This week, I was supposed to be on vacation. We had intended to head up to the Trinity mountains to do some hiking in this beautiful wilderness. 

We ALMOST cancelled our trip, though, when we started hearing about how dangerous the air quality was there, due to the fires in Oregon. 

Last week, the Washington Post published a story on the people in Oregon, who, though experiencing the fire, still deny the reality of climate change. HERE. 

It is shocking to me to see how resistant we flawed humans can be to recognizing the reality, when we feel like its not in our interest to do so. 

That so human reality showed itself again last week in yet another guise. You may have read about the nurses who are caring for patients dying from Covid. Most of these people are unvaccinated, and many of them beg their nurses for the vaccine. The nurses must be the ones to tell them that it is now too late. 

The good news, with regard to climate, is that it is not yet too late for us. It is getting close. An excellent piece in Bloomberg (not exactly a liberal PR organ) makes so clear the fierce urgency of this challenge. HERE. 

Because it is not too late, I am going to do my hiking this week, but I am going to come back and get to work. 

Together, we can do this. 

Sign up for this blog. 

Sign up to join the CAC. 

Join MCE Deep Green or PG&E full solar. 

Reduce your VMTs and replace your gas appliances. 

​Together, we CAN do this. 

The diagram above is from the recently completed Greenhouse Gas Inventory for the Town of Fairfax. 

On the left, you will see an axis labelled VMT, or Vehicle Miles Traveled. This means the total miles driven by all of us in all of our vehicles. This is measured in those blue bars. If you study this graph, you will see that, since 2005, our total miles driven as a group of people has basically stayed the same. Public transportation, biking, carpooling, changes in gas prices, nothing has budged this number. 

Then, on this same graph, you will see that orange-ish line that kind of slopes slightly downhill from left to right. That line is the emissions we create from those miles driven. 

If you are mathematically inclined, you might wonder why our emissions are going down even while our miles traveled are staying the same. The reason, of course, is that we are slowly shifting away from polluting cars to various kinds of Zero Emission Vehicles (ZEVs). This is a good thing. I have written several times about the fact that Technology is on our side in our challenge to reduce our emissions, and this graph shows clearly how that is already happening. 

The big problem is, we need to speed up the orange line; we need it to start going down faster. 

If you went back a couple of blogs, you will see the graph that summarizes our many years of GHG inventories. That graph shows that our biggest source of emissions is from transportation - the very graph you see on this blog. 

So, we have two things, basically, we can do to push that orange line down faster. 

First, we can reduce our VMTs. The fewer miles we travel, by definition, the fewer emissions we will have. It is hard for me to see, frankly, how we can reduce the VMTs. That is, I just bought a hydrogen fuel cell car, but I am driving the same amount of miles because I work in the city. 

There is the option for trying to find ways to support people working more from home, and it may be that the coronavirus experience changes our work patterns, and maybe we will see a reduction in VMTs from that; it will be interesting to see (the data really seems to lag; we only now have our 2019 inventory). 

The bigger opportunity is to shift to things that are not counted as VMTs, like E-bikes. That is, when we travel by an ebike instead of an automobile, it no longer shows up as a VMT, even though we are still doing the same amount of travel. I think E-bikes are a great new way to drive down our VMTs. HERE is an interesting article showing that E-bikes are probably one of the best ways for us to reduce our carbon footprint fast. Personally, I am trying to re-wire my brain. I am trying to make my E-bike my default transportation option. Then, only if its not feasible for some reason to use the E-bike, I go to the ZEV. In doing this, I am driving down my personal VMTs. 

In addition to driving down our VMTs, the next thing we can do is to shift over to cars that are zero-emission. 

I know that many people worry about this. Today, we do not have enough chargers around. Many electric cars do not have enough range. Many electric cars now available are expensive. 

The good news is, technology is on our side. Prices are coming down. Performance is going up. And, the government is providing extensive incentives to help people move in this direction. 

Transportation is our biggest challenge. 

As much as we can, let's find ways to get onto ebikes (and, when you do this, BE SAFE!) and reduce our VMTs.

And, when your car needs to be replaced, buy a ZEV. 

Marin is currently has the second highest rate of ZEV adoption in the country. Let's get Fairfax to number 1! 

And, one last thing. I know that many people face many obstacles in getting to this new, better future. We are not ignorant of these changes, and we want to learn more. If you find this transition hard, let us know why, and let's work together to find ways to get past the obstacles in our path. At the CAC, we want to understand the difficulties, and to work with all of our neighbors to build a better future for our kids. 

Together, we can do this. 

There is a lot of interesting news today on the issue of the Climate. 

Governor Newsom, responding to the drought and wildfires that are our new normal, is asking the state to step up its action to de-carbonize. HERE. He is directing the California Air Resources Board and Public Utilities commission to accelerate the state' goals on decarbonization. He is aiming t carbon neutrality by 2035. 

Yesterday, US Energy Secretary Granholm called on state and local officials to step up. "You are the only ones who can adopt and implement smart and ambitious building codes. We're asking you to join us in this push" she said at the DOE's National Energy Codes Conference. 

I want you to look at the graph above. This is the illustration of the Greenhouse Gas emissions from the Town of Fairfax. Remember, our Town Council has shown Governor Newsom the way, by calling for Carbon Neutrality by 2030 (not 2035, as he has done). And, our newly adopted CAP shows a way to do it. 

The graph above shows us the two glaring challenges we face. The bottom, blue blob, is our emissions from Transportation. (more on that another time). The almost as big orange blob is our emissions from burning methane. If we are going to achieve what the scientists tell us we must, then we must eliminate that orange blob. 

More and more cities and towns around the state and around the country are requiring that new buildings be designed to use only electricity in response to this common challenge. Fairfax is poised to be the first Town in Marin to become part of this wave, and, in so doing, to become part of the leadership on this most critical of issues. 

The Town Council has shown us the way. The Governor has shown us the way. The US government has shown us the way. The scientists have shown us the way. The falling reservoirs (Shasta Lake is now at 1/3 capacity) and the burning fires are showing us the way. 

Thank you, Fairfax, for your clear-eyed understanding of the challenge, and for doing something about it. Together, we can do this. 

As you all know, we are in the worst drought in recorded history in our little Town of Fairfax. 

Each of us has a major role to play. Each of us must do our part. 

People from the Water District tell me that the first thing we should all be doing, is getting our personal water consumption to less than 50 gallons per person per day. This is the maximum socially responsible level of consumption, if we are going to get through this crisis, and it is the level we should all commit to achieving. 

So, I want to give you a way to benchmark YOUR use, so you can get yours down to below 50.

​(FULL DISCLOSURE- there might be an easier way to do this, but I can't find it. And, the MMWD website is kind of user unfriendly, so it is not a trivial effort to do this. But, it works, and, if anybody knows a better way, please let us all know!)

Ok, here we go. The image above is the image you will get when you go to the MMWD main page. HERE is the link, if you don't have it. 

Now, you must have an on-line account. I am going to assume that you already have one, and that you can log in. If you do NOT have a login, you will need to create it, and that process is fairly straight-forward on the site. If you are NOT able to do that, I think MMWD is standing by to help. 

Ok, so the next step will be to click on the button that says "Pay my bill." (you will see this blue box on the lower left quadrant). 

When you click my Pay my bill icon, you will see this screen: 

You then have to click on the little blue text on the lower left called 
"Make a Payment." When you do that, you will see a screen something like this: 

Here, you seem to be able to pick from some number of past bills. In our case, for some reason, you can only see one, so I clicked on that. In my case, I clicked on the text that says "View." I don't know what happens when you click on the other text. Anyway, when you click on the word View, you get a copy of that last bill. 

Here is the where the fun begins. I want to show you two important things on your bill. Your bill will look something like this: 

Ok, so the first thing to look at is the block of text that is kind of in the middle of the page that says "Your Water Use." Here, you will see the number of days included in your bill this year, and a year ago, as well as your units (I have no idea what a unit is), your gallons, and your average gallons per day. Looking at my example, you will see that this year, I am using an average of 61 gallons per day. When I first saw that, I was embarrassed, as Larry Bragman had just told me I had better be below 50 to be minimally responsible, and I thought I was letting you all down! Then, I realized that this is for my entire household. There are two people living in my home, so this means we are actually using 30.5 gallons per person per day - YAY! 

The second thing that is interesting, is to compare this year to last year. You will see from my example that last year, I was using 190 gallons per day. That is actually kind of shocking to me. Last year this time, we were holed up because of the virus, but I can't think of what we were doing differently. I do know that, because of the water crisis, we have instituted a lot of changes in our lifestyle (including cutting WAY back on any irrigation of our plants) but that seems kind of extreme. Anyway, I am mostly just glad that we are better now than whatever wasteful ways we were this time last year. 

Finally, take a look at the graph at the bottom right. This one shows our water consumption over time. What is also cool about this one is that it compares your use to the average HOUSEHOLD in the area. Your consumption is the dark blue and the average is the light blue. You can see here that our usage was higher in July, September, November, and January, but we were almost always less than the average customer. Thus being below average allows me to feel a little bit virtuous, and, at the same time, a little bit guilty for my watering a small garden during the hot dry months. I have to think about that. And what in the world was I doing in January??? I used more water in January than in all other months, even though it was a wet month and our sprinkler system was off!

Then, I remembered. During December of last year, we moved out of our house for a while and loaned it to a family who had been displaced by the fires. There were more than two of them (I don't really remember how many), but the increase reflects the fact that the house was not occupied by two water misers, but by a larger number of people who may not have been so careful. 

And so you can see, this one little page gives me great insight into how we are using water and how we might need to change.

Given the current drought, the Water District has asked all of us to save another 20% of our water. I have no idea how we will do that (maybe I have to sacrifice my tomatoes), but we are trying. 

So must we all. 

Together, we can do this. 

If you try this at home and run into trouble, I am not the Geek squad, but I can try to help. Thank you all for caring. 
​ 

The County of Marin is considering the enactment of a county-wide ordinance to require food vendors to use reusable Foodware. They intend to ask all jurisdictions in the County to adopt it to provide consistent requirements across the County. 

The ordinance will require:
1. All takeout disposable food ware must be compostable or made of aluminum. 
2. Straws must be natural-fiber compostable and only available upon request. 
3. For people eating at a restaurant, only reusable food ware is permitted. 
4. The County will levy a charge of $0.25/disposable cup. 
5.Thee restaurant must have garbage, recycling, and organics bins in front and back of house with "graphic-rich" signage. .

The County will begin enforcement one-year after the ordinance is adopted.

You can see and comment on the draft ordinance here.  

For our town, this will help us some to reduce our climate footprint. Today, waste represents about 6% of our emissions, and the amount of waste from these particular products is of course, much smaller. Nonetheless, this is a critical thing we can all do that will make a difference in tackling the problem we face. 

The County ordinance notes that using reusable food containers for take-out food in most cases saves money (the restaurant does not need to spend money on disposable materials and then pay to haul them away) and obviously reduces our footprint. They say. that this will improve the customer experience, though I am not sure exactly what they are thinking on this point. 

At any rate, I carry a reusable cup and water bottle and Spork almost everywhere I go. It has reduced the amount of stuff I throw way by a large amount. This is something that everyone can do, regardless of means, and it does make a difference. 

Rebels with a Cause - we can do this. 

​

You may know by now, but the Town of Fairfax has adopted its new Climate Action Plan. The State of California requires every Town to address the issues of preparing to live with Climate Change, and to work to head off Climate Change. In Fairfax, we address the issue of preparing to live with the impacts of the problem in our General Plan. Then, we create a separate document, the Climate Action Plan, to talk about what we are going to do to do our part to stop the problem. 

Many volunteers worked many hours to bring this plan to closure. I want to specially recognize and thank Jody Timms, who lead the effort over many months. She was ably assisted by Bruce Ackerman, Joanne Lasnier, Jennifer Hammond, and many others. 

Many people in the Town provided feedback to us and to the Council. This feedback was extremely helpful, and we did our best to incorporate everything we could. 

I am proud to be part of a Town willing to take responsibility for doing its part to bend the Climate Curve. I am proud to be part of a Town that carry on the Rebels with a Cause commitment to the health of our world. 

Congratulations to you, the people of this Town. 

And, two other things you might consider. 

We were ably assisted in our work by Christine O'Rourke, of MCEP. Christine works tirelessly to support all of the Towns of Marin with our Greenhouse Gas Inventories and our Climate Action Plans. So . . . . . 

Tomorrow night, Christine will be joining us at our Climate Action Committee Meeting - 7 pm by zoom - details on the Town website. Tuesday, she will be talking with us about our 2019 Inventory (sneak peek; we made no progress in 2019). Join us if you can.

Also tomorrow, Christine will be presenting at the League of Women Voters, from 11-12. There, she will be talking about Climate Action Plans around the County. This presentation will give you more insight into what others are doing, and how we are all coming together to take on this ultimate challenge. You can sign up for this event HERE.  

So, I want to pat everyone on the back. I want to encourage us all to take a deep breath. And, now, it's time to get to work!