On Saturday, November 16th, more than 120 Virginians came together in Norfolk to launch the next phase of grassroots action to protect Virginia’s coastal communities from climate change. The science is clear: rising sea levels and more powerful storms – driven by our burning of fossil fuels – are already causing frequent flooding and disrupting lives, business and critical civilian and naval infrastructure up and down the coast.
As DeLevay Miner, a local resident featured in the documentary premiered at the conference, Sea of Change, said, “You cannot depend on the history before because everything is changing.”
If this urgent reality was what motivated so many to spend their Saturday at the “Safe Coast Virginia” conference (see pictures here), the question of what we can and must DO about it was the theme that charged the day.
Here are three big takeaways from the conference that will galvanize our action moving forward:
1. Striking at the root of the problem requires connecting the dots back to the root cause – the fossil fuel industry and, particularly in Hampton Roads, Dominion Virginia Power.
Did you know that scientists are as certain that fossil fuels cause climate change as they are that smoking cigarettes causes lung cancer? Most coastal Virginians certainly aren’t, even though they are on the frontlines of the resulting impacts – facing upwards of five feet of sea-level rise within this century.
Why does this matter? If we’re not talking about fossil fuel burning as central to the problem of rising seas and extreme weather – it’s going to be a lot harder to mobilize the aggressive action we need on clean energy solutions.
As Bill McKibben said in his opening video address to conference attendees:
If we’re going to have a safe coastline anywhere, we’ve got to keep fossil fuels in the ground everywhere. … We’ve got to adapt to that which we can’t prevent, but we also have to prevent that to which we can’t adapt: full-on, full-scale catastrophic climate change.
We know that preventing a full-on catastrophe depends on transitioning rapidly from fossil fuels to a clean energy-powered economy – starting right now. Yet, as CCAN director Mike Tidwell drove home, Virginia’s largest utility company, Dominion Virginia Power, can’t build new coal-fired and fracked gas power plants “fast enough,” even as their long-term energy plan released in 2012 calls for a miniscule, less-than-1 percent increase in renewable energy generation in Virginia. Dominion’s plan ignores the immense clean energy potential the company could easily develop now.
Dominion is the big winner when our movement, members of the media, and our elected officials don’t connect the dots between the pollution they’re spewing, and the water already lapping at coastal Virginians’ doorsteps. Conference-goers left armed with new tactics and facts to connect these dots and spread the full climate change story – from problem to solution.
2. To protect our coast over the long-term, we need adaptation and clean energy solutions that match the scale of the problem.
There’s no one single solution to building a resilient coastal community, one where most people are kept dry and we’re no longer digging a bigger hole of fossil fuel pollution. But there are a lot of solutions within reach that we can scale up quickly — if our elected leaders stop taking cues from the likes of Dominion and start making action on climate change a statewide priority.
In the realm of adaptation, speakers like Ben McFarlane of the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission and Skip Stiles of Wetlands Watch stressed that a serious commitment of resources at the state and national level will be required. Local governments are already grappling with the problem, but they can’t do it alone, not when raising one street alone can cost the city of Norfolk upwards of $1 million.
In the realm of clean energy, the good news oft repeated Saturday is that Hampton Roads is a ground zero for large-scale solutions. As CCAN director Mike Tidwell emphasized, “Offshore wind is a clean energy response that matches the scale of the problem,” and there’s “no reason Virginia can’t lead.” The Mid-Atlantic coast is home to some of the best wind resources in the world and, along that coast, Virginia has the best harbors, the best steel-making and the best maritime tradition.
But, here again, Dominion is an obstacle – and grassroots action the solution. In September, Dominion won a federal auction to lease Virginia’s offshore wind resources. But the company’s latest long-term energy plan omits any commitment to actually develop it.
You can count on conference-goers to continue to increase pressure on Dominion to develop offshore wind power without delay. We’ll also be pressuring Virginia’s U.S. Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner to be part of the solution. The U.S. Congress is weighing a bill right now, the Incentivizing Offshore Wind Power Act, that would help get offshore wind turbines up and running faster.
You can click here to email Senators Kaine and Warner and urge them to sign-on as a co-sponsor.
3. Pushing Virginia’s leaders to act on these solutions depends on building a bigger, bolder people-powered movement.
The biggest takeaway from the day by far was this: People power is the key to unlocking action.
Lois Gibbs, the mom-turned-organizer of Love Canal and founder of the Center for Health, Environment & Justice, set the tone in her morning keynote: “Science is incredibly important. But it did not set us free [in Love Canal]. The only way we achieve change in this country is by organizing people.”
Breakout sessions focused on arming attendees with the tools to impact their legislators, spread the word in the media, and mobilize their communities – all with the goal of building a bigger, more powerful coastal climate movement. Conference sponsors included state environmental groups — CCAN, the Sierra Club – Virginia Chapter, and Wetlands Watch – but also your not-so-typical allies committed to grassroots movement-building in the commonwealth: Virginia Organizing and Virginia New Majority.
Tram Nguyen, Co-Executive Director of Virginia New Majority, talked about the importance of going beyond issue “silos” to win change in Virginia: “If we build coalitions and go to unlikely allies … we can leverage each other as resources to win.”
The most galvanizing call to action of the day was delivered by the closing keynote speaker, Rev. Lennox Yearwood of the Hip Hop Caucus.
As a Louisiana native, Rev. Yearwood, lived through the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. “I still hear the cries,” he said. “You sit here in a position to be neighbors” and “to be there for our entire community so that nobody is left behind” in adaptation and evacuation planning. Rev. Yearwood recommended that Hampton Roads municipalities should establish environmental justice ordinances and collaborate with community organizations that serve low-income people, the disabled and the elderly to ensure everybody is included in planning strategies.
Then, Rev. Yearwood jolted an inspired and determined crowd to its feet with this closing call:
If we don’t do everything we can to organize, to mobilize, and energize our communities, our friends, our enemies about a solution to climate change, then we lose everything. … Never forget that organized people beat organized money every single time. As we look forward to the future, we can do it. … But this one could take us all out. This one we can’t lose. What I see in front of me are the abolitionists and the freedom fighters that will change and preserve our world.
As Rev. Yearwood said, “This one we can’t lose.” It comes down to us. After Saturday’s conference, coastal Virginia’s climate movement is fired up and focused on winning – for children now and for their children tomorrow.
