I Know Republican Voters Support Climate Action -- I Have Seen It In San Diego
By Councillor Georgette Gómez
Growing up in Barrio Logan, a predominantly Latinx community in San Diego, I lived the realities of environmental injustice. My neighborhood smelled of toxic metals and families were forced to breathe dirty air that made them more susceptible to respiratory diseases. In fact, my local park was surrounded by highways and the constant exposure to car emissions and other pollutants led to a rise in childhood asthma in my community.
When you grow up in a neighborhood like mine -- a working class community of color -- fighting back against polluters moving into your community becomes a fight for your life. My lived experiences and the harsh public health outcomes for families in Barrio Logan grounded my commitment as a community organizer to move the issue of environmental justice forward for the people of San Diego.
Progress on environmental justice in San Diego was made possible through dedicated coalition building, years of advocacy, and community input that garnered support from elected officials from across the political spectrum. This is exactly the type of mobilization and bipartisan action that we need to see in Congress, especially as a new Data for Progress report indicates that voters overwhelmingly support climate equity policies.
Climate activists -- many of them young people fighting for their future -- have pushed elected officials to do the right thing and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced the Green New Deal and gained support from her colleagues and the American people. I believe that we can build on this progress and continue putting in the work to pass meaningful legislation that will move us toward a cleaner, healthier future -- a future that centers a just transition.
As a community organizer for more than two decades, I helped push San Diego to become more environmentally friendly, to keep in mind the health of the people who reside here, and to take action to address climate change which is an existential threat to coastal communities like ours. I also worked with local leaders, climate advocates, and community residents to shape just environmental policies that the City of San Diego eventually adopted as part of its landmark Climate Action Plan.
Now, as President of the San Diego City Council, I’m leading the implementation of this plan working closely with San Diego’s Republican mayor. San Diego’s Climate Action Plan, shaped by a coalition of climate advocates and introduced by Mayor Kevin Faulconer, was unanimously supported by Democrats and Republicans on the San Diego City Council in 2015. This plan calls for eliminating fifty percent of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions and moving the city toward 100% renewable energy by 2035.
This ambitious and significant environmental effort was possible because crafting these policies was rooted in the community. This proves that change is possible when you engage the people who are going to be affected by the policies being considered at every level of government. We can use community organizing tactics on the federal level to fight for real change, take climate action, and get buy-in from Republican voters to pass legislation that will spark job creation, move our country into the future, and create a cleaner environment for our families and future generations.
We know that inaction is deadly, and costly. Thousands of lives have been lost to stronger hurricanes, dangerous storms, wildfires, and other natural disasters that have been exacerbated by climate change. Over the past five years, climate-intensified disasters have cost the United States $525 billion. For too many families that have lost everything, action to mitigate climate change is too late -- we owe it to them and to future generations to champion ambitious plans in Congress that will help prevent more devastation.
As we live through a pandemic where health outcomes have been determined in part by your socioeconomic status and the environment in which you live, we need to take this issue seriously and act boldly. The recovery plan to help families make it through the public health crisis and economic devastation caused by the pandemic will require action to fight climate change.
Fortunately, there are bold legislative solutions Congress can pass to address the climate crisis. We can start moving to 100% clean energy with sustainable investments in our crumbling infrastructure and our transportation system that will create good-paying jobs. Bold and necessary infrastructure investments can pass with bipartisan support. Congress can also use the Green New Deal as a framework to advance green energy policies that can lead our country to a just transition to clean and renewable energy sources. And we can also support small farmers and sustainable agriculture to help our country thrive.
Concern is growing among the American public as gridlock and politics continues to block progress on this issue. Climate change is an existential threat that will affect all of us, regardless of our political affiliation. It’s time for government officials to come together to advance legislative proposals that will help the United States emerge as a global leader in the fight against climate change and protect our communities from the threats posed by environmental injustice. But change is possible if we think globally and act locally. Through activism, coalition building, and behind the scenes efforts to grow the political will, we can achieve bipartisan cooperation to prevent more irreversible damage to our climate.
Georgette Gómez (@SDGeorgette) is the San Diego City Council President and the Democratic Party’s candidate in California’s 53rd congressional district.