Magical Thinking – Do we really believe that global heating is waiting for us to get around to dealing with it? Will our first reality check be the fire that takes out most of the houses in Sammamish? Or Redmond? Or Bellevue?
We know from our own history that only a small percentage of us will find an hour a day working to solve the emissions problem, and that the rest of us will wait until we are given laws we have to comply with. But if you made it to one of the No Kings marches you experienced a taste of what a group of people with a shared values feels like.
Yes – we know you probably have other things to worry about. But 2024 had the highest CO2 level ever and 2025 is likely to be the hottest year globally for 25,000 years – and physics does not care if we have other things to deal with. We need you to read this and decide if you can give the climate issue some of your time.
350 Eastside was involved in the creation of People For Climate Action (PCA) in 2018 and has supported their activities since then to work with Eastside cities and King County to adopt Climate Action Plans and to help implement actions at the city and county level to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from buildings and transportation.
City groups formed, public comments were made at City Council meetings, actions were proposed, meetings were held with council members and city staff, PCA people were appointed to Advisory Committees and no City actions in any of the Eastside cities have been taken which would reduce GHG emissions to a meaningful extent. King County emissions in 2023 were the same as 2007. It is clear that the City Council members in our area have chosen inaction over the risk that the voters won’t like local ordinances that tell them what to do.
Source kc_ghg_webversion.pdf King County SCAP page 6
A PCA work group was assembled early this year to identify twelve effective actions which other US cities have used to reduce their emissions and which are likely to produce results in King County. They have put together a Briefing Book with examples of actions taken by many different cities and counties which have produced results. 25-07-28,PCA Critical City Climate Actions Report, final.pdf - Google Drive A number of these actions can be taken by a city with low or no cost – like requiring all new apartment buildings have conduit in the parking garage floor so that every parking space can be wired in the future for EV charging. Or requiring that home sellers provide an energy efficiency report to home buyers.
The challenge now is to get enough City Council members to get Climate Action back onto their work plans for 2026 and get City Staff and Advisory Groups to read the Briefing Book and get some proposed Ordinances on the agenda, along with finding some money to pay for some of the actions.
This is going to require building up the local PCA groups so they can show up at City Council meetings for public comments and have meetings with council members and city staff. We have experienced people in several active city groups and need volunteers in each city to show the Council that there is public support for these actions.
For more information and how to sign up and give us your thoughts see Contact Us – People for Climate Action
Thanks for reading this,
Phil
