Marin Voice: [Marin County] Civil Grand Jury gives supervisors a call for climate action

 The Marin Civil Grand Jury did a great service for our county, and potentially our planet, when it issued its recent call to action for Marin’s governments to come together to address the climate crisis more forcefully.

The report, dated Sept. 11, dramatizes the dire threat posed by climate change, locally and globally.

The Grand Jury’s main recommendation is that the Board of Supervisors convene a countywide task force targeting ways to reduce climate impacts like the sea-level rise, flooding, drought, wildfire, heat and “Armageddon orange” air pollution that we’re now experiencing at growing frequency and scale. The board is scheduled to respond at the Dec. 8 meeting.

Already, the cities of San Rafael and Novato have responded that they would like to look more closely at ways to achieve greater collaboration. The countywide agencies with the most climate responsibilities have also expressed interest — MCE Clean Energy, Transportation Authority of Marin and Marin Municipal Water District. But the greatest enthusiasm seems to be coming from Marin’s smaller towns, led by those with citizen Sustainability Commissions or Climate Action Committees like Corte Madera, San Anselmo, Fairfax and Sausalito.

Marin Climate Action Network, a countywide citizens coalition, is urging all jurisdictions to embrace the Grand Jury report as an opportunity to move climate change to the front tier of government concerns, just as the new administration in Washington is doing. Our core belief is that we must work together to meet the immense challenge of climate change, bringing to bear the powers of the public sector, the innovation of businesses and the commitment of the whole community.

We further believe that to deal effectively with the impacts of climate change, we must also deal with its root causes. Without curing the causes of climate chaos, attempts at “adaptation” will amount to applying ever more expensive band-aids to a terminal condition.

Bringing down the Earth’s climate fever means dramatically reducing greenhouse gas emissions by accelerating the transition to a clean energy economy. At the same time, we need to capture or “draw down” much of the pollution already emitted by healing natural systems and aligning agricultural practices with nature’s wisdom.

That’s why it’s critical for the Board of Supervisors to wholeheartedly endorse two other items on its Dec. 8 agenda. The “Drawdown Marin” strategic plan lays out a roadmap and practical steps to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions here by 2045, in line with California and United Nations benchmarks for what’s needed globally. Not doing so risks climate tipping points, beyond which adaptive measures are unlikely to provide meaningful protection from multiplying disasters.

Drawdown Marin, which embodies the work of more than 150 people over two years, models the kind of comprehensive, collaborative, public-private partnership that’s needed to help guide Marin to climate solutions and resilience countywide. The new initiative merits the supervisors’ strong and ongoing support as an effective forum for reducing climate pollution, at the same time as the county takes on greater leadership in addressing climate impacts.

The supervisors can also act to ensure that the county’s revised 2030 climate action plan incorporates the ambitious goals of Drawdown Marin into policies and programs that can be replicated throughout the county.

But plans and reports are only paper. To translate them to the work that must be done will take resources — dedicated dollars and dedicated people — in greater amounts than Marin has yet marshaled to meet the challenge of climate change. Some resources already exist, from the ratepayer dollars supporting MCE’s efforts to electrify Marin’s homes and vehicles with fossil-free energy, to the tax dollars at work making roads more resilient.

As San Rafael officials noted in their response to the Grand Jury, recent countywide measures like this year’s funding of the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority have targeted specific climate threats.

The task now is to ensure that all such future funding is comprehensive, providing resources to all Marin jurisdictions to address the wide range of climate threats and to reduce the greenhouse gases driving those impacts as rapidly as possible.

Marin Independent Journal
by Bill Carney, president of Sustainable San Rafael and a member of Marin Climate Action Network.
November 15, 2020