Climate Change Threatening Sacramento Homeless Encampments Amid Record Breaking Storm

Bannon Island is a split of land between the Sacramento River and an old freeway that is just a few miles away from the state Capitol. For decades, Bannon Island has been a large encampment and community for unhoused people. However, now with the extreme weather conditions in California due to Climate change, such as floods, the island is experiencing more floods than ever.

Source: NBC News/Youtube

Recently, California has been in a storm that is thought to be one of the worst in decades. When it starts to pour in the Sacramento area, government officials release water from an upstream dam. Experts fear that this will become more frequent as Climate change causes more extreme droughts and flooding in the coming years.

When water is released, and storms like this happen, it can become a dangerous situation for the unhoused, who often live downstream along the riverbeds and creeks. When officials released water a few days before New Year’s Eve, which was described as 10,000 basketballs’ worth of water, Bannon Island was flooded and left behind a wasteland of mud under the oaks and cottonwoods.

When another storm rolled in, the unhoused had to decide whether to accept government offers for shelter, move to higher ground, or just hope the rising waters would not overtake them and their shelters.

California is home to more unhoused people than any other state, and around 70 percent of those people are not sheltered and live in places similar to Bannon Island. More and more people are living in encampments than in shelters, and this means they are more vulnerable to extreme weather and Climate change.

With the latest IPCC report that says it’s ‘now or never‘ to take action against Climate change, we need to act fast!

Cities all over the world, from California to Vietnam, are facing a climate crisis, and millions of people are protesting all over the world. Studies have shown that eating more plant-based can add over a decade to your lifespan, it can save the world’s forests, it benefits the environment, and it is significantly better for your health! Nations worldwide have urged people to eat more plant-based to curb climate change.

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