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.
This is the letter for week 66 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 see topics for all the strike letters, see this story. Meanwhile…
STRIKE FOR THE PLANET
Set a big goal and work toward it — it’s the only way to save SF.
This week’s topic is The Big Goal.
The only chance we have of surviving — as a city and as a species — is to set a big goal and then immediately throw everything we’ve got into achieving it.
How does this work?
- Set an overarching biosphere goal for the city.
- If something forwards that goal, do it.
- If it doesn’t, don’t.
See? It’s not that difficult.
Here are some examples of other big goals and the actions taken to achieve them to give you an idea of how this works.
Some other big goals and the actions taken to achieve them
- Goal: Rebuilding SF as fast as possible after the 1906 earthquake.
Actions: The army was brought in to build “relief houses,” survivors were “drafted” to clear rubble, the sand dunes and parks were colonized, street cars became shelters, 15,000 horses were worked to death in one month, SF lied about how many died (400 v. 3000, minimum) and what from (fire v. earthquake) in order to quickly lure investors back, and the rush to open SF for business encouraged shoddy building practices and extensive bribery and graft.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Not the best process, but they got it done.
- Goal: Eradicating smallpox.
Actions: Countries worldwide collaborated on vaccination campaigns and surveillance and containment (involving house-to-house searches and rewards for reporting cases), there was an education push in hospitals, the bifurcated needle was developed, richer countries funded campaigns in poorer countries, containment methods included isolation, flexible strategies were adapted to local circumstances, and funding was provided for contact tracing and investigations.7, 8, 9, 10
- Goal: Putting an American on the moon before the Soviets did.
Actions: We had to build incredibly complex machines capable of meeting all possible foreseeable physical circumstances in an insanely hostile environment where all adjustments and repairs had to be done by the crew with only what they had with them, we had to test everything over and over again while racing against the USSR to be the first at each iteration and mission adjustment, we did all this with slide rules, and we did it by involving everyone (including the janitors) as vital members of the project.11, 12, 13, 14
Okay, so what is SF’s big goal in this ongoing biosphere disaster?
How about this? It seems big enough to steer us, simple enough to focus us, and thorough enough to last.
Goal: To make SF continuously viable for a maximum population of 800,000 to 1 million into the 25th century (following the 7th generation principle15).
See, it’s not difficult to pick an appropriate goal. Now, what decisions and actions follow from this mission statement? What strategies do we use to meet this goal? We:
- Eliminate “natural gas” infrastructure in SF.16
- Make SF run on 100% local, 100% renewable, 100% clean, 100% locally sustainable, carbon neutral or carbon negative energy by 2025.17
- Move from a “streets are for cars” to “streets are for people” policy framework.18
- Recycle blackwater countywide.19
- Get everyone involved in the project of sustaining and adapting SF to global change.20
- Sequester carbon in SF.21
- Put a progressive Carbon Added Fee on items that swell SF’s carbon footprint.22
- Develop inclusive leadership and policy formation practices.23
- Put a laser focus on solving environmental racism and inequalities.24
- Begin the coastal retreats now. Plant the coastal buffer zones now.25
- Eliminate light pollution.26
- Increase SF’s albedo.27
- Plant a connected, native urban forest with green pathways for flying animals, insects, nocturnal animals, large predators and scavengers, and people.28
- Require cradle to cradle purchasing.29
- Eliminate all non-recycled plastic use in SF.30
- Recycle everything in SF in SF. There is no “away” where we can dump our waste because there is no waste, only wasted resources.31
- Fund, be on the look out for, and support the science to help with all of this.32
- Use and support the arts to get the messages across in multiple directions. The arts tell us the story of what it means to be alive at this time. Use them.
- Require green building practices, push what is permitted, and stop building for capital instead of for the people.
Etcetera. You get the idea, I hope. An overarching goal gives strength and focus to our actions. It makes big changes possible without derailing a society.
Remember, you only need 25% of people to change a culture’s basic understanding of itself.33 We know that 66% of Americans are worried about climate change.34 We know that 85% of San Franciscans understand that climate change is happening.35 See? We have the numbers on our side. That’s why it’s time to pick a big goal and act to make it happen as quickly as possible.
And a gentle reminder about why I’ve been doing this strike for over a year:
There are, at most, 22 weeks left in which to start the necessary big actions if we’re going to survive.36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43 In a little over a year, we have lost 10 years time in which to act. The Guardian started a climate countdown this last week, and gives us 98 days to save the earth.44 Because there is NO time left, you must act now.
FOOTNOTES
1. “San Francisco — Rebuilding After The 1906 Earthquake”. Skyline Civil Group. Accessed 28 July 2020. http://www.skylinecivilgroup.com/san-francisco-rebuilding-1906-earthquake/.
2. “Rebuilding San Francisco following the 1906 Earthquake”. SF-info. Accessed 28 July 2020. http://www.sf-info.org/history/d8/rebuilding.
3. Bob Bragman. “San Francisco rebuilds after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire”. SFGate. 18 April 2017. https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/slideshow/San-Francisco-rebuilds-after-the-1906-San-143371.php.
4. Richard Gonzales. “Rebuilding Chinatown After the 1906 Quake”. NPR. 12 April 2006. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5337215.
5. W.J. Bartnett. Letter to Hon. Eugene E. Schmitz, Mayor of San Francisco. 29 April 1906. The Museum of the City of San Francisco. http://www.sfmuseum.org/1906/rebuild.html.
6. Carl Nolte. “The Great Quake: 1906-2006/Rising from the ashes”. SFGate. 18 April 2006. https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/The-Great-Quake-1906-2006-Rising-from-the-ashes-2537103.php.
7. “Smallpox”. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Accessed 28 July 2020. https://www.cdc.gov/smallpox/history/history.html.
8. “Smallpox”. World Health Organization. Accessed 28 July 2020. https://www.who.int/csr/disease/smallpox/en/.
9. M A Strassburg. “The global eradication of smallpox”. PubMed. May 1982. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7044193/.
10. Alexander Freund. “Lessons learned: The eradication of smallpox 40 years ago”. Seutsche Welle. 5 July 2020. https://www.dw.com/en/lessons-learned-the-eradication-of-smallpox-40-years-ago/a-53362987.
11. Quora Contributor. “How We Lost The Ability To Travel To The Moon”. Forbes. 11 December 2015. https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2015/12/11/how-we-lost-the-ability-to-travel-to-the-moon/#e203f361f48e.
12. Joe Byerly. “The Janitor Who Helped Put a Man on the Moon”. From The Green Notebook. November 2017. https://fromthegreennotebook.com/2017/11/04/the-janitor-who-help-put-a-man-on-the-moon/.
13. Elissa Nadworny. “The Slide Rule: A Computing Device That Put A Man On The Moon”. NPR. 22 October 2014. https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2014/10/22/356937347/the-slide-rule-a-computing-device-that-put-a-man-on-the-moon.
14. “Apollo 13: The Real Story”. YouTube. Accessed 29 July 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69LDSL-9--g.
15. “Values”. Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Accessed 29 July 2020. https://www.haudenosauneeconfederacy.com/values/.
16. Strike letter week 32: CH4.
17. Strike letter week 38: Energy and week 39: Energy details.
18. Strike letter week 7: Transportation, week 15: Environmental justice, and week 29: Transit.
19. Strike letter week 1: Water, week 20: Access to water, week 28: Water recycling, and week 52: Build blackwater recycling.
20. Strike letter week 2: Ideas, week 14: Self-assessment, week 15: Environmental justice, week 40: Climate emergency, week 54: Taking action fast, and week 58: Restorative Justice.
21. Strike letter week 3: Carbon sequestration, week 6: Planting, week 16: The ocean, week 27: Trees, week 35: CO2 pt 2, and week 36: CO2 pt 3.
22. Strike letter Week 61: CAF and Week 62: CAF implementation.
23. Strike letter Week 2: Ideas, Week 15: Environmental justice, Week 21: Priorities, Week 48: Green New Deal, Week 49: Basic tenents, Week 54: Taking action fast, Week 55: How SF is hurt by global changes, Week 58: Restorative Justice, Week 60: Scope, Week 64: Environmental racism, and Week 65: How to take action.
24. Strike letter week 15: Environmental justice, week 23: Examples pt 2, week 58: Restorative Justice, and week 64: Environmental racism.
25. Strike letter week 5: Elevation, week 6: Planting, week 11: The coasts, week 13: Early financial risks, week 16: The ocean, week 18: Now or never, week 21: Priorities, and week 22: Examples pt 1.
26. Strike letter week 9: Insects, week 12: Light, week 23: Examples pt 2, and week 44: Insects in SF.
27. Strike letter week 12: Light, and week 22: Examples pt 1.
28. Strike letter week 6: Planting, week 9: Insects, week 22: Examples pt 1, week 27: Trees, week 44: Insects in SF, and week 45: Bio highways.
29. Strike letter week 4: Local recycling, week 31: Plastic, and week 41: Scope of the plastic problem.
30. Strike letter week 4: Local recycling, week 31: Plastic, and week 41: Scope of the plastic problem.
31. Strike letter week 4: Local recycling.
32. Strike letter week 10 Money (divest-invest), week 13: Early financial risks, week 19: Municipal bonds, week 23: Examples pt 2, and week 24: Science.
33. 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.
34. 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.
35. 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.
36. Matt McGrath. “Climate change: 12 years to save the planet? Make that 18 months”. BBC News. 24 July 2019. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-48964736.
37. Heather Smith. “Climate Change: Even Worse Than We Thought”. Sierra. 8 October 2018. https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/climate-change-even-worse-we-thought-ipcc-report.
38. Michael Grose and Julie Arblaster. “Just how hot will it get this century? It’s worse than we thought”. Phys Org. 18 May 2020. https://phys.org/news/2020-05-hot-century-worse-thought.html.
39. Amelia Urry. “The scientist who first warned of climate change says it’s much worse than we thought”. Grist. 22 March 2016. https://grist.org/science/the-scientist-who-first-warned-of-climate-change-says-its-much-worse-than-we-thought/.
40. Rafi Letzter. “Today’s Climate Change Is Worse Than Anything Earth Has Experienced in the Past 2,000 Years”. Live Science. 25 July 2019. https://www.livescience.com/66027-climate-change-different.html.
41. John D. Sutter. “Vanishing”. CNN. Accessed 30 June 2020. https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2016/12/specials/vanishing/.
42. Peter Castagno. “Biodiversity Loss Worst in Human History — 1 Million Animal Species Risk Extinction”. Citizen Truth. 6 May 2019. https://citizentruth.org/biodiversity-loss-worst-in-human-history-1-million-animal-species-risk-extinction/.
43. Kristen Callihan. “Earth’s Currently Ongoing Sixth Mass Extinction Is Worse Than We Thought”. OutwardOn. 7 August 2017. https://www.outwardon.com/article/earths-currently-ongoing-sixth-mass-extinction-event-is-worse-than-we-thought/.
44. “Climate countdown”. The Guardian. Accessed most recently 29 July 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/series/climate-countdown.