Hot off the Press: Our Climate Corps Fellows

The California Climate Action Corps is an initiative to address the climate crisis by placing emerging leaders as climate fellows with local organizations where they engage community members in direct climate action through education, and mobilize volunteers, focusing on urban greening, wildfire resilience and other climate actions.  

San Leandro 2050 hosted two California Climate Fellows this past summer - Fona Ou and Cheyenne Lin.  Fona and Cheyenne are now in their college freshman and sophomore years respectively, but this version of our Bimonthly News focuses on their work doing public outreach, engagement and volunteering in the community the past six months.  We were honored to host two such smart, energized and focused young women.  Read on to learn about their work.

Opinion Piece: San Leandro's Climate Action Plan
by Fona Ou

The San Leandro City Council voted to approve the Public Hearing Draft of the Climate Action Plan this summer, with all the council members voicing their support for climate action, and the sustainability manager of San Leandro, Dr. Mok, stating that the Climate Action Plan would put us on the road to reduce GHG emissions by the 2030 targets. This plan, supported by the Planning Commission and many of the public comments for the Public Review Draft, urges the city to use more language for climate actions such as infrastructure improvements, reach codes for building electrification, a master tree plan, expanding air quality monitoring around the community, and updating the CAP in 5 years with the Resident Advisory Committee. Read More …

Reflections on Environmental Justice & Intersectionality
by Cheyenne Lin

A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to participate in a creek cleanup at Root Park as a Climate Action Corps Fellow alongside members of StopWaste, Friends of San Leandro Creek, San Leandro Public Works, the Boy Scouts, and the Rotary Club of San Leandro. Along with StopWaste members Cristian and Angelina, Climate Fellow Fona Ou and I hosted a Litterati booth at the creek entrance where volunteers coming out of the creek dumped the litter they had gathered to be assessed, before disposing it into garbage trucks. Using the Litterati app, we documented the litter that was being picked up from the creek, geotagging it in the process as part of StopWaste’s Litter Free Challenge. The more than 400 pieces of litter documented included lots of food waste, single-use plastics, and beverage cans. Among these were also traces of people living in the creek - blankets, works of art, diapers, and children’s toys were all things that were found in the creek. During those few hours of creek cleanup alone, there were 400+ pieces of litter geotagged and logged, with tons more going straight to disposal after it got too overwhelming to document it all. This begs the question: why is there so much litter in our creek in the first place?  Read More...

Spotlight: PilotCity and the Climate

IN CLIMATE CHANGE
‘This is code red’: Biden Sounds Alarm on Climate Crisis as He Tours New York Damage (video): via The Guardian 
After touring areas of New York that were hit by Hurricane Ida, President Biden issued a statement emphasizing the devastating impacts of climate change and the need to mitigate it.

Covid-19 Gave the World a Chance to Fix the Climate Crisis: via CNN
Massive government spending in response to the pandemic could have been a huge opportunity for governments to mitigate and fight climate change. However, much of this money has been put into economic recovery through fossil fuel industries.

IN CLIMATE ACTIVISM
The Answer to Climate Change is Organizing: via The New Yorker
Activism in response to climate change is one of the best answers to climate issues. In order to properly address climate change and all of its devastating effects, it is important that communities of all kinds of demographics organize and participate in climate activism.
 

The Best Climate Solutions Start With Listening to Communities: via yes! 
Listening to impacted communities and their concerns is imperative to developing climate solutions. Activists in the Bay Area are doing this through a regional documentation project where residents will share how they are being impacted by climate change. 

IN CLIMATE & HEALTH
On the Front Lines of Climate Change: Heat Brings Health Risks for California’s Farmworkers: via KQED
Heat related health issues have been increasing in the past few years. Among the most affected demographic are farmworkers, whose livelihoods depend on working in the scorching heat.