Tag Archives: Climate Policy

Wildfires, health and money: How to talk about climate change with skeptics

By Mila Jasper | August 11, 2021 | The Sacramento Bee

Monday marked a major day in climate change news. The United Nations published a new report that found global warming will likely rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius in the next two decades, a level that will bring more instances of extreme weather.

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There’s a lot to process in the report, which runs many thousands of pages. But critically, it suggests that humans still have a chance to put the brakes on and stop warming from going beyond that 1.5 degree increase. Here’s how to understand the report – and how to talk about it with skeptics – according to an expert on communicating climate science.

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David Colgan is an environmental writer and the director of communications at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability…“What you need is kind of a balance, they need to see a problem and they need to see a potential way out of it,” Colgan said.

Slow and Active Streets

Ralph Propper, board president of the Environmental Council of Sacramento, mentioned one community-level solution that people can focus on: Sacramento’s “slow and active streets” initiative, instituted during the pandemic, was a great way to reduce emissions in the community. But that pilot program ended in July.

https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article253398155.html

Click here to read the article in full.

Photo from https://www.pexels.com/photo/backlit-breathing-apparatus-danger-dangerous-279979/

Sacramento County declared a climate emergency. Its action plan should take that seriously.

By The Sacramento Bee Editorial Board | July 18, 2021 | The Sacramento Bee

Sacramento County is still drafting its long-overdue climate action plan, which could have decades-long impacts on how we care for our environment. A favorable outcome will depend on the seriousness of county officials to act in its best interests.

California is in the midst of a rough summer. Sacramento saw surprisingly early 100-degree days in May, and climate experts say the brutal heat waves across the West Coast that have killed hundreds of people and devastated shellfish will become a recurring summer norm. We’re also facing a severe drought of historic proportions. Oh, and did we mention the wildfires that are outpacing last year’s record season?

Depending on the willingness of Sacramento County officials to commit to significant mitigation strategies, it’s no hyperbole to say the county’s climate plan will determine how long Sacramento will remain habitable in the face of impending climate catastrophe.

https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/editorials/article252761058.html

Click here to read the article in full.

Photo by Marta Dzedyshko from Pexels

Sacramento Climate Action Plan: draft ready for public review!

March 12, 2021

Sacramento County’s draft Communitywide Climate Action Plan (CAP), which addresses greenhouse gas reductions and climate change adaptation, is now available for public review.

An online workshop on the draft CAP will take place via Zoom at the Sacramento County Environmental Commission (SEC) meeting on Monday, March 15, at 6 p.m. The workshop will be an opportunity for the public and the SEC to provide feedback on the draft CAP.

Learn more

Photo by Yulia from Pexels

ECOS Comments on Sac County CAP

January 19, 2021

What do we mean, “CAP?”

Why, the Climate Action Plan, of course!

The County of Sacramento is currently working on their Climate Action Plan (CAP). On January 19, ECOS submitted our input on the plan.

Click here to read our letter.

The Plan

Learn more about the Sacramento County Climate Action Plan on the County’s website.

What’s a CAP though?

Climate action plans are comprehensive roadmaps that outline the specific activities that an agency will undertake to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Climate action plans build upon the information gathered by greenhouse gas inventories and generally focus on those activities that can achieve the relatively greatest emission reductions in the most cost effective manner.

– The Institute for Local Government

Sac County Climate Emergency Declaration

December 17, 2020 Update: we are happy to report that the County of Sacramento has passed the declaration!

December 15, 2020

ECOS has submitted a letter asking the Sacramento Board of Supervisors to vote in support of declaring a Climate Emergency. The item is on the agenda for their December 16, 2020 meeting.

From our letter:

The Environmental Council of Sacramento (ECOS) supports the County’s proposed Climate Emergency Declaration. As Greta Thunberg has told us,
“Humans are very adaptable: we can still fix this. But the opportunity to do so will not last for long. We must start today. We have no more excuses. We cannot solve a crisis without treating it as a crisis. And if solutions within the system are so impossible to find, then maybe we should change the system itself.”
Please demonstrate that our County’s system is up to the task!

Click here to read our letter in full.

Click here to add your voice!

Photo credit: Anders Hellberg, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons