By Linda Armacost and Jeff Benesch

We take a breather this month from our series of candidate debates, discussions and endorsements and get back to the all-important topic of climate action.

Local climate expert, Dr. Todd Elvins will be the keynote speaker at the May meeting of the La Mesa Foothills Democratic Club. Elvins is an engineer, entrepreneur and executive with many years of leadership success. He holds a doctorate in engineering from UCSD, and for 10 years teamed with earth, ocean and space scientists at the UCSD Supercomputer Center. Today, Elvins serves on the executive team at a San Diego clean-tech company and is a renowned speaker for the Citizens’ Climate Lobby, a national grass-roots nonprofit that puts together upbeat interactive climate presentations for groups throughout the country. We are thrilled Dr. Elvins will be spending time with us on Wednesday evening, May 4.

Among other things, Elvins will discuss:

• Climate change is a fact: It’s caused by humans burning fossil fuels.
• Economists worldwide agree that the fairest, fastest, cheapest, and most effective solution is to charge fossil fuel companies a gradually rising fee on the carbon in their fuel products.
• A carbon fee is a market-based solution that creates millions of jobs, adds a trillion dollars to our country’s gross domestic product; saves lives, due to avoided air pollution; and quickly decreases climate pollution.
• The world’s faith leaders, including Pope Francis, recently have directed their followers to care for the environment, our common home.
• The fact is that there is no scientific debate about climate change. Some 99.9 percent of peer-reviewed literature concludes that burning fossil fuels has been wonderful for advancing civilization, but terrible for the climate. Despite the cooling effects of volcanoes and earth axis wobbles, the earth is warming, which means that humans account for 100 percent of the observed warming.

Sharing the dais with Dr. Elvins will be Derek Casady, speaking on behalf of The Climate Mobilization, a new, all-volunteer organization devoted to protecting civilization and the natural world from catastrophic climate disruption. The group is dedicated to living in climate truth and believes that working to solve the climate crisis is everyone’s responsibility.

Dozens of leading environmental analysts have determined that the only way to save civilization from climate change is with a wartime-style mobilization, akin to the American home-front effort during World War II.

This stark appraisal lies at the heart of this project. In that sense, The Climate Mobilization is a single-issue campaign. They demand a WWII-scale mobilization to restore a safe climate.

Casady is the president of the La Jolla Democratic Club. He and his wife Nancy have both run for elected office and have played active roles in supporting successful Democratic candidates throughout San Diego County.

April meeting roundup

If you missed our April meeting, you also missed a great discussion with Union Tribune government editor Michael Smolens; an update from San Diego City Councilman and candidate for the 78th Assembly District Todd Gloria; and a meeting with Ed Harris, a great candidate for San Diego Mayor and a veteran of San Diego politics. We enthusiastically endorsed both Todd and Ed in their respective campaigns and know they’ll be tireless advocates for working people, open governance, and the environment.

Yard sale

It appears this year’s yard sale, Saturday, April 23 from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., is shaping up to be the biggest ever. Word is that many members are spring cleaning in an effort to ensure we have more quality goods and better bargains than our previous successful sales. This year we’ll again be at the Perkins’ Residence, 5009 Randlett, La Mesa, just a couple blocks east of our monthly meeting place at the La Mesa Community Center. Check out our Facebook page for updates on merchandise and other deals.

Join the club

If you live in San Carlos, Del Cerro, Allied Gardens, College Area, Santee, La Mesa, Mt. Helix, and other nearby communities and are not yet a member of La Mesa Foothills Democratic Club, this year, it’s vitally important to get involved with local and national politics as the stakes are higher than ever. There are generational changes pending on issues spanning immigration reform, women’s health, voting rights, Supreme Court appointments, climate change, living wages, Convadiums, open space, and more.

We meet the first Wednesday of every month at La Mesa Community Center, 4975 Memorial Drive, just North of University Avenue. Meetings begin with social half hour at 6:30 p.m. and business and speakers start at 7 p.m. Check out our website at lamesafoothillsdemocraticclub.com.

—Linda Armacost is president and Jeff Benesch is vice president of programming of the La Mesa Foothills Democratic Club. Reach them at [email protected].