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 90 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
We’ve got tools for this — here in SF — so why aren’t you using them?!
This week’s topic is Use the Tools You’ve Got
That’s what they did in the moonshots — they used what they had, to do the job, and get to the moon. We’re trying to get to a planet that supports life. So what tools do we have to work with?
San Francisco’s tools immediately at hand include:
- SF Environment
- the Climate Crisis Declaration
- Money
- Employment
- Bay Area-wide governance
- Tech
- Science
- Disaster preparation
- Existing laws and regulations
- Resources
- and so much more
SF Environment is a tool not being used?
Yup. SF voters created this department by a charter amendment in 1995 with a mission to “improve, enhance and preserve the environment and promote San Francisco’s long term environmental sustainability.”1, 2 This is hard to do when the department isn’t listened to, funded, or allowed to do its job, its expertise is ignored, and it is kept out of the loop of power politics. SF Environment doesn’t even have offices in City Hall and appears to have no teeth or input into the environmental issues that wrack SF, such as the sidestepping of state laws on developing toxic sites3, the massive street sewage problem both above4 and below5 ground, the Delta Tunnel project that will destroy the bay6, and so much more. Their job is literally to keep SF viable but they have less power than Animal Care and Control.7
But the Climate Crisis Declaration is a big deal, right?
Really? Since SF declared a climate crisis, local environmentalists had to fight tooth and nail to get a minimal methane (aka “natural gas”) infrastructure change implemented.8 Since the climate crisis was declared, SF dumped the plastic bag ban and re-instituted widespread plastic bag use despite the science9, and seems to still be going after (instead of helping) organizations that minimize wasteful packaging.10 Some of the Vision Zero projects have been pushed up a bit, mostly due to SFBC, Walk SF, and other groups that have body counts tied to the city’s inaction. And that’s it. SF has huge needs but our government is piddling around the edges of easy problems and occasionally making matters worse.
Money
San Francisco is a rich city11, 12 with a big budget13 and spending practices that favor the wealthy14, 15, 16, the powers that be17, 18, and the system that’s allowed the rape and destruction of the biosphere.19 SF has the money to do the right things; right now, our government is choosing not to do them.
Employment (GND)
We’ve got precedent here!20 WPA projects are everywhere in SF.21 We have a modern WPA-style framework already called the Green New Deal and, as one of the C40 cities, SF is actually committed to support enacting this.22 We’ve got a lot of people who need jobs and a lot of people who need to be moved to sustainable green jobs. This is so clearly a win-win scenario why aren’t we doing it yet?!
Agreements and relationships between Bay Area governments
We’re lucky in that we already have lots of intergovernmental agencies and levels of formal and informal cooperation across the bay area. We need to be building on those. Yes, we absolutely need to take actions locally, and we need to be pushing for regional action as well. Regionally, it would be nice to be a leader instead of a follower.23 That would mean SF actually listening to the science and acting for the biosphere.
Tech
It’s here. We support it. We should be using it a LOT more.
Science
Do you know why the Bay Area became the tech capital of the planet? There was a flowering of the sciences, especially physics and chemistry, in Europe in the early 1900’s that was partially the result of a better train system and faster communication and partially the result of wealth from colonization. During the Nazi rise to power, most top scientists left Europe and moved to the U.S. A large number of these scientists were recruited into the Manhattan Project (oddly enough because they were considered security risks and so weren’t put to work on any of the more immediate or more likely wartime projects). The main recruiter and leader of the lab at Los Alamos was Robert Oppenheimer, who came there from U.C. Berkeley. After the war, many of the scientists from Los Alamos went to work in the UC system, training the students who got us into space (NASA Ames is still on the peninsula), started the computer revolution, and developed biotech. Essentially, we’re the beneficiaries of a massive conglomeration of money that has traditionally been spent on science R&D. This money, these resources, this wealth, came from all over the planet. We owe it to the planet, and to ourselves, to use it to fight for a livable planet. We have the resources by accident; we need to use them deliberately.24
Disaster preparation
Preparing for disaster is in the city’s DNA.25 We know we’re going to face a massive earthquake in the near future.26 But we’ve got a bunch more disasters coming. So why aren’t SF Environment and the Department of Resiliency and Capital Planning working together? Resiliency isn’t only about earthquakes. We live on a peninsula during a megadrought, sea level rise, and an increase in devastating weather events.27 This is an “all hands on deck” moment or we will be swamped.
Existing laws and regulations
Laws and regulations mean nothing if they aren’t enforced. Ground permeability rules, speed limits, waste dumping, sound and light pollution, illegal building and on and on. If it’s legislated, it must be enforced. If it’s not enforced, take it off the books. Make regulations in SF as clear and easy to understand as possible. Because they are a mess now, and that mess allows illegal activities28 and environmental destruction.29
Resources
We have sun. We have tides. We have wind. We have access to the immense and rapid discoveries in biotech. We have one of the most educated populations on the planet. We have huge amounts of money. We have a somewhat united political region. We have the tools we need to start the moonshot now.
And we have to do it NOW!
Because time’s up.30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 In a little over a year and a half, we have lost 10 years time in which to act; our situation now is already what we thought the worst case scenario would be in 2030, and getting worse. The U.S. has been out of the Paris Agreement for 70 days, and every day out is making our situation worse. ACT NOW!
FOOTNOTES
1. “Department of the Environment”. City and County of San Francisco. Accessed 12 January 2021. https://sfgov.org/dosw/department-environment.
2. The current mission statement is to provide “solutions that advance climate protection and enhance quality of life for all San Franciscans.” See the About page on the SF Environment website at https://sfenvironment.org/about-sf-environment-san-francisco-department-of-the-environment.
3. Cynthia Dizikes. “Exclusive: How SF sidestepped state law on developing toxic sites”. San Francisco Chronicle. 12 August 2020. https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Exclusive-How-SF-sidestepped-state-law-on-15322356.php. Interesting how this contradicts the Precautionary Principle that supposedly governs SF’s decisions, and is yet another example of how SF’s actual investment in a living environment is green talk but not green actions.
4. Kate Schneider. “Sickening problem with popular tourist city”. news.com.au. 18 July 2018. https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/sickening-problem-with-popular-tourist-city/news-story/50e808ac3971ad4dce24cc9344a38170.
5. Buried untreated sewage can be smelled with great frequency in numerous locations. Please come stand on Lincoln at ~47th and take a deep breath. I’d be happy to direct you to neighbors who know where the garbage is buried.
6. “Save the Delta, Stop the Tunnel”. Restore the Delta. Accessed 12 January 2021. https://www.restorethedelta.org/101-save-the-delta-stop-the-tunnels/.
7. Notice on their website (https://www.sfanimalcare.org) that Animal Care and Control has a mandate and the ability to DO that mission. Compare this to SF Environment’s website where the department is reduced to listing information about suggested practices and providing a platform for press releases and news articles (https://sfenvironment.org).
8. Mark Chediak. “San Francisco Bans Natural Gas Use in New Buildings”. Bloomberg Green. 11 November 2020. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-11/san-francisco-bans-natural-gas-use-in-new-buildings.
9. Irina Ivanova. “Plastic bag bans are being reversed amid coronavirus panic”. CBS News. 8 April 2020. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/plastic-bag-bans-are-being-reversed-amid-coronavirus-panic/.
10. Such as grocery stores that sell bulk food. Please, go talk to the owner/workers at Rainbow or Other Avenues.
11. Riya Bhattacharjee. “San Francisco Unseats Zurich as City With Highest Salaries and Most Disposable Income”. NBC Bay Area. 22 May 2019. https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/san-francisco-unseats-zurich-as-city-with-highest-salaries-and-most-disposable-income/156672/.
12. Chloe Taylor. “People who live in these cities earn the highest salaries in the world, research shows”. CNBC. 28 May 2019. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/22/people-in-these-cities-earn-worlds-highest-salaries-research-says.html.
13. “Mayor Breed Signs SF’s $13.6 Billion Budget For 2020-2021”. KPIX. 2 October 2020. https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2020/10/02/mayor-breed-signs-sfs-13-6-billion-budget-for-2020-2021/.
14. Financial Samurai. “The Best City In The World To Make Money: San Francisco”. Financial Samurai. 9 August 2019. https://www.financialsamurai.com/the-best-city-in-the-world-to-make-money-san-francisco/.
15. Michelle Robertson. “A citywide crisis in gentrification? New SF residents make far more money than those leaving”. SFGate. 16 April 2018. https://www.sfgate.com/expensive-san-francisco/article/Who-s-moving-to-San-Francisco-The-rich-the-12805760.php.
16. Financial Samurai. “Is San Francisco A Good City To Raise A Family?” Financial Samurai. Accessed 13 January 2021. https://www.financialsamurai.com/is-san-francisco-a-good-city-to-raise-a-family/.
17. Seema Mehta, Ryan Menezes, and Maloy Moore. “How eight elite San Francisco families funded Gavin Newsom’s political ascent”. Los Angeles Times. 7 September 2018. https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-pol-ca-gavin-newsom-san-francisco-money/.
18. Kevin Short. “These 2 Cities Are Now Exclusively For Rich People”. Huffpost. 6 December 2017. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/rich-people-cities_n_4467155?.
19. Benjamin Page, Jason Seawright, and Matthew Lacombe. “”What billionaires want: the secret influence of America’s 100 richest”. The Guardian. 31 October 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/30/billionaire-stealth-politics-america-100-richest-what-they-want.
20. history.com editors. “Works Progress Administration (WPA)” history.com. 13 July 2017. https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/works-progress-administration.
21. See images at the end of the notes if you need reminders of a fraction of the WPA work in SF.
22. “The Global Green New Deal”. C40 Cities. Accessed 13 January 2021. https://www.c40.org/global-green-new-deal.
23. “Berkeley poised to become first U.S. city to phase out gas in new construction”. Sierra Club. 11 July 2019. https://www.sierraclub.org/san-francisco-bay/blog/2019/07/berkeley-poised-become-first-us-city-phase-out-gas-new-construction.
24. From research done by my 2016-2017 astronomy class plus work for The Exploratorium. I’d love to show you the data and the maps if you’re interested.
25. “Neighborhood Emergency Response Team”. San Francisco Fire Department. Accessed 13 January 2021. https://sf-fire.org/neighborhood-emergency-response-team-nert.
26. Adam Brinklow. “There’s a 72 percent chance of a major Bay Area quake by 2043”. SF Curbed. 16 October 2019. https://sf.curbed.com/2019/7/8/20686322/earthquake-odds-bay-area-san-francisco-california-prepare.
27. See Strike letters from weeks 1, 5, 11, 13, 15, 16, 20, 24, 40, 46, 75, 82, and 86 among others.
28. Nicholas Iovino. “More Charges and Guilty Pleas Emerge in San Francisco Corruption Scandal”. Courthouse News. 17 September 2020. https://www.courthousenews.com/more-charges-and-guilty-pleas-emerge-in-san-francisco-corruption-scandal/.
29. Please see “Plant a Street Tree” at SF Public Works — https://www.courthousenews.com/more-charges-and-guilty-pleas-emerge-in-san-francisco-corruption-scandal/ for a great example of this. There is a thorough explanation in Strike letter for week 27 as well.
30. 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.
31. 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.
32. 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.
33. 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/.
34. 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.
35. John D. Sutter. “Vanishing”. CNN. Accessed 30 June 2020. https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2016/12/specials/vanishing/.
36. 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/.
37. 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/.