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climate mobilization
While Massive CA Fires Burn, YOLO County Board of Supervisors Declare a Climate Emergency, Commit to Justice and Mobilization
With smoke still rising from one of California's most massive wildfires on record, the Yolo County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 to accelerate local climate action and to fund a climate advisory committee tasked with helping the county achieve just and equitable outcomes for marginalized communities and to retool livelihoods.
Sep 30, 2020
With smoke still rising from one of California's most massive wildfires on record, the Yolo County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 to accelerate local climate action and to fund a climate advisory committee tasked with helping the county achieve just and equitable outcomes for marginalized communities and to retool livelihoods.
Yolo County joins over 1,750 local governments in declaring a climate emergency, part of a decentralized global campaign that has engaged local communities in policymaking.
Adelita Serena, a Woodland-based organizer for Mothers Out Front, a grassroots climate action organization and key supporter of the resolution, explained, "As a mother and Indigenous woman, what we are currently seeing is a very clear and loud alarm from our mother earth and ancestors. We must change course off fossil fuels before it's too late. I have two sons and I want them to have a future. We must act now with great urgency."
With their vote, county Supervisors committed the county to enacting a plan "to achieve a just economic recovery and transition to a countywide carbon-negative (climate-positive) footprint by 2030." They also put the county on record recognizing the scientific consensus around the emergency and established an advisory committee to ensure the process is inclusive and effective. At the meeting Supervisors committed $50,000 in county funds to support the advisory committee.
Supervisor Don Saylor was emphatic during the hearing on the resolution: "We as a planet really have to get going on reaching the goal of zero carbon emissions by 2030. We need to hold ourselves accountable to real deadlines just to keep things from getting worse. The goal of carbon neutrality by 2030 might not be fast enough. I'd like to make sure we as a county have done our part and have made measurable progress by 2025."
The resolution was spearheaded by a team of volunteers organizing as the Yolo Climate Emergency Coalition and endorsed by over a hundred grassroots organizations and individuals including representatives from small farms and businesses, faith-based alliances, educational institutions, student and youth groups, and climate, environmental, women's empowerment, public health, and racial justice campaigns.
"We are on the frontlines of the climate emergency. With our COVID infection rate dropping, we know we can tackle big problems by working cooperatively. This resolution now puts in motion a collaborative response that centers the needs of our most vulnerable populations and provides pathways for a healthy, climate-positive recovery," said Juliette Beck, an organizer with Yolo County Climate Emergency Coalition.
Yolo is an agricultural county just west of Sacramento. As of this writing, the LNU Lightning Complex Fire has been burning for 42 days, killed four people and destroyed over 1,400 structures and 360,000 acres, making it the fourth largest fire in California's recorded history. (See Yolo County Fire Map)
This has been a season of disaster for the county; prior to the fires, the community and local economy was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, farmworkers who were already living on the edge have little choice and are working long hours inhaling toxic smoke to bring in the harvest -- tomatoes, almonds, and other crops -- around the clock from August to October, a period that also coincides with the lengthening fire season.
A farmworker who requested to remain anonymous described the situation: "My lungs are still irritated from breathing contaminated air, all the smoke, dust, ash I inhaled while working in the fields." Adding, "I'm still working every day even though I can't stop coughing because I know the work will end soon and I need to be responsible and help take care of my family. What other choice do I have?"
This declaration is the latest example of local governments taking strong action on climate in the face of local disasters. This organizing approach has helped community groups win policies to achieve climate and environmental justice at emergency speed.
The Climate Mobilization and Climate Mobilization Project support climate emergency campaigns in the U.S., where over 11% of the population of the country now lives in a jurisdiction that has declared a climate emergency. The Climate Emergency Campaign is a pathway for people who want to "do something" but have been told for decades that we must wait for federal or international action.
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House Climate Committee Report Fails to Treat Climate as an Emergency Issue
2050 Goal for Zero-Emissions Could Be Too Little Too Late to Protect Our Future
Jun 30, 2020
As the House Select Committee on Climate prepares to release its highly-anticipated report, many activists are seeing it as a major disappointment and one failing to fully acknowledge the scope and scale of the Climate Emergency and approach it with the urgency necessary to protect Americans - especially marginalized and frontline communities - from the impacts of climate devastation.
"This is not an emergency response," said Laura Berry, The Climate Mobilization's Director of Research and Policy. "The Select Committee on the Climate Crisis had the opportunity to put forth a comprehensive plan to protect Americans from climate devastation, but the solutions proposed to fail to meet the challenge of the existential planetary crisis we face. Collectively, the proposals in the plan would only cut greenhouse gas emissions by 37% by 2030, and 88% by 2050, and are wholly inadequate to prevent the risk of catastrophic climate disruption," she added.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Special Report on 1.5oC, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 45% by 2030 and net-zero by 2050 only gives us a 40-60% chance of staying below 1.5oC of warming. Current levels of global warming, at only ~1oC above, pre-industrial levels, have already harmed communities across the United States through extreme weather events like, hurricanes, droughts, and fires, that will only continue to worsen in intensity.
TCM does commend the Committee on its economy-wide and increased focus on direct regulation of industry and public investment -- such as clean vehicle mandates, regulations for zero-emissions buildings, and efforts to reduce 2/3rds of national methane emissions by 2025 --as well as its commitment to climate justice and equity issues - yet the lack of urgency is frightening.
Despite the harsh lessons learned with unpreparedness regarding the COVID19 Pandemic, and 2020 on track to be the warmest year in recorded history, many are critical of the Committee's laissez-faire attitude and hope presidential candidate Joe Biden's commitment to addressing the Climate Emergency is both more aggressive and urgent.
"The Select Committee's plan for a leisurely, three-decade transition to a cleaner economy underscores the establishment's continuing refusal to address this existential crisis with the scale, speed, and intensity required to ensure a future for our next generation. It's our hope that Biden recognizes the urgency facing our world and commits to declaring a Climate Emergency within the first 100 days of his administration, includes a 2030 deadline for zero emissions and releases a federal mobilization plan necessary to protect our nation," said Ezra Silk, Deputy-Director of The Climate Mobilization.
Since last January, Climate Emergency declarations jumped from only 233 worldwide to currently 1740 declarations within 30 countries + EU.
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