This is a New Year’s message to all San Diego Climate Mobilizers as we begin our sixth year of operation. So, first of all, Happy New Year and Happy New Decade to all of us.

The San Diego Climate Mobilization Coalition, a chapter of The Climate Mobilization out of New York City, has met every Saturday morning in Ocean Beach since 2015.
We are grateful to all who have participated in our meetings and rallies as we call upon the federal government to implement a national World War II-scale mobilization to build a wind, water and solar energy system to replace fossil fuels.
Such a mobilization has been called for in a letter to former President Obama and the President of China by a group of America’s top scientists, as well as in an article in New Republic magazine by Bill McKibben, an author, professor and founder of 350, a preeminent climate action group. The mobilization is also called for in the national platform of the Democratic Party. Pacific Beach wetland scientist, Budd Titlow, makes the same request in “Protecting the Planet,” a book on the climate emergency he wrote with his daughter Mariah, a Harvard professor.

As we begin this new decade, Australia is on fire due to climate change and the prospects for saving the continent are not good. In line with the recent IPCC Special Report on Global Warming, the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC) has updated its Carbon Clock. This projection shows how much CO2 can be released into the atmosphere before the planet warms to a maximum of 1.5°C and 2°C, respectively, above pre-industrial levels. At the 1.5 C level, food crops fail from the heat.

In 2015, with the Paris Climate Agreement, all nations around the world set themselves the goal of limiting global warming to well below 2°C (preferably 1.5°C) compared to pre-industrial levels. An ambitious goal. The Special Report of October 2018 presents new figures: The atmosphere can absorb, calculated from end-2017, no more than 420 gigatonnes (Gt) of CO2 if we are to stay below the 1.5°C threshold. However, since around 42 Gt of CO2 is emitted globally every year—the equivalent of 1332 tonnes per second—this budget is expected to be used up in just over seven years. The budget for staying below the 2°C threshold, for its part, of approximately 1170 Gt, will be exhausted in about 26 years.

The bottom line is that fossil fuel burning must end and renewable energy must begin, and not just in the U.S. but throughout the world. Fossil fuels are the enemy of every single person on the planet. The possibility here is that if the U.S. leads the way the whole world may at last come together as one human family in order for our species to survive. Otherwise the future doesn’t look good for the smart ape----us.

   -- Derek & Nancy Casady, founders of the San Diego Climate Mobilization Coalition. Nancy ran as the Green New Deal candidate for Congress in the 52nd District, which includes Ocean Beach, in the March 3rd Primary Election.