The last ten years were the ten hottest since records began 200 years ago. We have exceeded 420ppm CO2 and are adding to that at ever increasing rate.
The UN’s World Meteorological Organization observed a record 150 “unprecedented” climate impacts from floods and wildfires, to supercharged hurricanes: crops destroyed, infrastructure in ruins, 800,000 people displaced. Climate related disasters in the US alone have, since the start of 2024, cost nearly $500 billion (over half attributable to the Los Angeles wildfires).
Climate records are being broken faster than scientists predicted. In 2022 they thought that the world might breach 1.5°C warming by 2026. That record was broken last year. Until recently scientists thought that irreversible tipping points were a problem for the distant future. A new 2023 assessment, involving the collaboration of over 200 scientists, found eight tipping points could be triggered within the next decade and five of them could happen “right now”.
And if you think, climate change driven disasters only impact people elsewhere, think again. In 2017, Mendocino County’s Redwood Valley Complex (Redwood & Potter Valleys) Fire burned over 36,000 acres, destroyed nearly 350 residences, forced 8,000 residents to evacuate, and, most tragically, claiming the lives of nine individuals. In 2021, drought conditions were so dire in Mendocino that coastal residents appealed to the County to truck water to the coast in order to keep businesses operating and supplement water supplies for local residents relying on wells that were dry.
In the midst of a severe multi-year drought threatening the county’s economy, the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors made the wise decision to allocate $2 million dollars towards reducing county government’s carbon emissions and on-going fossil fuel energy costs. Ironically, the money for carbon reduction and energy conservation was one time funding available from a settlement of a lawsuit against PG&E resulting from previous wildfire damages the county suffered.
County environmentalists have long advocated county officials embrace common sense energy conservation and renewable environmentally sustainable energy solutions that businesses and county residents have been using for decades to reduce energy costs and carbon emission. The GrassRoots Institute’s Climate Crisis Workgroup submitted a petition to the Board of Supervisors with over 600 signatures and the support of forty local businesses urging the County to use solar and battery systems to generate its own electricity, expand access to electric vehicle chargers and convert mass transit to electric and fuel cell powered busses.
When the Board of Supervisors adopted and funded its Net Zero Carbon Emissions program local environmentalists celebrated thinking that with clear direction from the Supervisors and money to pay the one time costs of installing solar on county buildings, installing energy efficient lighting, heating and cooling, and funding for matching grants to expand electric vehicle charging access - finally progress was at hand. WRONG!
Here we are four years later and very little has been done to reduce county carbon emissions or achieve energy independence from fossil fuels. In 2021, an energy audit showed the county was spending over $400,000 to meet its energy needs. In the last four years since the Supervisors approved funding for energy conservation and carbon reduction investments, the cost of electricity has increase 60% and is project to increase another 17% by 2027. Yet almost nothing has been done to implement common sense low cost energy conservation measures that businesses and residents utilize every day to lower there energy costs. Even worse, in 2024 the Supervisors diverted some of the funds set aside to reduce energy costs to fund projects unrelated to county government energy use reduction.
We are long past time when county executives should have finished and not just started using solar, heat pump heating and cooling, electric vehicles, efficient lighting and weatherizing insulation to cut county costs and the county governments carbon footprint. Private businesses and residents have figured out how to capture savings and reduce emissions from energy conservation. If the county administrators can’t figure out how to capture cost savings, then the Supervisors need to replace the county administrators with competent staff that can.
Time to get it done!