In her 12/22 letter, Debra McGee of 350Eugene claims the city of Eugene works to protect us from climate change.

On Dec. 20, the city announced that its urban reserves plan to urbanize farmland was unanimously approved by the city and county planning commissions, with the politicians following suit in the new year. Urban reserves would extend Eugene to Junction City and toward Veneta — and I haven’t found a single environmental group raising concerns. SustainEugene.org has details.

No climate activists spoke at the public hearing in October, but there were three farmers and rural residents who don’t want to be forced into the city. An attorney objected on behalf of Wildish, which wants to strip mine their land before it’s urbanized. I spoke about recognizing limits to growth on an abundant, finite planet. We need to protect farmland so people can eat as fossils deplete. Heresy, I know.

Eugene once had an environmental movement watchdogging local government; now these groups are lap dogs. Local government promotes climate not to mitigate the sixth mass extinction we are co-creating, but as a marketing campaign to prop up local real estate: “Move to Eugene to be sustainable!”

The electrification campaign implies that electricity means no fossil fuels. In reality, natural gas is the largest energy source for electric generation, not dams or wind farms. Unnatural gas combustion for electricity has increased substantially in recent decades. Peak electricity in Oregon and nationally was 2018. Prepare to use less. PeakChoice.org has details.

Mark Robinowitz

Eugene

Comments are closed.