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Davisite Banner. Left side the bicycle obelisk at 3rd and University. Right side the trellis at the entrance to the Arboretum.

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Upcoming, Global Call to End the Fossil Fuel Era

By Scott Steward

As the climate careens towards more severe atmospheric carbon derived weather, the stakes couldn't be higher.  Preserving Yolo County's resilience becomes job number one for any public official. Arable land, access to food, health and safety all need more attention and everyone is required, if we are to create a resilient community for the foreseeable future.  We elders agree and will join the youth led Fridays for Future Climate Strike September 15th at noon at the 14th street side of Veterans Memorial for a march to Central Park. "End the Fossil Fuel Era" signs provided.

FridaysForFuture

Fridays for Future September 15th preparation  – – End the Fossil Fuel Era signs displayed.

Thousands of strikes will be occurring around the globe on September 15th.  Davis Fridays for Future is the local version of this international event.  Here, and across the US, Biden is being asked to Declare a Climate Emergency. In California, Newsom is being asked to follow through on his commitment to stop issuing fossil fuel drilling permits.  Petitions will be available at the march.

We have our own drilling driven extraction climate crises in Yolo County, along with fire and heat, our water table is dropping at an unrestorable rate.  The aquifer that resides in the 1000 ft deep loam soil, our subterranean valley lake, is being sucked dry.  At the current pace, half the farmers that show up at the Davis farmers market will be gone in a few years.

All of us in Yolo County should take into consideration the water crises situation outlined by Annie Main, of our beloved Good Humus family farm, and sign the Hungry Hollow (Capay Valley) petition for a moratorium on new water well permits and to regulate water drafted for perennial crops (trees and vines) on previously unirrigated land.

August 2023. Lahaina burns to the ground, 22 States hit historical high temperatures, LA floods, and Florida's Idalia hurricane costs $9.3B.  Insurers are excluding natural disasters from insurance policies. 

No more scooting around the chairs on the deck of the "Not Me" Titanic.  The good news is that by ending the era of fossil fuels we could usher in an era of regeneration, abundance, and equity.  The challenge is that we need all three, all at once, and we can't belabor the nay-sayers. Let them yelp from atop their plus 150 degree (surface temp) rooftops – and then tax them for their overuse of fossil fuel.

The rest of us meet to join the youth on September 15th at noon for a march. End the Fossil Fuel Era signs provided, maybe some speakers are lined up, maybe a creative crowd participation action, certainly some petitions and a whole lot of re-energized solidarity.  Go Labor! it's time for a generational change and it's time to walk (run) away from fossil fuels.

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Comments

10 responses to “Upcoming, Global Call to End the Fossil Fuel Era”

  1. Janet Krovoza

    I’m inspired! Will do my best to be there on the 15th.

    Reply
  2. South of Davis

    Does anyone know if a single person in the photo above (especially the guy with the END FOSSIL FUELS sign) lives off the gid without any power from fossil fuels?
    The people that use fossil fuels every day and use even more when they drive and fly to climate protests remind me of the “vegan protestors” that eat bacon every day and stop at InNOut on the way to a END MEAT protest.
    P.S. I’m sure that the Hawaiian Electric would love to blame the Maui fire on “Climate Change” but the first hit on Google says “Hawaiian Electric Company said that power lines falling in high winds”
    P.P.S. Has anyone ever heard of a gas line causing a “wildfire” (the PG&E San Bruno gas pipe explosion was bad but took out a lot less homes than the Paradises and Lahaina wildfires)…

    Reply
  3. Alan C. Miller

    ” . . . “vegan protestors” that eat bacon every day and stop at InNOut on the way to a END MEAT protest. ”
    That’s actually not a thing.

    Reply
  4. South of Davis

    Some Vegans really do want to END MEAD (so much so that these guys branded themselves with hot irons):
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3807626/Vegan-protesters-BRANDED-red-hot-irons-extreme-demonstration-demanding-end-meat-industry-France.html
    I don’t know if these guys stopped at InNOut on the way to this protest:
    https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2022/may/28/animal-rights-activists-sprayed-with-cow-poo-meat-industry-protest-durham#:~:text=Photos%20showed%20masked%20activists%20from,to%20blast%20manure%20at%20them.
    I live in a modest older home, ride my bike every week and have never been on a private jet (but it seems like almost everyone telling me to END FOSSIL FULES (or END MEAT) never rides a bike (even an ebike) and the leaders of the end fossil fuel groups almost all seem to also not ride bikes but have bigger homes and fly around on jets (when they are not in their air conditioned million dollar RV in the Nevada desert)
    https://www.pinterest.com/pin/259027416045169525/
    P.S. I’m no fan of the oil and gas industry and holding signs saying “I don’t use fossil fuels ask me how” would get my attention

    Reply
  5. Keith

    “P.S. I’m no fan of the oil and gas industry and holding signs saying “I don’t use fossil fuels ask me how” would get my attention”
    Me too. It’s easy to say “get rid of fossil fuels” but they have no clue how. How much of the world’s electricity comes from fossil fuels? How is that ever going to be replaced and still maintain a somewhat healthy economy?

    Reply
  6. Roberta L. Millstein

    SOD and Keith, y’all are making a lot of assumptions about folks you’ve never met. They are out there every Friday. How about you go out there one Friday and talk with them? Then you can find out how often they bike, how they think we can get rid of fossil fuels, etc. Until then I’d ask you to keep your implied accusations of hypocrisy to yourself.
    As for individuals being completely fossil-fuel free now, that would be extremely difficult to do given the way that society is currently set up and would require someone of high income. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t press for all of us to be able to do that. And if you say that’s impossible, I can dump a bunch of articles on you — assuming you’d be willing to read them, that is, otherwise I won’t bother.

    Reply
  7. Scott Steward

    I don’t hear anything different from those less smitten with giving up fossil fuels than was argued 50 years ago. Since then the choice to get off fossil fuels has grown within our industrial society to the point where it is really a matter of will. The renewable energy capacity and energy efficiency is there to retain most of what our cvilization has become accustomed.
    Should we continue to set the goal at a consumption level of the median American? It’s not healthy for anyone. Will this mean dramatic changes to mobility (flying in particular) – right now that is a personal choice.
    The Fridays for Future youth and their growing allies welcome you to continue to give voice and momentum for building a regenerative and equitable future. We have made progress and that progress right now is too slow – so we need to speed it up!
    That’s the point that the global demonstration to End the Fossil Fuel Era is making. Recognize our emergency and accelerate the transfer to renewable energy using every means avaiable, incentives, disincentives, large scale electrification, tech-transfer, and more.
    Our culture is suffering from an overabundance of distractions from the deference we need to give to what keeps us alive physically and spiritually. We two legged creatures are here to take equitably care of the part of the earth where we are and thereby take care of each other – that is how we show each other care.

    Reply
  8. South of Davis

    The “median” American and lower (~$70K and lower) does not fly much (or own Teslas).
    The people we know in Davis (that live in $1mm+ homes, have multiple Teslas and take their kids to see pro soccer games in Europe) are not “median”.
    I’m not like most American’s (or Davisites) in that I don’t know anyone over 25 that rides their bike more than I do (or that paid less than the $2,500 for their car they drive in the rain).
    I wonder of most Davis Tesla owners know that they are using fossil fuels every time they charge on I5?
    https://www.sfgate.com/centralcoast/article/tesla-interstate-5-supercharger-power-plant-18343119.php

    Reply
  9. Alan C. Miller

    SS, realized my comment in today’s article was out-of-context because I didn’t hit ‘publish’ on this comment:
    Linking everything to climate change, a global issue, is not a good plan for informing people about a local issue that actual does need activist attention. That is the management of local groundwater. It’s actually a statewide issue, but each groundwater management district is locally managed and the implementation for each by the way the laws are written are far from adequate to address the problem.
    The issue I have is you go into a global screed for two paragraphs and then get to the local issue, still couched in the ‘climate crisis’. The groundwater issue would be an issue regardless of the state of the globe. Just like the numerous headlines in Maui about the fires being caused by ‘global warming’, the real causal issues were land management and water management.
    But simple minds want simple solutions, and simple minds click on ‘climate’, so the click-centered media demands it. We don’t have to do that here. We have a real groundwater management issue that locals can influence. Write an article on that, and skip the words ‘climate’ and ‘crisis’.
    [turns out, SS, even without my hitting ‘Post’ and publishing this, you did just that. Bravo!]

    Reply
  10. Roberta L. Millstein

    ACM writes: ” The groundwater issue would be an issue regardless of the state of the globe.”
    Agreed. But with global warming, our droughts are becoming drier. (Rainy seasons are becoming wetter — basically, there are more extremes).
    “Just like the numerous headlines in Maui about the fires being caused by ‘global warming’, the real causal issues were land management and water management.”
    Land management (ag lands abandoned and more flammable invasive grasses took over) and the local power company for sure — hadn’t heard anything about water management, but that makes sense. But that doesn’t mean that climate change didn’t have a role to play too. Again, bigger extremes: hotter, drier, windier.
    “simple minds want simple solutions”
    I’d argue that Scott is offering the more complex, multi-causal explanations. Complex problems, complex solutions.
    Now, as for strategy, if one is just focused on the immediate problem, then it might make sense not to mention climate change to get more folks on board. On the other hand, not mentioning climate change risks not addressing the problem in the long term. IMO, it’s important to tackle the immediate issue (let’s have policy about drawing from the underground aquifer) and the longer-term (lets put less carbon in the atmosphere). But you’ve said before that you agree on burning less carbon (if not all the ways of achieving that), so in the end I think you and Scott (and I) are not so far off from each other.

    Reply

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