On April 16, Engage Encinitas will inaugurate its first Citizens Academy event.
The topic, now high on the list of many California residents, will be water (or lack thereof). Last week, Governor Brown issued unprecedented statewide mandatory restrictions on water usage.
Our city is stepping up to the plate by encouraging residents to take part in the National Mayor’s Challenge for Water Conservation.
California is experiencing record low snowpack and a fraction of our typical precipitation.
Welcome to the new normal.
While drought is to be expected in our desert state, the intensity and duration of this particular drought can be attributed to our warming planet and is in line with what climate scientists have been predicting.
Just a short time ago, it seemed that global warming was something happening in the future, in a far-away land, to someone else.
I call it the “not me, not here, not now” phenomenon. Unfortunately, global warming may be coming to a place near you — sooner than any of us thought.
As a volunteer with Citizens Climate Lobby, I’m working to educate my friends, my family, my neighbors, and my legislators. Action taken now will save lives and money down the line.
Our organization proposes a free-market approach that doesn’t pick winners and losers (such as incentives); neither does it impose regulations on fossil fuel companies.
The federal legislation would put a price on carbon-based fuels.
All funds collected would be returned to residents as a dividend. With a predictable price on energy, investors can be expected to put their money in non carbon-based fuels, decreasing our need to emit excess carbon dioxide into the air.
It’s an approach that Republicans, like Darrell Issa and Duncan Hunter, as well as Democrats, like Scott Peters and Susan Davia, can all embrace.
These days I’m thinking globally and acting locally.
But sometimes you’ve got to also think locally and act globally.
Judy Berlfein is an Encinitas resident.
