Local / Regional News
There’s No Time to Waste, It’s Time to Let Forests Grow
Old forests on federal lands capture and store vast amounts of carbon pollution and should be a cornerstone of U.S. climate policy.
Tell the Biden Administration
it’s time to let them grow.
‘We’re going to need so many seedlings’ for reforestation push
Lawmakers in Washington state approved more than $9 million this session to construct a new nursery processing facility, plan and design new greenhouses and outdoor grow pads, restore federal seed orchards through a partnership with the U.S. Forest Service and create a statewide reforestation strategy. Public Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz has called for a 50% increase in seedling production over the next six years. Read more
By Alex Brown
We’re Stuck on a Wildfire Treadmill
And to escape, we need more fire, not less.
More low-intensity fires could have prevented the megafires that turned 700,000 acres of forest into a “moonscape” and incinerated more than one billion board feet of timber. That is what the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation claim in their lawsuit against the US government. There is good evidence backing them up. Read more
By Kate Anderson
Email the Washington State Investment Board
Did you know that the State of Washington is still investing in fossil fuels? The Washington State Investment Board, which is responsible for the public pension fund, holds billions in fossil fuel investments. They need to hear why this matters to you! Send a personal, passionate, and polite email to the Washington State Investment Board at recep@SIB.gov by no later than 9am June 14. Each Board member will receive a copy of your email at their June 15, 9am meeting. The number of divestment emails is counted and announced at each Board meeting. Even a short email is counted!
You can watch the count and the public comments at 9:30 am on June 15th If you want to make a public comment on Microsoft Teams, email recep@SIB.gov at least 24 hours in advance for a link. Let’s make it clear that we don’t want our State government invested in fossil fuels. Thank you. — Donna, Barb, Kristin and Sally of Divest Washington, divestwa@gmail.com, DivestWA.org
It’s time for Amazon to stop polluting our streets and communities.
Amazon is one of the biggest companies in the world – it sold $514 billion worth of goods and services globally in 2022. Millions of purchases mean millions of parcels. And that means thousands of delivery vehicles clogging up streets and lungs – creating unnecessary traffic, fumes, and climate pollution throughout our towns and cities.
Tell FERC to Deny TC Energy’s GTN XPress Gas Pipeline Expansion.
Our friends at Columbia Riverkeeper in Oregon are collecting comments to submit to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. FERC may make a decision to expand the pipeline in early June, so this is an important time for us to speak up. Thanks to all of you who submitted comments to the Washington Public Utility Commission (WUTC) against the project! WUTC noted the overwhelming number of comments opposing the project. Let’s keep up the momentum!
Big Trees = Big Benefits
Besides being cornerstones of biodiversity, old forests on U.S. federal lands play an essential role in fighting climate change. Thanks to pressure from Center supporters and advocacy by a coalition of organizations, the U.S. Forest Service has announced plans to create a rule to protect these important climate bastions across public lands. Read more
We built a volcano and then threw Alberta in
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We can’t call these supercharged wildfire seasons our ‘new normal.’ There’s nothing natural about how we changed the Earth’s climate
John Vaillant’s latest book is Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast.
We weren’t a week into May before 30,000 people had been evacuated because of dozens of fast-moving wildfires in Alberta. Structure losses were mounting, and politicians were trotting out words like “unprecedented.” Read more
Inspiration
After the chainsaws, the quiet: Victoria’s rapid exit from native forest logging is welcome – and long overdue
By the end of the year, Victoria’s trouble-plagued native forest industry will end – six years ahead of schedule. The state’s iconic mountain ash forests and endangered wildlife will at last be safe from chainsaws. And there will be no shortage of wood – there’s more than enough plantation timber to fill the gap. Read more
by David Lindemayer and Chris Taylor — the Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University
National / International News and Actions
Tell the Biden administration: Protect the Pacific Remote Islands
The Pacific Remote Islands are among the last wild and healthy marine ecosystems in the world. Submit your public comment before the deadline on June 2 to expand protections for the Pacific Remote Islands. Read more
Two Really Dumb Things We Might Be Able to Stop
The Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) wants to build 27 new hangars for parking private jets at Hanscom Field, which borders the national park commemorating the beginning of the American Revolution. I feel like an idiot explaining why this is a bad idea, but here goes: private jets, as the Boston Globe pointed out, emit about ten times more carbon per mile traveled than commercial aviation, and on shorter hauls that number is even higher. Read more
By Bill McKibben — The Crucial Years
Keep fossil fuels in the ground.
Instead of protecting people from fossil fuel-driven climate disasters,insurance companies like Liberty Mutual keep insuring oil and gas projects.These insurance companies are hiking up prices, canceling homeowners insurance, and abandoning communities bearing the brunt of climate disasters altogether.
A Dirty Debt Deal: Biden Blasted for Backing Fast-Track Approval of Mountain Valley Pipeline
End the Era of Fossil Fuels | June 8 – 11th 2023 Distributed Actions
And attend the Rally –Seattle June 8th
Rights at Risk as Ecuador’s President Dissolves Congress
A wave of uncertainty and concern has gripped Ecuador over the state of rights and the future of democracy after right-wing President Guillermo Lasso invoked Article 148, known as the “muerte cruzada” clause in the country’s constitution last week, dissolving congress and convening new elections. Read more
EPA invitation to testify on proposed standards to cut emissions from coal and gas-fired power plants
These proposed standards are urgently needed to cut carbon pollution and address the dire threat of climate change to public health and the environment.
Carbon pollution is a key driver of the climate crisis. And power plants that burn coal and gas are responsible for one-third of U.S. carbon emissions.
The EPA is inviting the public to testify at two virtual public hearings on June 13 and June 14 about this critical plan. And sharing your testimony will only increase the pressure on the EPA to act.
Don’t worry — testifying at this public event may sound scary, but it’s not difficult. We’ve set up this workshop to equip you with everything you need to testify and tell the EPA to implement the strongest possible carbon pollution standards!
Our Testimony Training Workshop on June 7, 2023, will happen virtually via Zoom and will only take 60 minutes.
Oxfam: G7 Countries Owe the Global South More Than $13 Trillion in Development & Climate Assistance
But instead, these countries are saddled with daily debt repayments of $232 million, deepening the global chasm of inequality. Read more
Renewable energy’s progressive halo
The Left has been seduced by climate rhetoric
When discussing what is needed to solve climate change, there is a knee-jerk response: renewable energy. As a result, forecasts showing renewables poised to surpass coal as the largest source of electricity by 2025 are assumed to be a positive and progressive development. And from a purely carbon calculus, this often is the case. But, because renewables — solar and wind energy in particular — are encased in a kind of impenetrable progressive halo, few actually examine the political economic forces shaping the industry.
Amid this collective myopia, we have not noticed that an economy powered by renewable energy does not guarantee a fairer or more equal society, or one that favours workers over the interests of capital. When you take a look at the dynamics of existing renewable energy production (particularly in the United States) you find that it intensifies and exacerbates all the worst aspects of our highly unequal neoliberal political economy. Read more
By Matt Huber — Unherd
Hiking Footprints vs. Carbon Footprint
Our most consumptive fossil fuel habit was also our greatest joy: heading to the mountains. We were proud of the many miles we’d hiked, snowshoed and backpacked as a family, but we’d never stopped to consider all the miles we’d logged to trailheads, weekend after weekend. Even in a family of bike commuters, the bulk of our fossil fuel use was in transportation – as it is for many Northwest households. Read more
By Jessica Plumb — Mountaineer Magazine
Solutions
Recapping season 3 of our Temperature Check podcast — Grist
Yesterday, we published the final episode in the third season of Temperature Check, Grist’s flagship podcast covering climate, justice, solutions, and the people fighting for all of the above. Read more
Meals on Wheels Delivers Food and Climate Resilience for Seniors
When an unprecedented heat wave bore down on Portland, Oregon, in June 2021, Jonna Papaefthimiou, the city’s chief resilience officer, immediately thought of the city’s most vulnerable populations: older people sweltering, often alone, in their homes. Read more
By Danielle Renwick
National Newsletters
Olympic Climate Action 