EPA Carries out Trump Threat, Cites San Francisco for Water Pollution Linked to Homeless Crisis
04 October 2019
Politics
Person who is homeless sits near San Francisco beach. wildwise studio / Flickr / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cited San Francisco for violating the Clean Water Act by allowing used needles to spill into the ocean. The violation notice executes a threat Trump laid out a few weeks ago and ratchets up California's environmental policies feud with the White House, according to the AP.
<p>A couple of weeks ago Trump claimed that waste from storm drains, especially needles, near San Francisco's homeless encampments was running into the ocean. The city officials disputed Trump's inaccurate claim that water pollution was linked to the city's homeless crisis. Yet, without citing evidence of Trump's claim or Trump's threat, EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler accused the city of improperly discharging waste into the bay, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/02/san-francisco-epa-water-pollution-trump" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported.</p>
<div id="77bed" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8PAU9A1576661358"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1177388164736065538" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The Trump administration is blaming California's large homeless population for water pollution in the state.
San F… https://t.co/UpURjDKQby</div> — NPR (@NPR)<a href="https://twitter.com/NPR/statuses/1177388164736065538">1569546187.0</a></blockquote></div><p>Instead, the EPA's letter, which is addressed to Harlan Kelly, Jr., general manager of the city's Public Utilities Commission, states that the city's sewage and storm water systems have failed to trap pollutants like heavy metals and bacteria, as the <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/environment/article/EPA-makes-good-on-its-threat-cites-San-Francisco-14487648.php" target="_blank">San Francisco Chronicle</a> reported. </p>
<p>The letter said that the data showed "it discharging approximately one and a half billion gallons of combined sewage annually onto beaches and other sensitive areas, including areas where recreation takes place," according to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/02/san-francisco-epa-water-pollution-trump" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>.</p>
<p>"The failure to properly operate and maintain the city's sewage collection and treatment facilities" caused force main and pump station failures "that have diverted substantial volumes of raw and partially-treated sewage to flow across beaches and into the San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean," the letter said.</p>
<p>The letter is the last step in a feud with California that has seen the state file more than 50 lawsuits opposing Trump initiatives on the environment, immigration and health care, according to the <a href="https://www.apnews.com/0bf28b288e4049aebb34185f28e2fe1d" target="_blank">AP</a>. Last week, Wheeler sent a letter to California's Gov. Gavin Newsom alleging that waste left by the homeless in big cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles was improperly handled.</p>
<p>The EPA's letter to San Francisco drew quick condemnation and rebuttal from the city's Mayor London Breed.</p>
<p>"The notice of violation flies in the face of years of good faith discussions convened between the city and the EPA," said Breed said in a statement, as the San Francisco Chronicle <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/environment/article/EPA-makes-good-on-its-threat-cites-San-Francisco-14487648.php" target="_blank">reported</a>. "The notice of violation issued today contained a series of mischaracterizations, inaccuracies and falsehoods, and is the latest example of the Trump administration's attack on our city and our state."</p><p>The wave of letters sent from the EPA suggest that the administration is trying to cast California as a failed liberal-agenda. In response, the city attorney Dennis Herrera submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the EPA "for records related to these unwarranted attacks on San Francisco," as The Guardian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/02/san-francisco-epa-water-pollution-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reported</a>.</p><p>"These attacks on San Francisco are a politically motivated ploy," Herrera said in a statement, according to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/02/san-francisco-epa-water-pollution-trump" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>. "The Trump administration is ignoring facts and misusing the EPA to attack people it disagrees with."</p><p>The alleged violations in the letter include at least seven failures of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission to comply with requirements of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, part of the Clean Water Act. In addition to not meeting pollution standards, the agency is not maintaining its sewer and wastewater systems, adequately keeping records, and providing public notice when people may be exposed to pollution, the letter says, as the San Francisco Chronicle <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/environment/article/EPA-makes-good-on-its-threat-cites-San-Francisco-14487648.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reported</a>.</p><p>Michael Carlin, deputy general manger of the the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, said the city was in full compliance with the terms of its discharge permits under the Clean Water Act and there was no threat to public health or the environment.</p><p>"I don't quite understand the point they're trying to make here," said Carlin to the <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/environment/article/EPA-makes-good-on-its-threat-cites-San-Francisco-14487648.php" target="_blank">San Francisco Chronicle</a>.</p>
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By Allegra Kirkland, Jeremy Deaton, Molly Taft, Mina Lee and Josh Landis
Climate change is already here. It's not something that can simply be ignored by cable news or dismissed by sitting U.S. senators in a Twitter joke. Nor is it a fantastical scenario like The Day After Tomorrow or 2012 that starts with a single crack in the Arctic ice shelf or earthquake tearing through Los Angeles, and results, a few weeks or years later, in the end of life on Earth as we know it.
<p>Instead, we are seeing its creeping effects now — with hurricanes like Maria and Harvey that caused <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/29/us/puerto-rico-growing-death-toll/index.html" target="_blank">hundreds of deaths</a> and <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/puerto-rico-lost-43-billion-after-hurricane-maria-according-govt-n943441" target="_blank">billions of dollars</a> in economic damage; with the Mississippi River and its tributaries <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/10/us/flooding-river-shipping.html" target="_blank">overflowing their banks</a> this spring, leaving huge swaths of the Midwestern plains under water. Climate change is, at this very moment, <a href="https://www.teenvogue.com/story/climate-change-explained-global-warming" target="_blank">taking a real toll on wildlife, ecosystems</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/23/climate/us-climate-report.html" target="_blank">economies</a>, and <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/climate-change-and-disasters.html" target="_blank">human beings</a>, particularly in the global south, which <a href="https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/scpibackground/" target="_blank">experts expect</a> will be hit first and hardest. We know from the increasingly <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/08/global-warming-must-not-exceed-15c-warns-landmark-un-report" target="_blank">apocalyptic warnings</a> being issued by the United Nations that it will only get worse.</p>
<p><em><em><em><em>Note: This story is based on <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/01/rcp-85-the-climate-change-disaster-scenario/579700/" target="_blank">RCP 8.5</a>, the so-called "business-as-usual" emissions scenario that assumes that Earth will continue to heavily rely on fossil fuels as the global economy grows. Per Nexus Media, "As we are currently doing virtually nothing to stop climate change, RCP 8.5 is a pretty good predictor of what's going to happen over the next couple of decades. Part of that is because it will take a while for the climate to reach a new equilibrium, so even if we stopped polluting now, the planet would continue to warm for decades." It looks at a sea level rise of six feet, on average, globally, based on the findings of this <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/2014EF000239" target="_blank">widely-cited 2014 study</a>.</em></em></em></em></p><p><em><em><em>This story originally appeared in <a href="https://www.teenvogue.com/story/climate-change-timeline-st-louis-san-francisco-houston" target="_blank">Teen Vogue</a> in partnership with <a href="https://nexusmedianews.com/" target="_blank">Nexus Media</a></em>. <em>It is republished here as part of</em> <em>EcoWatch's partnership with Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of more than 250 news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climate story.</em></em></em></p>
<p>But these early omens of our unstable, hot, wet future can be difficult to wrap our heads around. So <em>Teen Vogue</em> partnered with the team at the nonprofit news service <a href="https://nexusmedianews.com/" target="_blank">Nexus Media</a>, who developed a timeline predicting how climate change could affect three major U.S. cities over the course of the 21st century. Climate change will look different in different places across the world, but we chose three places with distinct geographic concerns and climate vulnerabilities — to ground all the ominous statistics and headlines in a real sense of place. These are cities you may have visited, or where you may have family, or where you may even live.</p><p>According to the research Nexus compiled, St. Louis will see flooding, extreme heat, severe rainfall, and drought in the surrounding farmland. In Houston, on the Gulf of Mexico, hurricanes will grow more destructive and temperatures will soar. San Francisco will witness rising sea levels, fierce wildfires, and extreme drought.</p><p>This timeline is based on interviews with a dozen climate experts and a review of several dozen scientific studies. The projections assume an average <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/2014EF000239" target="_blank">sea level rise of six feet by 2100</a> — a little more in some places, and less in others — and the business-as-usual <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/01/rcp-85-the-climate-change-disaster-scenario/579700/" target="_blank">emissions scenario</a>, which assumes that we will continue to pollute and use fossil fuels at our current rate.</p><p>Rather than a scientific assessment, it is a rigorously researched prediction of what our future could bring unless we come together as a country and as a global community — fast— to address climate change as the crisis it is.</p><p>As Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech University, put it: "The future is not set in stone. Some amount of change is inevitable. It's as if we've been smoking a pack of cigarettes a day for decades, but we don't have lung cancer yet."</p><p>"The amount of change that we're going to see — whether it's serious, whether it's dangerous, whether it's devastating, whether it's civilization-threatening — the amount of change we're going to see is up to us," she continued. "It depends on our choices today and in the next few years."</p>
2020
<h4>Houston<br></h4><p>It's starting to get hot. It's now about one degree <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/sdata201648" target="_blank">Fahrenheit</a> warmer in Houston than it was in the second half of the 20th century. Houstonians can expect especially balmy falls this decade, as autumns are <a href="https://www.climatecentral.org/outreach/alert-archive/2018/2018SeasonalWarming-English-Dropdown-ARCHIVE.html?market=stlouis" target="_blank">warming faster</a> than other seasons in Texas.</p><p>Houston knows how much it stands to lose from climate change. In 2017, Hurricane Harvey devastated the city, which was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/13/climate/hurricane-harvey-climate-change.html" target="_blank">supercharged</a> by warm waters in the Gulf. But Houston is also helping to drive the rise in temperature. <a href="https://gov.texas.gov/uploads/files/organization/eco-dev/Texas_Largest_Companies.pdf" target="_blank">Several major oil companies</a> and a vast network of oil refineries and petrochemical plants call the city home.</p><h4>St. Louis</h4><p>This decade, St. Louis is expected to be more than <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/sdata201648" target="_blank">two degrees Fahrenheit warmer</a> than it was, on average, during the latter half of the 20th century. While locals have endured more sweltering summer days, they have felt the change the most during the cold months. Missouri winters are <a href="https://www.climatecentral.org/outreach/alert-archive/2018/2018SeasonalWarming-English-Dropdown-ARCHIVE.html?market=stlouis" target="_blank">warming faster</a> than summers, springs, and falls.</p><p>Warmer air holds more water, which can lead to <a href="https://www.climatecentral.org/news/report-pouring-it-on-climate-change-intensifies-heavy-rain-events" target="_blank">more severe rainfall</a>. In recent years, rainstorms have pummeled the Midwest and led to widespread flooding across the region. In 2019 in St. Louis, rivers reached <a href="https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/state-and-regional/as-second-highest-river-crest-reaches-st-louis-low-lying/article_08e5f1d1-5306-5795-81d9-349696462899.html" target="_blank">near-historic levels</a>, and floodwaters <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-goZZPlM9M" target="_blank">inundated the area</a> around the city's iconic Gateway Arch.</p><p>This storm wasn't a blip on the radar, but rather a sign of what's to come. As the planet heats up, St. Louis can expect <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/2013EF000185" target="_blank">more extreme rainstorms</a> — and more <a href="https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/apartment-buildings-evacuated-in-st-louis-county-along-flooding-river/article_e888e663-c8fa-5aae-a183-67d57eb3d0bc.html" target="_blank">orders to evacuate</a> low-lying neighborhoods.</p><h4>San Francisco</h4><p>For San Franciscans, the beginning of the decade will feel only a little different from past years. In 2020, it's expected to be less than <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/sdata201648" target="_blank">one degree Fahrenheit warmer</a> in San Francisco than it was, on average, between 1950 and 2000. The change is small, but locals can sometimes feel it in the spring, which is <a href="http://ccimgs-2018.s3.amazonaws.com/2018SeasonalWarming/2018SeasonalWarming_CA_en_title_lg.jpg" target="_blank">warming faster</a> than the other seasons, or on <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2017/09/01/san-francisco-smashes-all-time-record-high-temperature-hits-106-degrees/" target="_blank">especially hot days</a>.</p><p>But there are new worries for the city. Rising temperatures have fueled <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/d3xxzk/get-ready-for-more-california-droughts-thanks-to-climate-change" target="_blank">ongoing drought</a> in recent years, which has, in turn, led to more wildfires. Fires now burn <a href="http://www.climateassessment.ca.gov/techreports/docs/20180827-Projections_CCCA4-CEC-2018-014.pdf" target="_blank">more regularly</a> across the Sierra Nevada as well as coastal mountain ranges. The flames may <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2018/08/08/yosemite-closed-indefinitely-as-california-fires-grow-to-largest-in-history-map-and-update/#6d89ea4a3ef2" target="_blank">ruin plans</a> for weekend getaways to Yosemite or deliver noxious smoke to the Bay Area. And locals may start to reach for air masks as dangerously smoky days become more common.</p><p>"We get a lot of the smoke that comes from the wildfires that happen in inland California, and that makes it really hard to breathe the air," said Kristy Dahl, a climate scientist at the <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/" target="_blank">Union of Concerned Scientists</a>, who is based in San Francisco. "Last year when there was a massive wildfire hundreds of miles away, San Francisco for a day [ranked among] the worst air quality in the entire world."</p>2030
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMTExODMzNy9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MTY5MDM1Mn0.Viu8OlgIthyqrSlt8nFtVaZjnW_IIAj6iVcFW_cJ2Rw/img.png?width=980" id="6b13e" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3dc110479cc2fec787aa87d2d280a579" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />NEXUS MEDIA
<h4>Houston</h4><p>By 2030, temperatures are expected to have warmed almost <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/sdata201648" target="_blank">two degrees Fahrenheit</a> in Houston. Seas are expected to have risen a little more than a foot, enough to occasionally flood some low-lying areas outside the city. Warmer waters in the Gulf of Mexico will <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-09/documents/climate-change-tx.pdf" target="_blank">raise the speed limit</a> for winds during hurricanes and ramp up rainfall during storms.</p><p>"Hurricanes are not getting more frequent, but they are getting stronger and bigger and slower," said Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at <a href="https://www.ttu.edu/" target="_blank">Texas Tech University</a>. "They're intensifying faster and they have a lot more rain associated with them today than they would have had a hundred years ago."</p><h4>St. Louis</h4><p>By 2030, temperatures are expected to have warmed around three degrees Fahrenheit in St. Louis. The kind of rainstorm that currently strikes the Midwest around once every five years will hit around once <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/2013EF000185" target="_blank">every three years</a> this decade.</p><p>"We've seen these record-breaking, devastating floods in the Midwest," said Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at <a href="https://www.ttu.edu/" target="_blank">Texas Tech University</a>. "It's not like they've never had floods before, but the floods are just getting a lot worse and a lot more frequent."</p><p>This could mean trouble for local infrastructure. Rivers swell after heavy rains, and the rush of water can <a href="https://www.epa.gov/cira/climate-action-benefits-bridges" target="_blank">weaken bridges</a> by carrying away sediment from around their foundations. This could be a big problem in Missouri, which is home to hundreds of <a href="https://www.modot.org/Bridges" target="_blank">aging</a> bridges, many of which have been <a href="https://artbabridgereport.org/state/ranking" target="_blank">deemed deficient</a>. Climate change could mean even more heavy <a href="https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/chapter/21/" target="_blank">repair costs</a> for taxpayers.</p><h4>San Francisco</h4><p>This decade, the rise in temperature is expected to pass two degrees <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/sdata201648" target="_blank">Fahrenheit</a> in San Francisco. That may not feel like a lot in the city. But warmer weather is taking a serious toll.</p><p>California's drought will get <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-historic-megadroughts-in-the-western-us-tell-us-about-our-climate-future-37615" target="_blank">progressively worse</a> this decade, the product of warmer temperatures drying out soil and meager rainfall failing to replace the water lost. Rising temperatures will also yield <a href="https://www.kqed.org/science/1936797/why-we-cant-stop-talking-about-californias-sierra-snowpack" target="_blank">less snowfall</a>. The snow that does come down will melt in the spring and early summer, depriving the state of a critical source of water in the late summer, when, historically, melting snow has fed streams and rivers.</p><p>The snow drought will strain farmers in the Central Valley, while putting pressure on cities to use less water. The <a href="https://www.vcstar.com/story/news/2018/05/31/permanent-california-water-restrictions-approved-gov-jerry-brown/662456002/" target="_blank">water restrictions</a> the state put in place in 2018 will have grown much more severe in the past 12 years. Officials could urge Californians across the state to take shorter showers and stop watering their lawns to cope with the worsening drought.</p>2040
<h4>Houston</h4><p>This decade, sea level rise around Houston is projected to reach two feet, enough to inundate much of nearby Freeport and Jamaica Beach. That extra water will mean that hurricanes, when they strike, will deliver <a href="https://scied.ucar.edu/hurricanes-and-climate-change" target="_blank">more powerful floods</a> to coastal areas.</p><p>"A small and steady rise of the water level elevates a platform for flooding that we've had throughout history," said Maya Buchanan, a sea level rise scientist at <a href="https://www.climatecentral.org/" target="_blank">Climate Central</a>. "That means larger storm surges."</p><p>That's bad news for people who live near the shore. Around <a href="https://weather.com/safety/hurricane/news/hurricanes-tropical-storms-us-deaths-surge-flooding" target="_blank">half of deaths</a> caused by hurricanes are the result of coastal flooding, and waters <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/houston-harvey-environmental-justice_n_59a41c90e4b06d67e3390993" target="_blank">tend to inundate</a> poor neighborhoods and neighborhoods of color, which are more likely to lie in flood-prone areas.</p><h4>St. Louis</h4><p>In 2040, St. Louis is expected to be four degrees Fahrenheit warmer than it was at the end of the last century. While that may sound like a small number, it means big problems for the city. A small uptick in the average temperature could lead to milder winters, stifling summers and changing rainfall.</p><p>St. Louis will tend to see wetter springs and drier summers. That means the region will withstand heavier downpours, but it will also endure long stretches without a drop of rain. Despite the growing peril of major flooding, extended dry spells and rising temperatures will dry out the land. Drought will <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-historic-megadroughts-in-the-western-us-tell-us-about-our-climate-future-37615" target="_blank">set in</a> in Missouri, endangering farms.</p><p>And just remember — it will never be this cool again.</p><h4>San Francisco</h4><p>By 2040, sea levels are predicted to rise around one foot, enough to encroach the beaches on the west side of the city and Candlestick Point on the east, popular recreation areas. Parts of San Francisco Airport and Oakland Airport will flood regularly, making air travel in and out of the city more difficult.</p><p>Drought will have grown <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-historic-megadroughts-in-the-western-us-tell-us-about-our-climate-future-37615" target="_blank">increasingly severe.</a> Forests will dry out, and become vulnerable to <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-the-bark-beetle-fueled-californias-wildfires/" target="_blank">bark beetles</a>, which burrow into trees to lay their eggs. Healthy trees can ward off the bugs by covering them in resin — but already struggling trees have no way to protect themselves.</p><p>Large parts of forests will die, and the dead trees will become tinder for wildfire. In 2040, fires are expected to burn around twice as much big sections of the Sierra Nevada as they do today. Areas south of San Francisco will also grow more vulnerable to erupting in flames.</p>2050
<h4>Houston</h4><p>By midcentury, temperatures are expected to have warmed more than three degrees <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/sdata201648" target="_blank">Fahrenheit</a> in Houston. Waters in the Gulf of Mexico will have also warmed, fueling more dangerous storms.</p><p>In the decades to come, the Gulf will see more category-four and -five hurricanes, like <a href="https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/AL092017_Harvey.pdf" target="_blank">Hurricane Harvey</a> and <a href="https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/AL122005_Katrina.pdf" target="_blank">Hurricane Katrina</a>, according to Suzana Camargo, a climate scientist at <a href="https://www.columbia.edu/" target="_blank">Columbia University</a>. Warm water is like ammunition for cyclones, arming them with more powerful winds and heavier rains. People might want to think twice before they purchase a home in Houston.</p><p>"I think people have to think very carefully how they are going to plan when they want to buy a house," Camargo said, explaining that in the future, cyclones will deliver more flooding to seaside cities and towns.</p><h4>St. Louis</h4><p>St. Louis is expected to have heated up by more than five degrees Fahrenheit on average by the middle of the century. Hot weather will dry out soil. Past 2050, the Central Plains, including much of Missouri, can look forward to <a href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/1/1/e1400082?utm_source=charybd.com&utm_medium=link&utm_compaign=article" target="_blank">decades-long drought</a>.</p><p>This drought will be especially disastrous for Missouri farmers. Growers will have to take more water out of underground aquifers to feed their crops, drawing down a limited supply of groundwater, often at great cost. This, in turn, could drive up the price of food.</p><h4>San Francisco</h4><p>By 2050, temperatures in San Francisco are expected to have risen more than three degrees <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/sdata201648" target="_blank">Fahrenheit</a>. In the second half of this century, changing weather patterns will yield lasting dry spells, leaving much of California to endure long stretches without rain. Around the time someone graduating high school today turns 50, they <a href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/1/1/e1400082?utm_source=charybd.com&utm_medium=link&utm_compaign=article" target="_blank">can expect</a> California to enter a decades-long drought — with disastrous consequences.</p><p>Farmers in California will have to draw more and more water from underground. Eventually, they may not be able to grow fruits and vegetables in parts of the state. This will drive up the cost of many foods, such as strawberries, almonds, and lemons.</p><p>Snow will also start to disappear from the Sierra Nevada. By 2050, projections say, there will be <a href="https://www.energy.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2019-07/Statewide%20Reports-%20SUM-CCCA4-2018-013%20Statewide%20Summary%20Report.pdf" target="_blank">a third less snow</a> than we see today. San Francisco <a href="https://www.sfgate.com/weather/article/California-Bay-Area-drought-reservoir-snowpack-SF-13591499.php" target="_blank">depends</a> on that snow for its water, and a dry Sierra Nevada could mean a looming water crisis for the city.</p><p>The drought will also leave California's forests all the more vulnerable to wildfire — fires that could cover San Francisco in smoke, making it <a href="https://www.popsci.com/fires-california-air-quality-cigarettes/" target="_blank">dangerous</a> to go outside.</p>2060
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMTExODM1Ny9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0MjIwNjc2NX0.-XekcQCqYuel5NqFwuK0XTp3VnFoZzJHhMpx0QNvhmY/img.png?width=980" id="46fe3" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="371e7c8ce7857c4bfb38ed9cd20aff44" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />Where San Francisco residents are expected to move when they're displaced by rising seas..
NEXUS MEDIA
<h4>Houston</h4><p>By 2060, temperatures are expected to have warmed by more than four degrees <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/sdata201648" target="_blank">Fahrenheit</a>. The city could see up to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/08/20/sunday-review/climate-change-hot-future.html?auth=login-smartlock" target="_blank">25 days a year</a> with temperatures over 100 degrees <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/sdata201648" target="_blank">Fahrenheit</a>.</p><p>Local sea level rise, meanwhile, is expected reach three feet during this decade. This will raise the level of Buffalo Bayou, the waterway that stretches through the middle of Houston. The Scholes International Airport in nearby Galveston will sink into the sea, and at high tide, water will flood much of the San Jacinto Battleground, site of the 1836 clash where Sam Houston, the city's <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sam-Houston" target="_blank">namesake</a>, <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/mexico/battle-of-san-jacinto" target="_blank">overcame</a> the Mexican Army.</p><h4>St. Louis</h4><p>St. Louis is expected hit a six-degrees-Fahrenheit increase in its average temperature this decade. While this might be bad news for humans, it's good for many insects, who love warm weather. Rising temperatures will bring <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/climate-change-widen-range-disease-carrying-mosquitoes-says-study" target="_blank">disease-carrying mosquitoes</a> to St. Louis's doorstep. Missourians will have to be more vigilant about their health as the bugs could spread tropical viruses like <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/zika/index.html" target="_blank">Zika</a>, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/dengue/index.html" target="_blank">dengue</a>, and <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/yellowfever/index.html" target="_blank">yellow fever</a> around the warming Midwest.</p><p>Climate change will also bring more <a href="https://www.climatecentral.org/gallery/maps/projections-in-deer-tick-habitat" target="_blank">deer ticks</a> to St. Louis. Because warmer air can hold more water, as temperatures rise, so does humidity — and deer ticks thrive in humid weather. While ticks are little seen in Missouri today, later this century they will fan out across the state, potentially spreading <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/index.html" target="_blank">Lyme disease</a>. Those afflicted will endure fever, headache, and fatigue. They may see their joints swell or feel their face droop.</p><h4>San Francisco</h4><p>By 2060, temperatures in San Francisco are expected to have risen by more than four degrees <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/sdata201648" target="_blank">Fahrenheit</a>.</p><p>Wildfires will burn roughly three times as much of broad swaths of the Sierra Nevada as they do today, laying waste to large stretches of California's pristine forests.</p><p>This decade, sea level rise is projected hit two feet. Water will begin to spill over the edges of the Mission Creek Channel, while threatening routine floods around San Francisco's iconic Fisherman's Wharf. Waters will have flooded much of nearby San Rafael, north of San Francisco. To the south, Foster City will be underwater, displacing thousands of residents — many of whom currently work in the tech industry.</p>2070
<h4>Houston</h4><p>By 2070, Houston is projected to be more than five degrees <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/sdata201648" target="_blank">Fahrenheit</a> hotter than at the end of the 20th century. This warming is part of a larger trend that is heating up the planet and melting ice in Greenland and Antarctica, raising the sea level near the city.</p><p>"As flooding events get more severe, that can impact property values, and that could impact where people decide to live," Buchanan said, explaining that rising seas will drive down the value of homes in low-lying areas.</p><p>By this time, waters will have already subsumed much of the coastline from Freeport, south of Houston, all the way to New Orleans. Rising seas will make much of the Gulf coast unrecognizable as the ocean swallows up most of southern Louisiana. Later this decade, sea levels are expected to have risen by four feet.</p><h4>St. Louis</h4><p>In 2070, St. Louis is projected to be more than seven degrees Fahrenheit hotter than it was at the end of the last century. Before the decade is through, the city is expected to see eight degrees Fahrenheit of warming. Rising temperatures will have utterly transformed the weather in Missouri, making it virtually unrecognizable to current residents. The city will see around <a href="https://nca2014.globalchange.gov/report/regions/midwest" target="_blank">20 fewer days</a> of frost each year than it does today, as well as around <a href="https://nca2014.globalchange.gov/report/regions/midwest" target="_blank">20 extra days</a> with temperatures over 95 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat will be felt <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/09/climate/city-heat-islands.html" target="_blank">most acutely</a> in neighborhoods short on trees and parks.</p><p>Outside the city, severe heat will <a href="https://nca2014.globalchange.gov/report/regions/midwest" target="_blank">cripple the growth</a> of corn and soybeans at nearby farms. So will drought, which experts say will <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-historic-megadroughts-in-the-western-us-tell-us-about-our-climate-future-37615" target="_blank">be worse</a> than at any time in living memory. The state will endure <a href="https://nca2014.globalchange.gov/report/regions/midwest" target="_blank">more consecutive days</a> without rain. When it does rain, however, it will pour. Warmer temperatures will produce more extreme rainfall.</p><h4>San Francisco</h4><p>By 2070, San Francisco's average temperature is expected to have warmed by more than five degrees <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/sdata201648" target="_blank">Fahrenheit</a>. Drought will be <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-historic-megadroughts-in-the-western-us-tell-us-about-our-climate-future-37615" target="_blank">more severe</a> than at any time in living memory. Rising temperatures and diminished rainfall will <a href="https://ww2.energy.ca.gov/2012publications/CEC-500-2012-037/CEC-500-2012-037.pdf" target="_blank">take a toll</a> on trees around the San Francisco Bay. More and more evergreen forests will die off and grasslands will spring up in their place, fundamentally changing the landscape around the city.</p>2080
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMTExODM2OC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMzQ5NzQ5MH0.ZVi9RPYLaWvmHeo01PPYBolegntrVAmrmOh9FMyqpzs/img.png?width=980" id="c4054" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="76b0c2f9b54a42a535a5f3e5581177d2" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />This is what Houston, St. Louis, and San Francisco will feel like in 2080.
NEXUS MEDIA
<h4>Houston</h4><p>By 2080, temperatures are projected to have warmed around six degrees <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/sdata201648" target="_blank">Fahrenheit</a> on average, a dizzying change in the weather that means Houston won't feel like Houston anymore.</p><p>The city will grow warmer and wetter. Around 2080, Houston <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-08540-3" target="_blank">will feel</a> something like Ciudad Mante in Mexico does today, with its warmer, drier winter.</p><p>As the climate changes, Houston's native wildlife could start to head north. At the same time, plants and animals that currently make their home south of Houston may start to work their way toward the city.</p><h4>St. Louis</h4><p>St. Louis is expected to be nearly nine degrees Fahrenheit warmer by 2080. The temperature will have changed so drastically that St. Louis no longer feels like the same city.</p><p>Around 2080, St. Louis <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-08540-3" target="_blank">will start to feel</a> like Prosper, Texas, does today. This new St. Louis will be hotter and drier. Summer weather will go from balmy to sweltering, and the city will see much less rain during the warm months.</p><p>It's not just that St. Louis will feel more like Prosper. It might start to look like it too. Animals that currently live around Prosper could head northward as the climate changes, searching for a new home that feels like their old one. At the same time, the shrubs and grasslands that stretch across north Texas could start to edge their way toward Missouri.</p><h4>San Francisco</h4><p>By 2080, the average temperature is expected to have risen by more than six degrees <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/sdata201648" target="_blank">Fahrenheit</a> in San Francisco. The city will <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-08540-3" target="_blank">start to feel</a> a lot like present-day Los Angeles. The weather will be warmer and drier, much like the current climate in Palos Verdes Estates, a coastal city in the L.A. area.</p><p>With less rainfall, many of the trees that make their home in San Francisco will die. At the same time, the smaller, scrubbier plants that make their home in L.A. could migrate toward the city. It's not just that San Francisco will start to feel like L.A., scientists say. It might start to look like it too.</p>2090
<h4>Houston</h4><p>By now, temperatures are projected to have warmed close to seven degrees <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/sdata201648" target="_blank">Fahrenheit</a>, while sea levels will have risen five feet, subsuming the coastline. Much of nearby Galveston is underwater.</p><p>It's not just hot days that threaten Houston. Rising temperatures will allow the air to hold more water, increasing humidity — which could be a big problem for public health.</p><p>"As humidity rises, it becomes harder and harder for the sweat to evaporate off our skin — and it's that evaporation of sweat that cools our bodies," said Kristy Dahl, a climate scientist at the <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/" target="_blank">Union of Concerned Scientists</a>. "So it might only be a temperature reading of 90 degrees, but if you have 60% humidity, it's going to feel hotter than 90 degrees."</p><p>Dahl said that Houston will heat up so much that it will be hard to quantify how hot it will feel.</p><p>"By the end of the century, Houston would see about three weeks of what we call off-the-charts heat conditions, which are when the combination of temperature and humidity falls above the national weather services heat index scale," she said. "What that means is that we can't even calculate a heat index to reliably warn people about how dangerous it is."</p><h4>St. Louis</h4><p>St. Louis is expected to have warmed by almost 10 degrees Fahrenheit, a transformational change in the climate of the city. Rising temperatures could provoke a spike in <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/356/6345/1362.full?ijkey=x3wZ8kcgtomUM&keytype=ref&siteid=sci" target="_blank">violent crime</a> — when people are hot, research shows, they tend to feel <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/07/16/two-new-studies-warn-that-hotter-world-will-be-more-violent-one/" target="_blank">more aggressive</a>.</p><p>By the end of the century, St. Louis will endure around 80 days per year where the heat index is above 100 degrees — compared to just 11 days at the end of the 20th century, according to Kristy Dahl, a climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists.</p><p>"It's really striking because historically those off-the-charts conditions have only occurred in the Sonoran desert region of the U.S., the California-Arizona border," Dahl said.</p><p>In addition to extreme heat, the city will also endure <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-historic-megadroughts-in-the-western-us-tell-us-about-our-climate-future-37615" target="_blank">severe drought</a>, punctuated by the occasional supercharged rainstorm. The kind of downpour that currently strikes the Midwest around once every five years will hit around once <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/2013EF000185" target="_blank">every year or two</a>. The most severe storms — the kind that currently show up once every 20 years — now arrive once <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/clean-power-plan-states-MO.pdf" target="_blank">every six or seven years</a>.</p><p>Heavy rainfall will lead to flooding, and floodwaters will mix with raw sewage, <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/clean-power-plan-states-MO.pdf" target="_blank">helping to spread</a> bacteria. Rains will also swamp homes and businesses, offering a place for mold to grow.</p><h4>San Francisco</h4><p>By now, San Francisco is projected to have heated up more than seven degrees <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/sdata201648" target="_blank">Fahrenheit</a> on average. The extra heat will mean many people will be spending <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/07/16/two-new-studies-warn-that-hotter-world-will-be-more-violent-one/" target="_blank">more time outdoors</a>, potentially leading to a spike in <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/356/6345/1362.full?ijkey=x3wZ8kcgtomUM&keytype=ref&siteid=sci" target="_blank">violent crime</a>.</p><p>The state will be mired in <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-historic-megadroughts-in-the-western-us-tell-us-about-our-climate-future-37615" target="_blank">lasting drought</a>. Wildfires could consume around four times as much of huge sections of the Sierra Nevada as they do today, as well as forests closer to San Francisco, endangering locals.</p><p>The Bay Area is expected to have seen more than three feet of sea level rise. The San Francisco and Oakland Airports will be completely underwater. Across the bay, coastal flooding will inundate parts of Alameda. Low-lying areas on the south end of the San Francisco Bay will also be flooded, including some of San Jose.</p>2010
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMTExODM5Ni9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1ODY4NjEzN30.PBDiHSshbvnFqahHXVGiIJdnbbW_nPFPWt1rwO8ljlo/img.png?width=980" id="efd2c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1a2fd2e87f4339580f7f09d97fc69952" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />NEXUS MEDIA
<h4>Houston</h4><p>By the end of this century, temperatures are expected to have warmed close to eight degrees <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/sdata201648" target="_blank">Fahrenheit</a> in Houston. In the summer, Houston will <a href="https://www.climatecentral.org/wgts/global-shifting-cities/index.html" target="_blank">feel something like</a> Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, does today. High temperatures will average over 100 degrees Fahrenheit during the warmest months.</p><p>By making life harder for workers, severe hotter weather will shrink the economy of the greater Houston area by <a href="http://www.impactlab.org/" target="_blank">6%</a>. Extreme heat will also kill hundreds more people each year. Poorer neighborhoods tend to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/09/climate/city-heat-islands.html" target="_blank">be warmer</a>, in part because they tend to have <a href="https://mashable.com/2012/07/18/google-maps-income-inequality/" target="_blank">fewer trees</a>. People who live in those neighborhoods are also less likely to have air conditioners, which will put them at greater risk.</p><p>On top of the heat, Houston is expected to have seen close to six feet of sea level rise by 2100. Waters encroach on the east side of town near the water, where oil refineries and chemical plants could continue to service our catastrophic addiction to oil and gas. Routine flooding of these facilities may cause <a href="https://www.apnews.com/748cd58a4feb4785b9ea1cdf68f0ef1f" target="_blank">dangerous explosions</a> and potentially release toxic chemicals into the air.</p><p>Much of the city, however, will stay safe from the encroaching sea. That means the Houston could absorb <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate3271.epdf?author_access_token=Hvxidg4gL1Q0zWEvyEXiLtRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0NFv3_2_MZIRrCavou7VputY0Z0x-UWFD09j5eSgqBhP56-FYSZJPA8_HdSRdIl79npShOcx0Gd16aq4FimtdoF" target="_blank">hundreds of thousands</a> of new residents by 2100 — people who were driven from Miami and New Orleans by ever-worsening coastal floods.</p><h4>St. Louis</h4><p>By the end of this century, St. Louis is expected to have warmed by roughly 11 degrees Fahrenheit. Winter will scarcely look like winter. Summers will have gone from hot to unbearable.</p><p>During the hottest months, it will be <a href="https://www.climatecentral.org/gallery/maps/days-above-100f-projections" target="_blank">so scorching</a> that it will be dangerous to go outside for much of the day. People will depend more on air conditioners to stay cool, leading to <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/356/6345/1362.full?ijkey=x3wZ8kcgtomUM&keytype=ref&siteid=sci" target="_blank">bigger electric bills</a>. Elderly people, particularly those who can't afford to run an air conditioner, will face the risk of <a href="https://www.climatecentral.org/news/searing-temps-have-literally-been-lethal-for-seniors/" target="_blank">heat stroke and death</a>.</p><p>The intense heat will take an immense toll on the local economy. Farms in Missouri and southern Illinois could see yields <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/356/6345/1362.full?ijkey=x3wZ8kcgtomUM&keytype=ref&siteid=sci" target="_blank">cut in half</a>, ruining livelihoods.</p><p>In St. Louis itself, experts project that heat will stifle productivity by making it too hot to work. This could help cut the city's economic output by around <a href="http://www.impactlab.org/research/estimating-economic-damage-from-climate-change-in-the-united-states/" target="_blank">8%</a>.</p><h4>San Francisco</h4><p>By 2100, San Francisco is expected to have heated up by more than eight degrees <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/sdata201648" target="_blank">Fahrenheit</a> on average. It will be hot and dry. Snow will be hard to find in the Sierra Nevada. By 2100, the mountain range will see <a href="https://www.energy.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2019-07/Statewide%20Reports-%20SUM-CCCA4-2018-013%20Statewide%20Summary%20Report.pdf" target="_blank">two thirds less snow</a> than we see today, depriving San Francisco of a much-needed water source.</p><p>Seas will have risen four feet, projections say. Large parts of Alameda will be underwater. Hunters Point will have flooded, as well as much of Mission Bay. And flooding won't be limited to San Francisco.</p><p>Sea level rise could flood the homes of <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate3271.epdf?author_access_token=Hvxidg4gL1Q0zWEvyEXiLtRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0NFv3_2_MZIRrCavou7VputY0Z0x-UWFD09j5eSgqBhP56-FYSZJPA8_HdSRdIl79npShOcx0Gd16aq4FimtdoF" target="_blank">13 million Americans</a> by the end of the century, leading to a massive exodus from many coastal areas. By one estimate, rising seas in places like Oakland, Alameda, and San Mateo could spur close to <a href="https://johnsorib.github.io/slr/index.html" target="_blank">300,000 residents</a> to move to inland cities in Arizona, Texas, and New Jersey. It is the poorest neighborhoods that will be the <a href="https://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/oaklands-poorest-neighborhoods-will-the-most-susceptible-to-flooding-due-to-climate-change-and-sea-level-rise/Content?oid=6401808" target="_blank">most vulnerable</a> to floods.</p>From Your Site Articles
- 8 World Cities That Could Be Underwater as Oceans Rise - EcoWatch ›
- Will the U.S. Be a Dystopian Hellscape in 2100 if Emissions Keep ... ›
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If you're looking for a bottle of water in SFO after you've cleared security and rushed to the gate, think again. Yes, hustling through the terminal made you thirsty, but did you pack your refillable water bottle in your carry-on?
<p>San Francisco International Airport sure hopes so. Starting Aug. 20, you will either have to bring your own water bottle or buy an airport-approved glass, aluminum or certified compostable water bottle. Airport vending machines, shops and restaurants will no longer be able to sell you plastic water bottles, adhering to a city ordinance prohibiting the sale of plastic water bottles on city owned property, according to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/02/business/plastic-water-bottle-ban-sfo-trnd/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a>.</p><p>An <a href="https://sfoconnect.com/zero-waste-concessions" target="_blank">airport statement</a> said the ban includes purified water, mineral water, carbonated or sparkling water, and electrolyte-enhanced water.</p><p>"This is a big move for the airport," said Doug Yakel, SFO's public information officer, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/02/business/plastic-water-bottle-ban-sfo-trnd/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported. "It just further supports our green initiative."</p><p>The green initiative, which included banning plastic straws last month, is part of a five-year plan launched in 2016 to become the world's first zero-waste airport by 2021, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/02/san-francisco-international-airport-plastic-water-bottle-ban" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported. The plan, which aims to slash the airport's carbon emissions and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuel</a> use, also calls for transitioning at least 90 percent of the airport's refuse away from landfills by focusing sales on reusable, recyclable and compostable products instead, according to the non-profit Zero Waste Alliance, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/02/business/plastic-water-bottle-ban-sfo-trnd/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported.</p><p>Before the ban was announced, the airport installed more than 100 water fountains and water bottle filling stations.</p><p>"We waited until now because a few years back there was really no market in place to provide an alternative to water in a plastic bottle," said Yakel, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/02/san-francisco-international-airport-plastic-water-bottle-ban" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported.</p><p>It also ordered the airport's restaurants and food vendors not to distribute single-use items unless they were requested by the customer. Such accessories include condiment packets, chopsticks, cup sleeves and lids, napkins, plastic utensils and drink stirrers, according to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/02/san-francisco-international-airport-plastic-water-bottle-ban" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>. Furthermore, all of those items that a food vendor does distribute must be fully compostable.</p>
<p>Airport vendors sell nearly 4 million plastic water bottles every year. The demand for them may make the transition to alternative packaging tricky for airport vendors to adhere to, especially since the airport does not yet have an enforcement policy in place, according to the <a href="https://www.apnews.com/224e08cb2a724e67a1f314498faade89" target="_blank">Associated Press</a>.</p><p>The supply of water in non-plastic bottles has yet to meet customer demand. And customers looking for the convenience of plastic may turn to soda and sugar-sweetened drinks instead of water, since they are not prohibited by the plastic water bottle ban.</p><p>Airport vendors smoothly transitioned to the previous requirements on single-use plastics thanks to the increased availability of compostable utensils, lids and cups, said said Michael Levine, CEO of the company that oversees Napa Farms Market, which sells grab-and-go fare in Terminal 2 and International Terminal G.</p><p>"But the water bottle impact is a little trickier," he told the <a href="about:blank" target="_blank">Associated Press</a>.</p><p>Yakel hopes other airports will follow SFO's lead, which will force water bottle manufacturers to stop using plastic packaging.</p><p>"We're hoping that as the demand from retailers increases, there's an increasing supply of water that's bottled in something recyclable," said Yakel, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/02/san-francisco-international-airport-plastic-water-bottle-ban" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported. "We're hoping to drive that industry as well."</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">A Tale of Two Cities: How San Francisco and Burlington Are Shaping America's Low-Carbon Future <a href="https://t.co/cbTe38RjI2">https://t.co/cbTe38RjI2</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/NRDC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NRDC</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/foe_us?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@foe_us</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/greenpeaceusa?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@greenpeaceusa</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/c40cities?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@c40cities</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/Mayors4Climate?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Mayors4Climate</a></p>— EcoWatch (@EcoWatch) <a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/status/975799935680512000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 19, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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A group of mayors with event co-chair and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg at the Global Climate Action Summit. JOSH EDELSON / AFP / Getty Images
Over the past three days, more than 4,000 people have gathered in San Francisco for the Global Climate Action Summit (GCAS) convened by California Governor Jerry Brown to mobilize regional, local and business leaders around climate change.
Seventeen states and 400 cities, representing together the world's third largest economy, have now joined Brown and summit co-chair and UN special envoy for climate action Michael Bloomberg's "We're Still In" commitment to honor the terms of the Paris agreement despite President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw, and Bloomberg announced at the summit Thursday that the group was making progress, The Nation reported.
<p style="">"Today, we announce that this 'bottom up' movement will put us within striking distance of the US commitment to the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/paris-agreement" target="_self">Paris Agreement</a>, even with zero support from our federal government," Bloomberg said, according to The Nation. </p><p style="">That announcement was based on a <a href="https://www.bbhub.io/dotorg/sites/28/2018/09/Fulfilling-Americas-Pledge_Executive-Summary_2018.pdf" target="_blank">report</a> written by researchers at the University of Maryland and the Rocky Mountain Institute that found that business, regional and local efforts have taken the U.S. nearly halfway towards meeting its 2025 Paris goal and will carry it two-thirds of the way by 2025 without federal support, according to a <a href="https://www.globalclimateactionsummit.org/fulfilling-americas-pledge/" target="_blank">GCAS press release</a>. </p><p style="">But that was only one of the many announcements made by cities, states and businesses as they celebrated their progress and reaffirmed their commitment to fighting climate change. </p><p style="">Here is a roundup of some of the highlights. <strong></strong></p><p style=""><strong>1. 27 Cities Have Reached Peak Carbon</strong></p><p style="">Scientists have warned that global greenhouse gas emissions need to peak in 2020 and then rapidly decline in order to avoid catastrophic warming. </p><p style="">Luckily, on Thursday, Paris mayor and chair of the <a href="https://www.c40.org/" target="_blank">C40</a> network of cities committed to climate action Anne Hidalgo announced that 27 major cities, representing 54 million people, had already passed this milestone, according to a <a href="https://www.globalclimateactionsummit.org/27-cities-have-reached-peak/" target="_blank">GCAS press release</a>. </p><p style="">Barcelona, Basel, Berlin, Boston, Chicago, Copenhagen, Heidelberg, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Melbourne, Milan, Montréal, New Orleans, New York City, Oslo, Paris, Philadelphia, Portland, Rome, San Francisco, Stockholm, Sydney, Toronto, Vancouver, Warsaw and Washington, DC have all seen their emissions fall over the last five years to at least 10 percent below peak levels while their economies have continued to grow. </p><p style="">"It is an incredible achievement for these 27 cities, including Paris, to have peaked their emissions," Hidalgo said. "As the greatest custodians of the Paris Agreement, mayors of the world's great cities have once again shown that cities are getting the job done." </p><p style=""><strong>2. NYC Puts Its Money Where Its Mouth Is</strong></p><p style="">It is not enough for cities to rest on past accomplishments. </p><p style="">New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio followed up an earlier commitment to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/new-york-fossil-fuel-divestment-2524494059.html" target="_self">divest</a> the New York pension fund from <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuels</a> with a new commitment to double the fund's investments in climate change solutions to $4 billion within three years, a <a href="https://www.globalclimateactionsummit.org/mayor-announce-pension-fund/" target="_blank">GCAS press release reported</a>. </p><p style="">Ahead of the summit, de Blasio had joined with London Mayor Sadiq Khan to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/london-new-york-fossil-fuels-2603700045.html" target="_self">call on</a> other cities to divest from <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_blank">fossil fuels</a> and invest in solutions like <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/renewable-energy/" target="_self">renewable energy</a>. </p><p style="">De Blasio was joined in his announcement by Comptroller Scott Stringer and other fund trustees. </p><p style="">"New York City leads from the front when it comes to the fight against climate change," de Blasio said. "We're taking a stand for generations to come with our goal to double our pension investments in job-creating climate solutions. I know that other cities will look to our example, and I implore them to join us."</p><p style=""><strong>3. West Coast Represents</strong></p><p style=""><a href="http://pacificcoastcollaborative.org/" target="_blank">The Pacific Coast Collaborative</a> (PCC), representing the states of California, Oregon, Washington, the Canadian province of British Columbia and the cities of Los Angeles, Oakland San Francisco, Portland, Seattle and Vancouver, <a href="http://pacificcoastcollaborative.org/expert-availability-west-coast-governors-premier-big-city-mayors-to-announce-climate-commitments-during-global-climate-action-summit/" target="_blank">renewed its commitment</a> to working together against climate change and towards a growing renewable energy economy. </p><p style="">Commitments included reducing carbon emissions, developing a low-carbon, regional transportation system, improving building efficiency and reducing <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/food-waste" target="_self">food waste</a> 50 percent by 2030. </p><p style="">"The West Coast represents the world's fifth largest economy and we are creating a blueprint for other regions," Washington Governor Jay Inslee said. "We are building a thriving, innovative economy that combats climate change and embraces a zero-emission future. Our efforts aren't just building a clean energy economy, they're also creating great places to live. Our communities are growing healthier and more prosperous, and attractive to new businesses and workers."</p><p style=""><strong>4. EV Innovators Charge Forward</strong></p><p style="">Business leaders made commitments as well, including <a href="https://www.chargepoint.com/" target="_blank">ChargePoint</a>, one of the world's largest networks of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/electric-vehicles" target="_self">electric vehicle</a> chargers, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-chargepoint-growth/chargepoint-to-grow-global-ev-charging-network-to-2-5-million-idUSKCN1LU0LU" target="_blank">according to Reuters</a>. </p><p>The company announced a pledge to add 2.5 million charging points to its network within the next seven years on Friday, according to a press release emailed to EcoWatch. </p><p style="">The commitment represents a nearly fifty-fold expansion of its charging network, would prevent two million tons of greenhouse gas emissions from entering the atmosphere and would help establish infrastructure for a future in which EVs are expected to represent more than 50 percent of new car purchases by 2040.</p><p style="">ChargePoint President and CEO Pasquale Romano said in a press conference that the company had done the math, and the commitment meant the company was "going to grow in line with the adoption rate of EVS."</p><p style="">The commitment actually only covers a "subset" of ChargePoint's business, Romano said.</p><p style="">ChargePoint has developed a business model of going from business to business and installing chargers in company parking lots, and this is the network it is committed to expanding.</p><p style="">Its home and transportation fleet charging efforts are not included and will represent additional greenhouse gas savings.</p><p style="">Romano said that policy decisions by individual governments, such as Trump's <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-fuel-efficiency-proposal-2592345279.html" target="_self">reversal</a> of Obama-era fuel efficiency standards, could be "speed bumps" in the growth of EVs, but policies already established in California and the EU, as well as the quality and falling price of EVs, meant that their use would continue to expand.</p><p style="">"In the long term, this is an unstoppable train," he said.</p>
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</p><div id="b5f71" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="GHQM9L1576662905"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1008464316155211777" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Taking Your First Steps Into Local Climate Action https://t.co/OeZptFKOeO @Connect4Climate @MarkRuffalo</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/1008464316155211777">1529271603.0</a></blockquote></div>
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Storage tanks on the hillside at the Chevron refinery above Point Richmond, CA. Shayan (USA) / CC BY 2.0
By Jason Mark
Can any one group of actors be held responsible for the damages caused by global climate change?
That was the central question argued in federal court on Thursday as attorneys representing San Francisco and Oakland tried to beat back efforts by ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Royal Dutch Shell to have a judge throw out a potentially groundbreaking climate change related lawsuit.
<p>The nearly three-hour hearing was the latest round in a burgeoning effort by cities and counties nationwide to hold major <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels">fossil fuel</a> producers accountable for climate change-related damages. Last year, seven California cities and counties sued the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/big-oil">oil majors</a>, claiming that their production and sale of fossil fuels—even as they were aware of the risks of CO2 emissions—constitute a public nuisance. Since then, similar suits have been filed by New York City; Boulder and two Colorado counties; and King County, Washington, home to the city of Seattle. (For more, see SIERRA's May/June cover story, "<a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2018-3-may-june/feature/the-case-for-climate-reparations" target="_blank">The Case for Climate Reparations</a>.") </p><p>Thursday's hearing represented the first major test of such lawsuits as Judge William Alsup considered whether the Oakland and San Francisco complaint should move forward. The defendants challenged the lawsuit on a broad range of grounds, forcing Judge Alsup, a Clinton-appointee known for being an idiosyncratic jurist, to say at one point, "There are a lot of arguments here. As soon as I focus on one, you run off to another one." </p><p>The defendants' arguments for dismissing the suit centered on two main questions: whether the Federal District Court for Northern California is an appropriate jurisdiction to decide the case, and, of larger concern, whether the lawsuits might be displaced by existing federal laws and policies. </p><p>Arguments hinged on a welter of legal terms such as "general jurisdiction" versus "personal jurisdiction" versus "specific jurisdiction," while also touching on the distinctions between a holding company and an operating company. (Lawyers for Royal Dutch Shell maintained that the Netherlands-based multinational corporation is a holding company, and therefore has no agents in California.) In the course of the arguments it became clear that the very scale of the contested issue—global climate change—further complicates the questions of jurisdiction. The defendants argued that it's hard, if not impossible, to establish direct causation for a specific harm when the source of that harm is billions of people burning fossil fuels worldwide. </p><p>"[The plaintiffs] have decided that they do not want to and cannot disaggregate the conduct that leads to their harm," Jaren Janghorbani, an attorney representing ExxonMobil, said. "They cannot attribute any of the harm they are alleging to the company's activities in California." </p><p>Jonathan Hughes, a lawyer representing BP, echoed that point. "The amount [of CO2 emissions from its California operations] that could be attributed to BP would be a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent. And under the but-for argument, if BP hadn't produced any fossil fuels, would they have still suffered an injury? The answer is yes. We are talking about a speck in the ocean." </p><p>In response, Benjamin Krass, a lawyer representing San Francisco and Oakland, said the oil company attorneys were "muddying up" the but-for argument—the principle of tort law that establishes liability. "The end result of the defendants' argument is that a company that does business everywhere should be held accountable nowhere." </p><p>In the end, Judge Alsup said he didn't have enough information to make a decision on the jurisdiction question. He gave both sides at least 60 days for a discovery process and depositions to establish whether each of the defendants has sufficient business operations in California for the two California cities to claim injury. </p><p>That left Chevron, the only defendant headquartered in California, to argue for dismissal based on the merits of the case. Chevron attorney Theodore Boutrous, Jr. began by saying that the cities' claims stretch federal common law and that "the plaintiffs are asking this court to throw caution to the wind." Boutrous went on to argue that a complex issue like climate change "should be committed to those who write the laws rather than those who interpret them." And Congress, Boutrous argued, has again and again passed laws in favor of fossil fuel production. "Congress has made clear that energy production is not a public nuisance; it is a public necessity." </p><p>As a rebuttal, Steve Berman, the lead counsel for the two cities, argued that the cities' complaints are not nearly as novel as the defendants make it seem—but instead merely the application of ancient laws to contemporary circumstances. "The law of nuisance has been around forever, and it has responded to changes in mankind. What we are doing is applying hundreds of years of law to a new situation." Berman later said, "We allege that this was a deliberate nuisance, based on phony science." </p><p>The San Francisco and Oakland case has generated a great deal of attention among legal scholars and climate change activists. In March, Judge Alsup held an unusual "<a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/tell-it-judge-big-oil-climate-change-science-lawsuit" target="_blank">climate science tutorial</a>" as a preliminary step in the case—an event that attracted so big a crowd, the court had to reserve an overflow room. The case has also become a proxy battle of sorts. Fifteen states with Republican attorneys general—including Indiana, Colorado, Kansas and Louisiana—filed <a href="http://blogs2.law.columbia.edu/climate-change-litigation/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/case-documents/2018/20180419_docket-317-cv-06011_amicus-motion-1.pdf" target="_blank">an amicus brief</a> in support of the oil corporations' position. Meanwhile, California, New Jersey and Washington filed <a href="http://blogs2.law.columbia.edu/climate-change-litigation/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/case-documents/2018/20180503_docket-317-cv-06011_amicus-motion-1.pdf" target="_blank">their own brief</a> backing the cities' arguments. </p><p>The federal government has also weighed in. Two weeks ago the U.S. Department of Justice filed <a href="http://blogs2.law.columbia.edu/climate-change-litigation/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/case-documents/2018/20180510_docket-317-cv-06011_amicus-brief-1.pdf" target="_blank">a brief</a> supporting the five oil companies, and on Thursday, Eric Grant, a deputy assistant attorney general, was given time to express the federal government's opposition to the San Francisco and Oakland suits. "It is upon Congress, not the courts, to prescribe policy in areas of special interest," Grant said. "As this court knows, in respect to domestic emissions, the kind of national policy-making sought by plaintiffs is inappropriate … [Climate change] is a complex issue involving trade-offs affecting a nation of more than 300 million people. Individual federal district courts lack the competence to undertake that task." </p><p>The federal government's arguments appeared to give Judge Alsup pause, even as he continued to express exasperation with the legal maneuverings of some of the defendants. "There is no court in the history of the universe that has extended this [federal common law] to global warming," the judge said. "The United States is pointing to Supreme Court language that judges like me have to move slowly … There's no doubt there will be some sea rise. But will it be in 75 years or 25 years? We don't know." </p><p>To which Berman, the plaintiff's attorney, responded, "That's what the trial is for. Today we're talking about a motion to dismiss."</p><p>Whether the case will ever make it to a trial is, of course, now in the hands of Judge Alsup.</p>
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</p><div id="235c8" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="LCASES1576662665"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="976831137187270657" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Chevron Presents on Climate Science While Oil Companies Move to Dismiss Landmark Case https://t.co/5G7gd1Ondw… https://t.co/7LzfhEl7y3</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/976831137187270657">1521729666.0</a></blockquote></div>
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<p><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/climate-litigation-against-big-oil-heats" target="_blank">SIERRA</a> magazine.</em><br></p>
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The urban cityscape of San Francisco, CA. Pixabay
On Tuesday, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SF Muni) Board of Directors passed a resolution to begin procuring zero emission battery buses to replace electric hybrid vehicles by 2025, with a goal of achieving a 100 percent electric bus fleet by 2035. The resolution allows SF Muni to catch up to other Californian transit agencies from Los Angeles to Stockton that have already started switching their bus fleets to zero-emissions electric buses.
<p>The resolution comes after a coalition of community, environmental and labor groups delivered a joint <a href="https://earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/files/MUNI%20letter.pdf" target="_blank">letter to SF Muni</a> decision-makers last month, urging them to go electric. </p><p>"Today, I am a proud San Franciscan. Despite our city's history of being on the vanguard of environmental protection and clean technology, our transit system had fallen behind, relying on dirty diesel buses for too long. Along with our labor, community, and environmental partners, <a href="http://www.earthjustice.org/zero" target="_blank">Earthjustice's Right to Zero</a> campaign strongly supports the transition of our SF Muni bus fleet to zero emission, battery-electric buses," said Paul Cort, staff attorney at <a href="https://earthjustice.org" target="_blank">Earthjustice</a>, who delivered the letter to SF Muni in April. </p><p>"It's terrific that SFMTA is taking concrete steps to get battery-powered zero emissions buses on the ground in San Francisco," said Nick Josefowitz, who represents San Francisco at the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. "Upgrading to clean buses is good news for our air quality, reduces our carbon footprint and will deliver far more reliable Muni bus service."</p><p>Seven other Californian transit agencies—representing almost one-third of all public buses in California—have already committed to making a full transition to zero-emission buses in the past year. Back in its 2004 "Clean Air Plan—Zero Emissions 2020," SF Muni itself boldly announced its visionary goal "to be the first major transit agency in the world to operate a 100 percent zero-emission fleet by the year 2020." The resolution passed by SF Muni finally sets that plan in motion, prompting the agency to begin procurement of electric buses.</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xNzcwOTg3Ny9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NDE0MTQ4N30.VnUtg_i3ctL07-hnbAi89G0f-np0nta14vw8QRMs5JY/img.jpg?width=980" id="b245f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="046e9d1e401556f906d35f3afe3f6fed" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">A worker at BYD's California electric bus factory</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">BYD</small></p>
<p>"While this is a good start, SFMTA must move faster, ensure its planned 2023 procurement is 100% electric, and plan for the infrastructure to make that happen," said Alex Lantsberg, Director of Research and Advocacy for the San Francisco Electrical Construction Industry. "As of September of 2017, 107 battery-electric and fuel cell buses were already driving people to work, school and home in over 20 transit fleets across California, with thousands of Californian workers manufacturing them. It is no longer an excuse to say this technology isn't ready—because people are already building and benefiting from electric buses throughout our state."<br></p><p>The commitment to a zero-emissions fleet comes after SF Muni committed last month to testing nine battery electric buses. Those first electric buses are expected to hit the streets in fall 2018. The pilot program will evaluate how electric buses perform on crowded and hilly routes, and allow staff to evaluate the facility upgrades needed to support an all-electric fleet. The Bay Area's own electric bus manufacturer Proterra recently took one of their buses on a record 1,100-mile trip on a single charge and on a trip along <a href="https://electrek.co/2018/04/04/proterra-all-electric-dual-motor-bus-test-utah-steepest-roads/" target="_blank">Utah's steepest mountain highways</a>.</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xNzcwOTg3OC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNzI1NzM4M30.SKs4BOMW_VvNl9fH-8TDpPMacneAvN9f7uEQ6Qqv_x8/img.png?width=980" id="c8db6" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c843cb609fc0815f12508acb6e22d44b" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Workers build an electric bus on Proterra's California assemblyline</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Proterra</small></p>
<p>"SF Muni is going to be pleasantly surprised by how well these electric buses will perform in San Francisco's steep and hilly neighborhoods," said Jimmy O'Dea, senior vehicles analyst with <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org" target="_blank">Union of Concerned Scientists</a>. "Electrifying buses is a big step forward in the local and global fight against the worst impacts of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change">climate change</a>. SF Muni's commitment to battery electric buses means that by 2035 buses on San Francisco's streets will have 40 percent lower life cycle greenhouse gas emissions than the diesel buses currently on the road."<br></p><p>SF Muni's current bus fleet consists of mostly diesel and diesel-electric hybrid buses. The <a href="https://www.arb.ca.gov/research/diesel/diesel-health.htm" target="_blank">health impacts of diesel particulate matter</a> are well-known. In 1998, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) identified diesel particulate matter as a <a href="https://www.arb.ca.gov/toxics/dieseltac/dieseltac.htm" target="_blank">toxic air contaminant</a> based on published evidence of a relationship between diesel exhaust exposure and lung cancer and other adverse health effects.</p><p>"There's no reason we should be running dirty, polluting buses in our communities when we have better, cleaner options," said Emily Rusch, executive director of CALPIRG. "Whether commuters are on the bus or boarding the bus, they're exposed to toxic air in high concentrations, while simultaneously, diesel contributes to global warming. We have the technology to avoid this, so why wouldn't we?"</p><p>The resolution also comes as CARB is developing strategies to transition all Californian transit agencies to zero-emissions vehicles to meet air quality, climate and public health protection goals. The long-term vision of CARB's Innovation Clean Transit (ICT) effort is to achieve a zero-emission transit system across California by 2040—five years after SF Muni's 100 percent electrification goal.</p><p>"CARB's Innovative Clean Transit rule should be a huge signal to every transit agency in the state that our future is zero-emissions electric vehicles—not just because battery electric is the best option for our climate, but because it is best for our communities," said Eddie Ahn, executive director of Brightline Defense. "Californian communities—especially those most impacted by poor air quality—are demanding absolutely zero-emissions transit powered by clean energy. Because anything more than zero emissions means more air pollution for our families."</p>
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</p><div id="1e8d6" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="K39SD91576662000"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="877592926003613697" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Hippie-Approved Volkswagen Electric Microbus Soon to Hit the Road https://t.co/pqDymqBViX @UKVolkswagen @SierraClub @NRDC @UCSUSA</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/877592926003613697">1498069433.0</a></blockquote></div>
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Dean Hochman / Flickr / CC BY 2.0
The growing movement to stamp out plastic straws is spreading to San Francisco.
Supervisors Katy Tang and Ahsha Safai plan to unveil on Tuesday legislation that prohibits restaurants, bars and coffee shops from serving plastic straws, stirrers or cocktail sticks with beverages, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Instead of the disposable items, the lawmakers suggested businesses hand out compostable or reusable alternatives.
<p>
A number Californian cities, including
<a href="http://www.slocity.org/government/department-directory/community-development/sustainability/straws-upon-request-regulations">San Luis Obispo</a>, <a href="http://cityofdavis.org/city-hall/public-works/solid-waste-and-recycling/beverage-straw-ordinance" target="_blank">Davis</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/plastic-ban-malibu-2540406956.html">Malibu</a> already have ordinances regulating the use and distribution of plastic straws.
</p><p>
"Why do we have straws all the time?" Safai told the Chronicle. "And if we're going to have straws, it's easy to have an alternative that's much more recyclable or reusable or washable."
</p><p>
In the U.S., an
<a href="http://www.ecocycle.org/bestrawfree/faqs" target="_blank">estimated</a> 500 million plastic straws are discarded every day, which can pollute <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oceans">oceans</a> and cause harm to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/marine-life">marine life</a>.
</p><p>
<span></span>"It's sort of this moment where everyone is realizing just how many straws people are using on a daily basis, and that we really need to get a handle on this, or else our environment is going to suffer," Tang also told the publication.
</p><p>
<span></span>This past Earth Day, volunteers picked up hundreds of pounds of plastic trash, including numerous straws and lids, polluting the San Francisco Bay, as <a href="http://baykeeper.org/" target="_blank">Bay Keeper</a> executive director Sejal Choksi-Chugh tweeted:
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</p><div id="4f939" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5HRNRC1576662830"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="988228861484613633" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Happy #EarthDay2018 part 2! @SFBaykeeper at the @SustainableLaf earth day festival displaying the hundreds of poun… https://t.co/Tcitm2G8b7</div> — Sejal Choksi-Chugh (@Sejal Choksi-Chugh)<a href="https://twitter.com/sejalc/statuses/988228861484613633">1524447095.0</a></blockquote></div>
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</p><div id="6b08f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="F987HT1576662830"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="988412522284826625" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">RT if you recognize the straws in these photos...@SFBaykeeper volunteers found 100s of pounds of plastic trash poll… https://t.co/qDY84lLFYg</div> — Sejal Choksi-Chugh (@Sejal Choksi-Chugh)<a href="https://twitter.com/sejalc/statuses/988412522284826625">1524490883.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p>
Notably, Tang and Safai's bill goes beyond plastic straws. Beverage lids, condiment packets and napkins would only be available upon request or at self-serve stations, the Chronicle reported.
</p><p>
<span></span>Additionally, events on city property with 100 people or more must have reusable cups as an option for at least 10 percent of attendees.
</p><p>
If approved, the bill would take effect in July 2019. The city's Department of the Environment would help businesses comply with the new rule by providing a list of suppliers that carry approved products.
</p><p>
<span></span>San Francisco has an ambitious goal of sending zero waste to landfill by 2020. The famously progressive city has already banned <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/san-francisco-bans-plastic-bags-1881642474.html" target="_blank">plastic shopping bags</a> and polystyrene foam, aka <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/san-francisco-bans-styrofoam-passes-nations-toughest-anti-styrofoam-la-1906511880.html" target="_blank">Styrofoam</a>. Sales of single-use <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/san-francisco-bans-plastic-water-bottle-sales-on-public-property-1881933075.html">plastic water bottles</a> are also prohibited on city property.</p><p><em>*Note: The 500 million straws a day statistic stated in this article comes from the nonprofit <a href="http://www.ecocycle.org/bestrawfree" target="_blank">Eco-Cycle</a>. The statistic has been widely used in other media outlets including <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/01/travel/straw-bans-hotels-resorts.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-waste-factbox/small-changes-big-impact-how-to-reduce-waste-in-your-daily-life-idUSKCN1BF043" target="_blank">Reuters</a>, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/14/world/plastic-straws-ban-campaigns/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a>, as well as by the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/articles/straw-free.htm" target="_blank">National Park Service</a>. The statistic has <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2018/04/22/nbc-news-source-for-fishy-statistic-about-plastic-straws-is-research-by-9-year-old-boy.html" target="_blank">received criticism</a>, and in July 2018, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/19/business/plastic-straws-ban-fact-check-nyt.html" target="_blank">New York Times published a story about the debate</a></em><em>, stating that "market research firms put the figure between 170 million and 390 million per day." </em></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="fb3ef" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0OENJ71576662830"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="986897220275490816" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Plastics: The History of an Ecological Crisis https://t.co/GSzv0Z9g3X @wwwfoecouk @GreenpeaceUK</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/986897220275490816">1524129607.0</a></blockquote></div>
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Citibike station in midtown Manhattan. Jim Henderson, CC BY
By Douglas Johnson
Residents of major U.S. cities are becoming used to seeing docks for bike sharing programs nestled into parking spaces or next to subway station entrances. Adorned with stylish branding and corporate sponsors' logos, these facilities are transforming transportation in cities across the country.
The modern concept of bike sharing—offering bikes for short-term public rental from multiple stations in cities—was launched in Copenhagen in 1995, but U.S. cities only started piloting their own systems in the past decade. Washington, DC led the way, launching SmartBike DC in 2008 and an expanded network called Capital Bikeshare in 2010. This program now boasts more than 480 stations and a daily ridership of 5,700.
<p>
Within a few years, bike-share systems launched in Boston, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle and dozens of other cities. In 2016 there were <a href="https://nacto.org/bike-share-statistics-2016/" target="_blank">55 systems across the country with more than 40,000 bikes</a>.
</p><p>
And momentum continues to grow. In 2017 <a href="https://www.citibikenyc.com/" target="_blank">Citi Bike</a> in New York City added 2,000 bikes, increasing its fleet to a total of 12,000. San Francisco is expanding its system from just 700 bikes to 7,000, thanks to a <a href="https://www.fordgobike.com/expansion" target="_blank">sponsorship deal with Ford</a>.
</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
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</p><p>
<strong>Going Dockless</strong><br>
</p><p>
The newest twist in this rapid expansion is dockless bike sharing, which lets users park bikes anywhere within defined districts and lock and unlock their bikes with smartphone apps. Users don't have to locate docking stations or worry about whether space will be available at their destination. These systems also are cheaper to set up, so providers can charge lower user fees. Some dockless bike-share companies <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottbeyer/2017/09/30/limebike-eyes-expansion-in-new-york-city-and-washington-dc/#7fbda0a6a4c9" target="_blank">offer rides for as little as $1 for the first half hour.</a>
</p><p>
Dockless systems are also helping to address <a href="https://www.citylab.com/equity/2017/07/what-keeps-bike-share-white/533412/" target="_blank">equity issues posed by public dock-based systems</a>, which often are located in more affluent and predominantly white urban neighborhoods. Because dockless systems don't require stations, they can be rapidly deployed in zones that dock-based systems may be slow to reach.
</p><p>
<a href="https://www.itdp.org/dockless-bikeshare-know-so-far/" target="_blank">Students at Beijing University</a> developed this approach in 2014 to improve campus mobility. Dockless bike-share companies have flooded Chinese cities with bikes in the past two years, leading to massive piles of discarded bicycles in public spaces.
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xNzU4NjMxMi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMzAzMzYyNn0.kpj9nRv95-zgtCk8ff_JjkyXm70HIonxNtR1PffC4V8/img.jpg?width=980" id="e3aa4" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="65453db6bd02b184a5463c8b4d613317" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Dockless cycle share bike in Seattle </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Joe Mabel, CC BY</small>
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Seattle turned to dockless companies to fill the gap after a publicly funded dock bike-share system there failed in 2016. The city could soon have <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/08/18/technology/business/seattle-bikeshare/index.html" target="_blank">one of the largest bike-share systems in the country</a>. Cities around Boston that are outside of the service area of Hubway, the area's public bike-share system, just reached a deal to provide dockless bike-share service, <a href="https://www.mapc.org/news/mapc-selects-limebike-spin-for-15-community-regional-bike-share-system/" target="_blank">expanding access to hundreds of thousands of people</a>. And in San Francisco, Uber <a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-uber-jump-bikes-20180409-story.html" target="_blank">recently purchased Jump Bikes</a>, a dockless electric bike-share startup, and soon will allow users to reserve electric bikes with their Uber app.<br>
</p><p>
If recent examples are any indication, bike sharing in the U.S. will be a mix of complementary dock-based and dockless systems, run by both public entities and private companies. The humble bicycle, aided by smartphone technology, is resurging as an urban transportation option.</p>
<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="d864e" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7PRORD1576662646"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="938965117785530368" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">12 Reasons Bicycling Will Continue to Soar in Popularity https://t.co/sqZAYhQY3i @BicyclingMag @peopleforbikes</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/938965117785530368">1512701703.0</a></blockquote></div>
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<p><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://theconversation.com/bike-share-companies-are-transforming-us-cities-and-theyre-just-getting-started-95267" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>.</em><br></p><script async="async" data-counter="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95267/count?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" id="theconversation_tracker_hook" src="https://theconversation.com/javascripts/lib/content_tracker_hook.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
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A Tale of Two Cities: How San Francisco and Burlington Are Shaping America's Low-Carbon Future
19 March 2018
Renewable Energy
iStock
By Kyra Appleby
President Trump's commitment to pull out of the Paris agreement signaled what appeared to be the worst of times for a transition to a low-carbon future in the United States. But actions being taken by a significant number of cities could instead make it the best of times for renewable energy in America.
<p>Cities both in the U.S. and around the world are increasingly setting low-carbon goals and implementing local policies that recognize sustainability investment as essential to new markets, jobs and creating attractive places to live, work and do business.</p><p>New <a href="https://www.cdp.net/en/articles/cities/over-100-global-cities-get-majority-of-electricity-from-renewables" target="_blank">research</a> released last month by <a href="https://www.cdp.net/en" target="_blank">CDP</a>, a U.K.-based charity that runs the global disclosure system for businesses and governments, showed more than 100 global cities that report that they are getting at least 70 percent of their electricity from renewable sources.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xNzQ0Nzc1MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNjgzNDQzNn0._tUCyvJzbINFxlQBP57BAxhuTc0grGzNAZjO7rp7-SE/img.jpg?width=980" id="b7d5e" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="abdb199b2719c41bf7b6751c07ae56d6" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">The world's renewable energy cities: more than 100 cities now get at least 70% of their electricity from renewable sources such as hydro, geothermal, solar and wind. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">CDP / Flourish</small></p><p><em>Click <a href="https://www.cdp.net/en/cities/world-renewable-energy-cities" target="_blank">here</a> to see CDP's infographic about cities around the globe that are using renewable energy. </em></p><p>In the U.S., 58 cities and towns have now committed to transition to 100 percent clean, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/renewable-energy/">renewable energy</a>, including big cities like Atlanta and San Diego. Earlier this year, U.S. municipalities Denton, Texas and St. Louis Park, Minnesota, became the latest communities to establish 100 percent renewable energy goals.</p><p>In June 2017 the U.S. Conference of Mayors, representing 250 U.S. mayors, resolved to support the procurement of 100 percent renewable energy for cities by 2035.</p><p><strong>Burlington's Bold Breakaway</strong></p><p>Burlington, Vermont is one of the first U.S. cities to report to CDP that it sources 100 percent of its electricity from renewable sources.</p><p><a href="https://www.cdp.net/en/research/global-reports/cities-infographic-2017/cities-in-action#f6037614bf58e91d271ee6f6108ebc8a" target="_blank">Burlington</a> began its transition to a net-zero economy back in 1978 when it replaced its coal plant with a 50-MW generating station powered on biomass. The next step was harnessing wind and solar power through the construction of a 10-MW wind farm and the installation of rooftop solar PVs on high schools, the airport and the electric department. In 2014, when citizens voted to approve a $12 million bond in 2014 for the city's energy department to purchase the 7.4-MW Winooski Hydroelectric Plant, Burlington's transformation to 100 percent renewable energy was complete.</p><p>The city's shift to green energy has also helped its residents, not raising electricity rates in eight years. And seizing the opportunity to turn Burlington into a center of innovation, the city has continued its progressive push by investing in charging stations for electric vehicles and developing plans to pipe steam from the biomass plant to heat downtown homes.</p><p><strong>Solar San Francisco</strong></p><p>Three thousand miles away on America's west coast, San Francisco is trailblazing the path in solar power—driven by economic reality. Last year, municipal leaders took the bold move to become the first American city to mandate solar roofs on most new construction. Under the legislation, all new buildings under 10 stories must have solar PV or solar thermal panels installed on at least 15 percent of their roof space. Consequently, the city now boasts more than <a href="https://www.go100percent.org/cms/index.php?id=77&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=79&cHash=064a35afc66d04fe0785cee33ef04ba0" target="_blank">15-MW of solar PV</a>.</p><p>With an electricity mix of 34 percent renewable energy, San Francisco still has a long way to go to reach its ambitious target of 100 percent by 2030. But the wheels are clearly in motion to scale-up solar power, with the city serving as a shining example of the power of solar.</p><p>Unsubsidized renewables were the cheapest source of electricity in 30 countries last year according to the World Economic Forum. With renewables predicted to be consistently more cost effective than fossil fuels globally by 2020, the rate at which cities around the world follow San Francisco's lead is likely to pick up pace.</p><p><strong>Cities as the Battleground</strong></p><p>Cities are vital to the transition to a low-carbon economy. Cities are home to half the world's population and are expanding rapidly. In the U.S. alone, over 80 percent of the population lives in urban areas. Meanwhile, cities around the globe are responsible for over 70 percent of energy-related carbon emissions.</p><p>As cities expand, they need to ensure that the new infrastructure they put in place is fit for a low-carbon economy. Public-private partnerships will be crucial to transitioning to green energy, particularly with the propensity for deficits in public finance.</p><p>The good news is that CDP's <a href="https://data.cdp.net/browse?category=Cities" target="_blank">data</a> shows that globally, cities are moving in the right direction in engaging with the private sector. In 2016, we collected data from 570 cities around the world and found that municipalities highlighted a total of 720 climate-related projects suitable for private sector investment, worth a combined $26 billion. One year later, that figure had ballooned to 1,045 projects and more than $52 billion.</p><p>Much of the drive behind city climate action and reporting comes from the 7,000+ mayors signed up to the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy who have pledged to act on climate change.</p><p>Despite the prospect of the American withdrawal from the Paris agreement, cities in the U.S. and around the world are still putting ambitious plans in place to harness the power of clean electricity. Cities not only want to shift to renewable energy, but most importantly, they can. We urge all cities to disclose to us, work together to meet the goals of the Paris agreement and prioritize the development of ambitious renewable energy procurement strategies.</p><p><em>Kyra Appleby is Director of Cities at global environmental impact non-profit </em><a href="https://www.cdp.net/en" target="_blank">CDP</a><em>.</em></p><p><em><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://www.alternet.org/environment/san-francisco-and-burlington-are-shaping-americas-low-carbon-future" target="_blank">AlterNet</a>.</em></em></p>
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By Ken Kimmell
A major front in the climate change debate has moved to the courtroom, as I've previously discussed. Last week, plaintiffs in two separate cases won significant procedural victories—one against major fossil fuel companies, and a second against the Trump administration. Here are the latest developments and their implications.
<h4>Bay Area vs. Big Oil</h4><p>In this suit, <em><a href="https://www.sfcityattorney.org/2017/09/19/san-francisco-oakland-sue-top-five-oil-gas-companies-costs-climate-change/" target="_blank">The People of the State of California v. BP et al</a>., </em>the cities of San Francisco and Oakland sued five major oil companies (BP, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Conoco Phillips and Shell), charging that these companies created a public nuisance by extracting and selling oil, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coal">coal</a> and gas while misleading the public about the harms that these products cause.</p><p>The two cities filed in state court and under state law<em>.</em> This was an important strategic choice, as the U.S. Supreme Court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (which covers California) had dismissed prior cases brought in federal court, holding that congress enacted the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/Clean-Air-Act">Clean Air Act</a> to comprehensively address the emission of greenhouse gases, and that therefore there was no role for federal lawsuits of this kind.</p><p>Citing the precedent of these earlier rulings, the defendant oil companies transferred the cities' cases to federal court, and argued that the cities' claims were preempted by federal law. In response, the cities claimed that they had a right to file in state court and that their claims under state law were not preempted by federal law, and they asked the judge to send the cases back to state court.</p><p>A federal district court judge issued a <a href="http://columbiaclimatelaw.com/files/2016/05/Cal-v-BP-removal-decision-ND-Cal-2018.pdf" target="_blank">decision</a> that neither side argued for. The court decided in the oil companies' favor that the case was properly in federal court, reasoning—with some logic—that climate change is an international problem, that state courts might apply inconsistent standards if allowed to adjudicate these cases, and that only the federal court could apply a uniform standard.</p><p>But, the court went on to find that the two earlier cases which had dismissed federal court suits did not apply to this case. The court found that while the Clean Air Act addresses the emissions from fossil fuel combustion, the San Francisco/Oakland case was not about emissions of pollutants, but rather an alleged scheme to sell a product<em> </em>through deception. The court reasoned—again with some logic—that the Clean Air Act offered no remedy for that conduct, and therefore did not preempt this lawsuit.</p><p>This part of the ruling was a major win for the plaintiffs, as it seems to take away the key defense of preemption that the oil companies seemed to be counting on.</p><p>On top of this, the court also <a href="http://blogs2.law.columbia.edu/climate-change-litigation/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/case-documents/2018/20180227_docket-317-cv-06011_notice.pdf" target="_blank">ordered</a> the parties to participate in a five-hour "climate science" tutorial for the court, to be held on Mar. 21. The judge ordered the parties to "trace the history of scientific study of climate change, beginning with scientific inquiry into the formation and melting of the ice ages, periods of historic cooling and warming, smog, ozone, nuclear winter, volcanoes and global warming." And further, to inform the court of "the best science now available on global warming, glacier melt, sea rise and coastal flooding."</p><p>This is fascinating and highly unusual. As anyone who has seen a trial on television or in the movies knows, courts don't conduct tutorials; they oversee trials, in which lawyers present the testimony of witnesses under oath and each side gets to examine and cross examine. The sheer novelty of this procedure is a good sign for the plaintiffs. Why would the judge invest time and energy to learn about climate science unless he thought the plaintiffs' legal claims might rest on a durable foundation? Also, the fact that the court asked for a climate science timeline suggests the court is honing in on some key questions: what did the fossil fuel companies know about climate change, when did they know it, and how did their public statements square with the scientific consensus at the time?</p><p>All eyes will be on this climate science tutorial, which will presumably be open to the public. To my knowledge, this is the first time climate science will be presented to a court in this fashion, and it offers an excellent opportunity to highlight the longstanding and well-supported scientific consensus.</p><p>It is too early to confidently predict what lies ahead but, on the basis of the judge's initial opinion, one can say this: the courtroom door is open now on these issues as it never has been before.</p><h4>Kids sue to protect themselves and future generations.</h4><p>In this case, <a href="https://www.ourchildrenstrust.org/us/federal-lawsuit/" target="_blank"><em>Juliana v. the United States</em></a>, a group of kids are suing the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/">Trump administration</a> for failing to protect them against the harms of climate change. I <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/ken-kimmell/climate-change-goes-to-court" target="_blank">wrote about</a> the novelty of this case last fall, and its early success when a federal district court judge in Oregon ordered the case to trial, rejecting all the Trump administration's procedural defenses.</p><p>Since that time, the Trump administration asked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal to dismiss the case. This was an unusual move because, ordinarily, a party to a lawsuit cannot appeal until the trial court has issued a final judgment. In this case, however, the district court had not done so. Predictably, the court of appeals <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/571d109b04426270152febe0/t/5aa0319753450acab4dac5bc/1520447895924/2018.03.07+Ninth+Circuit+Order+on+Trump+Mandamus+Petition.pdf" target="_blank">ruled</a> that the appeal was therefore premature, and sent the case back to the district court.</p><p>(Full disclosure: UCS joined a friend of the court brief on this issue, ably authored by <a href="https://earthjustice.org/" target="_blank">Earthjustice</a> attorneys).</p><p>The case was originally set for trial in February, 2018, but the Trump administration's appeal delayed that. Presumably, the next step will be for the court to set another trial date.</p><p>This is not good news for the Trump administration. At a minimum, a trial on this will be a public relations nightmare in which an appealing group of kids, represented by experienced attorneys, will have the opportunity to question Trump administration officials in open court. They will no doubt ask questions that the administration will find extremely difficult to answer, such as: Why has the Trump administration sought to withdraw from the Paris agreement, rolled back regulations to lower greenhouse gas emissions, and promoted subsidies for coal? Does the Trump administration not accept climate science? Does it not care about the harm of runaway climate change?</p><p>Further down the line, if the plaintiffs are successful in district court and if the court of appeals or the supreme court affirms the ruling (all very big "ifs," of course), the Trump administration faces the prospect of being forced under court order to develop and implement a plan to address climate change.</p><h4>Chickens coming home to roost.</h4><p>These lawsuits and the apparent judicial receptiveness to them—at least so far—are not accidental. Courts are heavily influenced by historic context, and judges are no doubt well aware of the pressing urgency of climate change and the failure of the federal government to address it. With no solution in sight, it is not surprising that courts are increasingly willing to hear cases urging a strong judicial role.</p><p>Is it ideal that courts, rather than our elected representatives, would decide these issues? Of course not. Maybe it is time for those who have opposed having our elected leaders take action on climate to consider this question–would they prefer the courts to do that job?</p><p><em><a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/author/ken-kimmell#.WqqFJpPwYcg" target="_blank">Ken Kimmell</a> is president of the <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/" target="_blank">Union of Concerned Scientists</a> and has more than 30 years of experience in government, environmental policy, and advocacy.</em></p>
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San Francisco's Treasure Island, where new developments are currently being built, is threatened by both sinking land and rising seas. Noah_Loverbear / Wikimedia Commons
According to a study released March 7, half of San Francisco International Airport's runways could sink underwater by 2100, The New York Times reported.
The study, published in Science Advances by Manoochehr Shirzaei of Arizona State University and Roland Bürgmann of the University of California, Berkeley, reveals that sea level rise poses more of a threat to the Bay Area than previously thought. The reason? A phenomenon known as subsidence, or land sinking.
<p>Shirzaei and Bürgmann found that previous flood-risk maps based on sea-level-rise projections were too conservative because they did not take local land subsidence (LLS) into account. This is a big problem for San Francisco, since parts of its coast lie on top of compacting landfills and mud deposits that are subsiding by a rate of 10 millimeters per year. "The maps estimating 100-year inundation hazards solely based on the projection of sea level rise from various emission scenarios underestimate the area at risk of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/flooding">flooding</a> by 3.7 to 90.9%," they wrote in their abstract. </p><p>The report contains revised flood-risk maps that account for the combined impact of LLS and sea level rise (SLR) based on different emissions scenarios.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-proxy-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vbWVkaWEucmJsLm1zL2ltYWdlP3U9JTJGY29udGVudCUyRmFkdmFuY2VzJTJGNCUyRjMlMkZlYWFwOTIzNCUyRkYzLmxhcmdlLmpwZyZobz1odHRwJTNBJTJGJTJGYWR2YW5jZXMuc2NpZW5jZW1hZy5vcmcmcz0zNDkmaD01MDc2ODljYTRmNWFiNDFiMDg3MTA3ZjhiMDAxZTM3MWRjYWI3MDQwOWFmY2JmZDUwMGU5NWIyZDgwODczNDkwJnNpemU9OTgweCZjPTM5NzA1NDIxNjEiLCJleHBpcmVzX2F0IjoxNjQ3MTMwMTk3fQ.HGW42yPmG1_qc-LkxBYMkLfpSI-p5fCU4JRK_5MuRmk/img.jpg" id="21771" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c5d53e56ade5c726277ff14c56011b7f">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">The map on the right shows the combined impact of LLS and SLR if we meet the goals of the 2015 Paris agreement; the map on the left show revised water levels if no effort is made to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.</small>
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Science Advances</small>
</p><p>In addition to the San Francisco airport, Shirzaei and Bürgmann's work revealed that Foster City, Union City and Treasure Island are particularly at risk. Treasure Island has recently been the target of development, and as many as 8,000 homes are set to be built there, California Magazine <a href="https://alumni.berkeley.edu/california-magazine/just-in/2018-03-07/study-rising-seas-are-quickly-sinking-bay-area-landfill-zones" target="_blank">reported</a>.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-proxy-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vbWVkaWEucmJsLm1zL2ltYWdlP3U9JTJGY29udGVudCUyRmFkdmFuY2VzJTJGNCUyRjMlMkZlYWFwOTIzNCUyRkY0LmxhcmdlLmpwZyZobz1odHRwJTNBJTJGJTJGYWR2YW5jZXMuc2NpZW5jZW1hZy5vcmcmcz00NDEmaD1iY2QxMDQ3YzhhZmRmZDJjODExZGRiNDYyZDA3MjI4OTZjM2EyMTk3ZGM0YmJhNTA2MTQyMWQzMmYxMTM3OWU5JnNpemU9OTgweCZjPTI5MDQ3NjU4MCIsImV4cGlyZXNfYXQiOjE2Mjc4NTExNDF9.LLSRRg70tbcuRpTdiIfaCqqajTm9Mh3-W7wgsKS5ZgQ/img.jpg" id="6a6e7" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b54dff2bc6eece5e49ab33b6e422f622">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Caption: The top row of maps shows how much land could be underwater due to LLS alone by 2100; the middle row shows land threatened by SLR given a business-as-usual emissions scenario; the bottom row shows the combined impact of both.</small>
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Science Advances</small>
</p><p>The findings give new urgency to a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/san-francisco-sue-2487934170.html" target="_self">lawsuit</a> brought by the cities of San Francisco and Oakland against the five largest investor-owned fossil-fuel producing companies, contending the companies understood the link between their activities and man-made <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate change</a>, and demanding they foot the bill for seawalls and other infrastructure adjustments.</p><p>The study underscores the fact that no matter how green a city attempts to be, it is still at the mercy of global decisions when it comes to climate change, as Oliver Milman pointed out in an article for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/07/san-francisco-rising-sea-level-threat-climate-change" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>. </p><p>"San Francisco can lay claim to being one of the greenest cities in the U.S., through its embrace of clean energy, mandated recycling and banning of single-use plastic bags, yet it faces a steep challenge to avoid the ravages of sea level rise," Milman wrote. </p><p>The study also has implications beyond San Francisco, since it suggests other low-lying areas might be in more danger than previously thought if subsidence is taken into account. </p><p>"You look at places like Bangladesh, Jakarta—sea level rise is a critical issue," Bürgmann told California Magazine. While the new projections might be scary, they also improve cities' ability to plan for the future. "Our approach allows for refined and accurate assessment, and that can help drive rational responses," Bürgmann said.</p>
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The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge links the two Pacific coast cities suing Big Oil over climate change. Phil Scott / Flickr
If you turn on the news, you might think that climate science has been on trial for decades. But now a San Francisco judge will give it an official day in court.
U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup, who is hearing a suit brought by the cities of Oakland and San Francisco against five big oil corporations, ordered a historic tutorial in which both parties will have a chance to present their view of the science behind climate change, the McClatchy Washington Bureau reported March 7.
<p>"This will be the closest that we have seen to a trial on climate science in the United States, to date," Michael Burger, head of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, told the Bureau. </p><p>The hearing marks the most recent novel development in an already groundbreaking lawsuit. As <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/san-francisco-sue-2487934170.html" target="_self">EcoWatch reported</a>, San Francisco became the first major U.S. city to sue the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels">fossil fuel</a> industry over climate change when it filed with Oakland against the five largest fossil-fuel producing corporations in September 2017.</p><p>The cities <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/san-francisco-and-oakland-sue-top-five-oil-and-gas-companies-over-costs-of-climate-change-300522988.html" target="_blank">claim</a> the companies named in the suit—<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/chevron" target="_self">Chevron</a>, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conocophillips" target="_self">ConocoPhillips</a>, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/exxon" target="_self">ExxonMobil</a>, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/bp" target="_self">BP</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/shell" target="_self">Royal Dutch Shell</a>—"have known for decades that fossil fuel-driven global warming and accelerated <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-level-rise">sea level rise</a> posed a catastrophic risk to human beings." They are therefore suing the companies for the costs of adapting to the climate challenge, such as the building of sea walls. </p><p>Alsup scheduled the hearing for March 21, and has asked each side to prepare a two-part presentation. </p><p>According to Alsup's order, "The first part will trace the history of scientific study of climate change," while "the second part will set forth the best science now available on global warming, glacier melt, sea rise, and coastal <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/flooding">flooding</a>," the Bureau reported. </p><p><a href="https://earthrights.org/" target="_blank">EarthRights International</a> General Counsel Marco Simmons said the hearing was a positive development. "The court is forcing these companies to go on the record about their understanding of climate science, which they have desperately tried to avoid doing," he told the Bureau. </p><p>Still, Alsup's ruling was not entirely favorable to the cities, who had filed a motion to have the case tried in California courts, which have developed precedent around "public nuisance" law. </p><p>Alsup instead held that the case belonged in federal court. "[A] patchwork of fifty different answers to the same fundamental global issue would be unworkable," the court ruled, according to the <a href="http://blogs.law.columbia.edu/climatechange/2018/03/06/march-2018-updates-to-the-climate-case-charts/" target="_blank">Columbia Law Blog</a>. </p><p>The California cities' suit isn't the only historic climate case that will be decided in federal court. </p><p>The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled on Wednesday that the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/">Trump</a> administration could not halt a suit brought by 21 children and teenagers against the federal government for failing to act on <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-denier" target="_self">climate change</a>, The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/03/07/the-trump-administration-just-failed-to-stop-a-climate-lawsuit-brought-by-21-kids/?utm_term=.8dd016d38ab3" target="_blank">reported</a>. </p><p>These suits brought by cities, municipalities and children represent creative legal ways in which ordinary citizens are trying to hold powerful interests accountable for man-made <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-denier" target="_self">climate change</a>. And an accurate understanding of climate science is key to their success. </p><p>"We're looking forward to putting the federal government on trial on climate science and its dangerous fossil fuel policies," Julia Olson of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/our-childrens-trust" target="_self">Our Children's Trust</a>, the head lawyer in the children's case, told the Post. </p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="8760a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="CNWIJZ1576662841"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="956994014884003840" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">200+ Scientists Want Trump-Backer and Climate Denial Funder Rebekah Mercer Kicked Off Natural History Museum Board… https://t.co/3ipWLyniSY</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/956994014884003840">1517000127.0</a></blockquote></div>
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San Francisco Becomes First Major U.S. City to Sue Fossil Fuel Industry Over Costs of Climate Change
21 September 2017
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Fourth St. sign under water in San Francisco. Scott Schiller/Flickr
San Francisco and Oakland are suing Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, BP and Royal Dutch Shell—the five biggest investor-owned fossil fuel producers in the world—over the costs of climate change.
The two Californian cities join the counties of Marin, San Mateo and San Diego and the city of Imperial Beach that have taken similar legal action in recent months, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
<p>
<span></span>San Francisco city attorney Dennis Herrera and Oakland city attorney Barbara J. Parker filed separate lawsuits on Tuesday in the superior courts of San Francisco and Alameda County on behalf of their respective cities.
</p><p style="">
They seek to hold the companies responsible "for the costs of sea walls and other infrastructure necessary to protect
<span style="background-color: initial;">San Francisco</span> and <span style="background-color: initial;">Oakland</span> from ongoing and future consequences of climate change and sea level rise caused by the companies' production of massive amounts of fossil fuels," according to a joint <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/san-francisco-and-oakland-sue-top-five-oil-and-gas-companies-over-costs-of-climate-change-300522988.html" target="_blank">announcement</a> from the attorneys.
</p><p>
<span></span>They claim that the oil and gas giants have <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/exxon-harvard-study-2476138068.html" target="_blank">known about the link</a> between fossil fuels and climate change for decades but continue to sell their products anyway, thus creating "an ongoing public nuisance that is causing harm now, and in the future risks catastrophic harm to human life and property, including billions of dollars of public and private property in Oakland and San Francisco."
</p><p>
Herrera accused the fossil fuel companies of copying a page from the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/internal-documents-expose-fossil-fuel-industrys-decades-of-deception-o-1882064444.html">Big Tobacco playbook</a> by launching a "multi-million dollar disinformation campaign to deny and discredit what was clear even to their own scientists: global warming is real, and their product is a huge part of the problem."
</p><p>
"Now, the bill has come due," Herrera said. "It's time for these companies to take responsibility for the harms they have caused and are continuing to cause.
</p><p>
Oil industry representatives called the lawsuits unproductive.
</p><p style="">
"Chevron welcomes serious attempts to address the issue of climate change, but these suits do not do that," company spokeswoman Melissa Ritchie told the San Francisco Chronicle in an email. "Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is a global issue that requires global engagement and action."
</p><p>
Eric Wohlschlegel, a spokesman for the American Petroleum Institute trade group, added to the publication that the industry has already made climate change a priority and will "play a leading role in driving down U.S. greenhouse gas and other emissions."
</p><p>
But the California city attorneys they want the courts to "hold the defendants jointly and severally liable for creating, contributing to and/or maintaining a public nuisance and to create an abatement fund for each city to be paid for by defendants to fund infrastructure projects necessary for San Francisco and Oakland to adapt to global warming and sea level rise."</p><p>"The total amount needed for the abatement funds is not known at this time but is expected to be in the billions of dollars," they said. </p><p>
Parker called climate change "an existential threat to humankind, to our ecosystems and to the wondrous, myriad species that inhabit our planet."
</p><p>
"These companies knew fossil fuel-driven climate change was real, they knew it was caused by their products and they lied to cover up that knowledge to protect their astronomical profits. The harm to our cities has commenced and will only get worse. The law is clear that the defendants are responsible for the consequences of their reckless and disastrous actions," she concluded.
</p><p>
On a related note, climate experts Peter C. Frumhoff and Myles R. Allen argued in a recent
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/07/big-oil-must-pay-for-climate-change-here-is-how-to-calculate-how-much" target="_blank">article</a> that <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/u-n-environment-chief-2487568725.html">fossil fuel giants, not taxpayers,</a> should shoulder the billions of dollars in damages caused by extreme weather events such as <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/hurricanes" target="_blank">hurricanes</a> that are <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-action-ideology-2486766781.html" target="_blank">exacerbated</a> by Earth's rising's temperatures.
</p><p style="">
Frumhoff and Allen write:
</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">
Using a simple, well-established climate model, our
<a href="https://link.springer.com/journal/10584" target="_blank">study</a> for the first time quantifies the amount of sea level rise and increase in global surface temperatures that can be traced to the emissions from specific fossil fuel companies.
</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">
Strikingly, nearly 30% of the rise in global sea level between 1880 and 2010 resulted from emissions traced to the 90 largest carbon producers. Emissions traced to the 20 companies named in California communities'
<a href="https://www.sheredling.com/press-room/" target="_blank">lawsuits</a> contributed 10% of global sea level rise over the same period. More than 6% of the rise in global sea level resulted from emissions traced to ExxonMobil, Chevron and BP, the three largest contributors.
</p><p style="">
<span></span>The scientists point outed: "It may take <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/03/hurricane-harvey-texas-governor-242293" target="_blank">tens to hundreds</a> of billions of dollars to support disaster relief and recovery among Gulf coast communities affected by Hurricane <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/hurricane-harvey" target="_blank">Harvey</a>. ExxonMobil, Chevron and BP have collectively pledged only <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/08/27/news/companies/corporate-donations-harvey-storm/index.html" target="_blank">$2.75m</a>."
</p>
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