Today is the 56th anniversary of Earth Day. The theme for this Earth Day, as it was last year, is “Our Power, Our Planet,” emphasizing acceleration of the transition to renewable energy. Over 1 billion people worldwide will participate in Earth Day activities. The organizers, around the world and here in Santa Barbara, are urging all of us to engage in activities like community cleanups, tree plantings, and climate education to promote a sustainable, equitable future. The Santa Barbara Earth Day event will be held this weekend, April 25-26 at Alameda Park and include music, a plant-based food court, kids’ corner, eco marketplace, and what claims to be the largest clean vehicle show on the Central Coast.
While these are important community events, we cannot lose sight of the existential threat that anthropogenic climate change now poses to us all. Humans caused this crisis and we are now in need of global political solutions in order to reduce fossil fuel emissions into the atmosphere.
Lest we forget, almost 10 years ago, on November 4, 2016, 195 parties entered into the Paris Agreement intended to limit global average warming to below 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. In doing so, the world’s governments warned that exceeding this “tipping point” would create a “new global normal” of more severe heat, wildfires, droughts, storms, sea-level rise, and flooding.
Signatories to the agreement included China, the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and the U.S., the world’s second-largest emitter. The treaty set up a framework whereby countries would update their greenhouse gas emissions commitments every five years, while annual Conferences of the Parties (COPs) would continue to focus on negotiation and implementation.
For all their promise, the COPs have unfortunately been abject failures from the standpoint of global emissions reduction, instead focusing on the health impacts of global warming and helping less developed countries engage in climate change mitigation measures.
The climate reality that our world is facing was articulated best in 2021, when U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres issued a Code Red for humanity, saying, “The alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable; we are unequivocally facing a climate emergency.” Since then, global warming has only made the Earth hotter.
March 2026 was a historic month for temperatures in the United States, fueled by an extraordinary and prolonged heat wave that shattered temperature records across much of the West, including California. According to a report released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 10 states — all of which in the West — recorded their warmest March months on record. The Central Coast is not immune from the “new normal” predicted years ago by climate scientists.
The City of Santa Barbara has pointed out that at the Earth’s current rate of warming, sea-level rise in this century will cause increased local flooding, coastal erosion and landslides at Shoreline Park. City infrastructure will be directly impacted as well, as both the El Estero Water Resource Center and the Charles E. Meyer Desalination Plant will experience greater storm flooding, impacting our wastewater and freshwater supplies.
Naturally, the local impacts do not end there. Though Santa Barbara County has always been susceptible to wildfires, climate change has supercharged both their frequency and intensity. The 2007 Zaca Fire burned for four months, scorched over 240,000 acres and cost $120 million to contain. The 2009 Jesusita Fire in the Santa Barbara foothills burned 160 structures, including 80 homes and almost 9,000 acres. The 2017 Thomas Fire exploded into a firestorm that consumed over 280,000 acres. Containing it required what was then the largest mobilization of personnel in California wildfire history, including 8,500 firefighters from across the nation and abroad. Over 1,000 structures were destroyed, most of which were homes, before the fire was finally extinguished in mid-January, 2018.
The Thomas Fire was almost immediately followed by massive mudslides in Montecito, triggered by a combination of heavy rainfall and the fire-denuded landscape. The fire had burned so intensely that the soil of the affected area was turned into a dense, water-repellent surface. On January 9, 2018, massive flows of mud and debris traveling at 20 miles per hour demolished homes and businesses in the area. Over 400 homes were damaged or destroyed, and 21 people were killed. The mudslides also shut down U.S. Highway 101 for ten days, restricting movement in or out of the area.
And so we are faced with a dual task this Earth Day: celebrating the Earth while also seizing on the opportunity to educate ourselves and each other on climate change. The better we understand the destructive impact of climate change, the more focused we can be in advocating for collective government action.
President Trump’s unexplained war with Iran has sent gasoline prices soaring as high as $6 a gallon and put discussion of oil freshly on the minds of Earth Day participants. While this series of events was entirely avoidable, it also provides us with a teachable moment.
One of the first things Trump did as president was pull the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement, labeling climate change “a hoax.” Moreover, in the current 119th Congress, 24 senators and 95 representatives publicly deny the scientific consensus of human-caused climate change. This political denialism has consequences.
As Santa Barbarians we have a unique insight into the devastation caused by fossil fuels. This local story began with the 1969 oil spill that ushered in the modern environmental movement, and continues today with the Trump Administration’s flagrant disregard for state and local law as Sable Offshore has been allowed to resume oil production. Our community has shown national leadership in responding to oil operations in our backyard. We must show this same sort of dedication and leadership in combating climate change.
