It’s Time for Emergency-Speed, Whole Society Climate Mobilization!

Artwork depicting Pachamama, the Incan earth/time mother who is an ever-present and independent deity and who has her own creative power to sustain life on this earth. The Law of Mother Earth was written into the new Bolivian Constitution in 2009. Thank you to the unknown artist for this wonderful image.

By Nancy Price
Co-chair, Earth Democracy Issue Committee

October 2020

While massive wildfires burned in northern California, on Tuesday, September 29, my Yolo County Board of Supervisors passed a Climate Emergency Resolution spearheaded by the Yolo County Climate Emergency Coalition. The coalition spent months drafting the resolution, and it was endorsed by over 100 grassroots groups and individuals in the community including local farms, businesses, faith-based alliances, educational institutions, and various advocacy campaigns, as reported in Common Dreams. This resolution declared a climate emergency and committed to mobilization to achieve a just transition to zero carbon emissions by 2030.  

Significantly, in their 4-1 vote the supervisors committed the county to enacting a plan “to achieve a just economic recovery and transition to a countywide carbon-negative (climate positive) footprint by 2030.” They agreed to fund a climate advisory committee tasked with helping the county achieve this just transition with equitable outcomes for marginalized communities and to retool livelihoods. 

Adelita Serena, a Woodland-based organizer for Mothers Out Front, a grassroots climate action organization and a key supporter of the resolution, explained, “As a mother and Indigenous woman, what we are currently seeing is a very clear and loud alarm from our mother earth and ancestors. We must change course off fossil fuels before it’s too late. I have two sons and I want them to have a future. We must act now with great urgency.” Supervisor Don Saylor said, “The goal of carbon neutrality might not be fast enough. I’d like to make sure we as a county have done our part and have made measurable progress by 2025.” 

After the resolution passed, Juliette Beck, an organizer with the Yolo County Climate Emergency Coalition, emphasized: “Being on the front lines of the fires and suffering from heatwaves and days of hazardous, smoke-filled air this summer has definitely created a new sense of urgency…Yolo County's action today of declaring a climate emergency in our predominantly rural agricultural county of 220,000 residents is a testament to the social movement power demanding both transformative climate action and concrete steps to remedy the legacy of systemic racism.”

In Yolo County during this time of COVID-19 and the climate impacts, the Hispanic farmworkers have been especially vulnerable due to a lack of adequate masks and gloves and long hours in the sun picking the fruits and vegetables for our tables. A farmworker, who preferred to remain anonymous and continued to work when the smoke from recent fires blanketed the county, spoke at the hearing, saying, “My lungs are still irritated from breathing contaminated air, all the smoke, dust, and ash I inhaled while working in the fields. I’m still working every day even though I can’t stop coughing because I know the work will end soon and I need to…help take care of my family… What other choice do I have?” 

With this action, Yolo County joins over 110 local governments within 24 U.S. states that have passed a declaration, representing just over 37 million people or 11.3% in this country. Worldwide, 1,783 declarations have passed within 30 countries plus the EU for a population of 835 million now under Climate Emergency Declaration. This is a project of The Climate Mobilization, a decentralized global campaign that is engaging local communities in policymaking. (Learn more about the movement and its impact here). 

The number of declarations passed has greatly increased just in the past two years, and no wonder – massive forest fires, droughts and crop failures,  extreme weather, an Artic warmer than in the past 3 million years, and melting glaciers are clear evidence of this emergency and that we are teetering at the tipping point. Global warming no longer adequately describes this crisis.   

Can we recover or are we doomed? No matter who wins the election, it’s time for us to organize in our communities to pass a Climate Emergency Declaration or Resolution to both change local policy and to build a bold, massive grassroots Climate Emergency mobilization to demand our representatives take action now and set the deadline for 2030 – not 2045 or 2050, dates still cited, when it will be way too late.

As the Earth Democracy Issue Committee develops our program for the next 6-18-24 months, let’s remember that one of our framing principles is “Guardianship of Present and Future Generations.”  Being part of an all-hands-on-deck, emergency-speed mobilization to protect humanity might just save the day. After the election, we’ll develop a Toolkit for members and branches.

Join with us! Let’s be part of this emergency-speed, whole society Climate Mobilization. If you would like to help with developing materials, please write nancytprice39[at]gmail.com or call 530-758-0726 Pacific Time.