Los Angeles must strengthen its environmental goals

Los Angeles is a beautiful city. With its soft westerlies rolling off of the Pacific Ocean, the window lights that twinkle at night like stars in the skyscrapers of downtown L.A. and the pink sunset hues that caress the evening silhouettes of the palm trees, it’s easy to believe that Los Angeles is something of a perfect paradise. 

But the city is facing a crisis of complacency and apathy toward the environmental problems facing the planet today, and the City of Los Angeles has a responsibility to implement realistic and timely solutions to promote sustainability before it’s too late — it should look to USC’s Sustainability Plans to make such changes. 

Earlier this year, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti introduced the city’s 2019 Green New Deal, dubbed “pLAn.” Garcetti intends to reach lofty goals including creating 400,000 new “green” jobs by 2050, planting 90,000 by trees by 2021, diverting 100% of waste from landfills by 2050, electrifying 80% of transportation by 2030, gaining 100% renewable energy by 2045 and recycling 100% of wastewater by 2035. These goals seem great on paper and are met with applause by Los Angeles citizens.

However, they fall short of what L.A. needs: According to the 2018 United Nations Special Report on Global Warming, 2030 marks a point of no return for dealing with environmental issues before climate change’s catastrophic effects become irreversible. Yet most of Garcetti’s goals extend to deadlines in 2035 and beyond. Furthermore, by using deadlines that are over a decade away, Garcetti ensures that he will no longer be in office — and no longer responsible — by the time those dates approach. The rhetoric in Garcetti’s “pLAn” is great for applause and his future political hopes but is just that: rhetoric. 

In 2017, the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA issued an environmental report card for Los Angeles County. The major focal point of the issuance was to measure the county’s progress in environmental sustainability, while also being used as a tool to catalyze stimulating discussions and debates that could lead to a healthier environment. 

The report card is divided into categories such as renewable energy resources, stationary energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, transportation and air quality and human health impacts. In nearly every category, Los Angeles received a “C” grade. The highest mark on the ERC was a B, for the county’s renewable energy resources. 

The report found L.A. air remains among the worst not only in the state of California but also in the entire nation. High levels of pollutants are found in storm water, groundwater and almost all of the region’s bodies of water. L.A. County households spent 32% more energy than the average Californian household. Arguably most dire, about 20% of county residents live in areas ranked among the worst in California by state environmental screening scores, exposing them to high environmental health risks. 

With such environmental issues affecting Los Angeles so greatly, it’s clear that Garcetti’s plan isn’t doing enough. Tackling the effects of climate change and promoting sustainability in a city as large as Los Angeles is no easy task, but it’s the city’s responsibility to move quickly and make significant changes, so real effects take place before it’s too late. One way of addressing these issues might be to look to USC.

USC unveiled its Sustainability 2020 Plan in 2015. The plan is organized around seven core initiatives: education and research, engagement, energy conservation, transportation, procurement, waste diversion and water conservation. The Sustainability Steering Committee consists of faculty, staff and students that based the University’s environmental goals through realistic means and methods that are within the capabilities of USC. The University relied on peer institutions like Harvard University, UC Berkeley, Cornell University and Stanford to iron out its sustainability plan. 

More recently, USC unveiled an updated Sustainability 2028 Plan. While many of its goals are similar to the 2020 Plan, it includes a survey for University students that measures their sustainability needs and intends to reach out to the City of Los Angeles to share and determine sustainability innovations and best practices. Garcetti’s administration would do well to listen to the University’s Sustainability Steering Committee to inform its own plan and bolster its effectiveness. 

The environmental problems affecting Los Angeles and the world won’t be solved overnight or even within a year, but bold and effective solutions must be put in place before it’s too late.