The Town Council for the Town of Fairfax has, rightly, recognized, and declared that we are in a Climate Emergency. Bernie Sanders famously reminded us that the Climate Crisis - and crisis it is - is an Existential Crisis. 

The Town Council has declared that we should come together and find ways to drive our collective greenhouse gas emissions to zero, over the next ten years. 

I am writing this as the chair of the Town's Climate Action Committee; the group charged by the Town Council with helping to develop strategies that can get us there. 

Obviously, changing our collective way of life, dependent as it is on the addictive opiod of fossil fuels, will be difficult. But, it can be done, and if ever there were one community of people who could come together to make it happen, it is Fairfax. 

The CAC is working, now, on an update of our Climate Action Plan. We want to do this in a way that involves as many people from our community as we can. Ours is not an easy task, and it is going to take us all - working, thinking, brainstorming, debating - to find the right path forward. As a CAC we have a great team of volunteers who have been working to create drafts of what we can do, based on our successes to date, and thinking about what other Towns are doing, and what the state and country are doing (or not doing). 

We are considering creating a series of Virtual "Town Halls" to bring us all together to talk about the challenges, and to brainstorm ways we can remind the rest of Marin, the rest of California, the rest of the world, who we are, and what we are capable of. 

We are living through a kind of plague time, so we will have to do this with some kind of virtual, zoom conversation. I am trying to figure out how large a Zoom event we would need to prepare for, so please give us feedback on your interest to participate in something like this. Would you prefer one meeting with virtual break-out rooms, each focused on different topics? One long meeting that talked through different topics? Several short meetings, weekly, maybe, each focused on a different topic? 

Please give us feedback, so we can plan appropriate logistics. This is a critical issue, and the efforts to deal with it will affect every one of us. And so, we believe strongly that we need to bring us all together to listen to one another and to find the best path forward. So, send us your thoughts. 

​And, by the way, SIGN UP FOR MCE DEEP GREEN!

This week, the nation mourns the loss of Congressperson John Lewis. 

Mr. Lewis is best known - and rightly so - for his non-violent commitment to civil rights. I was listening to a podcast retrospective on his life, and the speaker talked about the strength required to follow the precepts of non-violence. Non-violence demands that, not only do you allow yourself to be beaten, but, as you are being beaten, you love the other person, and you realize that the other person is caught in the same trap as you, and that your mission must to be to save that person and yourself, by changing the system. 

Our time, now, is full of anger, and demands for needed change. And, no doubt, we as a people must commit ourselves to tamping down the virus that afflicts us; to re-building our local economy and supporting our suffering community; and demanding social justice. 

But, as Bill McKibben argues in his most recent book, we increasingly occupy a place in history where these questions are no longer isolated, no longer either/or, no longer things we can deal with one at a time. No, these problems demand simultaneous solutions. 

Congressman Lewis realized that, when we damage the environment, the people who pay the price, are the poor; and, disproportionately, people of color. 

When the environment suffers, the economic cost - think wildfires - hurts us as badly as a virus. 

And, when the environment suffers, the health impacts to all of humanity are becoming clearly transparent; indeed, the WHO has declared Climate Change to be this century's defining health issue. 

The people of Fairfax have it in us to deal with the health crisis that faces us. We have it in us to support our local businesses and our local people. We have it in us to find ways to advance the cause of social justice.  

What we must do to advance all of these causes is to follow Congressman Lewis' lead, and to come together to change the trajectory of climate change. 

“When we take our air, waters and land for granted; when we show a simple lack of respect for nature and our environment, we unmake God’s good creation — John Lewis”

Thank you Congressman, for showing us the way. 

I try to go to every Town Council meeting, and update the Council on the activities of the Climate Action Committee. 

Often, a person or two will get up and react, and the person might say something like, "I don't have enough money to buy solar panels." The implication being, if you don't have enough money to buy solar panels, the climate movement will not welcome you. 

Nothing can be further from the truth. Every one of us, every day, has so many ways we can be part of the solution. 

A couple of years ago, I remember reading in the IJ about a grant that was given to the Town of Fairfax. The grant came from the County of Marin, and it was to try to help us figure out what kind of opportunity the Town of Fairfax had to reduce its food waste. 

Food waste, you see, is a large contributor to our greenhouse gas emissions. 

According to the experts, Food Waste generates about 7% of all greenhouse gas emissions. We don't have good data on this for our Town, but we do know from our last annual greenhouse gas inventory that about 7% of our total emissions come from waste in general. It is not clear how much of that comes from food waste, but my gosh, what an easy thing to fix. For us to get our emissions to zero, we are going to need to do some difficult things down the road. It would be so easy for us to make an immediate dent in the problem by eliminating this easy source of emissions. Sustainable Fairfax has some great resources to help us all take very simple, FREE actions that will help us all. Click here too for more ideas.

When food waste goes into the landfill, it breaks down and emits methane, and accomplishes nothing. When, we can prevent food waste, in any number of ways, we can SAVE MONEY and we can eliminate a big chunk of emissions. Then, when we put our food waste in the right bin, we can eliminate our emissions and we can create compost to nourish our soil. 

We weren't able to take the County's money, but, we do not need to turn away from the opportunity to waste less food and to sequester carbon in the form of compost. We are the Town of Fairfax. For decades we have helped show the way to better futures. We don't all have the money to buy solar panels; but we all can help by paying attention to eliminating food waste, and by composting all we can. Let's do this together. 

(And, sign up for MCE Deep Green!)

I have read about more and more companies that have started to boycott Facebook over their unwillingness to call out the lies and inflammatory rhetoric of political leaders. I have never been a big Facebook user, so I have never had a dog in this hunt, and I have basically ignored it. 

But, now two things have happened to make me think. 

First, as you have seen, I have started to widen the circle of Fairfax Climate Friends by sharing our Fairfax Climate Action Blog posts on Facebook. I decided to do this because many people tell me the CAC page is so buried on the Fairfax website its impossible to find. I thought I would therefore experiment with Facebook to see if people were interested - thank you to those of you who are! (the climate is not waiting for the virus to go away, it is moving inexorably towards a very bad state). 

Second, I read today in Scientific American, a source that seems pretty credible to me, that Facebook is now preventing posts from people who care about the environment, and they are refusing to follow their own policies regarding "alternate facts" with respect to the science of climate. (click here for the story). 

So, what should people who care about science, who care about leaving a decent world to our children, do? What can we mere Fairfaxians do in the face of this corporate colossus?

I don't know. For all that I know, they may decide to censor me, and I may be talking to myself from now on. 

Well, all the more reason - go to the Fairfax CAC website and sign up, and you will never have to worry about being in the dark! (click here). 

Thank you, people of Fairfax, for caring about this issue. Together, we will make the changes needed to move us forward. Alternate facts notwithstanding. 

Thought I would pass along some more good news. 

PG&E has become the first utility in the country to support the idea of all-electric buildings. 

As you may know, all-electric buildings, ultimately powered by renewable electricity, is a critical part of what we must do to move towards independence from the shackles of fossil fuels. 

There is a growing movement across the state of California in this direction. Our utilities are starting to support this idea. Other places around the country are following. 

The County of Marin is recommending to all Towns in the county that we adopt the ordinance they have adopted, and that we all align to make all new housing energy efficient, and/or all electric. 

It is inspiring to see the momentum that is growing here, in the state, in the country, in the world, to help us declare independence from fossil fuels. Let us be part of this new declaration of independence!

The Climate Action Committee in the Town of Fairfax is a team of volunteers whose purpose is to advise the Town Council on actions we need to implement to achieve our Climate Emergency Goal. 

In 2019, the Fairfax Town Council became the first Town in Marin County to declare a Climate Emergency, and to set a target of ZERO Greenhouse gas emissions from the residents, businesses, and visitors to the town, as well as from the Town operations themselves. 

This is an audacious goal. 

We can be encouraged by the fact that, a decade ago, we set a goal to reduce our emissions 20% by 2020, and we beat that goal by several years. This is a town of people who get things done. 

Our challenge is huge, and we would like to invite interested people to join us; we need your help

We are looking for students who want to help us and to learn and to bring lessons back to your schools. We are looking for business owners who can help us think about ce-carbonizing while supporting economic vitality. We are looking for people who can help us design strategies for supporting the needs of diverse communities, including economic and demographic diversity. We need creative thinkers. 

If you, or someone you know might be interested, please be in touch. You  can email us at fairfaxcac@gmail.com. 

And, as always encourage your friends to go Deep Green, and encourage your friends to sign up for this blog. Our community can do anything, when we work together. 

Thank you all, and stay well. 

The state of California has required that every County, every Town create a climate action plan driving towards the State's Climate goals. 

The town of Fairfax one-upped the state by declaring a Climate Emergency and setting its own goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2030. 

The Climate Action Committee has a subcommittee, ably chaired by Jody Timms, working on our 2020-2030 CAP. Our plan is creating the Roadmap that we must follow to achieve our Council-mandated goals. 

These plans are important - just yesterday, a California Court rejected the CAP for San Diego County for using strategies they did not agree with. These plans must be real, and they must be effective, and they must be followed.  

But at the end of the day, we cannot complete this plan without the input of the people of this Town. It is we, the people, who will need to come together to agree upon our vision, and to develop strategies that will be required to move us. 

We are starting to plan a series of virtual events to bring the people of this Town together to just talk about what we must do. 

It's so easy to talk about all the reasons this will be hard. Let's talk about all the things we will do to get it done. 

One of our initiatives for this year is to work with Sustainable Fairfax and MCE to double Fairfax's participation in the MCE Deep Green program. 

One thing we are going to do immediately is to get the list of businesses who participate in the program posted to our website including businesses who have become Champions in the program. 

These companies have chosen to get all of their electricity from renewable sources, thus greatly reducing our overall climate footprint. 

Please patronize these vendors, as they are showing us committed to protecting the health of the planet, the health of all of us. And, let's all follow their lead and make sure all of us, and all of our friends are following their example. 

It's easy. It's important Please help. 

My son, who lives in San Rafael, likes to tell me he thinks of Fairfax as a place where old hippies like to live. 

GUILTY! 

A few weeks ago, I was listening to the radio and I heard them talking about the New Orleans Jazz Fest. I have attended this event in the past and found it quite wonderful. Well, because of the virus, this year, they cancelled the live event and instead, hosted what they called something like Festing at Home, with broadcasts of many of their old performances. One of them really struck me at the time, and even more so today. 

That performance was a 90-year old Pete Seeger singing several songs. One that I had not heard before was based on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King. In that song, Pete sings:

"Don't say it can't be done, 
The battle's just begun.
Take it from Dr. King
You too can learn to sing
so drop the gun!

We sang about Alabama 1955
But since 9-11 we wonder will this world survive
The world learned a lesson from Dr. King
We can survive, we can, we will
And so we sing - "

(Ok, in truth, I can't really learn to sing, or at least, not in tune, but I am howling every evening!)

Anyway, I loved that song so much that I made it my ringtone. 

Now, here we are in a week of such strife that indeed it recalls those days in the 60s. We are beset with plagues, with institutional racism, and the the spectre of imminent climate change. Sometimes, it can seem so overwhelming. 

So, when my phone rings, it reminds me to not say it can't be done, but to stand up and fight. And sing, and howl. 

Join MCE Deep Green. Recruit a friend to read this blog. Be kind to everyone you meet, especially those of opposing political views. And sing.