Carrying banners and donning green T-shirts, hundreds of environmental activists, students, politicians, green entrepreneurs and folks wanting to improve their neighborhoods turned out for the Community Convergence for Climate Action event Wednesday night, November 18,  to celebrate Oakland’s progress on greening the city.

“Why is it we converged tonight? We’re all here because we love Oakland so much that we want to turn our ideas into action,” said Mari Rose Taruc, the MC of the event organized by the Oakland Climate Action Coalition.

Oakland’s Energy and Climate Action plan, which the coalition helped draft and push through the city council, calls for reducing Oakland green house gas emissions to 36% below 2005 levels by 2020 -- and to 85% below 2005 levels by 2050.

“This plan is more aggressive than that of any city in the Bay Area,” said Oakland City Councilwoman Nancy Nadel (3th district), a longtime environmental and green jobs activist.

But to actually reach that aggressive goal by 2020 will require a lot of commitment in a city that is teetering on insolvency because of the recession.

Coalition leaders realize this, and have been scouring the city for volunteers and residents willing to push city hall to come through on its promises. 

Reducing greenhouse gases by 36 percent below 2005 levels will take not only city government initiatives but people willing to make wholesale changes in how they commute, heat their homes, operate businesses and procure their food.

As Emily Kirsch, bay area organizer for the Green-Collar Jobs Campaign at the Ella Baker Center, said, “The plan Oakland has can only be as bold and courageous as the community pushing for it.”

At neighborhood workshops held around the city last spring and summer, residents learned what kind of differences a cleaner local environment could mean in their lives. They also came up with steps they plan to take right in their neighborhoods.

“If the climate crisis continues, things are going to get worse for Oakland. All of the people living in the flatlands of East and West Oakland will be the first to suffer – we who are living in the flatlands are right next to the estuary, so when we hear that the Arctic ice cap is melting, what is going to happen to our communities on the waterfront in West Oakland? We’ll get flooded,” said Taruc, who is an organizer with Asian Pacific Environmental Network.
 
East Oakland resident Cynthia Lopez described her dream of turning vacant lots around the neighborhood into organic vegetable plots.

“We want to be able to produce our own food that is free of toxic chemicals,” Lopez said through a translator.

Hip hop artists from Grind for the Green performed at the event. High school students dramatized the ill effects of toxins on reproductive health. And by the end of the evening, the audience was ready to act for change.

“We are the future and the future depends on us,” said Candice Chou, senior at Oakland Technical High School, about how she and her friends are ready to get involved in greening their city.

TAKE ACTION:

• The Oakland Climate Action Coalition has a petition for local climate action and also recommends several ways Oaklanders can address climate change.
• The Local Clean Energy Alliance is engaged in several efforts for clean energy and green jobs throughout the East Bay. Find out how to get involved.
• The Ella Baker Center is running a Green-Collar Jobs Campaign. You can make a donation or volunteer to support these efforts.