Update from Kate
SOUTHERN MARIN, CLIMATE CHANGE, AND THE ONE TAM SUMMIT
Please Share Widely:
Over the past three weeks, the One Tam Summit on Climate has hosted virtual conversations on climate change and resilience in Marin County. I was honored to be a speaker during the October 15 session, which focused on changing shorelines. Sea level rise is an issue that is near and dear to my heart, and is especially relevant to all of us in Southern Marin and Marin County broadly. As such, I wanted to share with you the comments I made at the One Tam Summit.
In addition, I want to invite you to attend the remaining two sessions of the One Tam Summit. In particular, on October 29 we will hear about local solutions to climate change from the Coordinator of Drawdown: Marin – a community-driven campaign to do our part to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prepare for climate change impacts.
I hope you are already engaged in efforts to combat climate change – and if you aren't, that you might be inspired to action by the information below.
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From the One Tam Summit on Climate: October 15, 2020
2020 has thrown more challenges at us than we ever could have imagined:
COVID-19 pandemic – Financial impacts to the economy and the County budget – Racial justice and inequity issues
These seemed like more challenges than we could handle all at once – but then came:
Extreme heat – Threatened power outages – Wildfires, burning everywhere – Smoky, unhealthy air and the dark orange apocalyptic skies of September 9
And here we are again this week with hot weather, gusty winds, red flag warnings and power shutoffs in some parts of the Bay Area.
While COVID-19 has shined a strong light on existing inequities of age, health, race, and financial capacity, extreme heat and wildfires are making apparent the reality of climate change.
COVID-19 has caused many of us to re-examine how we live in the world – to question the noise and frenetic pace of life when we were not sheltering in place, to admit our failure to address ongoing racial and social inequities, and, as County government, to take action to support those most affected by the pandemic and its economic impacts.
Climate change – and the heat, drought, wildfires and sea level rise it brings – will require us to rethink virtually every aspect of daily life: how and where homes are built, how power grids are designed, how to dramatically reduce our carbon footprint, and how we as individuals plan for the future with the collective good in mind.
 Sea level rise and the flooding it brings to our communities has been a significant focus for me ever since I became County Supervisor for Southern Marin in 2011. In 2013, I launched a Southern Marin Pilot Project to examine how the climate change impacts of sea level rise and storm events affect the future of Southern Marin communities, infrastructure, ecosystems and economy. That project was a first foray for many of us into cataloguing and mapping assets and assessing vulnerabilities to sea level rise. It was also a first step in engaging and educating the public about the impacts of sea level rise and considering what to do about it.
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We have come a long way since then – creating the award winning Game of Floods, which teaches players about adaptation choices; launching BayWAVE which completed a sea level rise vulnerability assessment for Marin’s bay shoreline and is working with local cities and towns to plan implementation of adaptation strategies; continuing the good work of C-SMART on the Marin Coast; linking analysis of watersheds and shorelines so we can get a complete picture of how water flows and of flooding; launching Drawdown: Marin to dramatically reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change; and with the One Tam team, developing the Evolving Shorelines Project at Bothin Marsh – to name just a few of the County’s projects and initiatives.
Through all of this, we have retained a laser focus on public awareness and engagement, on science-based analysis and planning, and a keen sense of the complexities of adaptation options and the financial challenges to implementing adaptation projects.
Yet, despite all of this good work, it sometimes feels like we have made little progress in conveying a sense of urgency about sea level rise to our residents and galvanizing the kind of action we need if we are to adapt to our changing world.
I hate to say it, but sometimes it seems like what we need is a sea level rise emergency. And I do hate to say that because given how rapidly ice is melting and ocean temperatures are rising, we may have an emergency on our hands much sooner than we think.
Let’s contrast for a moment the public’s response to wildfires and to sea level rise.
This is the third year of truly dreadful wildfires in the North Bay. We are nowhere near the end of fire season and already more than 4.1 million acres have burned in California this year. And the smoky air has brought home the reality of wildfires to those of us who have not yet been in the fire’s path.
The climate change impact of more intense fires and longer fire seasons has gotten real, real fast. And that has lead to a number of good developments.
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We have individual and neighborhood engagement at a scale we have not seen before. Firewise communities and neighborhood response groups have sprung up all over. In March, voters in 17 Marin jurisdictions approved funding for fire prevention and preparedness, and created the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority to lead the effort. There is recognition of the importance of individual responsibility, as well as community togetherness.
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Awareness of wildfire threat is leading people to develop relationships, networks and skills that are also applicable to the threat of sea level rise and flooding. This is the kind of individual resilience and community care muscle we need to keep building.
Mark Brown, the new executive director of the Wildfire Prevention Authority, recently noted that we are “fighting fires before they ignite” through education and prevention work. This is exactly the mentality that we need to transpose onto sea level rise. Just as there are “firewise” communities, what would it mean to create “waterwise” communities that bring individuals together to address the challenges of sea level rise?
In 2014, we convened a community forum on “living with water,” learning from the Dutch who have long understood that practice. Today’s efforts to create defensible space around homes and firewise communities suggest a similar mentality of “living with fire.” This ability to adapt, to live with whatever impacts climate change may bring, is an important and positive step.
So in this time of endless challenge and alarm, I think there is reason for hope.
COVID-19 has created an opportunity – indeed it demands – that we re-examine how we live in the world. This is not the time to yearn to go back to the way things were – even if that seems like our comfort zone – but instead to go forward.
Now is the time to think about how we want to go forward – what do we need to do differently to make sure that the path we choose embraces community, strengthens social relationships, and revitalizes natural systems and the creatures that inhabit them?
If we are to address the challenges of climate change, we must go forward and not cling to past ways of living. We must disrupt our own habits – our habits of mind, of business, of regulation and legislation, of what we buy, of how we use energy, of how we treat other people, and how we treat the environment.
Let’s celebrate the recent Executive Order from Governor Newsom on biodiversity, climate and working lands. The order sets a first-in-the-nation goal to conserve 30 percent of California’s land and coastal water by 2030 to fight species loss and ecosystem destruction. This is a very important part of a better path forward.
We also must reclaim a sense of the collective good.
Just as the actions of one homeowner to create defensible space on their own property will not effectively address wildfire risk unless their neighbors also take action, so too a single homeowner who fortifies her own property against sea level rise will not be effective unless her neighbors also take action. Fire and water do not recognize individual autonomy and personal interests.
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In a culture that values the individual more than the collective, it is hard to accept that the failure of any one of us to act may place all of us in jeopardy. COVID-19 has given us the opportunity to learn that lesson – and here in Marin, where most all of us are willing to wear a mask in public, we’ve shown we can adapt. That lesson is relevant to wildfires and sea level rise as well.
But personal behavior is just one part of the story. Addressing wildfire risk, sea level rise, and the health impacts of climate change demands collective action and collaboration, and this is where One Tam comes in.
One Tam was created by partnership and thrives because of its commitment to public engagement and education, to collaborative endeavors, and to stewardship and care for the natural world and all creatures that depend on a healthy ecology. These are values and practices to cherish as we chart a new path forward in our changing world.
I have been privileged to have been involved with One Tam since its inception and thank you for the invitation to be here today. While this is the last time I will be with you as County Supervisor for Southern Marin – I’m retiring in January – I look forward to all the good work ahead for One Tam and to continuing to be one of your biggest fans.
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