November Bay Area Climate News from CRI

                 BAY AREA CLIMATE NEWS

The Most Important Lawsuit on the Planet (Juliana et al. vs. United States et al.)

That’s what Bill McKibben and Naomi Klein are calling it. Read the oral arguments given a few weeks ago in an Oregon courtroom as 21 young people (8-19 yrs. old!) and James Hansen sue the U.S. government and the fossil fuel industry over climate change. “This will be the trial of the century that will determine if we have a right to a livable future, or if corporate power will continue to deny our rights for the sake of their own wealth.” — 19-year-old lead plaintiff Kelsey Juliana. Judge will rule on this stage of the suit in mid-November.

Washington State Votes on 1^st U.S. Carbon Tax

Next week, State of Washington voters will decide on the “revenue-neutral” Initiative 732 which would tax fossil fuels while reducing sales tax and a business tax, and boosting low income tax credits. The LA Timesexplains why some environmental and liberal groups are opposing or remaining neutral while an NYT editorial lays out the pros and cons.

Environmental Justice Reality: New Orleans Revisited

As we toured New Orleans last week, the comparisons with our 2006 visit — a year after Katrina—were too obvious. More than 90% of the city’s households have returned while in the Lower 9^th Ward just 37% are back. Wrecked houses everywhere (80% of the city underwater) have been replaced, but the Lower 9^th and other low-income neighborhoods have huge “open space” areas and communities are shattered. Remember the Bay Area Council’s Surviving the Storm study and think about East Palo Alto, West Oakland, North Richmond…

Tom Hayden, Climate Change and Port Huron

Tom Hayden, who died last week at 76, spent much of his later life on green energy, climate change and related topics. Hayden was Governor Brown’s appointed chair for the California Solar Council 1978-82. Hayden came to the climate/green world with a very broad and deep understanding of how society works and what’s required to make the significant changes required.  As fascinating background on vision andaction, see the 1962 Port Huron statement (Hayden was a key author) and “Port Huron: Still Radical at 50”from 2012.

Land Acquisition and Ecosystem Carbon in California (Ackerly)

Hear the project team outline this new carbon sequestration project and answer questions from land managers and others in a recording of a 1-hour October 4^th CRI webinar. David Ackerly, Whendee Silver, Maggi Kelly, John Battles, Patrick Gonzalez and more.

Support for California Sea Level Rise Planning (Collins/Hill)

CRI is just launching this 1-year project for the Ocean Protection Council (Resources Agency) that will inventory and assess sea level rise planning efforts in 6 sub-regions of California, per AB 2516. Graduate Student Researcher Sandra Lupien will support the project.

Project Hyperion (Jones)

Berkeley Lab’s Andy Jones is a principal on this national project to collaborate with water managers to develop state-of-the-art climate modeling and data products to inform their water planning. CRI is providing stakeholder engagement support for the 4 target river basins—Kissimmee, Susquehanna, Upper Colorado and Sacramento/San Joaquin.

Climate Change and Bay Area Human Health: Facts, Figures and Storylines

CRI’s 50-page guide to research and action on Bay Area climate change and health is now available on the web here.

More next month on RISeR SF Bay (Stacey), San Francisco Bay Transformability (Hill), UC Berkeley Climate Impacts (McNeilly) and CRI’s proposal to develop the Berkeley Climate Adaptation Service.

BCDC Votes to Create Sea Level Adaptation Plan

The Bay Conservation and Development Commission has voted unanimously to create a Bay Area sea level rise adaptation plan in the next 3 years, conduct vulnerability assessments for each section of the bay shoreline, and “explore new institutional arrangements to address the impacts of climate change.” See the detailed staff reportand the Chron article on the action.

Lead On Climate — Election 2016

Sobered by the near-total lack of climate discussion in the national election (hey, Lester Holt had a climate question ready but ran out of time!)? Marin-based Lead On Climatehas a treasure trove of climate/election stuff including a detailed list (with resource links) of 8 actions you can take for Election 2016. Also includes talks at their recent event by Michael Wara, Kate Gordon and Jared Huffman.

Social Justice in Climate Adaptation: Beyond Sea Level Rise

The Resilient Communities Initiative is hosting this workshop November 14, 2:30 pm to 8 pm (including dinner) at the Ed Roberts Campus @ Ashby BART in Berkeley. The workshop, part of the Resilient Communities Academy, will tackle justice and equity issues surrounding heat emergencies, air pollution, food/water access, emergency prep, and more. Sign up here.

South Bay Workshop on Sea Level Rise

The Bay Area Ecosystem Climate Change Consortium and CRI hosted a forward-thinking workshop last month on key South Bay issues and solutions for sea level rise. Held at the fabulous Don Edwards National Wildlife Refuge overlooking the bay in Fremont, we featured talks by experts from UC Berkeley, the San Francisco Estuary Institute and consultants AECOM. See all the presentations and more here.