SEI Reports
December, 2023
|
|
This longer biannual SEI Report features three articles from our faculty at the LACCD as well as the upcoming events a Gold Creek update and News Briefs. |
|
|
|
The Climate Emergency Today
by David Beaulieu
|
|
|
How do things stand right now with the climate emergency? In a way, it can be put into four short statements:
• 2023 was a horrific year for the planet, and a frightening sign for the future.
• Enormous, “staggering” progress has been made in the development and expansion of renewable energy.
• However, plans to expand fossil fuel production threaten to negate much of the benefit of that expansion.
• Expectations for COP28, which began Nov. 30, are extremely low, but “doomism” must be avoided.
2023 set a new mark for awful climate news. It will do down as the hottest year on record, as extraordinary, protracted heatwaves struck southern Europe, China, and the US Southwest. Three days in July were the Earth’s hottest in 120,000 years. Enormous fires raged in Canada for months, and Hurricane Otis, growing from a tropical storm to a Category 5 hurricane in a matter of hours, devastated a large part of Acapulco.
Scientists are “shocked” by the developments. In October, a distinguished group of twelve researchers warned, “We are afraid of the uncharted territory that we have now entered…The truth is that we are shocked by the ferocity of the extreme weather events in 2023.” They fear further extreme weather events could come sooner than expected, along with dreaded climate tipping points, and that we are “pushing our planetary systems into dangerous instability.” (The report is an update of a similar 2019 bulletin, which has now been signed by 15,000 scientists in 163 countries.)
Meanwhile, in the run-up to COP28, which opened Nov. 30 in Dubai, the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the UN Climate Chief Simon Stiell issued dire warnings. As we verge on 1.5C (2.7F), and with present trends pointing to a “hellish” rise of close to 3C, Guterres lamented that “This is a failure of leadership, a betrayal of the vulnerable, and a massive missed opportunity. Renewables have never been cheaper or more accessible. We know it is still possible to make the 1.5 degree limit a reality. It requires tearing out the poisoned root of the climate crisis: fossil fuels.”
|
|
|
|
Update on the Divestment Campaign
By Andrew Walzer
|
|
|
As readers of this newsletter know, we have been tracking the movement to divest CalPERS and CalSTRS from fossil fuels. Last year, environmentalists and labor activists reintroduced SB 252, the Fossil Fuel Divestment Act, that previously had stalled in an assembly committee. The bill once again passed the State Senate. It then went to the State Assembly Public Employment and Retirement Committee chaired by Assemblymember Tina McKinnor. McKinnor so far has refused to bring the bill up for a committee vote, citing concern about the negative financial impact that divestment may have on the pension funds, and the lack of union member support. She is planning on having a public forum to air the pros and cons of the bill before bringing it to a vote.
Both AFT 1521 and CFT have endorsed the bill, and we want to encourage members to send letters both to Assemblymember McKinnor and to their local assemblymember in support of the bill. Your letter should state that you are a member of the CalSTRS or CalPERS retirement plan and that you support divestment from fossil fuels.
I want to briefly address the concern about the financial implications of divestment.
|
|
|
|
Native American Heritage Month and the Environment
by George Leddy
|
|
|
Thanksgiving brought to a close Native American Heritage Month, with Friday, November 24 being Native American Heritage Day. The confluence of the two allows us to balance the time to be grateful with a healthy questioning of the myths surrounding the Pilgrims and their treatment of the Native people. America’s autochthonous peoples have endured centuries of dispossession and genocidal violence at the hands of European settlers and yet remain vibrant cultures. Today many First Nations have become powerful critics of the destruction of the natural world from Alaska to Patagonia. That is also true in California.
As part of the Climate-Palooza series of lectures and events on November 14 at West LA College, the California Center for Climate Change Education hosted Professor Dina Gilio-Whitaker, author and researcher on environmental issues in Native America. Dina Gilio-Whitaker’s book, As Long As Grass Grows is subtitled “the indigenous fight for environmental justice, from colonization to Standing Rock” is a comprehensive recapitulation of Native struggles in the United States. In her presentation she traced policies and outcomes through the eyes of 19th century art, the genocidal impact of “manifest destiny”, and the dispossession of land from its original inhabitants. She also showed us how this struggle goes well into this century, where Native people in this country find themselves at the center of many environmental battles.
|
|
-
The Fifth National Climate Assessment was just published in November, 2023 A brief summary is here. It (finally) recognizes the vital importance of the traditional land practices of indigenous peoples. The chapter on Indigenous Peoples (chapter 16) is here. This NCA also points out the importance of engaging the arts, social sciences and humanities in discussions about climate.
-
EU commits to stopping exportation of plastic waste to non- OECD countries (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) Optimist Daily
- SEI continues to advocate for support to embed climate literacy into curriculum. SEI met this past month with the State Academic Senate to discuss possible funding avenues to help faculty integrate climate literacy and environmental justice across disciplines..
|
|
|
|
Little Tujunga Cyn.,
Los Angeles
|
|
|
The Gold Creek site report for November is here: Faculty helped clear trails the weekend of December 2. See upcoming events and news here.
|
|
Save the dates for Spring 24 SEI Seminars
Feb 22nd, March 16th, Earth Day Week, April 16-23 and May 18th, 2024
|
|
December 6: 4:00 pm and January 4: 4:00pm: Training on the California Legislative process, Climate Action California, Third Act and Climate Reality Project California Coalition. Register here
December 17: Santa Monica Bay Natural History Tour with Climate Actions Santa Monica- by bike 9:00 am-12:00 pm. For more information click here
|
|
Have a great break and excellent holidays! |
|
from the editors…
As always we invite your submissions to this newsletter. Write about environmental issues that are important to you. Let us know what projects you or your students are working on. Tell us what is happening on your campus or in your community,
Email the SEI staff with your proposed article or news brief, or calendar event.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
