Spreading the Word on Climate Action

Dan Rademacher Mon, 15 Mar at 10:43pm

Chris High tabling at the Montclair Farmer's Market, Photo by Al Weinrub

As reported on Oaland Local on March 2, Sierra Club activists are working to get 1000 Oaklanders to sign on in support of a strong Energy and Climate Action Plan, which will be announced at a psecial City Council meeting on March 30. Activists have been visitng local farmer's markets and other neighborhood gathering places and have gathered about 300 names so far. (Learn more, and sign on yourself, at bit.ly/eastbayclimate.)

The Energy and Climate Action Plan will set a 10-year agenda for reaching the target already approved by the City Council: reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 36% below 2005 levels by 2020.

At a North Oakland community meeting in February, Oakland's Sustainability Coordinator Garrett Fitzgerald and the Oakland Climate Action Coalitions' Emily Kirsch presented the case for taking action locally: Oakland will most definitely feel the impacts of rising seas, changing rainfall, and warmer temperatures, but we're also in a position to take the lead in doing something about those problems. We still have time to reimagine our city as a place where we can all get around using transit, bicycles, and our feet; where our food and other needs can be met more and more by local people growing local produce and products; and where our homes can be made more efficient and more comfortable. All the while creating strong local employment opportunities, especially for flatlands communities in need of jobs and hope for the future.

But it won't be easy, and the plan that will be announced on March 30 will be a small first step in a long process. There will be public meeitngs and comments, a final plan and then, most important, implemenetation over the next 10 years.

This is all going to take major political will and some money. The Oakland Climate Action Coalition, with members that range from the Ella Baker Center to the Sierra Club to local unions and business groups, is trying to build broad support for reaching that goal in ways that also produce local jobs and foster community, especially in flatlands neighborhoods that most need new employment and other opportunities.