Climate Change Major Disaster Declaration Campaign: The Press Democrat published our article today
Jorge Rebagliati
11/05/2017 - Page B15
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Rebuilding for a more resilient future
By JORGE REBAGLIATI
Sonoma County has become another climate change ground zero. We have joined Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico in the fast-growing club of areas with "unprecedented" climate change-related catastrophic events. Climate change has become personal. The "new climate" turned a seasonal event into an unprecedented disaster in Sonoma County, where, in just the first 12 hours, the fires incinerated the majority of the more than 6,800 buildings that burned and caused, at least, 23 human casualties. The environmental conditions created by the new climate set the stage for these fires in Northern California: more than 100 million dead trees statewide from five years of extreme drought, an unprecedented amount of winter precipitation that produced an abundance of grasses and shrubs, the hottest s!
ummer on record (highs of 106 degrees recorded in San Francisco and 114 in Santa Rosa) that dried the vegetation and unusually fast, dry and warm Diablo winds with gusts of up to 80 mph. This is a sample of events to come in the near future. New atmospheric conditions are turning extreme weather events into common occurrences, which, if unchecked, will eventually eliminate our ability to respond to them. Climate change has been wrongfully framed as a political issue, when, in actuality, it is a survival issue. Our life and well-being depend on the environment. If the environment does not support us, our chances of living and thriving are very low. As we ponder how we are going to rebuild Sonoma County, we must consider that rebuilding without a vision of changing environmental conditions would be unconscionable. We have the !
opportunity to become a more resilient and prosperous
county if we use "climate crisis action" as the core organizing principle of our society and economy. That action has two main components: restoring the climate to more sustainable levels by becoming a carbonnegative economy and adapting to minimize the damage from climate crisis-related events to come. Both components are essential to achieve the massive scale and speed of action that solving the climate crisis requires. The commitment to be a wiser and safer community that protects life, environment and property can be sealed by the executive power of our governments to issue climate change disaster declarations. These declarations would m!
ake available all our county resources and resources from the state, the federal government and other public and private organizations that could support our community by fully committing to deal with climate change. Under these declarations, a more sustainable, faster and equitable recovery would be available, including more robust support for affected individuals and businesses. The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors and all the city councils in Sonoma County are urged to issue climate change disaster declarations for the sake of our future and the future of the human family. Their declarations would have a powerful impact here, in California, in other states and in the rest of the world. They can turn the worst catastrophe in Sonoma County into the greatest opportunity to build a livable and desirable future for all of us. Jorge Rebagliati of Santa Rosa i!
s owner of Quest Green Technology Products.
Jorge Rebagliati |
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V Jacobi
awesome!!
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www.OccupySonomaCounty.org
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Cassandra Lista
brightli...@comcast.net
Last month's fires present us an opportunity for real transformation rather than minor, piecemeal change. We need to change on every level.
It's time to break the pattern. Painful as it is, homes lost in the fire were temporary housing, but the-build-and-burn cycle can stop here. Building for a thousand years, as in Europe, is well within our capability, if we're not stopped by building-material-supplier lobbyists and antiquated code restrictions.
It's time to go from wood-framed homes (built the same way for centuries) with highly flammable oil-composition roofs, to healthy mineraled cement and 3D-printed homes. Earthquakes are not an if but a when, and naturally resilient materials and forms can survive quakes, fires, storms and floods. A 3D-printed house can be created in a few days at about $34 per square foot. And they are available now. Earthbag, cob and magnesium-based-cement homes sequester carbon and actually support our health. Look them up.
We need to move from unnecessarily large to smaller, better designed homes. We must transition from "boxes" to more rounded and organic shapes that are more beautiful and far more able to withstand the elements. Let's replace fire-vulnerable wood fences with masonry structures.
From water wastage to water wisdom, we need to rethink our infrastructure systems. Graywater is not only good for plants, it's a fire deterrent too. We need energy-neutral and carbon-sequestering buildings, as well, along with more gardens.
Living in intentional communities offers resiliency from natural and manmade disasters through healthy social relations that will help us evolve from isolated units back into a community.
We must go from construction on scraped, decimated land, to being respectful inhabitants and stewards of the natural world.
None of these changes is "up to code"; they are beyond code. For decades, we've been precluded from progress by varying elements of the status quo. We know how to do this. "Code" is largely legislated lobbying by the building materials and insurance industries.
Let's use the disastrous fires to welcome a new, better world.
Judith Iam is a longtime Sonoma County resident, teacher, producer and community builder.
Open Mic is a weekly feature in the 'Bohemian.' We welcome your contribution. To have your topical essay of 350 words considered for publication, write ope...@bohemian.com.
To: "Jorge Rebagliati" <jorge...@sbcglobal.net>
Cc: "osc earth-action" <osc_eart...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, November 5, 2017 10:06:10 PM
Subject: Re: [OSC Earth Action] Climate Change Major Disaster Declaration Campaign: The Press Democrat published our article today