019/ga12131.doc.htm.
78. Paula Murray. “We’ve 10 years to save the seas or life on earth will become impossible”. Express. 23 December 2018. https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1062990/environment-plastic-pollution-Sir-David-Attenborough-seas-earth.