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 187 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
You think reacting to climate chaos is good enough?
Reaction Guidelines: the Summary
This is a summary of the Reaction Guidelines whose goal was to have procedures available to pick up and start putting in place when it’s too late to avoid disaster.
How ready is SF for climate disaster?
Disaster situations that will hit/are hitting San Francisco include:
- water (black, gray, and potable)
- energy (immediate and long-term)
- food
- heat
- shade
- die-offs
- refugees
- storms and flooding
- sea level rise
- saltwater intrusion
- fires
- retreat from the coasts
- health
- communication
- transportation
San Francisco’s current preparedness stands like this:
BLACKWATER
SF‘s sewage systems require lots of water, water that no longer is available in CA. An enormous amount can be done to better this situation and recycle both the water and nutrients in this resource now being dumped, but SF is doing none of it. F
GRAY WATER
SF could be using 100% of our gray water. There are some political rumblings about acting on this issue, but very very little is in place so far. D
POTABLE WATER
SF has done little to sustainably expand or diversify our potable water supply, as actions taken so far rely on data that is no longer relevant due to climate chaos. Meanwhile, we continue to waste water, depleting what is, for the foreseeable future, a minimally-renewable resource. D-
IMMEDIATE ENERGY NEEDS
Our energy system is very vulnerable and we have few backup energy sources available for our short-term needs in a disaster. D-
LONG-TERM ENERGY NEEDS
SF has nothing in place, and is not considering this problem or taking steps to fix it. F
PRECIPITATION FLOODING
We have multiple systems in place, but they are insufficient for the deluge precipitation events we are already seeing due to climate change. D
SEA LEVEL RISE FLOODING
SF is utterly and completely unprepared, has no plans, and is actively in denial about this. F
HEAT
SF is unprepared for extreme heat events and lacking in resources to prevent heat deaths. D-
DISPLACED PEOPLE
SF’s social welfare systems are mostly NGO or private and overwhelmed already. As more displaced people come, SF’s situation will grow worse and worse. D-
COMMUNICATIONS
Our emergency communication system is broken, relies on volunteers who are few in number, and is inadequate for large scale emergencies. D
COOLING
SF’s cooling centers, shade tree coverage, and air conditioning are all too small in number and inequitably distributed. Emergency energy resources, medical facilities, and water to assist with cooling are also inadequate and inequitably distributed. D
FOOD
SF has roughly a 3-day supply of food in case of emergency. If the emergency is widespread or long-lasting, SF has inadequate food supplies or food access. C-
COASTAL RETREAT
SF is zoning for and building housing, often low- and middle-income housing, on land that will be underwater very soon and that there is now no way to save. F
HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOMS
HABs will become more frequent, longer-lasting, and are toxic. SF has no plan for dealing with this even though blackwater recycling by itself would go a long way to significantly reducing this problem. D-
HEALTH
All indicators of human health are already in poor condition in SF, including the ability to respond to heat, flooding, food disruption, disease, and mental health issues, and providing jobs and equity. F
SALTWATER INTRUSION
SF is not only not trying to reduce saltwater intrusion, we are actively pursuing policies and procedures that increase saltwater intrusion. F-
TRANSPORTATION
SF could be doing well here, but we are not, and it seems we are not because of mistaken priorities and lack of commitment. D
FIRE
Actions taken to date are inadequate even to meet firefighting guidelines written 30 years ago. They are grossly inadequate in a world rapidly heating up and drying out. D-
That’s an F/F+ average (a 0.6 gpa).
Anything below C level is not survivable
SF is nowhere near ready and the climate crisis is already here
Killer robots won’t help.
