CHANGE YOUR DATEBOOKS.
The 350 General Meeting will be on the 3rd Thursday for November and December in order to avoid the holidays. Join us on Thursday November 18, 6 pm. Hear Eureka Poet Laureate David Holper read his poem Tulawat Island, and help figure out a Humboldt citizens’ advisory panel on the climate crisis.
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83861085904?pwd=UHU0V1BFZ0pKTURBUmJSS3V2Nmc5Zz09
Also, please check out the on-line petitions listed below. There are a lot this week and you can really make a difference by signing them, especially the Humboldt specific petitions.
WRITE LETTERS TO VOTERS
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/86943045708?pwd=clVqWVJZNEFQSVl0QWd6VCtOZGtWZz09
NEW POSTCARD CAMPAIGN TARGETS FLORIDA VOTERS
Virtual Postcard Writing · Hosted by Broward for Progress (browardforprogress.org)
https://www.mobilize.us/mobilize/event/417759/
Join us for Postcards to Voters. We’re writing to Florida voters and need your help! Last cycle we sent almost 100,000 postcards out. Will you join us? 15 minutes a day can make a huge difference!
NEW POSTCARD CAMPAIGN FOR WISCONSIN VOTERS
From Activate America (Formerly Flip the West)
We are writing to likely Democrats in Wisconsin to let them know Democrats delivered on their promises with the new Infrastructure and Jobs Act. Wisconsin is widely considered to be the most vulnerable state in the Democrats’ “blue wall” for presidential elections. Then-candidate Joe Biden narrowly won the state in 2020 after Donald Trump won in 2016. But Republican Senator Ron Johnson is increasingly out of touch with reality.
Many voters do not pay attention to their elected officials’ voting records. Join Activate America (formerly Flip the West) as we write to Wisconsin voters and let them know how Johnson is voting against their interests.
You may also chose to write a similar message to voters in key CA congressional districts in Spanish or in English.
https://www.mobilize.us/mobilize/event/387648/?
PROGRESSIVE TURNOUT PROJECT CAMPAIGN
Write postcards to first-time voters in ten states with key Senate races in 2022. Help us make sure Democrats stay engaged and make voting a habit in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
We’ll send you postcards, addresses and instructions. You provide stamps and mail the cards to voters before the Jan. 7, 2022 deadline.
Voters who receive handwritten postcards are significantly more likely to vote. In 2020, our volunteers sent 21 million postcards to voters in 14 swing states, and we saw incredible results!
Postcards to Swing States is a project of Progressive Turnout Project. For more information, visit us at turnoutpac.org/postcards or send us an email.
THIS POSTCARD WRITING GROUP FOCUSES ON CITIES
We wanted to let you know that we just helped start a new postcard program focused on making sure progressive voters who care about climate change turnout in local elections this November in some key cities with relevant climate policy at stake. It’s www.PostcardsforClimate.com.
It’s unrelated to Postcards to Swing States but has a similar setup.
Would you be willing to write some of these postcards? The sign-up form is accessible from the website.
The current campaign is for New Orleans. We have an FAQ with more details: www.PostcardsforClimate.com/faq.
POSTCARD WRITING TO VOTERS ORGANIZED BY HUMBOLDT ACTIVIST FREDERICA AALTO
Here is Frederica describes what they are doing:
I am administering a postcarding network in Humboldt County (presently over 300 writers) and we supply postcards and stamps to writers, which are available for cost at several convenient pickup locations. Have anyone interested in joining us contact me. We mostly postcard for ROV (Reclaim Our Vote), which is non-partisan, but have also postcarded for Activate America (which used to be called Flip the West), which is partisan.
She can be reached at: [email protected]
OTHER LETTERS/PETITIONS/CALLS
Stand.org
JP Morgan Chase and UBS are some of the biggest financiers of Amazon oil and gas – the last place in the world where oil drilling should be happening.
Indigenous communities and partners who are present at COP26 need our support to amplify their call to action and protect the Amazon.
Stop the MONEY PIPELINE
We have had some wins over the last three months but only time will tell if they are more than symbolic. AXIS Capital became the first North American insurance company to commit to phasing out coverage for all coal businesses. After hundreds of you swamped its phone lines, Chubb publicly committed to stop insuring tar sands extraction (though we are still waiting on an official policy). Most recently, Chase, Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs joined the Net Zero Banking Alliance (which still has loopholes as we covered in a recent blog post).
COALITION FOR RESPONSIBLE TRANSPORTATION ALTERNATIVES
Once every 4 years, the Humboldt County Association of Governments (HCAOG) updates the county’s Regional Transportation Plan. That process is happening now, and they want to hear from you about the draft plan they’ve written.
This is important. The RTP is the official plan for Humboldt County’s transportation system for the next 20 years, and it helps determine which projects get built and which ones don’t.
The plan is organized around a set of Safe and Sustainable Transportation targets, marking a major shift from previous plans. These critical new targets include:
- Reducing bike & pedestrian deaths to zero.
- Reducing vehicle miles driven by 25% by 2030.
- Doubling transit trips by 2025, and doubling them again by 2030.
- Putting electric vehicle charging stations practically everywhere.
- Ensuring new housing is walkable and transit-oriented.
CRTP helped develop these targets, and we believe in them. But there’s one problem: Even if we completed all the projects in the draft plan, it’s not clear that we would actually meet the targets.
Please email HCAOG today. Thank them for the Safe and Sustainable Transportation Targets, and ask them to evaluate all of the projects in the plan to make sure they will actually meet those targets. Projects that could encourage more driving or make streets more dangerous should not be included.
EPIC
On October 11th, the California Natural Resources Agency released its draft Natural and Working Lands Climate Smart Strategy for public comment. The document is replete with misinformation from the timber industry and, if the Natural Resources Agency doesn’t hear from the public, soon they’ll be the driving force behind California’s forest carbon strategy during the immensely important next few years.
Close of comments is November 9th, 2021 and comments can be emailed to [email protected] or sent by mail to California Natural Resources Agency, 715 P Street, Sacramento, CA 95814. You can even leave a voicemail by calling 1-800-417-0668. Let them know that you support transforming more of California’s forests into carbon reserves and that logging is not a climate change solution.
VETERANS FOR PEACE
Congresswoman Barbara Lee (CA-13) introduced a resolution aimed at monitoring and reducing the carbon footprint of the U.S. military – the single largest institutional source of greenhouse gas emissions on the planet.
The resolution calls for the Department of Defense to set clear annual emission reduction targets in line with global goals in the 2015 Paris Agreement and the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2022.
The Climate Crisis & Militarism Project of Veterans For Peace invites you to urge your Member of Congress (MOC) to cosponsor H Res 767: Department of Defense to reduce the overall environmental impact of all military activities and missions, and for other purposes.
350.ORG
Fossil fuel companies rely on publicity campaigns to make themselves look conscionable. That is why they spend millions of dollars on false Facebook advertising every year.3
We are calling on Facebook to stop lending credibility to climate-wrecking fossil fuel companies on their site. Are you with us?
CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
More than 5 million Californians live within a mile of an active oil well, with drilling concentrated in low-income neighborhoods of color. Frontline leaders from these communities have been fighting for years for protections from this dangerous fossil fuel pollution. With his proposal, Gov. Newsom has taken a big step toward climate justice leadership. But the health-and-safety buffer must stop existing oil wells in addition to new ones.
VISION
Governor Gavin Newsom has instructed the state entity that regulates oil and gas, the California Geologic Energy Management Division (CalGEM), to establish rules to protect public health from impacts of oil and gas extraction.
Now, it’s time to give our input!
Sign this letter to support VISION’s public comments to CalGEM, the California state agency that regulates oil and gas. It’s critical that California applies any robust, protective health and safety zone to existing extraction sites as well as new ones.
Sign on letter link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdBO2eXaadwTuKn2PfXFQzaiO70DITvwbJymjMehFsRzJqpWQ/viewform
STAND.ORG
This is our moment to push financial institutions like JP Morgan Chase and UBS to exit all financing of Amazon oil. These two banks are amongst the biggest financiers of Amazon oil and are complicit in major human rights and environmental violations in the Amazon.
SUMOFUS
The indigenous Misak people, the Nasa people and other communities have lived in Southern Colombia in the Cauca region for thousands of years. This land is part of their cultural identity and is full of sacred spaces.
But Smurfit Kappa is destroying it all to make paper.
The Misak people have been locked in a fight with the cardboard giant for years — but Smurfit Kappa still sells itself as a sustainability champ. If everyone reading this email joins this fight, we can raise a huge, global outcry — and send Smurfit Kappa packing!
Sign here to stop Smurfit Kappa Colombia from destroying indigenous land in Colombia.
NRDC
We Need Thousands of Californians to Stand Up to the Fossil Fuel Industry. Say #NoDrillingWhereWe’reLiving.
We need to push California state leaders to protect the health and safety of communities from dangerous neighborhood drilling.
| TAKE ACTION BEFORE THE DEC. 21 DEADLINE! |
SIERRA CLUB
As the fossil fuel-driven climate crisis causes more and more extreme weather in California, we burn more fossil fuels to respond to those weather events. You probably see the problem here, but California regulators at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) are actually suggesting that we burn more polluting gas during extreme weather events.
That’s kind of like trying to treat a cavity with a candy toothbrush. We need to invest in climate-safe and community-friendly alternatives, like smart grids, clean energy and energy efficient, affordable housing.
350 SILICON VALLEY
The EPA is considering a proposal for their ENERGY STAR label that would better promote all-electric water heaters by removing almost all gas water heaters from the energy efficiency standard — a potential game-changer for reducing methane emissions across the United States.
The ENERGY STAR label is highly influential when people are looking for new appliances, and in some places, the required standard under contracts. Stanford’s Mark Golden estimates that U.S. gas water heaters collectively leak 91,000 tons of methane per year — equivalent to the global warming contribution of 7.8 million tons of CO2 over 20 years. This update would be a tremendous step for our planet towards a zero-emissions future.
Use the letter tool linked here to email ENERGY STAR by Thursday November 11 with your support for this update and for the rapid phase-out of all gas water heaters.
FOSSIL FREE CA
| CalPERS needs to dump ALL the coal in its portfolio. UN Secretary General Antonio Gutierres said recently, “The single most effective step we can take to limit temperature rise is phasing out coal.” Since the 2015 coal divestment law, CalPERS has divested from only the bare minimum 17 coal companies worth about $25 million. That is only 1/3 of 1% of their $9.2 billion in coal. |
EPIC
On Monday, the Mendocino Board of Supervisors will vote on a resolution that calls for a reconsideration of the management objectives of the Jackson Demonstration State Forest. The resolution, sponsored by Supervisors Ted Williams and Dan Gjerde, recognizes that in this time defined by rapid and accelerating climate change the Jackson can and should be managed differently to sequester and store carbon in the forest, protect wildlife, safeguard rural communities against wildfire, and ensure clean water. This is BIG. You can read the full resolution here.
What the Board is asking for—that science guides forest management, not timber profit—seems obvious but Calfire has thumbed its nose at the community and has continued to plough forward with timber sales on the Jackson despite widespread opposition. The Board’s resolution won’t change management overnight but it will be an important chapter in the campaign to protect the Jackson State Forest from continued commercial timber harvest.
We need your help. The timber industry is going to turn out in force. We need to be louder. We need you to take action.
First, click below to send the Board of Supervisors an email thanking them for putting this item on the agenda and urging its passage.
Second, we need to pack the (digital) house. The Board is meeting at 9am on Monday, November 15. If you can, please make a live comment urging the passage of the resolution. To do so, you must register for a time slot here (we are item #4a). Then, listen to the Board meeting here or here. Once you hear the request for public comment or the beginning of the specific agenda item, call in using the information emailed to you. You will be placed on hold until it is your turn to speak.
Busy on Monday morning? You can also leave a voicemail message that will be played during the meeting. Call 707-234-6333 and leave a voice message, up to 3 minutes in length, to be played during public expression/public comment, as it relates to the agenda. Speak clearly, being sure to leave your full name and state that you are calling in favor of item 4a: science-based management of Jackson Demonstration State Forest. Anonymous phone messages will not be played back during the meeting
STOP THE MONEY PIPELINE
Now, the Federal Insurance Office (FIO) is investigating the links between the insurance industry and the climate crisis. The FIO is currently accepting comments from the public — take action now and let’s make sure the message is clear: insuring fossil fuel companies ensures climate chaos.
Instead of gathering signatures to deliver in bulk, we’re encouraging people to use the official comment form. Here are some talking points you can use — you can copy these word for word or use them as a base to build on.
· Insurance companies are uniquely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, so it is baffling to see them continue to provide coverage for new fossil fuel wells, pipelines, and refineries that will only make the climate crisis worse.
· Only one state has taken meaningful steps to mitigate insurers’ climate risk. We need you to sound the alarm and call on state and federal regulators to take the urgent steps necessary to combat insurers’ contributions to climate change.
· No U.S. insurers have made comprehensive climate commitments that include financed and insured emissions and are aligned with the 1.5°C goal of the Paris Agreement. The Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosures recently recommended that insurers report on their insured emissions. The FIO must push insurers to make meaningful commitments to zeroing out their carbon emissions and hold them accountable if they fall behind.
For more guidance on what to say in the comment form, check out this sample comment written by our coalition partners.
This is a big opportunity. Insurers are chasing short-term profits from the destruction of our planet, endangering communities in the process — and the Federal Insurance Office is finally ready to do something about it.
The insurance industry is likely to claim that there’s no need for government intervention to stop their harmful practices. We need your help to counter that narrative.
350 Cali (Jennifer Tanner)
Sierra Club is undermining rooftop solar: Here is what Sierra club wrote that IOU”s immediately jumped on that works for them to justify harming rooftop solar.
Please reach out to
[email protected] and Mich
Katherine Ramsey attorney in charge of Sierra Club now and its her position to put limits on rooftop solar incentives. Please reach out and let her know you disagree.with her position. Also please reach out to cc [email protected]
Email [email protected] and [email protected]
Welcome to reach out to me JJTanner18@gmail. For more details.
Oil Change International
Yesterday at the UN climate talks, Denmark’s Climate Minister Dan Jørgensen said words far too many governments seem afraid of: “There is no future for oil and gas.”
The words came as part of the launch of the Beyond Oil & Gas Alliance (BOGA), the first-ever diplomatic initiative acknowledging the need for governments to manage the phase out of fossil fuel production as a key tool to address the climate crisis.
Twelve countries and regions launched the initiative yesterday — and now is the time to increase the pressure on other countries to join the Alliance.