"Strength & Sustainability"

A major donor explains how the path to stopping global warming runs through the San Francisco Bay Chapter

This column features updates about Strength & Sustainability, our Chapter's major-gifts program, including perspectives from members who have made recent impact gifts. The goal of Strength & Sustainability is to expand the Bay Chapter's capacity to organize effective environmental campaigns across the entire Bay Area.

Complex campaigns require skillful staff organizers, active involvement of hundreds of community members, and enough money to get the job done. In the past the Chapter has relied on modest annual contributions averaging $35 from thousands of dedicated members. We win a lot of campaigns using this base of resources, but we could do so much more with an annual influx of major gifts.

This issue's Strength & Sustainability column features a personal perspective from Paul Craig. Like many members, Paul has participated in both the outdoor and the activist portions of the Club. Like many, he became an activist and a leader at a point when it fit his life situation. And like some - you perhaps - he has chosen to make a significant gift of support to the Bay Chapter.

I didn't know about mountains until I came out to graduate school in California. I soon joined the Sierra Club to hike, and became a life member early on - inspired by Dave Brower during the Grand Canyon dam fight. I moved a lot, but eventually I returned to California to teach environmental policy at UC Davis. It was great to be here, close to the mountains again. I participated in Sierra Singles. Our party was at Evolution Basin when a lone hiker crossed our path on the John Muir Trail. Kay has been my wife for several decades.

When I retired, I decided to volunteer for the Sierra Club.

I moved up through the ranks, eventually chairing the Club's national Global Warming and Energy Committee. I'm currently on the national Smart Energy Solutions Committee. I'm overjoyed that the Club has decided to make global climate change its top national priority.

Human greenhouse gases are already wreaking havoc. We're losing the snow atop the Alps and Kilimanjaro. We're going to have more hurricanes like Katrina. Barrier islands will be destroyed. At the rate we're going, we will lose coastal cities within the next 50 years. Low-lying nations like Bangladesh will be hurt the worst . How do we change course?

Fortunately America is a "can do" country. While we surely have a huge problem, we also have more than enough solutions to start turning things around. The starting point is efficiency, and we've already done a lot. From World War II up to the oil embargo 30 years ago, America's energy use was growing at a staggering 2% per year. Then from 1975 to 2006 energy use leveled off as we learned how to wring more economic output from the same amount of energy. California has led the way, with per-capita energy use far below the rest of the nation, and holding steady. In 100 years the U.S. could have 10 times today's economic output with no increase in energy use, and using energy mostly from sun, wind, and biomass. This transition will rely massively on science and technology. It will require lots of innovation.

As I work with the Club nationally, I see that often the most important changes must happen at the local level. California is a leader on energy. The Bay Area is the leader among the leaders. It's our job - our opportunity - to show the rest of the nation how to do it.

We must pressure government to institute efficiency policies. We will need to educate the public and organize people to put pressure on elected officials. That's where the Strength & Sustainability campaign comes in. The only factor holding the Sierra Club back in its immediate and significant impacts on energy use is funding.

My Sierra Club involvement has been mostly at the national level. Why am I making a major gift to the Bay Chapter? It's because we in the Bay Area have a long history and promising opportunities to set an example that can spread. The Bay Chapter has played a major role in getting Community Choice Aggregation implemented in San Francisco, and I want to help extend these efforts throughout the Bay Area. The old slogan "Think globally, act locally" isn't just a cliché; for the Bay Chapter it's very much a reality. A gift to the Bay Chapter is a step towards global change.

I hope you'll join me in supporting the local Strength & Sustainability campaign.

To make a contribution or to find out more about how to support the Sierra Club's local Bay Chapter, please contact development director or call (510) 848-0800, ext. 309