I’ve written recently about climate change and theology,  here. I am following that up today and will do so further in days to come. Along with scientists, politicians and others in the public sphere, there are many Christian theologians and other leaders, from progressives to Evangelicals, who teach and lead in activism about global warming and climate change.
(Today’s post is actually “secular”, non-theological.)

I’ve heard more than one expert on climate declare, as I expect you may have, that the debate about the reality of climate change and  its largely  human-driven causes is over. The evidence backing up such statements seems clear and undeniable. (I say this having actively sought out the arguments of “deniers” and found virtually nothing of actual substance there; rather much erroneous thinking, manipulated data.) The focus now must be on ways to slow or end global warming, along with preparations to deal with those effects which may not be avoided despite our efforts.

Much of the time, we as non-governing citizens concern ourselves mainly with what is going on with federal agencies, National legislation and international agreements. I addressed this briefly in this post of last year and 2017 about the Paris Climate Accord.  A key point: while national and global efforts are definitely significant, they need not make or break our success, broadly. Given this, we must be more focused on localized efforts. (And this seems to be happening… read on.)

State level action counts a lot, and probably even more what communities are doing. Naturally, large cities have the most clout. And they are doing a lot. Mayors of large (or any-size) cities are often less partisan, not moored powerfully to national politics. San Diego, CA, near me, has a Republican mayor who has provided strong leadership in this area. I believe most mayors have pragmatic approaches, without heavy investment in state or national level political battles or partisan alignment. What’s key in this? That deliberation, planning and action is coming from a local level, with community involvement. These processes are more easily contributed to and influenced by citizens than are those on state and national levels.

Bringing it now to my own Community, Escondido, CA, (north San Diego County): A January meeting of our City Council opened up a deliberative process in new ways, thanks to a newly-elected mayor and a now-progressive majority on City Council. (Note: issues like this are not primarily “conservative” vs. “progressive”, though they often do fall that way… as already noted, no general categorization nor party affiliation necessarily defines an approach or a given politician’s posture.) As reported by The Coast News, Inland Edition, “Climate plan gets warm welcome” (Jan 25, 2019), Escondido has just “… unfurled both a public outreach and carbon emissions inventory to plan how it can comply with the state’s landmark climate law for its updated CAP”. At least on the level of the City Council, the process is being approached in a bi-partisan way.

It has at least some pertinence to mention that Escondido has long voted mainly for conservatives, at all levels, and the prior mayor of eight years was highly pro-business and not one to show much concern for climate change issues. In other words, my community may, hopefully, be representative of many others in respect to a broadening awareness of and action-orientation toward climate change…. and a desire to “come together” for respectful, exploratory dialog toward finding helpful local responses and supporting others at “higher” levels of governance.

Please share your reactions and any stories you may have from your own community or locality.

Does your town or city have a Climate Action Plan (so named in California, or similarly if outside California)? What is the essence of it?

To view the full article referenced above, an interesting read which I referenced only briefly and didn’t fully summarize, you can find it online (at least for now) here: https://www.thecoastnews.com/escondido-council-welcomes-climate-action-plan/

Special note on the photo: It is fairly local, being one I took of part of Julian, about 40 road miles inland from Escondido, from the top of Volcan Mt. Much of the gorgeous mountain is now SD County owned/managed, with hiking trails, and much of it is Native American owned/managed. If you view the article online, the photo there, interestingly, shows Volcan Mt. from Escondido, the long one on the horizon in the left half of the picture.