As a girl by herself wandering wantonly within the woods, I was kept company
By animal voices and ancient whispers from the tree canopy
When my bare feet touched warm soil, planted firmly on earth, I was so aware
I was never alone, I belonged to this mystic beauty, and happily had not a care
Yet by the time I was a young woman, ready to journey from my home
The animal voices, many were going quiet it was well known [Read more…]
By Stephanie Corkran of SanDiego350, and these six young people of San Diego who were interviewed.
“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from the children” is a quote attributed to the iconic environmentalist David Brower. Isn’t it time that we listen to what the children have to say? After all, they will be the ones who will inherit an overheated planet with extreme weather events, including intense storms, floods, droughts, and sea level rise.
The big question is: Will the children will have their say in court? Juliana v. U.S. is a constitutional climate lawsuit filed by 21 youths, ages 11 to 22. Since climate change is the overarching issue of our times (and perhaps of all time for our species), Juliana v. U.S. may well become the “trial of the century”. [Read more…]
Brown’s Last Chance is a campaign demanding Governor Jerry Brown halt the development of unsustainable, polluting, fossil fuel infrastructure and begin an immediate phase-out of fossil fuels in California. If he’s unwilling to do so, a multitude of organizations (environmental, health, justice, community, consumer) are prepared to protest the upcoming Global Climate Action Summit.
This climate summit, held in San Francisco next month from September 12 to 14, was the brainchild of Gov. Brown. It was conceived of in response to President Trump withdrawing the United States from the international Paris Climate Accord. World leaders will be in attendance to continue the work of past international climate conferences to mitigate climate change. There will be numerous affiliate marches and rallies around the world (including San Diego’s Rise For Climate March) to demand a transformation to clean energy and real action on climate change. [Read more…]
The construction of Pipeline 3602 (PL 3602) prolongs antiquated and maladaptive technology that flies in the face of reason. This project is being pushed by purely profit-motivated business executives trapped in the past. Their primary concern is certainly not the welfare of San Diegans.
The consensus of 15,000 scientists worldwide is that we have limited time to substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions or we jeopardize our very existence. We must begin a radical decline in carbon emissions by no later than 2020 to have any chance of preventing the worst effects of climate change. That radical decline entails, among other things, stopping any new infrastructure that perpetuates the fossil fuel economy. This includes PL 3602.
Aside from the climate effects of facilitating burning more fossil fuels, building PL 3602 would be expensive and put peoples’ health at increased risk because of the effects on air quality from burning natural gas. And the proposed alternate routes would infringe upon our precious open space. [Read more…]
San Francisco, Oakland, San Mateo, Marin and Imperial Beach are suing fossil fuel companies over the sea level rise and expected property damages to homes and businesses. The claims cite increased cost of infrastructure, emergency response, coastal flooding and extreme storms. Danger to health and the obstruction of free use of property and free passage of waterways and parks is included.
Does San Diego have a plan to secure the funds needed to respond to climate change? Other jurisdictions have filed climate change lawsuits against fossil fuel companies to secure such funds.
During a telephone conversation with Mayor Dedina of Imperial Beach, I asked if San Diego should join in filing a climate change lawsuit against fossil fuel companies. He responded:
“San Diego is not in a position to do so because the preliminary work of climate change impact projections and cost estimates has not been done. San Diego would first need to develop a local coastal plan like Imperial Beach and others have done before filing for the lawsuit to be credible.”
