Connecting Climate Science with Action
How Californians can fight our state’s dirty oil drilling
The following is a transcript of Shaye Wolf’s speech at the March for Science Bay Area on April 14, 2018
We’re here today because of our shared love for science, and because science is under attack. Without sound science, we can’t protect our climate, our wildlife, our health and our loved ones.
I’d like to share a story from my life about the power of putting science into action to make positive change in the real world.
Years ago as a graduate student, I was working on islands off Baja California studying the effects of climate change on seabirds. One of the birds I studied was the Scripps’s murrelet, a rare black and white seabird that looks like a tiny penguin and lives only here off the California and Baja California coasts.
During my research, I learned that Chevron — the multinational oil corporation — was planning to build an industrial liquefied natural gas facility right next to one of the only islands in the world where these endangered seabirds nest. I knew from my research that the risks from oil spills and the constant noise and light from this facility would be devastating for these birds.
These birds were in deep danger and I knew I couldn’t stay silent. But I also knew that publishing a paper on the risks wasn’t going to stop the project. I needed more tools, and more help, and I need to act fast.
I teamed up with a group of environmental organizations in Mexico and the United States. This was the first time I worked with the Center for Biological Diversity, which has an impressive record of using innovative litigation to protect wildlife and wild places.
We decided to use a little-known legal tool by presenting our case to an international environmental oversight commission created under the NAFTA agreement. We asked the commission to investigate Chevron’s violations in pushing their industrial facility right next to a biodiversity hotspot.
The commission launched a full investigation, and after growing pressure and delays, Chevron backed out of the project. The industrial facility never got built. And now that island is part of a national biosphere reserve in Mexico and the birds have lasting protections.
We were a small team of dedicated people, using sound science and innovative legal tools, to stop a destructive project by one of the world’s largest multinational corporations. This was a transformative experience for me. I realized the change-making power of connecting science with action.
After finishing my PhD, I went on to work for the Center for Biological Diversity, where I am the science director in our climate program. For the past decade, I have focused on using science to fight climate change and protect people and wildlife from climate change harms.
In my work, I’m still dealing with Chevron. But not at the level of fighting one project threatening one place but fighting Chevron as part of a global fossil fuel industry that is threatening our entire planet. Because as science makes clear, fossil fuels are the biggest driver of climate change, and we can’t preserve a livable planet without rapidly phasing out fossil fuel use.
I say this as a scientist and mom of a six-year-old: If we’re going to look our kids in the eye and promise them a good future, science tells us that we have got to keep most of the world’s fossil fuels in the ground and make a rapid transition to 100 percent clean energy.
Sadly, we have a president and administration that is trying to make the fight against climate change much harder by putting science under siege. The Trump administration is pushing a fossil fuel free-for-all at the bidding of polluters, and a core part of their agenda is waging a war on science.
Now more than ever, we have to speak up in defense of scientists, scientific integrity and a livable future.
In the face of this daunting problem, what do we do? One helpful thing I learned fighting that Chevron facility is to find a piece you care about and take action. Here in our own backyard, there are important opportunities to fight climate change.
California has a reputation as a global climate leader. But a little-known fact is that California is one of our nation’s top oil-producing states.
Last year, I led an analysis that found that that three-quarters of the oil extracted in California is, barrel for barrel, as climate-damaging as Canada’s notoriously dirty tar-sands crude. This was shocking to me. And let that sink in. California’s oil is among the dirtiest in the world.
California can’t fight climate change while allowing oil companies to extract hundreds of millions of barrels each year of some of the world’s most climate-damaging crude.
And California’s dirty drilling also harms our health. Drilling chemicals make us sick; they cause cancer and birth defects.
What’s particularly troubling is that much of the drilling in California occurs in our neighborhoods — literally in our backyards. More than 5 million Californians live within a mile of one or more existing oil and gas well. And communities of color and low-income communities are hit hardest by neighborhood drilling. That’s unfair and unacceptable.
Our state and our governor have no plan to phase out our dirty oil production. We’re in a climate emergency, and allowing dirty drilling simply doesn’t match what the science demands.
But this week, something inspirational happened here. Nearly 800 organizations called on Governor Brown to stop new fossil fuel projects in California and put us on a path to phase out oil extraction with a just transition that protects workers and communities.
That’s an action we can all take. We can all call on the governor to show true climate leadership and phase out California’s dirty drilling. You can stop by the Center for Biological Diversity’s booth here at the march or sign the petition online by visiting brownslastchance.org.
Returning to the story I began with, I love being a scientist. Science teaches us is to dig in and seek the truth. When we connect that truth to action, we can find a path to making real change.
When it feels daunting, that’s when you know that you’re moving the dial towards good. That’s when you know you’re making a difference.
