September 09, 2020

Smoke blocks the sun in the East Bay as new fires rage across California; plus, how organizers in the Mission won a victory for affordable housing

1 hour 6 minutes

Satellite photo: The Creek Fire in the Sierras produces a massive smoke plume. The fire is 0% contained and has roughly doubled in size in a day.

On this show:

0:08 – Several additional fires have grown over the past 24 hours, as Cal Fire continues to battle the Creek Fire, and as smoke from the August Complex blocks out the sun in the East Bay. We talk with Cal Fire public information officer Christine McMorrow.

0:13 – Roger Gass is a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, giving us an update on the high winds that have made fire conditions more dangerous over the last week in California.

0:18 – Climate change is linked to hotter, drier conditions with more fuel to burn in California, a major factor in wildland fires that burn with increasing intensity year after year in the state. Eugene Cordero joins us — he’s a professor of Meteorology and Climate

Science at San Jose State University, and founder of Green Ninja, an education provider that uses climate and environmental topics to teach middle school science.

0:34 – PG&E turned off power to 172,000 people in 22 counties during high winds, in its latest round of “Public Safety Power Shutoffs.” This comes after a weekend where PG&E expected rolling blackouts because of stress on the grid during a heat wave. Mark Toney from TURN, The Utility Reform Network, responds.

0:45 – Organizers have won a victory in San Francisco’s Mission district, defeating a luxury megaproject and winning a commitment to building 100 percent affordable units in its place. We talk with Jacqueline Gutierrez and Marilyn Duran of People Organizing to Demand Environmental and Economic Rights (PODER), both members of the Plaza 16 Coalition.

1:08 – Newsom is handing out more oil and gas drilling permits in California, a new analysis says. We talk with Liza Tucker of Consumer Watchdog. Read her release here: Permits To Drill New Oil And Gas Wells Zoom Up 190% In The First Six Months Of 2020 Under Gov. Newsom Worrisome Trend

1:34 – The San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness has released a new study, “Stop the Revolving Door,” on what unhoused people experience when they try to seek services in SF, with a particular focus on substance, the experiences of trans people, and mental health. We talk with Olivia Glowacki, who was the project coordinator for the study and is now development director for the SF Coalition on Homelessness, and Cesar Espinosa-Perez, who helped conduct interviews for the study and previously had to navigate the shelter system himself. Read the study here.

The post Smoke blocks the sun in the East Bay as new fires rage across California; plus, how organizers in the Mission won a victory for affordable housing appeared first on KPFA.

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