Transition Pasadena member Sylvia Holmes recently spoke at the Water and Power Integrated Resource Plan Community Meeting. The following is a slightly edited version of her talk:
Thank you for your public service. The last time I came to this meeting, I asked for the social costs to be part of EVERY model. Immediately after I spoke, I heard “there is a model with the social cost of carbon.” I felt dismissed; this is supposed to be a community meeting looking for feedback. That is a false mission if you never seriously consider incorporating the ideas in that feedback.
This is a very serious moment in time. When the canary in the coal mine died, the miners knew that they were next. Well, the largest King Penguin colony in the world has dropped in size by 90 percent. I think we are next.
Climate change is speeding up. Pardon me for being dramatic but people’s lives are at stake. This is about survival. You have some important decisions to make. You may not think that it is you who is making the decision, but let’s be honest: The Pasadena City Council will do whatever you suggest because you will be the experts on the day that they vote.
Therefore you CANNOT suggest that they consider a model without the social cost of carbon. It would be irresponsible. They will pick the cheaper option even though it is a lie. And it is a lie because cheaper in the short term is deadly in the long term.
The late Kofi Annan, a former UN secretary general and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, said “I believe we have a responsibility not only to our contemporaries but also to future generations — a responsibility to preserve resources that belong to them as well as to us, and without which none of us can survive. That means we must do much more, and urgently, to prevent or slow down climate change. Every day that we do nothing, or too little, imposes higher costs on our children and our children’s children.”
In Pasadena it is vital to opt out of the planned 50-year Utah gas plant.
Be ethical! Lift this burden from our country! You have a chance to right the wrongs of the past.
Thank you for your attention. I vote climate.
And thank you for all of your hard professional work on this complex problem and your willingness to listen. I’m confident that you and the city council will do the right thing.
Thank you for your public service. The last time I came to this meeting, I asked for the social costs to be part of EVERY model. Immediately after I spoke, I heard “there is a model with the social cost of carbon.” I felt dismissed; this is supposed to be a community meeting looking for feedback. That is a false mission if you never seriously consider incorporating the ideas in that feedback.
This is a very serious moment in time. When the canary in the coal mine died, the miners knew that they were next. Well, the largest King Penguin colony in the world has dropped in size by 90 percent. I think we are next.
Climate change is speeding up. Pardon me for being dramatic but people’s lives are at stake. This is about survival. You have some important decisions to make. You may not think that it is you who is making the decision, but let’s be honest: The Pasadena City Council will do whatever you suggest because you will be the experts on the day that they vote.
Therefore you CANNOT suggest that they consider a model without the social cost of carbon. It would be irresponsible. They will pick the cheaper option even though it is a lie. And it is a lie because cheaper in the short term is deadly in the long term.
The late Kofi Annan, a former UN secretary general and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, said “I believe we have a responsibility not only to our contemporaries but also to future generations — a responsibility to preserve resources that belong to them as well as to us, and without which none of us can survive. That means we must do much more, and urgently, to prevent or slow down climate change. Every day that we do nothing, or too little, imposes higher costs on our children and our children’s children.”
In Pasadena it is vital to opt out of the planned 50-year Utah gas plant.
Be ethical! Lift this burden from our country! You have a chance to right the wrongs of the past.
Thank you for your attention. I vote climate.
And thank you for all of your hard professional work on this complex problem and your willingness to listen. I’m confident that you and the city council will do the right thing.
