Stop climate denial

As the founder of Samovar Tea and Joyride Pizza, two longtime San Francisco institutions, I am urgently requesting San Franciscans speak up now (at www.saverestaurants.com) if you want your favorite local restaurant to survive.

The federal Restaurant Revitalization Fund in 2021 helped keep 101,000 independent restaurants and bars open. But nearly 200,000 businesses did not receive funding and are at risk of closing forever.

There is one solution to all these problems: Congress prioritizing urgent relief for restaurants and voting to replenish the the fund.

This lifeline would help independent restaurants deal with the long-term structural challenges facing the industry because of COVID-19 and secure the employment of 11 million workers across 500,000 small businesses, as well as the 5 million more jobs up and down our supply chain.

A bill to reallocate funds has passed the House. Senators, please help support the small businesses and people who support you.

Regarding “Race to save fish as lake dies away” (Front Page, April 16): Does this sound familiar: Climate change started the glaciers melting, but glaciers are very far away. Then it bleached the coral reefs, but I’m not a scuba diver. Then it started threatening the redwoods,

The San Francisco International Airport location of Samovar Tea shut down when travel was halted in the early part of the pandemic in 2020.

the Sequoias and the Joshua trees, but that doesn’t worry me that much because I’m not a tree. Now it’s threatening some fish, and the bird and bee populations have plummeted, but I’m not a wild animal. It’s also threatening to wipe out the foolishly concentrated coffee and banana monocrops, but I can switch to tea and some other fruit.

When does the denial end? When does the average person have that “Aha!” moment and become a climate activist?