Public Comment

The City of Berkeley Draft 2019 Hazard Mitigation Plan on page ES-8 included the following projection of extreme heat events in Berkeley.

Projections indicate that the number of extreme heat days, warm nights, and heat waves will increase exponentially: by 2099, the City of Berkeley is expected to average 18 days per year with temperatures over 88.3 degrees F.

It is not even officially summer and Berkeley has already had three days of extreme heat, June 9 - June 11, we may not have to wait until 2099 to have 18 days per year of extreme heat. 

In fact, even before the current heat wave the Policy Paper by David Spratt and Ian Dunlop from Australia published in May 2019, projected that without immediate aggressive response, catastrophic climate warming of 3º C may arrive as soon as 2050 

A Climate Emergency Declaration and a resolution to be Fossil Fuel Free by 2030 does not make Berkeley a climate leader when follow through is tepid at best and absent more often. 

Response to climate and being fossil fuel free needs to be the top priority in every decision, every vote, every plan.