Rep. Waters mr. Mayor, we welcome you. I thank you for the opportunity that you afforded to me and other members of congress to visit with you recently while you helped help us to understand exactly what you are doing and what other assistance could be helpful in what you are attempting to do. With that, mr. Mayor, you are recognized for five minutes to present your testimony. Mayor garcetti great. Thank you so much. Thank you for your friendship, your leadership, thank you for your presence. It is not the first time we have testified together. Whenever Maxine Waters is there on an important subject, i am there. This is the most important of all of the subjects i have ever come before you to talk about. Im grateful to be here before you to have to have representative green and representative garcia, and my dear friend brad sherman who represents my hometown in the san fernando valley. Thank you for being part of this. I come before you today as a mayor, as a parent, as a foster parent,
Current, as a foster parent, as a volunteer and organizer and longtime activist on the issue of homelessness. 14 on skidhen i was predatedthing that even my decades, there was a place where we just posited our social ills and trauma. I think about what the 14yearold Erica Garcetti would tell the 48yearold Eric Garcetti if he could talk about how far we have come and how far we have not come. I am asked all the time what causes homelessness, and im sure you have had a great testimonies. Im the last panel, a panel of one. You are probably tired, hungry, and probably a little depressed hearing some of the things you have heard today. I hope to give you a perspective to give you some hope. And some belief that this is a human caused problem. That alternately can be a human solved problem as well. There is no issue i work on more than this. Mayors across the country are brought together on this issue. Mayors ironically have few of the direct power over the causes out of homelessness we have
The way we produce food on what we eat contributes to the loss of nature and ecosystems and declining biodiversity. We need to really be kept on the field of consumption and production of meat. Diets that are high in grains not some thanks to both the lower Carbon Footprint than those of the ta and meet. These no plus have been the team for anybody to say whoa Climate Change is happening and then happening and then we just adapt to it the capacity to adapt is limited. Also coming up will board a ship with a crew committed to saving migrants from drowning in the mediterranean and they do it knowing it could land them in prison. Human lives have to be saved for me thats north up for debate and theres too much discussion going on about it about who should be saved. As a few to. Our viewers on p. B. S. In the United States and all around the world welcome we begin the day with what we are learning about Climate Change and for many of you it may be hard to swallow today the United Nations I
Out the importance of planting trees. San francisco has one of the smallest urban canopies of any major city in the United States. And we know this, we have an urban forest plan that called for the planning of trees of 2,500 trees per year. Since we rolled that out, we have failed every year and last year we added a total of one tree to our urban canopy. And part of the problem is the lack of budget. Even in this years fiscal budget, next years budget for this city, we barely have enough money to keep up with the rate of removals, let alone growing our urban canopy. And the only reason that money was put in because of the good work of the board of supervisors and the public outrage when it was discovered that wouldnt be in there. And the department of the environment, it would be wonderful if they would add an f. T. E. Who is actually dedicated to urban forestry. To the San Francisco Public Utilities commission, in the last 10 years you have removed 475 trees and planted 39. And to the
Is no possibility for anybody to say Climate Change is happening and then happening and then we just adapt to it the capacity to adapt is limited. Also coming up will board a ship with a crew committed to saving migrants from drowning in the mediterranean and they do it knowing it could land them in prison. Human lives have to be saved for me thats not up for debate and theres too much discussion going on about it about who should be saved. As if you know. Our viewers on p. B. S. In the United States and all around the world welcome we begin the day with what we are learning about Climate Change and for many of you it may be hard to swallow today the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published a special report on land how we use it and hell that use contributes to our warming planet consider a medium rare prime rib steak one before it served fields are fertilized to produce feed for cattle theres kells are then fed and produce methane a Greenhouse Gas that is muc