Like most environmental groups, the San Diego chapter of the Sierra Club is navigating an increasingly rocky road.
There’s concern regarding President Donald Trump rolling back environmental protections and cutting funds.
There’s frustration that despite warnings and actions, the world’s nations are still emitting more global-warming greenhouse gases, accelerating the impacts of climate change.
There are shifting alliances in California, where some Democratic leaders often seen as allies of the environmental movement are seeking to loosen the restrictions in the landmark California Environmental Quality Act and rein in the California Coastal Commission.
Locally, the Sierra Club in San Diego, while experiencing modest growth, is struggling with demographic changes while moving to connect with groups that typically haven’t been priorities, particularly in South County.
Into this walks Mark West, the new director of the Sierra Club’s San Diego chapter as of May 1.
“It’s a very trying time to say the least,” said West, a former member of the Imperial Beach City Council who has a lengthy resume of involvement with community, business and environmental organizations throughout the region.
West said the San Diego chapter will remain concentrated on local matters, for the most part.
“I do think we are in a unique time to continue the work we are doing and not staying too focused on the national scene,” he said in an interview last week.
Having said that, he acknowledged that “anything that happens nationally trickles down to California and then on to San Diego.”
For example, people might not think Trump’s sweeping cuts at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) would have a direct impact on environmental organizations. West said it does.
He said a lot of philanthropic efforts are shifting to fill the USAID void, putting more pressure on fundraising for environmental groups and other nonprofits.
“That’s causing a ripple effect,” he said.
He suggested there’s a broader dynamic at play for environmental groups, and not just because of Trump’s election.
“The pendulum definitely has swung very far to the right when it comes to the environment,” he added.
On the ground, West has several goals for the local chapter. One of them is a greater focus on air and water pollution in South County, an area he is intimately familiar with given Imperial Beach is the area most affected by the near-constant cross-border sewage spills from Tijuana.
West noted the Sierra Club chapter has a distinct North County group, but no counterpart in South County.
South County has the worst air pollution in the region and West said the club is seeking to work more closely with the local Air Pollution Control District to address some of the sources — he specifically mentioned activity at warehouses.
He thought a turning point for public concern about ocean pollution came when the county enacted more strict water testing, resulting in Imperial Beach beaches being closed virtually every day. Beaches to the north along the Silver Strand and in Coronado also experienced more closures, though far less frequently.
“That really underscored how bad it is,” he said of the new testing standards.
Then came the study by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography that gave scientific backing to what local residents had been complaining about for some time: The sewage spills are fouling the air.
West applauded what “seems to be a resurgence of wanting to do more” on border sewage. He acknowledged the efforts by local leaders that paved the way for getting $600 million in the pipeline to fix and expand the international border sewage plant.
But he was cautious, recalling that years ago $300 million in federal funds seemed to be targeted for the problem but “somehow that money disappeared.”
West said the Sierra Club San Diego Chapter has 13,000-plus members and increased around 3% to 4% over the last year. He added that the North County inland area had a particularly notable boost in members.
But he said much work still needs to be done. The membership is an aging population that tends to be highly educated, wealthy and White. In San Diego and across the country, chapters are seeking diversity.
He noted what he saw as a particular shortcoming not just of the Sierra Club, but environmental groups in general: suspicions by working-class families.
“People have gotten frustrated with environmental organizations,” he said.
From a kitchen-table economics view, too many people see some environmental protections as adding burdens and costs to their lives, he suggested.
“We need to show them how we can be helpful in their community,” West said.
West said the local chapter plans to do more to engage the public, particularly young people and children. He also said veterans and other groups need to be more of a priority for the Sierra Club.
He hopes to see the club do more outreach at schools, farmers markets, libraries and more. But he said that information about and protection of the environment are based on science and education and “all of that is under attack” by the Trump administration.
At the end of the interview, West was asked if there’s anything that hadn’t been discussed that he wanted to add. There was, and he was emphatic about it: People need to remember that being in the great outdoors can be great fun.
“We have to have fun. It should be fun to be outdoors,” he said. “If people aren’t having fun, they’re not going to want to be part of this.”
What they said
Los Angeles Times (@latimes).
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