Thanks to everyone on our mailing list for what you do for the climate. Signing petitions, attending rallies, educating yourself about ways of living on the planet that reduce our carbon footprint, talking to friends about climate, changing your own choices — it all helps!

350 Humboldt has gotten a few new very active members recently, and it really makes a difference as to what we can take on and how well we can do it. So we are asking that you consider becoming more active. Here are some potential benefits:

  • being part of a progressive community of local climate activists
  • being a part of positive climate action locally and nationally
  • networking with other local organizations
  • being the first to hear about local and national climate action
  • keep up to date on local issues

Our highest priority is to establish a youth and young adult team made up of high school and college students and those in their 20s. If you are roughly in that age category, or have contacts with young people, perhaps as a teacher, we very much would appreciate it if you can help us get such a team off the ground. Advantages include:

  • opportunity to meet other young people passionate about climate change
  • learn leadership, organizing, and professional skills
  • networking with local organizations that could become employers

 

Most of our work is done in committees or teams, so we wanted to describe those to you as well as some other opportunities. Here is what the standing committees/teams do. New members are always welcome. All meetings are still on Zoom so you can participate from anywhere.

·       Legislative Committee: screens bills each year, chooses the most important ones and writes letters of support or opposition. These have to be updated as bills move through the legislature. We also work with other groups on supporting some bills. We try to meet once or twice a year with our legislators, Mike McGuire and Jim Wood. The chair of the Legislative Committee is Dan Chandler: [email protected]

·       Action and Outreach Committee: meets regularly to plan outreach activities including tabling and participation in national and international rallies and events, like our rally on the Arcata Plaza in September. This committee is also taking the lead on establishing youth outreach. The Chair is Nancy Ihara: [email protected]

·       Letters Committee: meets every Sunday at 7pm on zoom in order to share each other’s’ company as we write letters or postcards to get out the vote among environmental or progressive voters who haven’t voted recently. Just come. Right now we are writing to Georgia. Contact Dan Chandler [email protected] or Deborah Dukes [email protected]

·       Book Club: We meet the 4th Monday of each month to discuss a climate related book. Here are the books for the next few months:

o   November 28 — Eager: The Surprising Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter, by Ben Goldfarb. Paperback. Chelsea Green Publishing, March 8, 2019. 304 pages.

o   December 26, plus January, and February 2022 — Green Earth (Science in the Capital Trilogy) – Abridged, by Kim Staley Robinson. Paperback. Del Ray Publishing, November 3, 2015. 1088 pages

Chair is Deborah Dukes: [email protected]

·       Agricultural methane committee: this is a joint committee with members from 350 Humboldt, Climate Action California, 350 Sacramento, and 350 Seattle. We have proposed legislation and budget language to help reduce the 55% of methane in the state that comes from agriculture. Chair is Dan Chandler: [email protected]

·       The Off-Shore Wind Committee: has produced a 350 Humboldt position statement on offshore wind. Our next meeting is on December 9.  Cathy Chandler-Klein is taking the lead for now: [email protected]

·       Refrigerants committee: this is a joint committee with members from 350 Humboldt and Climate Action California. We are attempting to get legislation and budget provisions introduced to reduce or eliminate HFC refrigerants, which have hundreds to thousands the potential of CO2 to warm the atmosphere. Chair is Dan Chandler: [email protected]

·       Steering Committee: plans the general meetings and approves any uses of the group’s name or logo. One member attends the monthly meeting of most of the environmental groups in the county. Campaigns, like trying to rein in the Nordic Aquafarm because of its greenhouse gas emissions, are approved by the Steering Committee.

Right now the Steering Committee also organizes our Speakers Series that occurs every two or three months, but we would be glad to have a new Speakers Series Committee take that over.

Steering committee members serve on a 3 to 6 month rotating term. Steering Committee Members right now are:

o   Nancy Ihara: [email protected]

o   and Dan Chandler: [email protected]

In January Cathy Chandler-Klein and Martha Walden will rotate in.

Other opportunities: You can check out our website (https://world.350.org/humboldt/ ) and our Instagram account (350 Humboldt). If you have skills in social media we would love to have you work on the website, and/or takeover our Facebook or Twitter pages. Martha Walden puts out our newsletter, the 350 Humboldt LookOut. She would appreciate a photographer or two to work with. Finally, we have a monthly general meeting, usually on the fourth Thursday of the month at 6pm on zoom. We try to have some programming of interest to everyone, plus committee reports and usually a climate-inspired poem. If you write poetry there’s a place for your work.

350 Humboldt Steering Committee


 

On another topic, our parent organization, 350.org, is asking for signatures for this important COP 27 petition:

We are in our final days of the UN Climate Conference, COP27, and there’s a chance that every country could agree to phase out ALL fossil fuels.

That would mean scaling back and stopping the burning of coal, oil, and gas — the three biggest causes of the climate crisis. This would be an extraordinary victory.

Will you ramp up the pressure on COP27 negotiators by adding your name to our letter? We’re asking that world leaders commit to phasing out all fossil fuels in the COP27 decision now.