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 182 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
I see a red tide a-rising
Reaction Guidelines for Harmful Algal Blooms
This is a resource for Harmful Algal Blooms. The goal is to have procedures you can pick up off the shelf and start putting in place when it’s too late to avoid disaster.
Glossary of terms used
bioswale
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channels to collect and partially clean stormwater while recharging the aquifer and providing habitat
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dead zone
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hypoxic or anoxic areas in aquatic ecosystems, often the site of mass mortality events
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GHG
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greenhouse gas, such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, halogenated gases, soot, and water
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HAB
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Harmful Algal Bloom, aka red tides
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HAB a clue?
HABs cause fish kills, plant and animal poisonings, and dead zones. They’re a major source of methane, a GHG. They produce airborne toxins that affect human health. They produce domoic acid, which is bioaccumulated, and causes ingestion poisoning events and the closing of fisheries. They poison drinking water. They lead to human development of ALS and Parkinson’s.1
HABs are caused when excess nutrients, usually nitrogen and phosphorus, are dumped in water. Humans are creating HABs and dead zones through agricultural run-off, sewage, coastal development, and climate change.
HAB a plan?
- Boiling water doesn’t remove HAB toxins.
- HABs cause fishery closures and severe economic damage.
- SF’s sewage treatment system still dumps raw sewage into the ocean and bay during storms.
- Building bioswales helps reduce nutrient run-off. Paving over more open land causes more nutrient run-off. In SF, paving over is beating out the building of bioswales (cf. Polo Field, artificial turf fields throughout SF, and non-enforcement of permeable surface requirements). And many extant bioswales appear to be neglected, reducing their effectiveness when needed.
- The SF bay region is not engaged in coordinated action to reduce nutrient pollution, plant wetlands, push for changes in farming procedures, or otherwise protect the bay from HABs. There seems to be no plan.
SF does not have sufficient resources for HABs
Yet HABs are happening more frequently in SF, and will only increase in number and duration due to climate change.
HAB an eye on the main chance
Because, again, it’s our last chance.
FOOTNOTES
1. Howard Cohen. “Blue-green algae linked to ALS in UM study, but researchers also found promising treatment”. Miami Herald. 28 February 2020. https://www.miamiherald.com/news/health-care/article240701886.html.