This year during Labor Day weekend, the Bay Area experienced a massive heat wave, breaking many past records. San Rafael experienced an unprecedented high temperature of 100 degrees, Redwood City sweltered at 96 degrees, and the Oakland Museum area reached a record of 88 degrees. Many more cities experienced extreme heat in the high 90s and 100s as well.
These record-breaking temperatures are only a sign of what’s to come so long as our global society is reliant on fossil fuels. In the San Francisco Bay Area alone, we are projected to see an increase in sea level rise, threatening key infrastructure and housing, and causing billions of dollars in potential damages. Since the 1950s, the Bay Area fog, which contributes to the natural cooling of our environment, has decreased by about 3 hours a day. This, along with generally rising temperatures, will increase our risk of bigger, more frequent, destructive wildfires. While we see the beginnings of climate change affecting the Bay Area, many other countries around the world, as well as various parts of the United States, have already started experiencing much more drastic, destructive climate change phenomena than ours—causing deaths, displacement, massive crop failure, and more, all leading to insecurity in human populations and instability in the global economy.
The people in power are utterly incapable of solving the climate crisis. They have no plan for the future. Within their profit-driven system, investment in new infrastructure and adoption of renewable energy are comparatively nonexistent in relation to the resources allocated to war, surveillance, and deportations. We can’t rely on politicians to protect us from climate change. We, as ordinary people, must work together, not only to protect ourselves from the incoming climate emergency but also to create a world where we can live sustainably alongside our planet.
