How hot was it? Climate emergency hot!

Here in the city, what does 105 degrees feel like?  Public comment Monday July 8 included a variety of heat dome experiences:

Rye Butler-Corbett: Hi there. My name is Rye Butler-Corbett. I am on a hike with my dog. He loves to run, but there’s no shade. As I stop to drink water, I see him collapse, his big pink tongue sticking all the way out of his mouth as he desperately pants to cool himself down. Behind the red glare exuded by the sun, I can see chickens picking at sun-dried worms on the ground.

[00:00:32] The goats are panting under the trees. Their skin is dry and flaky. I can see the barn cat sprawled out across the gravel and I have to check on her to make sure she’s still breathing. I continue to wonder: Why must these animals suffer from a symptom of greed? We coexist with these animals, and after expecting them to conform to our standard of living, we as their protectors have failed.

[00:00:54] We have failed them. And there are so many more animal lives that are at risk from climate change. Climate change impacts every single living organism on this planet, not just us. And as the ones with a voice, it is our responsibility to speak up for those who cannot. Small changes yield big results. We’re here today on behalf of the voiceless to urge this council to push and implement the electrification ordinance.

[00:01:17] A step away from damage is a step towards change.

[00:01:20] Molly Babcock: Hello, my name is Molly Babcock. I got off work today at 5 p. m. and walked home in the heat to meet my little sister at our shared apartment. She works part-time in leasing making just above minimum wage. She can’t afford the expensive grocery options downtown, let alone a car. We’ve both suffered from heat-related illness and fainting disorders throughout our lives.

[00:01:41] Today, we weigh the impact of extreme heat on our health against our need for food. Low-income young people shouldn’t have to have these conversations but they’re becoming more and more frequent as climate change exacerbates extreme weather patterns here in Eugene. The heat we all experienced over the past week is far from normal. Last Friday, July 5, was the hottest July 5 ever recorded in Portland, Salem, Eugene, Hillsboro, and Vancouver.

[00:02:08] This extreme heat is part of a larger trend toward hot summers and unpredictable winters, that threaten our public infrastructure, our neighbors, and especially our future generations.

[00:02:17] Dylan Plummer: My name is Dylan Plummer and I work with the Sierra Club. I’m testifying on behalf of my organization and its over 10,000 members in Eugene to urge the City Council to take urgent action to reduce climate pollution and to protect public health and air quality.

[00:02:32] As I testify, our community is experiencing what would have, just a few years ago, been a historic heat wave. Yet in the past five years, this extreme summer heat has become the new normal as the climate crisis’s impacts become more pronounced here in Eugene and across the globe. These impacts span across many of the most pressing issues facing us today, including public health.

[00:02:51] As someone with a chronic respiratory illness, the air quality implications of the continued use of fossil fuels, as well as the impacts of the climate crisis, are particularly personal for me.

[00:03:02] I’m concerned with the continued use of fossil fuels in our homes and buildings. According to data from the EPA, the use of fossil fuels in homes and buildings generates as much outdoor NOx pollution as the state’s cement manufacturing and power generation industries combined.

[00:03:17] Thankfully, there are commonsense policies that this council can take to both reduce climate pollution and protect clean air and preserve public health.

[00:03:25] Danny Noonan: My name is Danny Noonan. I am a climate and energy strategist with the nonprofit organization Breach Collective and this morning I sent Council a letter on behalf of 16 organizations outlining five policy proposals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in buildings.

[00:03:42] Our policy proposals will improve public health outcomes, increase community resilience, and lower household costs.

[00:03:50] Kyle Purdy: My name is Kyle Purdy and I’m a lifelong Eugenian. It was 103 degrees today in Eugene, which is 23 degrees higher than our average July 8. We are under wildfire and smoke warnings. Now is the time for leadership and action. Please pass a new electrification ordinance that includes an increased tax on NW Natural, establishes a low nitrogen oxides emission standard for household appliances, prohibits expansion of gas lines, and requires that new city-supported construction be all-electric.

[00:04:20] Drew Simrin: My name is Drew Simrin, and I’ve lived in Eugene my whole life. I urge Council to… generate revenue for low-income residential electrification by increasing gas supplier tax on NW Natural, a known bad actor, from 5% to 10% and creating a social cost of carbon fee.

[00:04:40] And establish low nitrogen oxide emission standard for gas furnaces and water heaters sold in Eugene as well… and I would encourage that the city prohibit the expansion of gas mains within the city public right of way.

[00:04:53] Alexi Miller: Hi, I’m Alexi Miller. I’m here representing the Eugene Sustainability Commission, and in particular, I lead the Building Decarbonization Committee for that commission. We’ve put together an advice letter to Council, and it’s titled: ‘Unlocking Decarbonization in Eugene’s Rental Properties.’

[00:05:10] Eugene is, as you probably know, mostly renters, over 50% renters here. And so there’s a really important dynamic called the split incentive. That means, people rent a place, that could be commercial or residential, and the person who pays the power bills is not the same person who installs the stuff, right? And so that means the landlord has an incentive to go cheap and the tenant is stuck with potentially inefficient equipment.

[00:05:32] So there’s a real equity energy cost and decarbonization challenge that comes from this dynamic. So we looked into several policy options. We looked nationwide and first off, one idea is Eugene could be providing program and policy support.

[00:05:46] It’s pretty complicated for folks to go through the process of getting a heat pump, getting EWEB incentives, getting insulation, being sure you’re eligible for federal tax credits. It’s all complicated, the timelines intersect, and it’s tricky to manage them well, which is why folks dealing with the split incentive—landlords, for example. It’s too complicated to even start, let alone finish it well.

[00:06:08] There are service providers that are doing this. The city could staff a position, could incentivize landlords, community-based organizations to help support that. So there are a few different options outlined in the letter there.

[00:06:18] The other one I’m going to mention briefly is a rental building energy use disclosure ordinance which would help increase transparency in the rental market. So energy being a part of the cost of housing, we could reduce folks’ energy burden or at least make it clearer what they’re getting into by helping them understand what they’re really renting.

[00:06:35] Rebecca Lipton: My name is Rebecca Lipton. The multiple-day heat wave and high ozone levels that we’re currently experiencing are a painful reminder that we must take action to reduce fossil fuel use. Please find your courage to pass fossil-free policies.

[00:06:56] Jacob Trewe: My name is Jacob Trewe. I’m here today to encourage you to fulfill the promise of the Climate Action Plan and take some action on the climate. I’m old enough to remember when it would rain or storm or even hail in the summer.

[00:07:09] Persistent high summer temps, spikes up into the hundreds, and no precipitation for months, leaving my rain barrels empty, isn’t how Eugene used to be. That’s how southern Oregon, like Medford or Ashland used to be. Our climate is changing, and it’s just getting worse.

[00:07:28] Uma Carriere: My name is Uma Carriere and I am a student at South Eugene High School, and as a young person I worry for the future as wildfires, smoke, and suffocating heat waves have become increasingly present in my life and the lives of my classmates.

[00:07:41] Fossil fuel-burning equipment in buildings emits high levels of nitrogen oxides, which have negative effects on those with asthma and increases air pollution.

[00:07:50] One of my close friends was just admitted to the emergency room a few weeks ago due to an asthma attack that could very likely have been caused by such pollutants. And my father, who suffers from severe asthma, pollen allergies, and a sensitivity to smoke, is currently having severe congestion and breathing issues that at times prevent him from working and has to wear gas masks outside to protect himself from the yearly wildfire seasons.

[00:08:14] I work outside in a garden and I am concerned about the uncomfortable and maybe even dangerous conditions that I may be forced to work in once the smoke and wildfires inevitably set in.

[00:08:27] If we take action against air pollution now by accelerating the electrification of infrastructure in Eugene, we can lessen the effects of air pollution.

[00:08:37] When making the decision about the future of electrification in Eugene, I urge the Council to consider youth and the health and future of our community.

[00:08:44] Buck Olen: My name is Buck Olen.

[00:08:46] The intersection of Royal Ave. and Green Hill Road, marking the westward edge of the City of Eugene; not far from the stop sign, a viewing platform along the Fern Ridge bike path, looking out over the wetlands and grasslands the Willamette Valley is known for, coping with the extreme heat during this first week of July and preparing for a second week of temperatures above 90 degrees, the grasses and sedges are already golden brown.

[00:09:16] The receding green of the wetlands as the abundance of spring rains continues to fade from memory. Yet I still recall the years when people worried the fireworks of Independence Day would not be seen due to cloud cover, if not obscured by rainfall, as the rainy season Oregon had been blessed with for so long reached well into summer.

[00:09:40] The scientific evidence has been mounting regarding the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions for over 50 years. The awareness of the consequences circulating amongst the public for over 30. For far too long, we’ve done nothing to mitigate the impacts.

[00:09:56] We are still doing far too little. Watching as the world changes, climate changes, my eyes wide open, the doors of perception never to be shut again. The heritage of environmental racism, paying dividends to only the few, the richest among us, while the poor and working disenfranchised majority struggle to find common ground, as the sea levels rise around us.

[00:10:24] Electrification is a small step in the direction we must travel. Every day wasted furthering our dependence on fossil fuels is a day we do not have. I urge swift and decisive action to build resiliency in our community while setting an example for others that must follow the same path towards sustainability.

[00:10:45] Jan Bohman: My name is Jan Bohman. I’m going to read a couple of excerpts from some recent weather reports. This is from The Guardian: ‘An onslaught of record-breaking heat across much of the U.S. has provided yet another indicator of a longer-term issue: summers are progressively getting hotter for Americans in all corners of the country. U.S. climate scientist Brian Brettschneider has analyzed (almost) 130 years of federal data and it shows that from New York to LA there are hot spots where summers have gotten significantly hotter compared to the average levels of warming brought about by the burning of fossil fuels.

[00:11:20] ‘Summers are on average now about about 1.5 degrees F hotter across the U. S. than the earlier period, but many places have had far more extreme summertime increases up to 2. 8 degrees C or 5 degrees F hotter. More than a third of people in the U.S. live in a county that has summers 2.7 degrees F hotter or more than they were on average in 1895. This means about 117 million Americans are experiencing these new conditions, with 55.7 million of these people in counties that have heated up by 3. 6 degrees F or more.

[00:11:58] ‘Globally, the average year-round temperature is slightly more than 1.8 degrees F warmer than it was in pre-industrial times, with last year the hottest ever recorded, the latest in a string of record annual highs.

[00:12:13] ‘Winters are also warming more quickly, but the seemingly small increases in summer temperatures can have an outsized effect. ‘One degree C of warming may sound relatively small, but it can translate into quite substantial impacts as it’s an average and the extremes of that average can cause much higher likelihoods of deaths from heat waves as well as agricultural impacts and wildfires. Heat is a silent killer, and it unfortunately affects the most underserved members of society.’

[00:12:41] Aya Cockram: My name is Aya Cockram, and as many others have noted today, it is hot. Not hot like when I was a kid riding a bike around Eugene, but climate emergency hot.

[00:12:52] On days like today, I feel afraid. Afraid for my husband’s health as he works outside in full sun all day long. I feel fear for my daughter who attends outdoor preschool and whose right to a livable future is threatened by the changing climate.

[00:13:05] I worry for my mother, a dedicated bike commuter no matter what the temperature is. (Hi, mom!)

[00:13:12] Everyone in our community is now feeling the effects of climate breakdown, even our most resilient.

[00:13:17] In fact, multiple firefighters had to be extracted due to heat-related illness while fighting the climate-driven wildfires sparked in the last week. These are the most highly trained and fit people in our communities, and they are struggling to cope with the myriad of impacts of the climate emergency.

[00:13:32] The science is clear. The community engagement has been done. Now it’s time for concrete climate policy. We cannot ignore the signs and we have the solutions in front of us. It is time for a fossil- free Eugene.

[00:13:44] Cecilia Luzi: My name is Cecilia. I am the communications coordinator for 350 Eugene. Officials are saying this is the worst heat wave on record for the West Coast. And as I’m sure you all have heard many people say, the summer of 2023 was the hottest on record, yet will be the coolest in the coming decades.

[00:14:01] Now, obviously, we do not have a time machine to go back and fix the consequences of ignoring those who have spoken out against fossil fuel use. However, we do have the opportunity to make meaningful changes now.

[00:14:14] Eugene may be one city, so how effective can we be in the fight for climate justice? The answer is: Very. Every little action counts.

[00:14:23] Masayo Simon: My name is Masayo Simon. I work for Rogue Climate where I support the Ashland Youth for Electrification Campaign, a group of high schoolers that spend their time advocating for climate action.

[00:14:33] After a year of youth-led organizing, Ashland City Council has voted unanimously for staff to draft the youth- proposed climate and clean air policies. Like the proposals brought forward today, Ashland’s policies would also include a low NOx emission standard for new homes and a carbon fee.

[00:14:51] As we clearly see this summer and have been seeing for countless summers of extreme heat, smoke, and fire, there is no time to waste. I urge you to follow the bold leadership of youth in Eugene, Ashland, and across the country and take action for a livable future.

[00:15:06] City of Eugene: Our next speaker is Jocelyn Wensel.

[00:15:08] Jocelyn Wensel: I’m a third-year medical student and concerned future public health physician. I’d like to read a small excerpt from the Lane Regional Air Protection Agency press release entitled, ‘LRAPA Issues Ozone Advisory for Eugene Springfield Metro Area.’ LRAPA recommends that residents limit driving by using public transit, carpooling, or other alternative transportation, refuel vehicles during cooler evening hours, and postpone using gas power mowers or yard equipment until cooler periods of the day. They also mentioned that ozone irritates the eyes, nose, and lungs, and can worsen conditions like asthma and COPD.

[00:15:45] My response to this is that while this is all well and good, all of this is stratified along social lines as well as fiscal lines, and it detracts from the city’s responsibility to support the policies that have been stated. Thus, it puts the onus to support the health and well-being of the community members on the community members themselves, which is negating the fact that we don’t all have the same education in public health and we don’t all have the same privilege to do these things, such as carpool or use alternative transportation when you live in more rural areas of the community, or to refuel vehicles during cooler evening hours; if you have shift work, that may not be a privilege that you have.

[00:16:25] And so I would really urge you all to recognize that the whole community deserves wellness and health as a human right.

[00:16:33] City of Eugene: Our next speaker is Tomoko Sekiguchi.

[00:16:36] Tomoko Sekiguchi: Today I came mostly in support of all the other people who are speaking for electrification. But then I started thinking about, you know, what I’ve been doing today and how it’s been for me. I took my granddaughter to the swimming pool and it was really a joyous fun thing to do. But then I was thinking how difficult it would be if you didn’t have something like this to be doing in the heat this afternoon. We had a great time at the pool. And then I rode my granddaughter back to her house by bicycle.

[00:17:09] And she was cool enough because she was still wet and I got her home okay. And then I thought, ‘Well, I’m going to go and do the normal things that I like to do that I normally would be doing, using my bicycle.’ And it was really hot. It was unbelievable.

[00:17:24] And so, you know, what I would encourage you and everybody else to do is to use some kind of active transportation, like bicycle or walking or any kind of active transportation, to really see what it feels like out there.

[00:17:40] Because when you do, you can’t deny what’s going on, that the climate has changed so much in the 38 years that I’ve lived here, it feels extremely scary. I would like for you all to really feel that so that you can do all that you can to promote electrification.

[00:17:59] Bethany Cotton: I’m Bethany Cotton, conservation director for Cascadia Wildlands. I’m here tonight hot and tired. I’ve waited two years for the Inflation Reduction Act program to launch so I can afford to replace my gas furnace with a heat pump, which will also provide me with AC during these increasingly frequent climate-driven heat emergencies.

[00:18:19] My electric bill will skyrocket as I use an inefficient window unit to keep my house bearable. And I’m not using my gas stove to avoid adding heat and because I know how toxic it is. Once I switch to induction, I won’t have to worry about NOx emissions or the equivalent benzene exposure of living with a smoker.

[00:18:36] And cooking during a heat wave will barely add heat to my home. Oregon just announced that the state’s IRA program will not roll out this summer. And even when it does, there’s only enough funding to cover 7,000 homes. This underscores the urgent need for Eugene to create a sustained source of incentives funding to meet our decarbonization goals.

[00:18:56] I’m also afraid, today and for our future. My sister is visiting our 84-year-old dad with her three-month-old and toddler in rural Jackson County. She was woken in the middle of the night by wildfire smoke. In my entire childhood, we were impacted by one wildfire. Now we have go bags and leave keys in vehicles so we can flee at a moment’s notice.

[00:19:17] It’s only July 8. This is the fifth consecutive summer I have evacuated my dad. It’s only July 8. 131 million Americans are under an excessive heat advisory. It’s only July 8. Eugene had a record temp on Friday. It’s only July 8. This is a climate emergency. And frankly, y’all are not acting with anywhere near the urgency this moment requires. I ask you: How are you going to explain to your kids and your grandkids that while you had the authority to do something, you didn’t?

[00:19:54] Raevyn Thompson: My name is Raevyn Thompson, and I’m an environmental and climate justice organizer at Beyond Toxics, which is a nonprofit here in Eugene that works towards a clean and just Oregon. We have already experienced record high temperatures this summer, and as a lot of folks have mentioned, July 5 was one of the hottest days, and we’re going to continue to have high temperatures as we move forward. Today, LRAPA issued an air quality warning for ozone, and as we know, that is a serious health concern. Ozone is one of those gases that is seriously a huge pollutant, and when it’s emitted, it has health impacts for residents, wildlife, as well as our entire atmosphere.

[00:20:38] Aidan Bassett: My name is Aidan Bassett and I’m here to tell you how eager Eugene residents are for a suite of actions you’ve heard proposed tonight that you could take to help people electrify their homes and make them more resilient for the kind of extreme heat we now endure every year.

[00:20:54] Zach Mulholland: My name is Zach Mulholland. Coming off a weekend of extremely high temperatures, I think it’s important to recognize it will continue to get worse. Just a couple short years ago, we had extreme wildfire smoke to the point we could barely breathe, and the city of Blue River burned to the ground.

[00:21:11] This last year we had a massive ice storm that totally overwhelmed city services. This is supposedly a 100-year ice storm, but we’ve had three in the last 10 years. Literally every five years we’re getting a 100-year ice storm.

[00:21:24] The city has just completed extensive outreach efforts to the community to talk about options to decarbonize existing buildings. There are significant gaps in existing rebate programs. For example, low-income natural gas customers cannot access low-income rebates that are offered by EWEB because of state rules that have separated the gas system and the electric system with terms to subsidies. So the low-income gas users cannot get the money that a low-income electric user could get for a heat pump or for a heat pump water heater.

[00:21:58] We have a tremendous opportunity to make it so that low-income gas users can get the same benefits that low-income electric users are able to access. And a little bit of money can go a very, very far way. And so I ask you to please say yes to the results of the community engagement process by investing in rebate programs and finding a dedicated funding source for those programs.

[00:22:24] Kathe Shaw-Bassett: My name is Kathe Shaw-Bassett and I want to tell you about a neighbor of mine. She’s in her early 80s and her house is older and doesn’t have any air conditioning (just like most homes in Eugene).

[00:22:36] By contrast, my husband and I were able to get a new ductless heat pump installed in our house last month after struggling to keep the temperature tolerable during the heat waves in recent years. I also have asthma, so it hasn’t worked well to use window units to try and cool our house during the wildfire season since they can’t filter out smoke particles and instead effectively blow the smoke right into the house.

[00:22:59] When we got our heat pump, it was quickly and easily installed. We’ve been really grateful for how well it’s worked during this heat wave. But we could only afford it because of incentives available in the federal Inflation Reduction Act, which still has a relatively low cap on the credit for energy efficiency improvements, and will eventually expire.

[00:23:18] Some of the efficiency credits are expiring in just three years. Federal rebates are great, but the IRA is temporary. And even with the IRA’s temporary help, many families will not have of the same opportunity that we did. Eugene needs to do more to address the intensifying crisis of extreme heat.

[00:23:36] Over this past weekend, my husband and I decided to offer our guest room with its brand-new mini split (air conditioner) to our neighbor when her house was suffocatingly hot, and I’m glad we did, but this is no solution to the bigger problem. Not everyone can simply sleep in the nearest air-conditioned home. They should be able to affordably ensure that safety for their home.

[00:24:00] Seniors are hardest hit by this crisis. They’re less mobile. They often have fixed incomes and living and they’re living with more health vulnerabilities. Many seniors are also renters, which means they’re reliant on landlords to decide to install the heat pumps.

[00:24:17] And back when other seniors bought their homes, air conditioning was even less common than it is today. Seniors on fixed incomes often cannot afford to move, but with the help from the city, they could potentially afford to install higher efficient heat pumps.

[00:24:32] My neighbor deserves better, but like thousands of Eugene seniors, she needs your commitment to bridging that affordability gap and creating a heat pump subsidy program funded by raising the gas supplier tax.

[00:24:45] Timothy Morris: For the record, my name is Timothy Morris. I am the executive director of the Springfield Eugene Tenant Association. I come today to speak in favor of the electrification efforts, and in support of the majority of people who live here in the city of Eugene: Renters.

[00:24:58] As the sustainability commission has alluded to, renters do not have a choice in what utilities that their home uses and with a vacancy rate of 2% here in the city of Eugene, renters are forced to choose the first available housing and not the housing that can support their health.

[00:25:15] Gas has been declared a public health concern by both the American Medical Association and the American Public Health Association. And additionally, analysis from RMI found that all-electric homes built in Eugene with an Energy Star rating heat pump would cost a little under $3,500 less than with similar mixed fuel home.

[00:25:35] The facts are clear. Without clear guidelines and efforts to transition off of gas utilities, the city of Eugene is forcing the majority of its residents to potentially risk their health, jeopardize their safety, and increase their own housing expenses.

[00:25:48] In other words, it’s safer, cleaner, and cheaper to support electrification here in Eugene, especially to the 52% of residents living in your city.

[00:25:57] Our organization has received a few reports of tenants in our community who have had to leave their homes because their air conditioning has not been installed or has not been installed properly. That’s not the kind of city we are and what kind of city we want to be where our own neighbors, our own friends, our own constituents have to flee their homes because they don’t have air conditioning or they were not lucky enough to get it in the first place. We can do better. We should do better. And we can do it right now.

[00:26:27] Jim Neu: My name is Jim Neu. Nine years ago, I stood here in this room and about this spot to give testimony to the EWEB commissioners, when over the river, I watched two ospreys fighting for a fish midair. I knew I had moved to the right place. I also knew I moved to the right place when the mayor and council adopted the Climate Action Plan 2.0. I have confidence that this council will compose an ordinance that will finally set a path forward to decarbonize our building sector through electrification in order to meet the goals of the Climate Recovery Ordinance.

[00:26:58] Marilyn O’Malley: Hi, I’m Marilyn O’Malley. I live in a complex with 108 units. I recently walked through it with an arborist. We have a lot of trees in our complex. And our trees are looking pretty, pretty terrible. And we talked about what the condition of our trees had to do with climate change. And he and I groaned together as we talked about, yeah, yeah, the maples are not doing well and they’re going to do worse. And it was just one more layer of things bringing home how very dire our climate situation is.

[00:27:38] My son recently told me he and his wife are hoping to have a baby. I really hope they don’t. That shocks me. I mean, for years, I looked forward to being a grandmother. The idea of bringing a little baby into this world, in this state that it’s in, absolutely terrifies me. I’m terrified when I look at my sister’s lovable wonderful grandchildren, and I hope that they live to be my age. I hope that they get to have grandchildren of their own. It’s very doubtful. If you read the climate science, if you really read it, it is terrifying. It’s like the whole world has been given a death sentence, and we don’t need to accept that.

[00:28:21] The time to work is right now, with electrification, with every single thing we can and we already know if the Republican administration exists next time, they’ve already said they’re going to stop all climate programs. So it’s up to everybody, every city, to fight as much as they can. We cannot depend on the federal government.

[00:28:49] Please do as much as you can and I hope that you will declare climate emergency.

[00:28:54] Debra McGee: My name is Debra McGee. I live in Lane County, and in the spirit of creative civic participation, I present to you the Climate Crisis Quartet.

[00:29:05] One, two, three.

We think we’re gonna be sad / We think it’s today, yeah
Cause the world that we know and love is going away, yeah
Fires, floods, and droughts, oh my
Makes you glad it’s legal to get high
You know we gotta decarbonize if we wanna survive

You pass the CAP and CRO, and that was so fun, yeah
But that was 10 years ago and we’re so far behind, yeah
Hurricanes and mud that slides
We all got no place to hide
We have gotta decarbonize if we wanna survive

We’re tired that we’re moving so slow
It’s past time to get up and go
Our kids have gotta have healthy lives
We just gotta decarbonize.

Living with fossil fuels, they’re bringing us down, yeah
Kids are sick with asthma you know, all over town
The climate is not for everyone, melt on down
We can see the evidence all around
We gotta decarbonize if we want to survive.

We’re tired of you moving so slow
It’s past time to get up and go
Our kids gotta have healthy lives
We just gotta decarbonize

[00:31:10] Council, you are our ticket to ride. Thank you.

[00:31:17] John Q: The Climate Crisis Quartet, Sustainability Commission, and many more offer a variety of policies to slow and stop the climate crisis.