Opinion: The U.N. Climate Conference offers us all a chance to think globally, act locally – The San Diego Union-Tribune

Last best hope.

Thats what some people are calling the upcoming United Nations Climate Conference, also known as COP26. With all that is happening in San Diego, California, the U.S. and the world, tugging at our attention, why should we care about a conference halfway around the world in Glasgow, Scotland? Most of us dont even know where Glasgow is.

We should care because what is happening in this city, state, country and the world is dynamically affected by what all of us do in the next few months to responsibly take action on the climate crisis. You may be of any opinion about the causes of climate change, but the global effects are undeniable. And if humans can do anything about it, we must!

People of faith and conscience are already speaking out. The San Diego Interfaith Coalition for Earth Justice in collaboration with GreenFaith International is holding Faiths 4 Climate Justice events. And faith communities and others are focusing their worship on the climate crisis at various places of worship; in San Diego the Faiths 4 Climate Justice held a rally on October 18 at the San Diego County Administration Building.

Leading up to the U.N. Climate Conference, we are standing together to raise the alarm on the climate emergency and announce to our surrounding community that destroying the planet is against our religions! We are hearing from interfaith leaders and singing and drawing attention to the inequities of climate change solutions through street theater, and presenting demands to the County board of supervisors for more just and compassionate policies to:

If the supervisors and the people of this county are truly serious about real action on climate change, we believe that these demands should be prioritized in the San Diego County Regional Decarbonization Framework, a county supervisors-approved zero-carbon sustainability plan in partnership with the UC Sand Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy and the University of San Diego Energy Policy Initiatives Center.

As shown by the Faiths 4 Climate Justice sponsorship of SanDiego350 and the California Poor Peoples Campaign, among others, a primary concern for real climate justice is the inequity of climate disruption and a lack of meaningful solutions experienced in our most vulnerable communities. Here in the city of San Diego these neighborhoods are largely south of Interstate 8 and largely people of color, neighborhoods like Barrio Logan and Lemon Grove. Residents there especially will experience a diminished quality of life and higher levels of disease related to pollution from heat stress illness, respiratory illness due to higher ground-level ozone concentrations resulting from higher temperatures, continued burning of fossil fuels, respiratory effects from wildfires, and infectious disease.

And this region is only one of the many places throughout the world where a rapidly changing climate and extractive practices are damaging the health and well-being of our neighbors. In a webinar about climate change and human rights sponsored by the University of Arizona this month, climate change experts and activists shared the devastating effect climate change is having on poor countries and communities around the world already.

What we each do here and now and what we challenge our governments and businesses to do here and now has a direct bearing on what happens both in San Diego County and across the world. More than ever before we are living in reality as a global village.

What will I tell my grandchildren Zuri and Jahzira?

Thats another common phrase were hearing. What can we say that we did to protect the quality of young peoples future and for equality? I dont know about you, but I want to be able to say that I did everything I could. And that I couldnt do it alone. We need a village to do whatever we can to repair the damage that has been done by our dependence on fossil fuels: contact our decision-makers, divest our funds from fossil fuel extractors and those who invest in them (for those of us wealthy enough to have investments), make sure that jobs in extractive energy are replaced with good-paying clean jobs, and lessen our own carbon footprint in how we live our lives, like the solar panels that just got turned on on my house.

If we say we are committed to a carbon-free future, equality, equity and justice for all, now is the time (and way beyond the time) to get it done. Almost every faith tradition includes some form of the Golden Rule, to treat our neighbors as we would want to be treated. What happens at this far-away conference over 12 days starting on October 31 will determine the well-being of our common home and all of our neighbors. Please tune in and stay tuned for more.

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Opinion: The U.N. Climate Conference offers us all a chance to think globally, act locally - The San Diego Union-Tribune