Comments from the Chair
City charter amendments
Our Political and Executive Committees have discussed the three proposed amendments at some length, but not taken an official Alamo Group position on these. As most of you know these amendments have been pushed by the local San Antonio Firefighters Association in its ongoing power struggle with the City of San Antonio and City Manager Sheryl Sculley over lapsed contract negotiations.
This struggle, we feel, is outside the environmental interests of the Alamo Group, although possible implications of the amendments, if approved, are of some concern. Many of us have seen how ballot referenda can become an avenue for high dollar groups to obstruct or highjack political action in places like California.
On a local level, we discussed worries about possible implications to effective management of our government and utilities should petition numbers be lowered to only 20,000, especially when signatures are easily obtained on petition, while voter turn out, even in highly contested elections remains dismally low locally. For more read this SAEN opinion piece: Charter Amendments: ‘Been There, Done That’ [10/28/18].
Climate change
On October 6, 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued “a Special Report in 2018 on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways” requested in the “Decision of the 21st Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to adopt the Paris Agreement”.
This Summary for Policy Makers (SPM) presents the key findings of the Special Report, based on the “assessment of the available scientific, technical and socio-economic literature relevant to global warming of 1.5°C and for the comparison between global warming of 1.5°C and 2°C above pre-industrial levels”. I urge SC members and others to familiarize themselves with the major findings.
Although there were a few days of media coverage of this report, it continues to be largely ignored by our national media, and by both major political parties and most political candidates. The graphics in this report provide a good place to start for quick understanding, to be enhanced by further reading in the report.
I would like to emphasize the following:
- global temperatures have already increased about 1 degree Celsius (centigrade),
- there is a huge worsening in impacts between a 1.5 degree increase by mid-century, and a 2 degree increase, and
- any chance of limiting increases to 1.5 degrees requires huge action within 10 years to reduce carbon emissions into the atmosphere.
Graphs on SPM-18 show the need for huge reductions in methane and CO2 emissions before 2030. This report was issued while San Antonio is in the midst of its “Climate Action & Adaptation Plan” (CAAP) process.
CPS Energy, business leaders and city leaders so far seek a fairly cautious approach, and climate deniers like Councilman Brockhouse are oppositional. We are working hard with other advocacy groups to ensure that the final plan, to be issued in first quarter 2019, will have strong actionable language with strong metrics for continued monitoring and accountability of our progress as a city.
Especially in the absence of national leadership, cities around the country (and world) are working to address this crisis. The time for action is now. Our goals are to move SA as quickly as practical to carbon neutrality and beyond, i.e. net carbon absorption (CDR as in the IPCC report), while protecting San Antonio’s most vulnerable communities (who historically are generally much lower carbon emitters) and making us a more resilient, equitable, healthier and better community for all.
by Terry Burns, M.D., Alamo Group Chair
Why San Antonio Youth Care About Their Climate Future
Our November General Meeting will be very different from previous programs related to climate change. We are hosting several young people – of different age groups (grade-school to college) and from different parts of San Antonio – who will share some of their concerns about their climate future.
Tuesday, November 20th
6:30 p.m., refreshments served beginning at 6
William R. Sinkin Eco Centro, 1802 North Main Avenue
Map
This discussion may help us make the San Antonio’s Climate Action and Adaptation Plan stronger. It also raises issues comparable to the case of Juliana, et alia, v. the United States, which may be heard by the Supreme Court soon.
We hope that the young people, who are taking the time to meet with us during their Thanksgiving vacation, will help us understand their concerns that are particular to San Antonio and south Texas, like the kinds of testimony of the 21 youths in the Juliana, et alia* case. What are those concerns? How can our Climate Action and Adaptation plans help address those concerns? What can we do to make sure the voices of their generation are heard by decision-makers at all levels?
*For a better sense of what’s at stake in the Juliana, et alia, v. the United States, view some of these videos produced in support of the students who sued the U.S.
This event is free and open to the public.
Inyo National Forest
by Kevin Hartley, Alamo Group Outings leader
Lions Field Events on Holiday Break
Our Lions Field events will take a holiday break in November and December and return again next January. See you then!
Outings: The Call of the Wild
Visit the Alamo Sierra Club Outings page on Meetup for detailed information about all of our upcoming Sierra Club Outings.
The Alamo Sierran Newsletter
Richard Alles, Editor
Published by The Alamo Group of the Sierra Club, P.O. Box 6443, San Antonio, TX 78209, AlamoSierraClub.org.
The Alamo Group is one of 13 regional groups within the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club.
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