Weather, as measured by monthly highs and lows, has grown more extreme in Seattle (Image: ClimateCheck)
(Image: City of Seattle)
Mayor Bruce Harrell and Seattle city officials spent Earth Day like many of the rest of us — promising to do better.
Tuesday, Harrell signed an “Earth Day executive order” directing city departments to “respond to Seattle’s current and future climate challenges with a focus on building resilience, growing a green economy, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from transportation.”
The order’s most significant element sets Seattle on track for updating its key Climate Action Plan by the summer of 2026.
“Climate change is impacting more parts of daily life than it did a decade ago. Hotter summers are making living and working more uncomfortable and often dangerous,” Harrell said in the announcement of the order. “Severe storms are damaging infrastructure and flooding homes, pollutants are worsening air quality, and much more.”
The update will be the first for the plan since it was formed in 2013.
The average global temperature in 2013 was 58.3 F.
In 2024, the average hit 59.2 F — the highest since records began in 1850.
In addition to launching the process to being planning for the plan, Harrell’s order signed Tuesday also promises a roster of audits and new processes to help shape the effort
Key aspects of the Climate Action Plan directive in the Executive Order include:
- Audit the 2013 Climate Action Plan actions and publish a progress report in Q3 2025.
- Add new actions into the Climate Action Plan to increase climate resilience and adaptation, support building a green economy, and secure protections for public health.
- Conduct inclusive engagement with most impacted communities, develop an advisory panel, and collaborate with Tribal governments, private sector, and others.
- Deliver a new Climate Action Plan by Q3 in 2026.
- Evaluate and recommend revenue-generating policies, investment strategies, and projects by Q4 2026 to support CAP implementation.
- Develop new framework to enhance how we monitor, evaluate, and report on the actions.
Learn more at greenspace.seattle.gov.
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The city of Seattle just gave away over a million dollars to groups “most impacted by climate change”. It said this was to help them contend with the serious health hazards it was causing their community. Yet none of the money went two things like planting trees, improving gutters or improving water quality. It went to things like digital storytelling and nature hikes for Spanish speakers. Both these things can be done pretty much free. It feels really exploitative. There are definitely legitimate environmental issues that disproportionately impact poor people. And because a disproportionate amount of poor people are POC it disproportionately affects POC. But when I look at where the money goes it rarely goes to organizations that are making concrete changes that make a tangible difference in alleviating climate change or its impact.
“$12,000,000 for Community-driven urban forestry and job training will leverage longstanding partnerships with organizations like Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust and Environmental Coalition of South Seattle (ECOSS) to improve the health of Seattle’s urban forest and people by funding community planning, tree planting and stewardship across priority neighborhoods, training youth with green economy skills and connecting them with employment, and restoring forested spaces in parks, near public housing, and around public schools.”
We can walk and chew gum at the same time. Creating accessible digital and natural activities is helpful too.
https://harrell.seattle.gov/2023/09/18/seattle-awarded-12-9-million-to-plant-trees-create-jobs-advance-climate-justice-and-restore-forested-places-near-schools-parks-and-low-income-housing/#:~:text=Seattle%20%E2%80%93%20Recognizing%20the%20City's%20leadership,climate%20change%2C%20improve%20access%20to
Also, you theory of it being an economic issue and not a racial issue doesn’t hold when looking at the data. Controlling for income, disparities in air pollution by race and ethnicity persist, and are exacerbated by disparities in consumption of foods that cause the pollution. It’s a political issue, not an economic one…
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1818859116