Enviro. Groups Stand in Solidarity with Movement for Black Lives Demands / Week of Action
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ANNUAL REPORT 2016–2017 2 Climate Generation: a Will Steger Legacy
2016–2017 Annual Report 1 CELEBRATING YEARS OF CLIMATE ACTION! ANNUAL REPORT 2016–2017 2 Climate Generation: A Will Steger Legacy LETTERS FROM OUR FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR This past year, dramatic Climate change is personal, changes in our political visceral, and grounded in system and in public reality. discourse have highlighted the heightened urgency With a decade of of addressing climate experience educating change. We are on the and activating leaders edge as a human race. to engage in solutions, we are building climate- The U.S. administration’s literate young people, rejection of climate change and science is educators, businesses, and communities who showing up in damaging ways, from canceling are equipped to take action and inspired to environmental regulations to trying to silence lead the way in creating the resilient world scientists. Preventing experts from expressing and we envision. bringing truths to the public is a harmful initiative. This past year has inspired immense gratitude. There is evidence of climate change all around us. Our 10-year anniversary celebration last This past year, we have witnessed unprecedented December came at a time when we needed droughts, floods, wildfires, and extraordinary our supporters to lift us up and carry us hurricanes. Climate change is no longer a emotionally and financially down the long road concept of the projected future; it’s with us now. ahead. I’m watching West Antarctica closely, where irreversible changes loom frighteningly close. On a national scale, we saw a continuation of The waters around the Amundsen Sea in West climate change facts tangled up in a complex Antarctica have warmed dramatically over the web of misinformation. -
1 March 18, 2021 To
March 18, 2021 To: Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen Secretary of State Anthony Blinken Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm Incoming President and Chairperson of the U.S. Export-Import Bank Acting CEO of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation Dev Jagadesan Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Jake Sullivan Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy Robin Colwell [heads of other agencies and partner institutions, as appropriate] We are encouraged by the Biden Administration’s initial steps to implement a ‘whole-of-government’ approach to the climate crisis, as set out in the January 27 “Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad.” We are writing now to provide our recommendations on a critical piece of the international agenda described in the Executive Order — ending public support for fossil fuels around the world by “promoting the flow of capital toward climate-aligned investments and away from high-carbon investments.” We urge the Biden Administration to act swiftly to end new financing for all parts of the fossil fuel supply chain (including for gas), stop new U.S. fossil fuel support within 90 days across all government institutions, and work with other nations to end fossil fuel financing.1 As you know, averting the worst impacts of the climate crisis requires a rapid transition away from fossil fuels. There is simply no room left for new investments in long-lived carbon intensive infrastructure. Still, public agencies continue to provide tens of billions of dollars to finance and support such investments each year. This has to stop. -
1 October 19, 2020 to the Ceos of Major Global Asset Managers
October 19, 2020 To the CEOs of major global asset managers, banks, and insurers: We, the undersigned group of Indigenous women and organizations, call on your institutions to stop financing, investing in, and insuring the expansion of tar sands oil extraction, transport, and refining, and commit to phasing out support for tar sands oil. These measures should encompass both projects and the companies that build and operate such projects. The tar sands sector poses grave threats to Indigenous rights, cultural survival, local waterways and environments, the global climate, and public health. Furthermore, this year saw a significant set of losses in the oil and petroleum sector, and no subsector has had a worse financial prognosis than tar sands oil. The destructiveness of tar sands has been well-documented, and the sector’s growth has been inhibited by legal challenges, financial uncertainty, and grassroots resistance. Though governments and corporations are still calling for the expansion of the tar sands, current tar sands production is restricted by a pipeline bottleneck, which means that the future of increased tar sands extraction depends on three pipelines. With fossil fuel corporations plowing ahead with pipeline construction in the midst of a global pandemic and massive financial meltdown, we urge your institutions to immediately decline any support for TC Energy’s Keystone XL pipeline, Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline, and the Canadian government’s Trans Mountain pipeline – and to cut ties with these tar sands projects and companies. At this moment, tar sands extraction and construction poses major risks to the health of communities and workers due to COVID-19 transmission. -
January 10, 2019 Re: Legislation to Address the Urgent Threat Of
January 10, 2019 Re: Legislation to Address the Urgent Threat of Climate Change Dear Representative: On behalf of our millions of members and supporters, we are writing today to urge you to consider the following principles as the 116th Congress debates climate change legislation and momentum around the country builds for a Green New Deal. As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently warned, if we are to keep global warming below 1.5°C, we must act aggressively and quickly. At a minimum, reaching that target requires visionary and affirmative legislative action in the following areas: Halt all fossil fuel leasing, phase out all fossil fuel extraction, and end fossil fuel and other dirty energy subsidies. The science is clear that fossil fuels must be kept in the ground. Pursuing new fossil fuel projects at this moment in history is folly. Most immediately, the federal government must stop selling off or leasing publicly owned lands, water, and mineral rights for development to fossil fuel producers. The government must also stop approving fossil fuel power plants and infrastructure projects. We must reverse recent legislation that ended the 40-year ban on the export of crude oil, end the export of all other fossil fuels, and overhaul relevant statutes that govern fossil fuel extraction in order to pursue a managed decline of fossil fuel production. Further, the federal government must immediately end the massive, irrational subsidies and other financial support that fossil fuel, and other dirty energy companies (such as nuclear, waste incineration and biomass energy) continue to receive both domestically and overseas. -
By Ezra Silk
VICTORY PLAN BY EZRA SILK Director of Policy & Strategy; Co-Founder, The Climate Mobilization August 2016: Initial Publication March 2019: Initial Revision by Kaela Bamberger CONTENTS Foreword by Paul Gilding 4 Preface by Margaret Klein Salamon 8 Learning from Our Last Battle for Survival: World War II Home Front Mobilization Overview 10 Climate Mobilization Objectives for Victory 14 FRONT ONE Restore a Safe & Stable Climate Targets, Definitions & Context 23 Kick-Start the Mobilization 29 Mobilize the Fed 32 Establish New Federal Government Agencies 33 Fair Shares Greenhouse Gas Emissions Rationing 38 Energy & Electricity: Phase Out Fossil Fuels and Rapid Rollout of Renewable Energy 41 Transport Mobilization: Mass Electrification and Shift toward Rail & Public Transit 50 Transform the Food System: Shift Toward Plant-Based Diets, Perennialize Grains, Embrace Agroecology & Carbon Farming 63 Overhaul the Built Environment 70 Full Employment & WWII-style Tax Fairness 72 Mobilize the Department of Defense to Fight Climate Change & Ecological Overshoot 75 Launch an Emergency Global Forest Management Effort 77 Research Program on Near-Term Cooling Approaches 81 Drawdown Research & Development Program 83 FRONT TWO Reverse Ecological Overshoot Half-Earth Conservation Preservation & Restoration Project to Halt the 6th Mass Extinction 87 Restore the Oceans 94 APPENDICES Appendix A: Works Cited 97 Appendix B: Background on “Solar Radiation Management” 98 Remaining Sections (to be Drafted) 102 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I greatly appreciate the valuable feedback on this first draft I received from Margaret Klein Salamon, George Woodwell, Richard Heinberg, Anya Grenier, Michael Hoexter, David Kai- ser, Raychel Santo, Emily Nink, Adam Sacks, Sailesh Rao, Marie Venner, Joe Uehlein, Jeremy Brecher, David Spratt, Tom Weis, and Paul Gilding. -
Climate Emergency.’ Should the US Be Next?
https://grist.org/climate/38-countries-have-declared-a-climate-emergency-under-president-biden- should-the-us-be-next/ BREAK GLASS 38 countries have declared a ‘climate emergency.’ Should the US be next? By Shannon Osaka on Jan 25, 2021 In April of 2019, thousands of protesters descended upon London. They blocked bridges, dragged a pink boat into one of the city’s central squares, and, at one point, some stripped nearly naked in the House of Commons. Their goal? Get the United Kingdom to become the first country in the world to declare a “climate emergency.” After 10 days of protests, Britain’s Parliament did a surprising thing: Its members approved a proposal to declare a state of emergency in response to the rapidly overheating planet. And while the U.K. was the first country to do so, it wasn’t the last. Today, at least 38 countries around the world — including the whole of the European Union, Japan, and New Zealand — and thousands of towns, cities, and counties have issued some kind of resolution declaring climate change a crisis. According to an estimate from the Climate Mobilization, a U.S.-based advocacy group, 950 million people, or 12 percent of the world’s population, currently live under a “climate emergency.” A week into his term, President Joe Biden is already under pressure to do the same. Although the new president has frequently spoken about the “climate emergency” — and referred to it that way on the White House priorities list — he has stopped short of issuing a formal declaration. -
December 4, 2017 Dear Member of Congress
December 4, 2017 Dear Member of Congress, Thank you for being a member of the bipartisan House Climate Solutions Caucus. By joining, you have signaled your intent to lead Congress in bipartisan dialogue and problem-solving to address one of the most pressing issues of our time. Your acknowledgement of human-caused climate change is critical, and we appreciate your desire to bridge the partisan divide to advance legislation that will reduce climate risk. Now, more than ever, we need Congress to address climate change. This is an urgent problem. As the recent hurricanes and wildfires have illustrated, communities across the country and world are already experiencing the effects of rising seas, warmer oceans, increased drought, and higher temperatures. Failure to act will only place more families and communities in harm’s way. As members of the U.S. Climate Action Network, we are committed to building trust and alignment between our members in order to address climate change in a just and equitable way. Like the Climate Solutions Caucus, we believe that working together is essential if we want to prevent the worst impacts of climate change. In that spirit, our organizations are eager to work with you and other members of the Climate Solutions Caucus to pass legislation that: - Promotes clean energy and energy efficiency; - Reduces greenhouse gas emissions; - Begins a just transition away from fossil fuels and fossil fuel subsidies; - Fosters resilient communities; - Seeks environmental justice; and - Reflects the latest scientific data on climate change. While you will have many opportunities to demonstrate your commitment to climate action in the 115th Congress, we urge that throughout the appropriations and budget process, you vote in support of: - No rollbacks of environmental and social justice protections; - Renewable energy incentives; - Climate science and research; and - No oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. -
Climate Change Advocacy Online: Theories of Change, Target Audiences, and Online Strategy
Climate change advocacy online: Theories of change, target audiences, and online strategy Luis E. Hestres Department of Communication, The University of Texas at San Antonio, USA Email: [email protected] This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Environmental Politics on March 2015, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/09644016.2015.992600. Abstract Widespread adoption of the Internet has transformed how most U.S. political advocacy organizations operate, but perhaps more important has been the formation of new types of advocacy organizations. These ‘Internet-mediated advocacy organizations’ tend to have smaller, geographically dispersed and networked staffs, behave as hybrids of traditional political organizations, and emphasize the use of online tools for offline action. The climate change debate has spurred formation of many such organizations—including 350.org—that now advocate for climate action alongside legacy/environmental organizations. How do these organizations differ from their legacy/environmental counterparts? What does their rise mean for climate change political advocacy? I explore these and other questions through in-depth interviews with top online strategists and other staffers at Environmental Defense Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, Greenpeace USA, Energy Action Coalition, 1Sky, and 350.org. Interviews revealed broad agreement among Internet- mediated/climate groups regarding core strategic assumptions about climate advocacy, but some divergence among legacy/environmental organizations. They also revealed connections between these assumptions, audience segment targeting, and strategic use of the Internet for advocacy. I discuss implications for the future of U.S. climate advocacy. Presented at Bridging Divides: Spaces of Scholarship and Practice in Environmental Communication The Conference on Communication and Environment, Boulder, Colorado, June 11-14, 2015 https://theieca.org/coce2015 Page 2 of 18 Introduction In June 1988, Dr. -
Uniform Climate Control
University of Maine School of Law University of Maine School of Law Digital Commons Faculty Publications Faculty Scholarship 2019 Uniform Climate Control Anthony Moffa Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.mainelaw.maine.edu/faculty-publications Part of the Environmental Law Commons UNIFORM CLIMATE CONTROL Anthony Moffa * INTRODUCTION On July 22, 2019, outspoken climate change advocate Al Gore found himself sitting second chair once again as a bill was signed into law. This time he sat not beside the President of the United States, but rather beside the Governor of New York. Moments after Governor Andrew Cuomo rapidly scribbled his name on the land- mark Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act,1 he passed the pen and paper to a grinning Gore. 2 A resident of Nash- ville, Tennessee who holds no elected office in the State of New York, Gore's signature had precisely zero legal effect 3-it served ceremonial and publicity purposes only. Among many other ambi- tious goals, the celebrity-endorsed state law he giddily signed man- dates that New York achieve one hundred percent carbon neutral- ity by 2050.4 Al Gore called it "the most ambitious, the most well- crafted legislation in the country." 5 But he was far from its only * Associate Professor of Law, University of Maine School of Law. The author would like to thank Thea Johnson, Sarah Schindler, and William Sedlack for their thoughtful com- ments on earlier drafts. Special thanks are due to Michael Gerrard and John Dernbach for their pathbreaking work on model climate policy and their guidance on this theoretical treatment of it. -
Youth Activist Toolkit Credits
YOUTH ACTIVIST TOOLKIT CREDITS Written by: Julia Reticker-Flynn Renee Gasch Director, Youth Organizing & Mobilization Julia Reticker-Flynn Advocates for Youth Contributing writers: Kinjo Kiema Clarissa Brooks Manager of State and Local Campaigns Sydney Kesler Advocates For Youth Madelynn Bovasso Nimrat Brar Locsi Ferra Head of Impact Design & Illustrations: Level Forward Arlene Basillio Contributing Artwork: AMPLIFIER Special thanks to AMPLIFIER, Cleo Barnett, and Alixandra Pimentel for their support and input. This guide was created by Advocates for Youth and Level Forward, and is inspired by the film AMERICAN WOMAN. Advocates for Youth partners with youth leaders, adult allies, and youth-serving organizations to advocate for policies and champion programs that recognize young people’s rights to honest sexual health information; accessible, confidential, and affordable sexual health services; and the resources and opportunities necessary to create sexual health equity for all youth. https://advocatesforyouth.org Level Forward develops, produces and finances entertainment with Oscar, Emmy and Tony-winning producers, working to extend the influence and opportunity of creative excellence and support new voices. We take great responsibility for our work, using film, television, digital and live media to address inequality through story-driven, impact-minded properties. https://www.levelforward.co/ AMERICAN WOMAN is a film that raises questions about power: who has it and who doesn’t, and how best to change that. It challenges us to question the ways people wield power, grapples with the choices presented to both the powerful and the marginalized. The story’s center is a young pacifist whose violent activism has sent her on the run from the law, and who is wrestling with her choices as she joins a cohort of young radicals and their kidnapped convert. -
Blumenauer, Ocasio-Cortez, and Sanders Introduce Legislation to Mandate National
https://blumenauer.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/blumenauer-ocasio-cortez-and- sanders-introduce-legislation-mandate Blumenauer, Ocasio-Cortez, and Sanders Introduce Legislation to Mandate National Climate Emergency Declaration National Climate Emergency Act directs the president to declare a climate emergency, take active steps to mitigate crisis, report progress to Congress WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced legislation mandating the declaration of a national climate emergency. The National Climate Emergency Act directs the president of the United States to declare a national climate emergency and mobilize every resource at the country’s disposal to halt, reverse, mitigate, and prepare for the consequences of this climate crisis. “Scientists and experts are clear, this is a climate emergency and we need to take action,” Blumenauer said. “Last Congress, I worked with Oregon environmental activists to draft a climate emergency resolution that captured the urgency of this moment. President Biden has done an outstanding job of prioritizing climate in the first days of his administration, but after years of practiced ignorance from Trump and Congressional republicans, an even larger mobilization is needed. I am glad to work with Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Sanders again on this effort, which takes our original resolution even further. It’s past time that a climate emergency is declared, and this bill can finally get it done.” “We've made a lot of progress since we introduced this resolution two years ago, but now we have to meet the moment. -
February 17, 2021 Dear President Biden and Vice
February 17, 2021 Dear President Biden and Vice-President Harris, Congratulations on securing the people’s vote. As you know, your election is a testament to the tireless work of many people who believe a better world is possible and necessary. This is why we are calling upon you and your administration to walk the walk of real climate leadership. We, the undersigned public-interest organizations, represent millions of people across the United States and around the world who demand a climate just future, including youth, women, low-income communities, racially diverse communities, faith communities, and others. The people who voted for a better future are now ready to demand it from your administration. Amid a climate emergency that is wreaking unprecedented havoc, we write to you with an urgent request that is vitally important. We applaud your stated intent and action for the United States to rejoin the Paris Agreement at the earliest possible moment. We also call on your administration to go far beyond simply rejoining the 1 Paris Agreement and commit to honor the US’ Fair Share in addressing the climate emergency. This commitment to Fair Shares is already included in the Democratic Party’s Platform. To follow through, this will require bold, equitable and ambitious emissions reductions and a commitment to support less wealthy countries to do the same, including providing a significant amount of climate finance, far more than we committed to under the Obama administration. We commend your promise for this nation to become a climate leader. In addition to ambitious domestic action, this will require the US to take responsibility for its historical role in international climate policy and become a truly trusted partner, not on behalf of polluters but of people.