LA MESA —
La Mesa City Councilman Jack Shu, a longtime advocate for the environment, has persuaded his colleagues on the City Council to declare a climate emergency.
Earlier this month, the newly elected official helped create a draft resolution, with the help of others in the community, that won support from the rest of the City Council. In it, Shu wrote that “the scale and scope” of the climate crisis has led to an urgent need for people to be made aware of the dangers related to growing extreme weather conditions.
In it, Shu cited $1 billion in damage during 2016-18 because of weather disasters attributed to climate change, and that the “wildfire season” in California is now year-round. Shu said the 2020 fire season (was) “the most deadly and destructive in history, with over 9,600 wildfires scorching over 4 million acres, burning over 10,400 buildings, causing 31 deaths, and creating the first ‘gigafire’ in the state’s history.”