WHILE POLITICIANS AND ENVIRONMENTALISTS grapple with climate change, there’s one population that will feel its consequences most acutely: youth. As experts talk about leaving a better world for the generations to come, teenagers in Contra Costa County know that they will be living in a world that many scientists predict will be filled with increasing challenges on this issue.
Luci Olson, an 11th grader at Heritage High School in Brentwood, sits on the board of the climate club at her school. Additionally, Olson is an outreach manager with the Bay Area Youth Climate Summit (BAYCS), an environmental nonprofit run entirely for youth, by youth.
Olson feels the weight of global climate change and wants to feel like she’s doing something, especially since the problem is only getting worse and will disproportionately impact her generation as they grow older. It’s up to people her age to do something about it, she said.
“We’re gonna suffer the consequences,” Olson said. “And I think we also have the responsibility to fix it.”
BAYCS gives educational workshops to students around the Bay Area, publishes a newsletter, and uses social media to raise awareness.
Olson believes that in order to make an impact, good policies have to be put into place, or should have been implemented in the first place.
“Without that, there’s not really anything to stop companies from continuing to produce the things that are killing our planet,” she said.
In the Bay Area, studies show that there have been significant impacts on the planet as the result of climate change. According to a report compiled by the California Energy Commission in 2019, the Bay Area’s average annual maximum temperature increased by 1.7 degrees from 1950 to 2005. In addition, drought has become a more severe issue, with 53.3% of the state being at least abnormally dry, according to data from Drought.gov, a website associated with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Take the city of Antioch in Contra Costa County, where the average high temperature has increased about 1/20th of a degree per year, according to Bill Dean, a climate change adviser for the California Environmental Protection Agency. Though this number might seem too small to hold any significance, this means that after 20 years, Antioch will be a whole degree warmer. Even one degree of change can alter important ecosystems.
Antioch puts plan in writing
Antioch has taken some precautions to help protect the city as much as possible from natural disasters caused by climate change and to become a more eco-friendly place. A plan was created to address changing weather patterns and move toward clean energy. Dubbed the city’s Climate Action Resilience Plan, it was passed by the City Council in 2020, and updates to the plan were approved by the council at the end of 2024.
Then-Mayor Lamar Hernandez-Thorpe said the plan concentrates on reducing the risk of wildfires and responding to increasing temperatures.
According to the city, the goal is to prepare the Antioch community “for shocks such as drought, flood, and extreme heat that are expected to intensify in the future and to reduce the community’s reliance on carbon-based energy sources.”
The plan, known as CARP, aims to prepare Antioch for cases of extreme natural disasters, such as flooding, wildfires, and drought. Included are policies meant to mitigate greenhouse gases through shifted modes of transportation and incorporating the use of solar energy, adapting the community for disaster preparedness, and community development through local hire policy and workforce development.
The plan was passed in conjunction with the 2020-25 Contra Costa HOME Consortium Consolidated Plan, which is used to build rental affordable housing units and improve infrastructure in lower-income neighborhoods. A large portion will address increasing resilience for vulnerable populations, the city said.
Other members of the City Council in 2020 who passed CARP include Tamisha Torres-Walker, Lori Ogorchock, Monica E. Wilson, and Mike Barbanica.
Former council member Barbanica served on the body for four years. He is a former Pittsburg police officer. When former Supervisor Federal Glover announced his retirement, Barbanica made a bid for the District 5 supervisor seat in Contra Costa County’s November election, but was narrowly defeated by Shanelle Scales-Preston.
Barbanica describes himself as a conservative on issues of finance and crime, but says that when it comes to the environment, he’s much more of a liberal.
Barbanica said the council made it a priority to think about a warmer Antioch in a state plagued by drought and to think about future generations. As an example, he cited the 2021 launch of the city’s Antioch Brackish Water Desalination Project, which had a goal of being operational within the first quarter of 2025 but now is slated to be completed this winter, according to Scott Buenting, public works director and city engineer for the city of Antioch.
Brackish water is a mixture of sea and fresh water. The project will create fresh water for the community.
The Contra Costa County desalination plant will be located on the western edge of the San Joaquin River Delta, and the brine, or excess salt and minerals left over from the extraction process, will be sent to the Delta Diablo wastewater treatment plant in Pittsburg.
To purify the water, the city will use a process called reverse osmosis, which will pressurize the brackish water from the Delta through a semipermeable membrane, or a biological barrier through which only the freshwater will be able to pass. The desalinated water will then enter the city’s drinking water distribution system, accessible to all residents of Antioch. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the project will have the ability to produce up to 6 million gallons of water per day.
“One of the selling points was that we would be in the future able to actually sell water … but for generations to come that’s gonna ensure that regardless of what occurs, the residents and their kids and their kids will have proper drinking water,” said Barbanica.
This was a key aspect of Barbanica’s support of the plant when it was first brought to the council. However, another environmental controversy soon arose within the community.
Shortly after this brackish water plant project was passed, the majority of the council voted to discontinue the use of a natural gas pipeline that runs through Antioch.
“We should also acknowledge that there are dangers under our feet,” Torres-Walker, a council member who voted to upend the pipeline, told the Antioch Herald. “Moving forward with this extension is dangerous for any community. We need a just transition away from fossil fuels and for that reason, I will be voting no on this today.”
This means that these elements will now have to travel farther to their destination, increasing the chance of greenhouse gas emissions. This decision didn’t sit well with Barbanica, who was one of two council members who voted “no” on this issue.
“Three voted yes, two voted no, and it was to discontinue the lease on that pipeline,” said Barbanica. “Now, on first glance, that sounds like ‘Yeehaw that’s great, we’re not pumping this natural gas through the system,’ but if you look at it this way, we all use natural gas to heat our homes. We all use gas to cook. We use gas to heat up water.”
As a result of the decision, the California Resources Production Corp., the company that owns the pipeline, sued the city of Antioch, a consequence that Barbanica says not only cost many folks at these pipeline companies their jobs but taxpayers’ money as well. The city eventually prevailed.
Taking action to make a change
Antioch is not the only city tackling the effects of climate change. In the neighboring community of Brentwood, the city’s climate policies are highlighted in the General Plan. This includes various policies, such as the mandatory Conservation and Open Space Element, emphasizing the city’s goal of shielding, maintaining, and enhancing Brentwood’s natural resources.
Following Antioch’s actions with its gas pipeline, Brentwood became the second city in east Contra Costa County to ban future oil drilling or gas production.
High schooler Olson is a resident of Brentwood. When asked about how climate change impacts her mental health, she replied that while acknowledging the prevailing issues of climate change, for her, remembering the small victories is just as important.
“It’s definitely hard … I sometimes get into this mindset of, ‘everything’s very … doomed, I guess. It’s hard to have hope when everything is always so negative. But I think it’s really important to look at positive things.”
For her, some news channels and television shows she’s seen have encouraged her not to give up. Additionally, she mentioned that Instagram accounts that only post positive stories keep her hopeful.
In participating in BAYCS, Olson added, “Doing things like the BAYCS workshops in the summits where you’re doing something to help can be beneficial because you feel like you’re helping.”
Olson is not alone. According to a survey taken by the nonprofit environmental think tank Earth.org, 85% of American youths age 16-25 surveyed said that they were moderately worried about climate change, with 57.9% of those surveyed being extremely concerned about this issue.
In that same survey from Earth.org, 42.8% of survey recipients noted that climate change impacted their mental health.
“With my peers and within my community, it’s something talked about more, so I know it’s hard on them in similar ways,” said Olson. “A lot of climate anxiety comes from the fear that what we’re doing isn’t going to be enough. And that’s why we keep doing what we’re doing.”
Madeleine Hanavan is an 11th grader at Dozier-Libbey Medical High School in Antioch. This story originally appeared in CCSpin.