Actions and Issues to Focus on for Earth Day 2023
Let us start by saying – until we make significant progress to fight climate change, every day needs to be Earth Day in terms of – putting sustainability and climate justice front and center on all issues and all our actions.
Here is a great quote about Earth Day - from California Environmental Voters,:
"in honor of this year’s Earth day, …Take a moment to see if there's one person you think could contribute something to our movement. To me, Earth Day is an opportunity to step back and appreciate this beautiful blue planet we live on. It’s also a chance to share it with loved ones and unite together to protect it. The climate crisis can and will be solved, but only if we work together.
And part of that is bringing in our loved ones to make our movement stronger, louder, and clearer until our elected officials finally address the climate crisis."
Regarding the latest IPCC Report, this is an excerpt by Bob Berwyn on March 20 from Inside Climate News:
“National governments haven’t done nearly enough to stop global warming in the seven years since they signed the Paris Climate Agreement, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded in a major report released on Monday.
As a result, the world is running out of options to defuse the “ticking climate time bomb,” United Nations Secretary General António Guterres said, describing the report as an urgent call for leaders to de-carbonize developed countries by 2040, and developing countries by 2050.
The new report shows that “the 1.5-degree limit is achievable … But it will take a quantum leap in climate action,” he said. “In short, our world needs climate action on all fronts—everything, everywhere, all at once.”
The remarks cleverly included this reference to this year’s Oscar winning movie, and instantly grabbed attention. Please read the full remarks. The sound bites don’t do it justice. https://press.un.org/en/2023/sgsm21730.doc.htm
Collective Actions
- Farm Bill advocacy – Center for Rural Affairs (CFRA) is an advocacy group for a better farm bill. A recap of what they seek is below along with their mission and values.
Approximately every five years, the federal government passes a package of legislation that impacts all rural Americans—the farm bill. The current farm bill is set to expire on Sept. 30, and we have a critical opportunity to advocate for a climate-smart agricultural sector that advances justice, reduces hunger, promotes environmental stewardship and promotes fairness to all farmers and farm workers.
The Center for Rural Affairs' mission is to establish strong rural communities, social and economic justice, environmental stewardship, and genuine opportunity for all while engaging people in decisions that affect the quality of their lives and the future of their communities.
Values of CFRA
RESPONSIBILITY,
CONSCIENCE that balances self-interest with an obligation to the common good and future generations,
PROGRESS,
OPPORTUNITY,
Citizen INVOLVEMENT and ACTION to shape the future.
CFRA advocates for Widespread OWNERSHIP and CONTROL of small businesses, farms, and ranches by those who work them.
FAIRNESS that allows all who contribute to the nation's prosperity to share in it.
STEWARDSHIP of the natural environment upon which all of us – current and future generations – rely.
https://www.cfra.org/2023-farm-bill-platform
Some suggested areas to advocate for:
CONSERVATION: soil testing for acres enrolled in a Conservation Stewardship Program
USDA LANGUAGE ACCESSIBILITY - make it easier for non-English speaking by producing announcements in other languages.
CROP INSURANCE - Make the Pandemic Cover Crop Program an annual program
SMALL MEAT PROCESSING - Secure long term funding for the Meat and Poultry Intermediary Lending Program
- Josh Becker’s SB 49 Bill -Renewable energy: solar canopy tax incentives: Department of Transportation strategic plan – is up for a committee vote April 11.
“That’s what makes the solar canopy concept so appealing, because it wouldn’t require any more land, it would just give parking lot owners an incentive to make dual use of their lots by essentially putting a miniature power plant above all those cars.”
Our Revolution highlighted two issues recently:
- SLAPP suits by corporations to silence and disempower dissent – there was a bill proposed in Congress in 2022 by Jamie Raskin, and unfortunately, it has not proceeded from there. R.8864 - SLAPP Protection Act of 2022 – Here’s an article about the damage and countermeasures to SLAPP Lawsuits – defined: strategic lawsuit against public participation
https://earthrights.org/an-in-depth-look-at-raskin-federal-anti-slapp-legislation/
- HR1 – Republicans call the bill the “Lower Energy Costs Act”and gave it the symbolic label H.R. 1 — the top legislative priority of the new GOP majority, which took control of the House in January. Even though the Senate Majority Leader calls this bill dead on arrival, this presents a great opportunity to recapture the rhetoric and get the public to focus on how out of step the Republican Party is with the IPCC report that just came out. Their argument for this bill only works if you are in denial of what the IPCC report is saying and has been saying since 1992.
To borrow from the Center for Rural Affairs Values (above) – one of them is Conscience that balances self-interest with an obligation to the common good and future generations.
The House GOP wants permit reform – to streamline process for getting new extraction projects underway. Here is an article about it. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/house-gop-pushes-sprawling-bill-unleash-american-energy-rcna77377
Individual Actions
Love Our Earth Festival
Saturday April 22 from 11 am to 4pm at Menlo Atherton High School at 555 Middlefield Road in Atherton.
Check out EV’s, talk to experts about: home electrification, solar panels, grey water systems, and have fun!
- Consider using Ridwell.com subscription for recycling items –
Ridwell makes it easy to recycle and donate reusable items that can't go in your blue recycling bin. You collect; we pick it up at your doorstep. Then, we work with dozens of local partners to put all that stuff to good use.
A practical and comprehensive guide to surviving the greatest disaster of our time, by CBS Sunday Morning science and technology correspondent David Pogue. “You might not realize it, but we're already living through the beginnings of climate chaos.”
- Thinking outside the Box: Re-Usable To-Go Containers - There are systems being implemented around the country, in colleges, universities, military bases, businesses, industries & small towns. Through cooperation with customers, restaurateurs can save on packaging costs and significantly reduce their contributions to the 82 million tons that are generated annually by to go containers. One example is roguetogo.com in Southern Oregon.
- The Climate Center.org has been working successfully advocating in Sacramento. You can read about Climate-Safe California at the link below. There is a short 2 plus minute video, and if you scroll down, you read their policy summaries. You can endorse the set of policies yourself, see who else has endorsed, and also check out the action toolkit as to how you can help. This is a statement from The Climate Center about Climate-Safe California
“We believe in thriving, healthy communities. We envision a future where everyone in California enjoys equal access to climate solutions, from clean air to renewable energy, healthy food, and more. California has the tools and know-how to make this vision a reality — if our elected leaders act with the urgency the climate crisis demands. California must put policies in place by 2025 to accelerate equitable climate action.
Climate-Safe California is a set of policies that would allow California to remove more climate pollution from the atmosphere than we emit by 2030 while creating thousands of jobs and building a more equitable clean energy
https://theclimatecenter.org/climate-safe-california/
- Take the pledge – Food Waste Prevention Week - Last Month, SMCDFA passed a proclamation, and many municipalities and companies and organizations are passing the proclamation to prevent food waste.
This is an education campaign from April 10th through the 16th that is trying to reach EVERYONE to raise awareness that wasting good food wastes money, wastes resources, and is causing environmental damage – including contributing to ghg emissions. The campaign is using social media marketing techniques and networking to spread the word. At the individual level, they are hoping that a person takes the food waste prevention pledge upon hearing and learning about it, and that the person should post that on social media that they have taken the pledge. Seeing those posts will show how deep the message is saturating. Besides taking the individual pledge, there are also related webinars being offered and there’s an art contest for kids K-12 that they can enter to win prizes. Some regions are planning community events
One of the objectives of reducing food waste is to keep it out of the landfills. But we also have to find ways of preventing good food from getting wasted and going to the compost bins unnecessarily. When there is a chronic problem of food insecurity, even in this country – there are 34 million people, 9 million of those are children that are food insecure, which means they do not have reliable access to affordable nutritious food.
https://www.foodwastepreventionweek.com/pledge
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Starting off in 2023...
One of our Task Force Members - Greg Loew, Professor Emeritus from Stanford, wrote an article after COP27 in Egypt on Global Warming. So far, the SMCDFA members who have read it think that it contains excellent analysis and recommendations worthy of consideration.
Here is a recap below, and here also is a link to the article in its complete form. It is very much worth the time it takes to read it.
The article first covers the basic science that is driving global warming. We are currently not on track to meet the 2015 Paris Agreement, which was to keep global warming to a rise of not more that 1.5 degrees Celsius in order to avoid the worst case, most disruptive impacts of climate change. Already the impacts have been dire, with 1/3 of Pakistan damaged by flooding and the growing ferocity of hurricanes on the U.S. east cost and Puerto Rico, just to name a few. The rising sea levels caused by melting glaciers and the polar ice cap and the thawing of tundra with its massive release of methane will cause an irreversible phenomena to our living systems.
It's important to identify the largest contributors of ghg emissions with their emissions per capital and total GDP along side. This comparison was presented in Bill Gates' book in 2020: "How to Avoid a Climate Disaster" and it's presented below.
Table 1: Largest country emissions and GDP statistics
|
Countries in 2022 |
Gtons | Tons/ Capita | % of Global Emissions | GDP in $Trillions |
| China |
14 |
10 | 28% | 18.3 |
| United States | 4 | 12 | 8% | 23 |
| European Union | 3 | 7 | 6% | 17 |
| India | 3 | 2.3 | 6% | 3.5 |
| Russia | 1.7 | 1.1 | 3.4% | 2.1 |
| Japan | 1 | .08 | 2.0% | 4.5 |
The main accomplishment from COP27 was that the wealthier countries agreed to create a fund for countries who have already suffered damage and losses. How big that fund is and who benefits from it is yet to be determined.
The several chapters from Bill Gates' book describing solutions are summarized in this article with some of the solutions highlighted and grouped around the major needs for energy use currently: electricity, manufacturing and construction, agriculture, transportation and buildings.
The article refers to the idea of a green premium that was introduced in Bill Gates' book. The idea is to methodically assign a premium to each new innovation of either less than one or one or more than one. The index would be used to help evaluate and choose between solutions that, if supported and promoted, would help combat global warming. A premium of less than one means that the new solution is less costly than the process or thing it would replace and is therefore much more likely to succeed in the market and get implemented.
The article also looks at past U.S. Presidents' positions on global warming and how Conservatives today may be climate deniers in public only because they are concerned that combatting global warming will negatively impact the economy and alienate a main campaign supporting block, namely the fossil fuel industry.
To answer the question of who pays for global warming, per the article, "We don’t know exactly what it will cost to fix it, but we know that the people who will suffer the most if it isn’t curbed are the poorest." It is known that global GDP annually is around 96 Trillion dollars, and per the chart above, half of that is generated by the U.S. the Eurpean Union, Japan and Russia combined. If the U.N. is asking that $200Billion is set aside annually to combat global warming, surely that is affordable, especially if you compare that to the U.S. military budget of $858Billion / year.
The article next makes suggestions for what governments, state and local bodies, and individuals can do to help.
Governments
- slow down population growth
- increase R&D investments for solutions
- Support solutions that are viable so that they can make it into the market and succeed
State and Local Governments
- Enact policies that will help drive toward less use of fossil fuels and reduction of greenhouse gases. Policies like:
- fuel efficiency standards
- banning fossil fuel appliances in new construction
- reducing food waste in landfills
What State and Local Governments should NOT be doing are accepting policies like the one that the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) recently passed, the NEM3 rules for new solar installations after April 15, 2023. Whereas, before, solar customers were getting credit at the same rates they were getting billed if they gave surplus power to the grid, now, under the NEM3 rules, they'll only be getting 25% of the credit they would have received with out the rule change. This makes the payback of the solar installation much longer and it makes for a much less palatable financial decision for homeowners to make when they should be getting incentivized for wanting to transition to renewable energy.
Individual Consumers
For this section, and for the Conclusion, the article is copied exactly here below, rather than recapped.
"Finally, we as individual consumers have other options. We can buy electric cars, which will be helpful as long as we recharge their batteries with clean green electricity and we can install heat pumps outside our houses to get rid of natural gas. We can switch from cow to soy or oat milk (just as good), and to paraphrase Nancy Reagan, we can “just say no to red meat!” The cattle ranchers and butchers will not love us for this and will fight these steps tooth and nail, but they will have to adapt. Cows and sheep may be grown just for leather and wool. Free-range poultry, fish (even farmed) and other seafood may still be used for human consumption, helping us lower our cholesterol and heart disease. Third-world countries can make important contributions in these areas.
Never underestimate what individuals can do. One example that stands out is former Professor Art Rosenfeld at UCB and LBNL who completely revolutionized energy conservation standards, first in California and then everywhere else. He developed new heat-trapping windows, new light bulbs, caused industry to double the efficiency of refrigerators, and computer-modeled the improvement of buildings for temperature control. Art ended up becoming California Energy Commissioner and working for the Clinton Administration, where he probably inspired VP Al Gore with his ideas. Art’s innovations spread all over the world.
Conclusions
The famous economist John Maynard Keynes pointed out that demand is what pushes the economy into action. And fear is a strong promoter of demand. When Covid-19 hit humanity as an existential threat, government and the private sector didn’t waste much time to work together to produce vaccines, even though many people were vaccine deniers. The danger of the Maldives, Bangladesh, Madagascar, Florida and coastal cities like New York and San Francisco being under water and creating millions of refugees is just as scary as the pandemic and should trigger even greater demand.
The world spends close to 2 trillion dollars per year for defense, including horrible nuclear weapons, with very little popular objections but argues ad nauseam over a small fraction of this sum to fight global warming. As I have argued in my book “The Human Condition,” our species “Homo” doesn’t deserve to be called “Sapiens”. Will we ever wake up?
Here is my final suggestion. As a scientist who worked all his life with particle physicists, I am keenly aware of the prestige and excitement created annually by the Nobel Prize. Why not ask Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg to create a billion-dollar fund together to establish the Gates-Bloomberg Prize to save our planet?
Let us act collectively now before it is too late. Greta Thunberg and our grandchildren will be here in 2050 and they will never forgive us if we don’t."
Where Has Our Focus Been in 2022?
SCOTUS Decisions –
The SCOTUS decision in West Virginia v EPA weakens the regulatory authority of the EPA and renders it dependent on Congress to legislate the path to transition to renewable energy.
SCOTUS also rejected Bayer AG's (BAYGn.DE) bid to dismiss legal claims by customers who contend its Roundup weedkiller causes cancer as the German company seeks to avoid potentially billions of dollars in damages. And the EPA is now forced to take a fresh look at whether the active ingredient glyphosate poses unreasonable risks to humans and the environment.
Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant –
The plant was scheduled to close in 2025, but in light of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the rise in the cost of energy, California is now considering investing in the necessary improvements to extend its use. It produces 8% of the state’s energy and improvements would use $6Billion in infrastructure funds and also cost PG&E funds for decommissioning. Meanwhile, it poses a serious seismic risk, it is uneconomical to operate and it has constant negative environmental impacts – flushing 2.5 Billion gallons of heated water into the ocean every day and killing 1.5billion fish each year in the process.
Solar Regulations –
We looked at the issue that the path to install solar arrays on multi-family units that are not low income are fraught with obstacles, and elevated the issue to our local representatives.
Local Municipal Climate Action Plans –
Members have increased their understanding and involvement in their local communities’ respective climate action plans.
Reducing the Use of Single Use Plastics –
We are learning of the impact of Single Use Plastics, and supporting alternative approaches to packaging and consumer practices.
Planning a discussion on socially responsible investing –
If there is sufficient level of interest among our members and friends, we will plan an event that addresses the issue of socially responsible investing.
State Legislatorial Developments –
This group has spent a significant amount of time learning about the issue of regenerative agriculture and the benefits it would have on fighting climate change, conserving water and restoring soil health which is under global threat. Currently, a bill has passed the State Assembly and has passed through two committees in the State Senate. That bill is AB-2649 Natural Carbon Sequestration and Resilience Act of 2022. It builds on existing law for farm practices that promote soil health and carbon sequestration and sets goals that 60Million Metric Tons (MMT) of ghg be sequestered annually by the end of 2030, and 75MMT annually by 2035. 60MMT annual removal is equivalent to removing 13 million cars from the road. – Please write to your State Senators to ask them to support this bill.
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COP 26 Updates of the Good & the Bad |
|
Quote from Secretary General of the United Nations: "We are digging our own graves" - referring to continued fossil fuel extraction / production. |
|
China, the European Union, India and the United States contributed a little over half of all the green house gas emissions. |
|
Good |
Bad |
| Initial Agreements Around Deforestation & Methane Reductions. | China, Russia, Australia & India are not parties to Methane agreement |
| Brazil has promised to crack down / end illegal deforestation this decade, but is extorting billions of dollars from the international community for conservation efforts. Deforestation was declining in the 2000's but under the current administration since 2018 has been rising again. | |
| Indonesia has pledged to reduce illegal clearing of rain forest, but has not been terribly effective and wildires - intentionally set - have contributed significantly to the problem. | |
| Satellite monitoring of carbon dioxide emissions will be a great help to monitor progress. | |
| Without global conferences like COP 26, we would be projected for a warming of 4.0 degrees celsius by 2100. With current pledges, we may see a rise of 2.4 degrees. To stay within 1.5 degrees celcius, we would have to decrease current emissisions by 50% by 2030. | |
| Canada & Japan have put in stricter targets in the lead-up to Glasgow. | However, Canada & Japan have put in no policies in place to achieve those targets. |
| South Africa has explained their path to exit their dependence on coal, which can help other countries design their path. | |
| Not enough countries are contributing $$$ to help poorer countries shrink dependence on fossil fuel and adapt to effects of climate change. Target is $100billion / year. | |
| Inequality Kills - in areas such as food, housing and healthcare - The current system wastes about 1/3 of food produced. Climate change will reduce about 1/3 of current crop yields. Pasta prices will rise 50% next month. Demand on food banks will increase as donations will dry up. Wealthy will drive up cost of housing in areas that are not threatened. And the distribution of vaccines and care for those stricken with COVID has shown how the healthcare system suffers from inequality as well. | |
| China pledged that its emissions will peak sometime before 2030 and that it will be using 25% renewably energy by 2030 | |
| European Union & United States will reduce their emissions to 50% BELOW 2005 levels by 2030. | Neither government has put policies in place to achieve their targets. |
| India's emissions per capital is one quarter that of China, and one seventh that of the United States. | India pledged to get to Net Zero by 2070, which is not helpful, and it needs contributions from wealthier countries in order to accelerate its targets. |
| United States pushing other countries to reduce Methane to "buy us time and keep the 1.5 degree target within reach". The u.s. alone has pledged to decrease methane 30% by the end of the decade. | |
| The U.S. treasury secretary is working with other international banking community to get their portfolios alligned with the Paris Agreement to get companies that they finance to have credible plans to achieve net zero emissions. | |
| There has been an agreement with 136 countries to have a global minimum tax of 15% on foreign earnings by 2023. The provisions in the Reconiliation bill would make the U.S. compliant with this global agreement. |
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(Above is a display of the Biden Administration's Infrastructure Plan and Families Plan From NY Times published May 12, 2021 from The Learning Network)
SMCDFA Climate Change Task Force Document (July 25th, 2021)
How can we reduce further climate disasters Learn about the impact of Climate Change and its Causes - here are some resources:
● Read Bill Gates’ book on this subject. You can also read Chistiana Figueres’ Book. She was the chief negotiator of the 2015 Paris Agreement.
● Be aware of where the 51 billion Tons of Greenhouse Gases (CO2, CH4, NO2, CHC) the world emits annually come from*:
|
GHG Emission Sources |
World |
U.S. |
|
Making things (steel, cement, plastics, etc.) |
31% |
22% |
|
Plugging in (electricity) |
27% |
27% |
|
Growing Things (plants, animals) |
19% |
10% |
|
Getting Around (Planes, trucks, cargo ships, cars) |
16% |
28% |
|
Keeping warm and cool (heating, cooling, refrigeration) |
7% |
12% |
*Source: pg. 55 “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster” by Bill Gates
● Be aware of environmental justice issues exacerbating poverty, hunger, homelessness, creation of refugees, etc. Here is an article that presents several good books on the subject.
Some personal actions you can take to help fight climate change
Here are some things the task force is already doing.
● Drive as little as possible or buy an electric car, or use alternate transportation like biking, walking or mass transit.
● Discourage CAFO’s (concentrated animal feeding operations) by minimizing meat consumption and by carefully selecting meat sources.
● If you live in a single-dwelling home and can afford it, convert your gas heating furnace to an electric heat pump, your gas water heater to an electric water heater, and install solar panels on your roof.
● In San Mateo County, sign up for ECO100 plan (100% renewable electricity).
This article from Futurelearn.com contains good background information on these and other actions for going green, i.e. sustainable, and why a person’s carbon footprint matters.
Public Actions you can take to help raise awareness and make fighting climate change a top priority
● Be in touch with local politicians and encourage them to promote climate friendly policies, write letters to the Editor, and discuss these plans with your family and friends.
● Support Biden’s latest Plans on the Environment and his efforts with world leaders to implement vigorous international agreements on fossil fuel emissions curtailments.
● Support federal, state and private R&D to reduce 51 billion Tons of greenhouse gases to zero by no later than 2050.
● Support organizations that promote world reduction in population growth. 10 billion population by 2100 may be unsustainable.
● Help change current regulations that make it difficult or impossible to install solar panels on condos and multi-dwelling apartment houses.
● Tell PUC and local officials to favor renewable sources of electricity and make sure local Climate Action Plans (CAPs) require new buildings and single-family homes to be all electric.
● Support work toward achieving sustainable agriculture that includes production of food and fiber using methods that eliminates production of net CO2, ensures judicious water management and usage, prevents harm to biological ecosystems and habitats, protects health and safety of farm workers and ensures equitable production in the future that meets the nutritional and fiber needs of all people.
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