What Can I Do? Anything.
Suggestions from Emily Atkin.
You can sign up for her free or paid climate letters at: https://heated.world/?
See below for information on get out the vote or voter registration and letters and petitions for this week.
What’s needed today is sustained outrage at the powerful, by those with the time and resources to express it.
For 18-year-old Jaweria Baig in Pakistan, this means pushing for big changes at powerful corporations. Her latest campaign, launched with youth activists from climate vulnerable counties across the world, targets Microsoft. She’s asking the tech giant to significantly decrease its emissions from corporate flights, and use its own video conference platform “Teams” instead, as it did during pandemic-induced lockdown. Microsoft is currently “one of the world’s top buyers” of flights, the Just Use Teams campaign says, its emissions comparable to some small countries.
Microsoft—which markets itself as a leader in the fight for climate justice—has so far declined to respond to Baig’s campaign. A spokesperson for the tech giant sent HEATED only a link to its corporate sustainability and aviation plans in response to the group’s complaints. So in the meantime, Baig is asking for people power. She wants Microsoft staff to leave anonymous Glassdoor reviews telling their bosses to use Teams instead of airplanes, and wants Microsoft customers to tweet their support.
If Microsoft’s flights don’t inspire you, though, there are plenty other campaigns in need of voices, resources, signatures, or bodies. Is the bipartisan infrastructure deal your thing? Perhaps you’d like No Climate No Deal, a campaign launched by Evergreen Action and the youth-led Sunrise Movement last month. The campaign is pressuring Democratic members of Congress to reject any infrastructure legislation lacking “transformational investments in climate and environmental justice solutions.” They’ve already secured pledges from 14 Democratic Senators. They’re seeking support in the form of a petition, calls to Senators, and tweets.
Or maybe you’re really pissed at advertising agencies, marketing firms, and social media giants for helping promote fossil fuel company propaganda. If that’s the case, you might like Clean Creatives. Despite only launching less than a year ago, it has gotten 92 advertising agencies to sign a pledge against working with fossil fuel companies. It’s now spreading a petition to get social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook to ban fossil fuel ads. (Duncan Meisel, one of the group’s co-founders, said in an interview that this newsletter was part of the inspiration for forming the group. So maybe you could also start a newsletter, if that’s your thing.)
Indigenous groups also need help opposing fossil fuel projects across the country. Most have action hubs with a range of potential ways to help, like this one for the Line 3 pipeline. Environmental justice groups like We Act and the Climate Justice Alliance also need voices and resources. Perhaps Vice’s list of 12 environmental justice organizations to donate time and money to would be of interest.
If straight-up activism isn’t your thing, maybe you’d like to support climate science education or communications projects like Climate Central or the Alliance for Climate Education. If you believe in the power of journalism, maybe you want to support accountability projects like Floodlight and Drilled News, or regional publications like Southerly Mag. Maybe you’re into culture and want to donate to a place like the Climate Museum. Maybe there’s a state climate policy you want to get involved with; or a local office you want to run for; or an opportunity to make a difference at the company you already work at. Maybe you just want to troll fossil fuel companies all day.
The opportunities to get involved in the climate fight are endless, and that can be overwhelming. But the beauty of people power is that you don’t have to do everything. “You don’t need to quit your job and become a climate activist,” said Genevieve Gunther, founder of the media-focused group End Climate Silence. “With enough people, one little thing every week, even a tweet, can make a huge difference.”
Some people may read this and believe it is pointless. That we are too late. That none of it matters. The fossil fuel industry knows this is not true. Their fear of a determined, pissed off public is why they promoted campaigns of climate denial and “individual responsibility” in the first place. They knew if people were unsure about the problem, they’d waste time fighting about it instead of mobilizing to fix it. They knew if people were confused about the solution, they’d waste time trying to change themselves and each other instead of the system.
However worse the climate crisis gets now depends on how quickly society transforms. How quickly society transforms depends on how many people demand it. The most harmful lie being spread about climate change today is not that it is fake. It’s that nothing you can do can help save the world.
MAKE A CALL FOR CLIMATE ACTION
Leah Stokes asks (on Twitter)
Tell your Senators we need big, bold climate investments passed this summer.call4climate.com+ dial 202-318-1885! It’s not hard. Join me!
WRITE LETTERS
Write letters and sign petitions on your own or join the 350 Humboldt “chat and write” letter-writing group Sunday evenings at 7pm. Here is the zoom link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85643874306?pwd=Tm1yeXJBVVhWMGt5ZjZXVTVYbGFoZz09
Writing a personal letter and sending it snail mail will sometimes be more effective than an email sign on, but if you are short of time signing petitions can be a quick way of letting decision-makers know your views. Most of the requests compiled below are of the petition or letter sign-on variety, but there are a couple that lend themselves especially well to personal letters.
VOTING – VOTE FORWARD
Sending letters to voters thanking them for voting in last election and encouraging them to vote again in upcoming elections.
VOTING – POSTCARDS TO SWING STATES
Connect with voters in key Senate states: Sign up to write postcards to first-time voters in six states with key Senate races in 2022. Help us make sure Democrats stay engaged and make voting a habit in Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
https://secure.everyaction.com/HPKsWzkNQk6dfulE_VcVdw2?
SIERRA CLUB VOTER REGISTRATION
Only 63% of Arizona voters are registered. Send a blank registration form and a letter to unregistered voters:
Print copies of this blank voter registration form and include a blank form with each letter you send. Please do not write on the voter registration forms.
These letters should be put in the mail as soon as you have completed them.
Please follow the instructions here to complete and send your letters: sc.org/LetterWritingInstructions.
When you are ready for your next batch of letters, please request more at sc.org/RequestLetters.
PETITIONS
Amazon Watch
The Amazon is at a tipping point, yet banks continue to fund and invest in Amazon oil. JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, and HSBC are some of the worst actors when it comes to financing oil and gas exploitation in the Amazon.
These banks must stop financing Amazon crude and exclude all Amazon oil and gas from their investments and financing.
Center for Common Ground
Texas lawmakers came to D.C. for a reason: to remind Congress that the freedom to vote is being threatened not only in Texas, but across the country. Texas Democrats are in our Nations Capitol to make sure Congress takes action to protect our right to vote.
Their plea is our plea: Congress must pass the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act in order to ensure voting rights for all Americans. We support Texas Democrats and must join with them in demanding Congress pass protections for our freedom to vote. We will not tolerate continued attacks on our Constitutional rights! |
GREEN AMERICA
Reducing methane pollution from the oil and gas industry is the single fastest, most cost-effective way to slow the rate of warming today.
Today, we have a great opportunity to reduce methane: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is taking comments from YOU about regulating methane. Air pollution is also dangerous to human health and has detrimental impacts on entire communities, especially communities of color where rates of asthma and other diseases are more prevalent. We must stop methane pollution to help save lives. Since methane is 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in the short-term, it’s crucial to cut methane emissions for human health and the health of the planet. Sign our petition today telling the EPA to cut methane pollution. |
MOVE ON (WRITE A LETTER ONLINE)
Thanks for signing our petition, calling on President Biden to step into the leadership he promised on climate change by stopping Line 3, and canceling the Trump-era permits that have rubber-stamped the construction of this disastrous pipeline.
Over 80,000 people have signed! Our sustained voices can make a difference. Here’s the next step we can all take to help #StopLine3. Can you send a letter to President Biden, asking him to stop the construction of the Line 3 tar sands pipeline?
NRDC and Robert Redford
President Biden’s Interior Secretary, Deb Haaland, has announced a long-overdue, comprehensive review of her agency’s fossil fuel program, which has taken a devastating toll on the climate, our wildlands and coastal waters, and Indigenous communities for more than a century.
No one is better prepared to break with the nation’s shameful fossil fuel past and chart a new course than Secretary Haaland. Not only is she the first Indigenous person to serve as a Cabinet secretary, but Haaland has long been a powerful advocate for climate and conservation — and she has what it takes to chart a path toward ending destructive fossil fuel extraction on our public lands.
But she is up against the full force and fury of the fossil fuel industry and their allies on Capitol Hill who want to keep plundering our natural treasures for profit.
Sierra Club
Over 30,000 of us have already called on President Biden to do everything in his power to stop Enbridge’s toxic Line 3 tar sands oil pipeline. Now, there’s an Army Corps official in place who has the power to do just that by revoking a key water crossing permit for the pipeline. Longtime defender of Indigenous rights Jaime Pinkham has already shown willingness to buck Enbridge on another hazardous pipeline — Michigan’s Line 5. Add your name to ask him to do the same thing on Line 3.
STAND.org
The Canadian boreal forest is under threat. At this moment, Procter & Gamble (P&G) is cutting down centuries old trees from the boreal forest to make butt wipes. But it doesn’t have to be this way – if only P&G incorporated recycled fiber into its flagship Charmin brand toilet paper, millions of trees would be saved.
Charmin is the largest at-home toilet paper brand in the US and its parent company, P&G, refuses to change the product’s recipe to be more forest-friendly. With the massive climate crises and pandemics we are facing, we must come together to protect our forests against the force of a giant corporation that upholds forest destruction and greenwashing.
SIERRA CLUB
PLEASE JOIN US in demanding that PG&E stop ravaging our trees and instead invest in modern infrastructure that will greatly reduce wildfire risk. We are asking state leaders to hold PG&E accountable for its negligence and misguided priorities.
PLEASE ADD YOUR NAME to show your support for this effort and to let your state regulatory and elected leaders know that PG&E must change its course of action. |
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Thank you for your ongoing support. And please see our white paper outlining the many ways PG&E has failed the residents and the environment of California. |