||| EARTHRISE BY JAY KIMBALL |||
Want to be part of something big? Looking for ways to help the planet? Thinking globally but wanting to act locally? Good news: The county has an online climate action survey you can take right now.
Take the survey HERE.
County climate survey background
This survey helps the county shape its Climate Action Plan (CAP), which will provide a long-term vision, climate policies, and an implementation strategy for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and preparing our community for current and future climate impacts.
Though the county is gifted with generally mild and agreeable weather, we know that we will experience accelerating climate extremes—heat domes, drought, wildfire, reduced groundwater recharge, water shortages, extreme rain, flooding, sea level rise, shoreline erosion, reduced farmland production, property loss, increased insurance rates, climate migration from the southwest, and much more.
Ready, set, go!
The survey is your chance to influence how we prepare, adapt, and increase local climate resilience. This is a fundamental climate action we take together. An engaged community = focused climate action.
For example:
- There is much that we could do, but what should we do? Substantial grants are available to help, but which ones should we apply for? With limited resources, how do we get the most bang for the buck?
- The most significant source of county GHG emissions is transportation. Many communities are doing things to clean up transportation—clean public transportation, bike paths, on-demand micro-transit, electric ferries, and public EV charging infrastructure—but what’s the best mix for our 20-island community?
- Reversing a century of pollution in a few short years is no small task. There are no perfect solutions, and business as usual is not an option. How do we reduce our climate impact while preparing for the inevitable climate disasters?
Your voice informs the larger community
Adding your voice to the survey helps ensure a broadly representative sample of county public opinion. Beyond county government, this survey will help inform the thinking and actions of community partners—nonprofits, family resource centers, food banks, first responders, ports, utilities, hospitals, businesses, and Washington climate action partners.
The survey ends this weekend. Take the survey HERE. After that, forward this to a friend and ask them to add their voice to the mix.
Earthrise: A Climate Action Journal
This climate action journal offers information and actions we can take together, locally and globally, as we care for this precious Earth.
“The best way to heal a living system, is to connect it with more parts of itself.” ~ Margaret Wheatley
If you like what you read here, pass it forward to a few friends and ask them to do the same. Like a pebble tossed in a pond, the rings emanate outward, reflecting and growing exponentially. “Going exponential” is what it will take to reverse the climate extremes that are accelerating around us.
Thank you…
+ Get an alert when there’s a new Earthrise post: Notify Me!
+ Previous Earthrise posts:
• First Light • Robert Dash – photographer, educator, environmentalist • Extreme Rain • A Poem for the Snow Leopard •
• How the Chinese spy balloon can inspire climate action • Tidal energy in the Salish Sea •
• The biggest source of county greenhouse gas pollution • The future of clean transportation in island communities •
• Healing Nature •
Notes
County Community Survey Announcement
County Climate Resilience Planning and Action
Orcasonian: County launches climate resilience planning with community survey
Washington Climate Action Plans
And as you’re filling out the survey, remember that climate change is just one of *many* symptoms of ecological overshoot. Overpopulation and development are the primary causes of species loss, pollution, habitat loss, and overall degradation of the environment. I wish the County was surveying about the broader issue of ecological overshoot, but they aren’t. However, we can all keep that in mind as we take the survey.
Thank you for the survey, and for the links that you included.
It’s ironic how the largest income producing industries in the world (including growth, tourism and war) are also some of the largest contributors to greenhouse gases, as well as drivers of the decimation of our ecological environment.
Science Direct– Ecological Environment
“Ecological security (ES) refers to the health and integrity of the ecosystem, and is a state in which the human ecological environment remains stable and sustainable.”
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/ecological-environment#:~:text=A%20species'%20%E2%80%9Cecological%20environment%E2%80%9D,of%20seeds%2C%20and%20providing%20habitat.
There are well designed surveys that ask well phrased questions and elicit useful replies. This is not one of those.
Thanks for the comments, folks. There will be follow-up surveys. I encourage you to reach out to climate@sanjuancountywa.gov to share your thoughts on how to improve the surveys.
There’s also a “Questions” area at the bottom of the Engage project page that people can use: https://engage.sanjuancountywa.gov
Elisabeth, what would you like to see the county survey on Overshoot? What actions, policies, and objectives would you like to see in their Climate Action Plan?
I’d like to see every all electric home or apartment have a backup heating system for power outages in extreme winter cold – this should be mandatory in UGAs (urban growth Areas) and any other areas with activity centers. No home should be all electric without backup heat.
Airline and Jet travel needs to be factored in to how much pollution.
Over development and over tourism are destroying riparian wetlands and nearshore environments. These uses should be banned from these areas, as should any industrial polluting industries. Vacation rentals should be further reduced especially in eastsound UGA and surrounding areas.
Stormwater runoff from car tires being dumped (via pipes) into non flushing Fishing Bay and Crescent Beach – no water quality monitoring in first fall rains, so no accurate idea of what is going into these waters.
Where is the tree ordinance promised several years ago? Has the county even started on it?
Light pollution, anyone? What is being done to get existing buildings and new developments compliant with dark sky goals?
So much more should be considered in terms of environmental overreach and quality of life/rural character needs.
All of these should be in the Climate Action Plan. Are they?