To Whom it may concern,
The weather certainly is beautiful out there these days- but I am leery of this summer's fire forecast. Maybe you have seen the article in the SF Gate (and in many other news sources): https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/fuel-moisture-content-California-wildfire-16087019.php. This year has a grim prediction that this year's fires could be even worse than last. I'm really worried about this prospect.
Last year, I thought about leaving the area during the time- but this takes effort, time, extra costs, and I prefer being in our own home (plus, to get away from the smoke you'd have to travel so far to make it worth the effort!). So, we sat at home, with air purifiers on full blast (we had picked up a couple more this year to try to cover the whole place) and our portable air conditioner on when it was extremely hot (even though we were aware that this would bring in smoke particles; we put an air filter near it to try to offset). We even slept in the air conditioned room (the whole family) when it didn't cool down. With asthma in 3 of our family members, we take it really seriously- checking and rechecking everything religiously. We, like many others, checked purple air daily, sometimes even every few minutes to see if there was going to be any respite where we might leave the house for fresh air.
The fact that this, this reality, is here to stay. It's an unfortunate part of climate change. The only thing we can do, is to try to lessen our impact on the climate, to do our part to try to stop even worse things from happening. I don't want to fear another bad fire season (which comes earlier as this drought- also related to climate change- gets worse). I don't want to worry about my family and their ability to breath- the effects of smoke on them. I dread feeling trapped when the smoke hits- and not knowing if what I'm doing is enough.
I got an email today from "Menlo Park's Future," telling me that we need to "slow down." I'm sure many others received this email as well. Not only is this newsletter misleading on several points, but I completely disagree with this overall message. It's disheartening to see this spread. We don't need to "slow down," we need to speed up our actions to avoid the worst from climate change. This is the only way to provide a better future for all of us and Menlo Park is on the right track with the Climate Action Plan. Keep going. Keep fighting for a better future. I look forward to seeing even more climate improvements. I love it here in Menlo Park and I want to see us do the right thing.
Thanks for reading,
Pamela Sperli
1016 Middle Ave #3
