Solutions
Baby Boomers Mobilize Around Climate Change
Photo by Adriana Zehbrauskas for Moms Clean Air Force
The older generation’s organizing experience, voter turnout, and spending power make them a powerful force for change.
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by Danielle Renwick
Regional Actions and Events
Washington DNR Sued for Failing to Account for The Climate Impacts of Its Logging Proposals
Port Townsend, WA – On February 3rd, Center for Sustainable Economy (CSE) and Save The Olympic Peninsula (STOP) filed a lawsuit in the Superior Court for Jefferson County against the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) for failing to account for the harmful climate impacts of its logging proposals in violation of the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA).
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Tell Hilary Franz to CANCEL the Penny Wise Timber Sale!
S.O.S. On August 24, 2022, the Washington State Department of Natural Resources intends to auction off 125 acres of Legacy Forests west of Quilcene in the “Penny Wise” Timber Sale. The timber sale will be sold to the highest bidder with a minimum bid of $1,907,000 and will result in a total of seven clear cuts targeting some of the oldest and largest trees remaining in the State Forest.
Understanding the Science Episode 4: “Adapting to Wildfires: Planning for Inevitable Risks”
Wednesday, August 24th — 11 AM
Addressing the increasing wildfire challenges in the West requires reframing the crisis as a home-ignition problem and not a wildland fire problem. Understanding the science of home ignition—or how a home burns down—can inform effective community planning, federal and state policies, and locally-driven solutions to reduce wildfire risks to homes and neighborhoods.
Sightline Online Q&A: Our New Team—and Frontier—on Fossil Fuels
Wednesday, August 17, 2022 — 4:00 PM
The fossil fuel industry once targeted Cascadia for dozens of projects to export polluting coal, oil, and gas. Faced with a movement of local opposition over the last decade, almost all of those proposed projects have dried up and blown away. With your support, Sightline continues to work to stop the stubborn few that remain while setting our sights on the next frontier of the climate fight: dismantling the poisonous legacy of oil and gas infrastructure and building toward a cleaner, healthier, more just future.
Emily Moore is the new leader of Sightline’s fossil fuels team. She would love to meet you virtually, to tell you about our wins and plans, and to hear your thoughts and questions.
Register for Sightline Online Q&A
Tell federal agencies to take action to protect mature and old-growth trees on the Tongass
This past Earth Day, President Biden issued an executive order calling on the United States Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to conserve mature and old-growth forests as a climate solution. This was a momentous step toward meaningful protections, but now it’s up to us to ensure that this turns into real and lasting changes in how federal agencies manage — and protect — older forests and mature trees.
In response to the executive order, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Department of the Interior have opened an official 30-day public comment period to solicit feedback on how to define, identify, and complete an inventory of old-growth and mature forests on federal lands.
For more information and to submit your comment, please see the following resources:
- Request for Information: Federal Old-Growth and Mature Forests
- Old Growth Forests: Talking about old-growth, mature forests
Gunalchéesh — thank you — for all you do to protect our forests and climate!
Maranda Hamme
Tongass Forest Program Manager
Local/Regional News
Exposing False Solutions to Industry Emissions
The Washington State Department of Ecology is currently developing the program rules and definitions necessary to implement the CCA, passed during the 2021 legislative session. In a new report, Exposing False Solutions: How Washington’s Cap and Trade Program Gives Industrial Polluters a Free Pass, Front and Centered examines the State policy regarding “emissions-intensive [and] trade-exposed” (EITE) industries* – facilities that release large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions – as part of this cap-and-trade scheme.
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How the BPA is contributing to salmon’s decline in the Northwest
Damming the powerful waters of the Columbia River was a boon for cheap, clean electricity. But the fish that swam those waters are dying out. And the agency in charge isn’t stopping that.
The fish cannot get past two federal dams, masses of concrete each hundreds of feet tall. The construction of those dams, which began more than 80 years ago, rendered salmon extinct in hundreds of miles of rivers and destroyed the area’s most important fishing grounds. Read more
by Tony Schick
National Actions
Next Stop: Declare a National Climate Emergency
Join Climate Mobilization and our partners for a webinar on the history of Climate Emergency Declarations and the future of climate justice.
Thursday, August 18 2022 5:00 pm
We’ll be bringing together organizers from the front lines of the climate crisis with a policy expert who can explain what Biden has the power to do, and campaigners who will share what you can do to push Biden to act.
Come hear from Joye Braun, National Pipelines Campaign Organizer, Indigenous Environmental Network, Madeline Cruz of Housing and Climate Justice for Acton and Nohemi Palomino of Roseland Community Building Initiative — two successful local organizers growing the movement for a just transition to a zero-emissions economy — and moderator Michél Legendre, Climate Mobilization board member and longtime organizer.
The Biden Administration is on the Right Path to Sustainable Transportation — But They Need to Hear from You!
Price gouging at the gas pump and the growing number of climate-fueled disasters make it ever so clear that we must invest in sustainable transportation options that save fuel. Transportation is now the largest source of climate-busting carbon emissions in the United States.
Tell the Top 10 Banks & Insurers to Drop Fossil Fuel Clients Now
Congress just passed major new climate legislation — full of both really good news AND some very bad setbacks
The Inflation Reduction Act Completely misses the mark on the action that’s needed for the climate – ending fossil fuel expansion. We need to cut off all funding to fossil fuel expansion projects, and that means banks and insurance companies must walk away from clients like Exxon, BP, and Enbridge.
The most imperative way to reduce climate chaos is to end any new fossil fuel expansion, period. But this new legislation includes measures that seek to accelerate fossil fuel expansion, such as fast-tracking construction of fossil gas projects like the new Mountain Valley Pipeline forcing fossil fuel leasing on public lands, creating sacrifice zones, and causing irreparable harm to communities. These expansion efforts bake in more climate disasters for all of us.
Reforming the UN
From the climate crisis to Covid-19, the challenges of our time don’t respect national borders – they are global. So our response to them must be too.
A major global consultation on the future of the UN closes in days – so we’re asking Avaazers across the planet to tell us what we all want from the UN. Let’s all take it, and have the results be formally submitted as one of the biggest global surveys of public opinion!
Please take this survey to help improve the United Nations.
More information:
- Our Common Agenda (UN Secretary-General’s report)
- The future of the UN: Time to think big, urges Guterres (United Nations)
National/International News
Fighting inflation with climate action
Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters
Democrats this weekend muscled through what would be the biggest expenditure ever by the United States to slow global warming, but you wouldn’t necessarily know from the name of the measure that it had anything to do with climate. Read more
National Newsletters
A daily newsletter by Grist
Friday, August 12 — Tighter regulations for a toxic plastic additive
Thursday, August 11 — Australia wants to block a coal mine to save corals.
Wednesday, August 10 — Fossil fuel production in Wyoming and Montana has hit another roadblock.
Tuesday, August 9 — Senate has approved a major climate and energy package.
Monday, August 8 — San Diego plans to end the use of fossil fuels in buildings.
Opinion
Big Oil’s Down, So Let’s Kick Them Where It Hurts
In the Wallet
It’s easy, after three decades of losing to their lies, to think of the fossil fuel industry as invincible—and right at the moment they’re sitting on tens of billions of dollars of what the UN Secretary-General correctly described as“grotesque” profits, their share of the take from longtime partner Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. But in truth they’re finally losing—or at least, losing more than they’re used to. Read more
by Bill McKibben
In Exchange for a Climate Deal, Joe Manchin Demanded a Terrible Price
Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post/Getty Images
Let’s start with the Golden Rule of the Climate crisis: the rich may take a hit on their investment portfolios, but it’s the poor and vulnerable who are truly fucked. It’s true in Bangladesh and Nigeria. It’s true on the Gulf Coast. And it’s definitely true in the coalfields of Appalachia. Read More
by Jeff Goodell
Coming to our Senses
A Special Series by Grist
It’s easy to miss the intimacy of climate change — with so much focus on big system changes, we don’t always recognize the small ways it can affect our daily lives. But climate change is already reshaping the way we experience our immediate surroundings. In this series, we explore the multisensory consequences of climate change — from vision and hearing to smell, taste, and touch.
Olympic Climate Action 