Climate Eyes | Tennis, anyone?

||| BY STEVE BERNHEIM, theORCASONIAN REPORTER |||

To limit global warming to 1.5°C / 2.7°F above pre-industrial levels requires rapid transitions in energy and infrastructure (including transport and buildings), and requires deep emissions reductions in all sectors, says a U.N. panel.

Rapid transitions in energy, transport and buildings? Deep emission reductions in all sectors? A distant alarm bell for the climate emergency rang again on June 28 and June 29 when temperatures elsewhere in the Pacific Northwest were well over 100 ° F/ 37 °C… though locally the high temperature reading at the Orcas airport was 88°F/31°C.

Will five years be enough time to avoid the climate catastrophe? We will try to answer this question by July 2026, sixty months from now. Until then, inspired by last month’s record-breaking temperatures, we will over the next five years take a monthly look at how local government is taking action to save us. Can San Juan County government fulfill its role in achieving for all of us adequate transitions in energy, transport and buildings with deep carbon emissions reductions in all sectors by July 2026? We’ll be starting from scratch: there is no county plan to achieve carbon-reducing transitions in energy, transport or buildings nor to achieve deep emissions reductions in all sectors in San Juan County.

And yet … the San Juan County Council just took a step last Tuesday, June 29 by creating a new department of Environmental Resources with authority to hire a “climate and sustainability coordinator” to recommend policies, enforcement and funding for climate-related action. At the same meeting, the Council authorized the creation of an “Environment and Climate” advisory commission to coordinate local government’s climate and sustainability activities (on which every local resident who wishes to serve should be invited).

This is not a Carbon Reduction Department: the new “Environmental Resources” Department and its new Director Kendra Smith, will have water quality, shoreline management, and trash to deal with, too, and she has not suggested any plan for how local government can help achieve drastic reductions in carbon pollution. Changes to government organizational charts may be necessary, but they are far from sufficient.

How will we move away from fossil fuels, since every day the more we continue to burn, the worse it gets, according to the University of Washington?

…additional emissions commit us to increasingly severe global and local impacts. Although efforts to both reduce and prepare for climate change are already occurring, they must be rapidly scaled up in order to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent “dangerous interference with the climate system” and adequately prepare our state for the changes underway.

The County Planning Commission expects to include at least some climate change goals and policies in the draft Comprehensive Plan which projects County planning through the year 2036, with briefings in the fall and public hearings in October and two “town halls” on climate change thereafter, followed by public hearings on revised drafts with hoped-for adoption of a new county comprehensive plan – including an emissions reduction plan – in 2022. At its next meeting on July 16, the Planning Commission will continue to discuss how to draft and prioritize future ordinances on stormwater management, tree protections and commercial composting.

The Planning Commission will also decide whether to prioritize changes to county zoning laws that would permit construction of indoor tennis facilities on lands presently designated as “Rural Farm Forest.” As one of the planning commission members put it speaking in support of the proposal:

You have a beautiful forest and now you’re creating a place where people actually come to who are going to use the tennis facilities but then may also enjoy the forest around it, so you’re actually benefiting two things: you’re getting people engaged, getting them moving and being healthy, getting youth involved in extracurricular activities and outside [sic] sports for all ages, but then you also maintain the forest. I mean I don’t think the blueprint for what they’re proposing was too outrageous on the size of land that we’re talking about and I see the forest land and I work out in the woods and a well taken care of forest that can be used by all but also seen as an activity incentive to create a better community for us is something we should look into. It’s a balancing act I know, but we should be creating these outside [sic] activities especially through COVID: look at the statistics right now of drug overdoses in the county and all the things that have gone terrible because there was nothing to do for our youth, I’m all for opening this up and making it so we can move forward and having these extracurricular activities for people and other events than what we have now.

The specific proposal under consideration was submitted by the Orcas Island Tennis club, a private club owned by 41 membership units. Its representative, former County Councilperson Rick Hughes, says in the application that the change is proposed so members of the club may enjoy indoor tennis year-round. In his application, Hughes notes that a similar change was made to allow a group on Lopez Island plan for an indoor swim center, which according to its website will ensure equal access regardless of ability to pay.

To comment on any of these proposals or on the urgency of the climate emergency, join the Planning Commission for its next meeting on Friday, July 16 at 8:30 a.m. It’s easy to review the agenda and join the meeting from the links at the Planning Commission homepage.

You can also give your spoken comments to the County Council at their next meeting on July 12 and 13 and join the meeting from the links at the County Council homepage.

If you would like to learn more about how you can participate in the Comprehensive Plan process, join a July 6 morning meeting organized by the Friends of the San Juans. Contact R. Brent Lyles, its executive director, for details.