Dear Mayor Birney and esteemed council,
First, while I am a member of the Redmond Parks and Trails Commission, I'm writing solely in my capacity as a resident of Redmond and a concerned parent.
This past week, we have seen climate catastrophe fall upon the west coast. What we saw in Australia in January is here now. Entire towns are being burned to the ground, and others evacuated due to fire danger or deadly air quality. 10% of the entire state of Oregon has either been evacuated or put on some form of evacuation notice.
What is worse is that climate scientists are telling us that today’s disasters will pale in comparison to what will come. We no longer have the luxury of time. We can no longer think that this is an issue for the future, that we can take small steps. The timeline for action, not just planning, needs to be months instead of years or even decades.
Therefore, I urge in the strongest possible words and in no uncertain terms for the mayor and council to take immediate action and declare a state of climate emergency.
The environmental sustainability plan as laid out to the council is a good start, but I strongly suggest amending it either before or after adoption to move deadlines up. Action cannot wait until the 2021/2022 fiscal year. Just think about how many decisions we wish were made differently 20 years ago and how many we wish were made 5 years or even one year earlier. Now recall that we are now literally on fire. Climate inaction charges interest.
In addition, in-flight environmental concerns in front of our council and commissions need to be expedited with a renewed focus on climate health. For instance, a modification of tree regulation is currently in consideration. To repeat a comment that I previously made to the planning commission, we should consider removing the fee-in-lieu option for tree removal and require mediated planting ahead of tree removal. Doing so establishes a tree canopy percentage floor. However, the longer the discussion of these policies continues, the more removal permits are granted in the meantime. We must begin treating environmental quality as one of the first, if not the first, axiom in our decision making. We must treat this issue as the urgent, existential threat that it is.
The world is waiting for leaders to emerge on climate. We cannot wait any longer. We can be part of that leadership, but we must act now.
James Terwilliger
9/15/2020
Agreed: Bob Yoder
On 9/15 Council agreed 6-1 (Carson) to declare a state of climate emergency.
Mr. James Terwilliger appeals to “Scientists” without citing his sources. He fails to address the cause of the “emergency”. If he is talking about the fires-he should address the issue of forest management. I will wait for him to present his data not antidotal “evidence”. If Mr. Terwilliger will respond to my request for evidence, his comments will be legitimate and objective. Otherwise, his comments are pure speculation.
ReplyDeleteActually, council-member Carson voted against an amendment to include the climate emergency declaration in the Environmental Sustainability Action Plan (ESAP). But it was a unanimous vote to adopt the ESAP as amended.
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