By McGarrah Wilson, Youth Program Manager On October 24th, 2025 over 2,000 middle school, high school, and college students across San Diego and California walked out of class to demand that their state legislators pass the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act of 2025 (SB 684 and AB 1243). 19 schools and 1,300 students participated in San Diego County, read below to hear their experiences. Check out photos / news stories from the event. “The Polluters Pay Student walkout was definitely the most thrilling and memorable moment in my life. Watching my friends get excited to raise their voices and fight

By Carmen Berry, SanDiego350 Member Historically, urban living has been associated with unpleasant smells, but what happens when these everyday odors intensify to the point where they become unavoidable? Scent plays a crucial role in forming memories, establishing physiological connections between space and the human body. The subconscious creation of “smellscapes”, place-related hubs of scent and odor, helps to contextualize humans within their settings and build emotional bonds. If you live in a city, you’ll likely find comfort in the modern “smellscapes” your senses have grown accustomed to from living in that place (Creating Smellscapes, Jieling Xiao). Smellscapes encompass the

By Chris Roberts, Transportation Team Lead In a stunning victory for environmental justice, the National City Council voted unanimously against allowing a biodiesel transfer depot to be located at the National City railyard. The depot, proposed by USDG Clean Fuels, a Texas-based energy company, would have been located ½ mile from Kimball Elementary School, St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, and a number of homes and businesses. If the transfer depot had been approved, diesel trains would have delivered fuel to the depot, and 72 diesel tanker trucks would have driven through National City every day of the year to

Masada Disenhouse, SanDiego350 Executive Director and Co-founder Dear SanDiego350 community,  You may have seen the recent news that 350.org (the international organization that SanDiego350 is affiliated with) is suspending its programs in the United States, and wondered if our work at SanDiego350 will be impacted. While we have successfully partnered with 350.org’s US campaigns many times (notably on the Keystone Pipeline, the Dakota Access, divestment campaigns) and are saddened that 350.org will be suspending its U.S. programs, I want to assure you that this change at 350.org will not affect our funding, our campaigns, or ability to achieve our mission. 

Bill Gates and the Democratic Party Throw Climate Action Under the Bus By Jim Miller, The Jumping-Off Place & SD350 Board Member Article by The Jumping Off Place From San Diego where Mayor Gloria has ousted the city’s climate and sustainability leader and California where Governor Newsom and the Democrats are tossing their role as climate leaders into the dustbin of history and reembracing the fossil fuel industry, to the national level where the party has summarily abandoned all climate talk, doomerism is definitively out. And why not, when our dear friend Bill Gates has given us the good news in a memo he crafted just in time for COP30

By Brad Barham, SanDiego350 member My September blog, “Western Wildfires, Climate Change, Insurance, Housing, and Inequality”, explored how rising wildfire risk associated with climate change is negatively affecting the housing market. It raises insurance costs, shrinks housing supply, and pushes rents and house sale prices higher and higher. Similar effects occur in other parts of the US where hurricanes, flooding, and other climate-driven shocks also increasingly damage the housing stock. The big picture concern is this: negative supply shocks driven by climate change are exacerbating a longstanding affordability crisis in US housing markets.  The cost of adequate housing has become

By Sofia Carrasco, Youth v. Oil Intern Article published in Cal Matters The health and safety of millions of Californians is in jeopardy thanks to a law that bypassed nearly the entire legislative process — bargained and brought to you by Big Oil.  The law, Senate Bill 237, was introduced and passed in a hurried 72-hour session. This is the legal minimum amount of time a bill must exist before it passes. By avoiding input from key stakeholders, Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democrats are participating in a concerning trend, one which allows industries to lobby and manipulate their way into backdoor deals.  The California’s Democratic leadership is revoking hard-earned

 By Elizabeth Nguyen, Oceanside Youth Coordinator I’m excited to be joining the SanDiego350 community as the Oceanside Youth Coordinator. I am a first generation Vietnamese American born and raised in San Diego, CA. I enjoyed being outside, and I discovered my passion for marine conservation in high school as a volunteer at the Birch Aquarium. I loved learning about our oceans and sharing with others about how we can protect it from human impacts and the effects of climate change. I studied marine biology at the University of California, San Diego, where I also joined the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

By Katharine Harrison, Legislative Team Lead We vote for state legislators that we believe will promote our well-being as Californians and hope that the legislative process is open and fair enough that we can trust them. However, this is not always the case. Even with a Democratic supermajority, small d democracy has been dealt a bad hand this summer. This session witnessed a great deal of closed-door negotiation that bypassed regular law-making and introduced legislation at the eleventh hour. Seasoned activists and lobbyists, much less the everyday citizen, had little opportunity to push back. Certainly, this has happened before, but

By Huxley Sidari (he/him/his), Youth volunteer with Youth v. Oil The ongoing sewage crisis in the Tijuana River is no new issue to San Diegans and residents of Tijuana alike. The river has been dumping untreated sewage directly into the Pacific Ocean for decades, resulting in the closure of beaches in cities like Imperial Beach and Coronado, damaged ecosystems, and a threat to public health. The history of the decades-long river sewage crisis dates back to the mid-20th century, when Tijuana’s population experienced rapid growth, outpacing its sewage infrastructure. Two separate treatment plants on the border were established in the

By Kyla Guerrero, HR & Operations Coordinator I’m excited to be joining SanDiego350 as the new HR & Operations Coordinator! This role feels like a natural step in both my professional and personal journey, combining my love for building strong organizations with my commitment to collective action for a more just and sustainable world. Originally from the Philippines, I grew up in Chula Vista and later planted roots in Baltimore, Maryland and Whidbey Island, Washington. Living in these diverse communities shaped my worldview and strengthened my belief that healthy environments and thriving communities go hand in hand. Wherever I’ve lived,

By Parke Troutman, Utility Campaign Manager Joining SanDiego350 as staff is a dream job for me: by the time I left the County Public Health Service at the end of 2021, I had long known that I wanted to work on climate change. A friend introduced me to the SD350 Leg Team. I would ultimately become a volunteer co-chair before I had to step down to take a full-time position at an allied organization (Mid-City CAN where I worked on youth justice, cannabis revenue and the Youth Opportunity Pass). I’m very much a political animal. My first action was attending

By Brad Barham, SD350 Member In California, the swings of climate change (more frequent droughts, floods, and extreme heat days) are accelerating the frequency and severity of wildfires.  15 of the 20 largest wildfires in California history have occurred since 2000, with 10 of California’s most costly and destructive fires to life and property happening after 2015.  The Palisades and Eaton fires of 2025, among the largest in US history, resulted in total economic losses of ~$52.5 billion, with more than 10,000 homes destroyed.   California is not alone. Wildfire risk associated with climate change is a serious problem across the

By Gary Butterfield, Previous President of San Diego Veterans For Peace Who is the world’s single largest institutional consumer of fossil fuels and emitter of greenhouse gases?  It may come as a surprise to many of you, but the answer is the US military. In fact, if the Department of Defense were a country, it would rank 47th (out of 170) on the world’s ranking of carbon dioxide polluting countries, between Peru and Portugal. The U.S. Air Force holds the dubious distinction of being the world’s largest user of jet fuel. For example, each Thunderbird (or Blue Angels) team that

By Huxley Sidari (he/him/his), Youth volunteer with Youth v. Oil The history of youth and student-led protests in the United States is one of injustice, pendulums, and taking matters into one’s own hands. In the face of adversity and discrimination, youth tend to have the most brutally honest but essential opinions on divisive issues. The current American political landscape is one of unrest. Over the previous decades, there have been rising currents and waves of youth- and student-led walkouts, protests, and secondary actions of civil disobedience in reaction to injustices they view as worth fighting for. According to Syracuse Law

By Diego Sandoval (He/Him), Youth v. Oil Media Team Lead 2024 saw the second-highest number of billion-dollar weather disasters in US history, reaching 27, shyly missing the previous 2023 record of 28. 9 out of the 10 years with the most billion-dollar weather disasters in US history occurred in the last decade, clearly illustrating our trajectory towards an increasingly expensive future. With this trend displayed, the assumed course of action would be to initiate a focused plan to mitigate the impacts of these disasters, allocate appropriate funds for their immediate response, and limit factors contributing to these occurrences. But what

Kelly Rickwa, SanDiego350 Outreach Intern My name is Kelly Rickwa, and I am an Outreach Intern with SanDiego350 for this summer. I am an engineering student heading into my second year of college at Santa Clara University, and I am passionate about climate action and renewable energy. Throughout the past few weeks, I have gotten to dive into the work that SD350 does, learning more about the environmental injustices present in the San Diego community. The topic of utility justice arises often in these discussions, which I have come to understand as work dedicated to implementing equitable, renewable, and affordable

By Jim Miller, The Jumping-Off Place & SD350 Board Member Also published on The Jumping Off Place If the Zohran Mamdani win over Andrew Cuomo in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary was startling national news that has the potential to transform not just New York but the Democratic party, Paloma Aguirre’s victory over Republican John McCann in the San Diego County Board of Supervisor’s race was, if not the opposite, at least seemingly far less dramatic news coming from our sleepy little Southwestern corner of the country. While Mamdani energized young voters, built a new coalition, and drove the

By Jacob Schneider (he/him) Youth v. Oil Federal Policy Lead As America celebrates July 4th, a day to celebrate her liberation from tyranny, she finds herself sinking into oppression once again. A damning piece of legislation, known as the One Big ‘Beautiful’ Bill (OBBB), looms over barbeques and parades as it threatens to unleash its wrath on millions of souls. The bill is the brainchild of Republican President Donald Trump, who has spent his time in office expanding his powers, trampling over the rights of minorities, and destroying the environment. The OBBB, which recently passed in the Senate and the