Public Comment

At last Tuesday’s agenda (Nov. 30, 2021) council passed a budget referral to establish and implement a pilot program of public assistance for electrification of existing buildings. To make a long story short, the item is too small in scope and scale, and too slow-paced, to meaningfully reduce Berkeley emissions. It is simply not relevant to the climate emergency we face. (I may write about it in more detail later.) 

What horrified me at this meeting, and still today causes me dread, are some apparently off the cuff remarks by Mayor Jesse Arreguín on the item. I have transcribed his words which I’ll intersperse with commentary on them. The Mayor: 

“In closing, you know, cop26 happened.” 

“All the while, you know, while were supposed to try to achieve 1.5 degrees Celsius, we know we’re not going to get there.” 

The problem already is that, no, we do not know that we will fail to limit humanity’s emissions sufficiently to meet or come very close to the 1.5°C warming limit. 

One of the major obstacles poised to prevent us: the climate emergency and climate science denialism among our politicians. The science denialism and political power abdication right there in view of us all the minute the Mayor announces that, if realistic, we don’t actually believe in the goal of 1.5°C. I suppose his earlier bragging about that goal was just so much self-promotion, not a sincere commitment to work towards that goal. 

The Mayor goes on to describe the vague, shallow understanding he has of what 2°C warming means (2°C being the absolute worst case tolerable under the Paris agreement): 

“If we can even get below 2 degrees, that would be a huge, huge benefit…” 

It’s not just “huge”, my goodness it’s “huge, huge”. 

[ Suggestion to the Mayor and to readers: NASA summarized the 2018 IPCC report on expected impacts of 1.5°C compared to 2°C here. Don’t let your eyes glaze over at the numbers – read ’em and weep. https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2865/a-degree-of-concern-why-global-temperatures-matter/ ] 

The Mayor continued: 

“… but we’re already seeing the catastrophic, cataclysmic impact of climate change not just throughout the world but here in Berkeley.” 

“We have climate refugees globally and in order for us to, you know, address this climate emergency and to actually fulfill the mission of the climate emergency it is going to require that we take bold action.” 

And, there’s the game: the Mayor gives us some word soup and the inevitable call for “bold action”. 

The Mayor then attempts to placate some fiduciary concerns raised by Councilmember Wengraf: 

“It is going to require that we try new approaches and certainly appropriate scrutiny and oversight of programs is appropriate …” 

(Personally, I’d be surprised if “appropriate scrutiny and oversight of programs” were somehow not “appropriate” but I suppose the Mayor has at least said something to which most people will agree: appropriate things are appropriate.) 

And, inevitably: 

“… but I just ask that we be bold and visionary in how we are addressing this climate crisis and do things that benefit everyone: those that have the resource to make the changes to electrify their properties, and those that don’t, because those that haven’t the resources, as we know, have been the most disproportionately impacted by climate change … and climate change justice, economic justice, racial justice is all equally important.” 

With injustice, and empty promises, and climate emergency denial for all. 

Future topics

1. The emergency problem of building electrification.
2. The emergency problem of economic contraction caused by limiting fossil fuel use severely.
3. So what can we do?