Earth Day 2020

Earth Day 2020: Did you know this year is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day? There are many online events, actions and activities happening across the globe all month long! ECOS invites you to participate from home in protecting our home planet. This list may grow; check back for updates.

Online Earth Month! Events, Actions and Activities

Remote Earth Week Sacramento

Local climate and environmental activists announce plans for the week of Earth Day, in accordance with social distancing requirements!

Click here to learn more.

By April 17: Save the Delta, Stop the Tunnel

For those of us at home, the feeling of helplessness can be real. BUT we can still help the earth! Right now, you can take action to Save the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Please share! And take care.
https://www.ecosacramento.net/2020/04/save-the-delta-stop-the-tunnel/

April 20: Earth Day Future 50: A Celebration

Join the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment for a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. The public is welcome to join Stanford students, staff and faculty to gather online to hear reflections on how far we have come since the first Earth Day in 1970 and what the next 50 years may hold for the future of the Earth. April 20, 2020 – 1:30pm
https://woods.stanford.edu/events/earth-day-future-50-celebration-virtual-event

April 20: Earth Day Live

The world’s largest civic event is going digital for the first time in its history. We’ll demand that leaders take science seriously, listen to their people and push for action at every level of society to stop the rising tide of climate change. We can make a better world for everyone; tell everyone you know about April 22.
earthday.org

April 25: Celebrate Earth Day with Katharine Hayhoe and CCL

At a time when we are worried, isolated and unable to physically be with one another, we thought it would be good to spend a little time together — online, of course — to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. So far, more than 1,500 people have registered to attend “Uniting from Home: A Virtual CCL Event with Katharine Hayhoe” on April 25! At the event, we’ll hear from one of our favorite climate allies, Dr. Katharine Hayhoe. April 25, 10am-1pm PST.

Click here to register.

Wild and Scenic Films Online

All across the globe, humans are feeling the impacts of COVID-19, social distancing and confinement at home. With this in mind, the Wild and Scenic Film Festival invites you to watch some past Wild & Scenic Official Film Selections from home for free!
www.wildandscenicfilmfestival.org/socialdistancing/

Do Citizen Science

The citizen science app Earth Challenge was launched this week. With the Earth Challenge app, anyone with a smart phone can contribute to a global database of information on air quality, providing researchers with invaluable data and guiding future environmental policies.
https://www.earthday.org/press-release/worlds-largest-citizen-science-initiative-launched-for-earth-day-2020/

Win! Sac County Commits to Climate Planning

April 8, 2020
From 350 Sacramento:

Victory! At their April 7 public hearing, the Sacramento Board of Supervisors directed staff to start work on their long-overdue Climate Action Plan (CAP). Supervisors mentioned the significant public comments they received and growing public concern over climate change. It’s taken over a year of advocacy by 350 Sacramento, ECOS, and Sierra Club to get the County to say they would do what they had committed to. Our coalition submitted numerous letters and comments, coordinated with environmental justice and faith organizations, and organized an online letter/petition email campaign that generated 94 emails to each Board member encouraging them to move the CAP forward. 350 Sacramento also provided each Supervisor copies of 350 Sacramento’s CAP Recommendations document and the book Uninhabitable Earth. We achieved a big goal, but this is just the first step. Our next challenge is to make sure adequate funds are budgeted for the CAP. Then the real work begins. Big land developers consider robust CAP measures a threat and they have political influence. To get a strong CAP we need to generate strong public support over the next year. This is a fight we can win but it won’t be easy. We’ll keep you posted on how you can help.

Image by Bessi from Pixabay

Private Wells and Groundwater Sustainability

April 10, 2020

The Environmental Council of Sacramento (ECOS) and Habitat 2020 have submitted a comment letter regarding the subject of significant and unreasonable domestic, shallow agricultural and small system well impact evaluation as part of Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP) preparation.

Click here to view the comment letter.

Attachment: NGO letter to California Natural Resource Agency, Department of Water Resources, Cal EPA Special Counsel for Water Policy, and State Water Resources Control Board titled “Reviewing Groundwater Sustainability Plans In Accordance With State Agency Obligations to Consider the Human Right to Drinking Water”, February 10, 2020

Initiation of Sacramento County Action Plan

April 06, 2020

The Environmental Council of Sacramento, 350 Sacramento and the Sierra Club submitted a comment letter regarding Sacramento County’s initiation of a Climate Action Plan.

Here is an excerpt from our letter:

Thank you for your leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thank you also for committing to initiate the County’s Climate action Plan (CAP), and to discuss it during the Board’s April 7, 2020 hearing on the County’s General Plan 2019 Annual Report.
We are gratified that the CAP is included in the planning department’s work plan, but disappointed that the Report asserts work won’t begin until “a path forward is made clear” with the resolution of unspecified CAP-related lawsuits in other jurisdictions. Absent identification of such suits and explanation of why they preclude progress on the CAP, the County has not explained why it needs to continue its nine-year delay in fulfilling its greenhouse gas-reduction commitments (noted in Attachment).
As we’ve advised in previous correspondence, since the County committed to adopt a CAP in 2011, four other jurisdictions in the SACOG region have adopted CAPs which they consider “qualified”, and three more are currently in active draft, notwithstanding pending litigation in other jurisdictions.
We recognize this is a difficult time to begin new initiatives, but with both the pandemic and climate crises, time is not on our side. The pandemic crisis is short-term and immediate, but while the impacts of climate change are gradual, they are more enduring.
Therefore, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. We ask you to move ahead with a climate action plan and do what is required to avoid a threat whose scope has no historic parallel; to do not as little, but as much as possible.

Click here to read the letter in full.

Sacramento County Climate Action

March 18, 2020 – Action Alert (Good News!)

These are confusing and difficult times, but we have some good news. Sacramento County Supervisors on April 7, 2020 will discuss starting their long-delayed Climate Action Plan. We want to help them do the right thing. Click below to tell the Supervisors you want a strong Climate Action Plan in Sacramento County. Thank you very much.

Take Action

Photo by Markus Spiske from Pexels

More funding for transit and less money for new roads.

On March 18, 2020, the Environmental Council of Sacramento sent the following message to the Sacramento Board Clerk regarding Sacramento County Measure A’s Draft Expenditure Plan (DEP) .

ECOS consists of 20 locally-based member organizations, as well as many individual members. Since 1971, we have promoted infill development and transit, as opposed to sprawl – to save habitat, reduce pollution, and more recently — to deal with climate change.
We are gratified that Mayor Steinberg and CARB have recognized that new highway projects must demonstrate that they would not exacerbate climate change, in order to be eligible for funding under Measure A+. We strongly support the funding that would be provided to the Air District. We are pleased that Measure A’s Draft Expenditure Plan (DEP) would provide a much greater percentage of funding for transit, compared to 2016’s ill-fated Measure B.
However, the DEP would not provide as great a percentage for transit as the current Measure A. Since current Measure A was approved by voters, the existential threat of climate change has become more obvious and serious. Also, the affordable housing crisis has become California’s biggest problem. Therefore, future county growth must be higher density, and transit-oriented. We can only accomplish this by providing more funding for transit and less money for new roads.

Click here to view the email message in PDF.

Photo by form PxHere