Dear Menlo Park City Council,
First of all, thank you so much for the work you have done to address the climate crisis to date. Thank you for working to pass a zero-emissions landscape equipment (ZELE) ordinance this year; thank you for working to decarbonize city buildings and vehicles; thank you for eliminating permitting fees for electrification projects; and thank you for passing numerous resolutions, action plans, and city code updates in the past few years to establish a vision for Menlo Parks efforts to help prevent catastrophic climate change.
Im writing to you to encourage you to do as much as you can to build on and accelerate these efforts. There is not a minute to waste.∫
Although the climate crisis may not feel so threatening in our relatively prosperous and safeguarded community here, I want to remind you that climate change is already— right now— having devastating consequences for hundreds of millions of the worlds most, most vulnerable people.
Im an international development professional, and since starting my career have been most focused on addressing crises in the Middle East and East Africa, especially in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Sudan, South Sudan, and Somalia. It is truly difficult to convey the devastation wrought by climate change in many of these countries and the way this has compounded many other problems, such as civil wars, terrorism, and extreme poverty.
Iraq, once called the Land of the Two Rivers, is facing its worst drought conditions ever. The average summer temperature highs are now 112ºF, sand storms are frequent across the country, and water flow from the Tigris and Euphrates are just about at their lowest levels ever. This causes saline water from the Persian Gulf to infiltrate the rivers and Iraqs irrigation system, to the point where Iraq is now (according to the UNEP) losing about 250 square kilometers of land per year due to desertification and soil salinization. All this in a country that was already very hot and dry to begin with and that is extremely vulnerable and unstable due to decades of war and unrest.
Just to name one other dramatic example, the climate crisis is already taking an unimaginably horrendous toll on many countries of East Africa, including (but not limited to) Sudan, South Sudan, and Somalia. According to a 2023 study by World Weather Attribution, climate change has climate change has made events like the current drought in East Africa much stronger and over 100 times more likely. It also destroys millions of farmers crops by changing weather patterns (especially in East Africa but also around the world), has created extreme famine conditions in each of these countries, and especially Somalia. These are countries that are already dealing with brutal and heart-wrenching civil wars in the case of Sudan and South Sudan, as well as crippling insurgency on the part of the terrorist group Al-Shabab in the case of Somalia. The human cost that the climate crisis is already having is simply unbearable.
In light of these absolutely horrible consequences that climate change is already dispensing on hundreds of millions of people around the world, I call on the Menlo Park City Council to take urgent action to mitigate climate change to the greatest extent possible. Specifically, I call on the Menlo Park City Council to:
* Accelerate implementation of the Climate Action Plan
* Prioritize environmental justice in helping the community adapt to climate change, especially those already experiencing disproportionate air and noise pollution and heat impacts
* Take actions to accelerate the transition from methane gas heating to clean electricity in buildings, transportation, and individual households, include by providing incentives and guidelines for individual households
Thank you very much for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Will Simon
Monitoring, Evaluation, and Research Specialist
MITx Micro Masters Student in Data, Economics, and Development Policy
