“Climate is changing faster than any time in the history of human civilization. One of the most important things that any city, state or country can do is prepare for the impacts of climate change that we can no longer avoid.”
-- Katharine Hayhoe, climate scientist
The coronavirus pandemic may have consumed the bulk of our attention for the past year, but it’s a relatively manageable problem as compared to the enormous challenges posed by climate change.
As we look forward to getting vaccinated against the deadly virus, let’s not forget that 2020 was the year when wildfires burned a record 4.2 million acres in California, much of it here in the Bay Area. Over the last five years, several thousand North Bay residents lost their homes to huge wildfires which killed dozens of people.
The reason is clear: human-induced climate change. Scientists have been warning us for decades that the dramatically rising level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels would spawn more destructive hurricanes, mega-wildfires, longer droughts, more intense heat waves, widespread and costly power outages, ongoing sea level rise and famine resulting from reduced agricultural yields and collapsing ecosystems and fisheries.
Many of those predictions have now come to pass, including the abnormally frigid temperatures in Texas last month that caused extensive power outages, water shortages, misery for millions and many deaths.
Whereas 15-20 years ago we were talking in the abstract about how climate change would one day harm our children if we failed to act, that grim future scenario is now upon us.
Due in part to the trauma and enormous economic and environmental impacts caused by the devastating wildfires, county and city government leaders, including those here in Petaluma, have committed to aggressive action to battle climate change. New policies are being adopted, aimed at enabling the county and its cities to reach a goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2030.
To learn how we can get there, I recently watched a presentation by the county’s Regional Climate Protection Authority, which is preparing to implement a host of policy initiatives. Among them: the goal of achieving 100% renewable energy generation (solar, geothermal and wind) for local utility ratepayers; an all-electric building campaign; vastly increased installation of electric vehicle charging stations; a zero solid-waste campaign; and the adoption of new agricultural and forestry practices meant to preserve carbon in the soil.
A comparison grid showed how the county’s climate action plan dovetails with efforts underway here in Petaluma, where the City Council set an ambitious goal of making this community carbon neutral by 2030.
All of this is good news to Ann Hancock, the tireless founder of The Climate Center, a Sonoma County nonprofit that promotes policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Unfortunately, the same urgency we’re seeing locally is absent at the state level, Hancock told me.
“California is banking on outdated climate action policies in the face of an exploding crisis,” Hancock says, arguing convincingly that we have fallen behind other states and nations.
California’s existing policy, for example, calls for achieving carbon neutrality by 2045. But given the increasingly dire warnings from the world’s climate scientists, coupled with the ongoing destruction from the increasing number of extreme weather events, 2045 is simply too late, Hancock contends. She’s right.
To spur action, her organization recently launched Climate-Safe California which calls on Gov. Gavin Newsom and state legislators to accelerate the carbon neutrality goal by 15 years, to 2030, matching what we’re seeking to achieve here in Petaluma and Sonoma County.
Unwilling to wait for the federal government to approve the necessary policies, The Climate Center wants California to lead the way for the nation and the world. As such, it is encouraging the swift adoption of climate legislation, including a bill authored by Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, that would help local governments advance clean energy resilience plans in collaboration with utilities. Another bill would develop a decentralized system of community microgrids offering clean power and storage. Yet another would halt some oil and gas production processes, such as fracking.
Hancock and The Climate Center are clear-eyed about the expected resistance from oil industry lobbyists and the associated building and trade unions. For both fairness and practicality, they are insisting that any new legislation include policies enabling “a just transition for fossil fuel workers, their families and their communities.”
But we must act now because time is running out.
While Hancock applauds Newsom’s recent executive order to phase out the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035, she asserts the policy doesn’t go far enough. Because motor vehicles are responsible for nearly 50% of the state’s GHG emissions, Hancock says it would be far more effective to eliminate gas-powered auto sales by 2030. Banning the sale of new gas-powered vehicles may sound radical to some, but when compared to the increasingly catastrophic destruction from climate change, it seems tragically overdue.
With generous tax incentives and ever-expanding models of fully electric vehicles, which now include an electric Ford Mustang, most new car buyers could easily make the jump in the next decade. Ford is even expected to launch an all-electric version of its hugely popular F-150 pick-up truck next year.
Hancock remains hopeful that people will visit her organization’s website at theclimatecenter.org and click the "Take Action“ button to see what opportunities are available to battle the climate crisis.
If you share her concerns, reach out to Newsom, Dodd and State Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-Marin County, to let them know you’d like to see California resume its leadership position on climate action.
In just a few months the expanded fire season will return and toxic smoke will likely fill the air again. You need not wait for that ghastly reminder to act.
(John Burns is former publisher of the Petaluma Argus-Courier. He can be reached at john.burns@arguscourier.com)