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

https://votefwd.org/campaigns

Sending letters to voters thanking them for voting in last election and encouraging them to vote again in upcoming elections.

Here is a video of Vote Forward’s research director describing how they measure effectiveness.

Emily Wasserman starts her talk at 5 minutes in: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EHKvK3TMOxEW_JKZzAh7l-5ISI_sHusi/view

 

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

STOP THE MONEY PIPELINE

AIG is one of the top insurers of coal, oil, and gas in the world, providing insurance for devastating pipelines like Trans Mountain and Line 3. AIG also has billions of dollars invested in fossil fuels.

Click here to email AIG executives and demand that AIG drop insurance coverage of coal, tar sands, and all fossil fuel expansion: https://stopthemoneypipeline.com/aig-climate-chaos/?

ALASKA WILDERNESS LEAGUE

As part of his plan to address climate change, President Biden has laid out a bold goal of conserving 30% of U.S. land and ocean by 2030. As the administration works out the details, we need to make sure wild Alaska plays a crucial role in President Biden’s plan to safeguard America’s lands, waters, biodiversity and climate.

Scientists have determined that in order to keep warming below 2°C globally, Alaska’s untouched Arctic oil reserves must remain undeveloped. Statewide, Alaska’s public lands and waters are home to 62 percent of the total carbon stored on our nation’s federal land. And, nowhere but Alaska can you find the massive land migration routes used by caribou and musk oxen.

Will you sign the petition from our friends at Alaska Wilderness League calling on President Biden to make wild Alaska a top priority in his efforts to preserve our public lands?

Tell President Biden: Keep Alaska wild! Make conserving Alaska’s public lands and waters a major priority of your climate agenda.

NRDC

While Big Oil reaps profits from polluting our air, the health burden of that pollution falls disproportionately on low-income communities and communities of color in California, who already face an increased risk of asthma, premature births, high-risk pregnancies, cancer, and other health problems.

In fact, 92 percent of Californians living in the most heavily polluted neighborhoods near oil and gas wells are people of color.

This disparity has always been unacceptable, but it is doubly so now, while the impacts of the pandemic continue to hit California’s most vulnerable residents and communities of color the hardest. We must do better.

California state leaders MUST put in place new policies to ensure that oil and gas wells aren’t located near our homes, schools, hospitals, and other sensitive areas! Speak up against Big Oil by sending a letter to your CA state officials now: https://act.nrdc.org/letter/5805-ca-neighborhood-drilling-210420?

CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

On Monday, May 3rd at 10am PST we will symbolically deliver 100K petition signatures endorsing the Plastic Free President Platform to the Biden administration. A small group will gather at the San Francisco EPA Office to deliver the petition. There will be chants, signs and speeches. This will mark the end of President Biden’s first 100 days. For COVID-19 safety, we will not be recruiting for the physical petition delivery event. However, we will be livestreaming the event on Facebook and need your help in amplifying! For more information, check out this 1-pager.

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

1.       Sharing the livestream of the event on your pages at 10am PST/1pm EST on May 3rd.

1.       Event will be livestreamed here: biodiv.us/plastic-free-live

2.       Tweeting at @JoeBiden @POTUS:
100K people are calling on @JoeBiden @POTUS to take bold action on plastics 100 days into the administration. The future of our climate and the safety of frontline communities depends on it. #PlasticFreePresident #BreakFreeFromPlastic

Sign Letter Demanding Administration Ratify Basel Convention

The Plastic Free President Platform calls on the administration to address plastic pollution internationally. The Basel Action Network (BAN) is circulating a letter calling on the administration to consider the international environmental justice implications of plastic waste exports and ratify the Basel Convention. The letter will be sent to President Biden, Secretary Blinken, Administrator Regan, and Chair Mallory. Please sign onto the letter using this form by COB Monday, May 10th: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeR4_o7pUuUoOLl79jP05JqQmnt5k8sAlYzCBbwk-cegNC6tg/viewform

 

GREEN AMERICA

Please take action today urging your members of Congress to allow shareholders – including small investors – to file resolutions with Corporate America on issues affecting people and the planet.

Before this rule, investors needed only $2,000 worth of stock to file resolutions on issues of concern. Now it’s $25,000!

So whose voice gets heard?

Members of Congress need to hear now from individuals like you that investors play a crucial role, using shareholder resolutions, to get corporations to act on key issues like the climate crisis, gender and minority pay disparity, the diversity of corporate boards, human rights, and corporate political influence.

How do we restore corporate accountability? By reversing last year’s rushed ruling by the Securities & Exchange Commission that put corporate profits ahead of us and the planet.

https://greenamerica.salsalabs.org/cra-shareholder-action/index.html?

350.ORG

Unless we keep ALL fossil fuels in the ground, we will not see the major improvements we need on the climate crisis. That’s why we’re organizing to pass the Keep it in the Ground Bill. This legislation would stop the extraction of oil on federal lands and prioritize solving the climate crisis once and for all.

Together, we can stop the expansion of fossil fuel drilling on public lands by putting pressure on our members of Congress to sign the Keep It in the Ground Act into law.

Will you ask Sen. Feinstein to immediately co-sponsor the Keep It in the Ground Bill? Every single signature sends an important message about the power of our climate movement. Also Sen. Padilla and Jared Huffman.

https://act.350.org/letter/pass-kiitg-act/?

 

WILDERNESS WATCH

NREPA (S. 1276 in the Senate and HR 1755 in the House) is a science-based bill that would designate 23 million acres of Wilderness on some of our wildest public lands in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Oregon, and Washington. This last great expanse of biodiversity in the continental United States is home to native wildlife species like grizzly bears, wolves, bull trout, wolverines, and bison.

NREPA is also wilderness legislation as it should be—with no special provisions that chip away at the Wilderness Act or weaken the protections Wilderness needs.

In addition to designating 23 million acres of Wilderness in the Northern Rockies, NREPA:

  • Provides greater protection for existing Wildernesses by protecting surrounding wildlands and wild rivers;
  • Establishes a number of wildland “recovery areas” that will provide jobs undoing damage caused by past destructive logging and roadbuilding;
  • Designates 1,800 miles of Wild and Scenic Rivers;
  • Creates a system of vital biological connecting corridors that will help native plants and animals to survive;
  • Saves taxpayers $245 million by eliminating subsidized logging and road-building in areas that would be designated as Wilderness;
  • President Biden has established a national goal to protect 30 percent of our nation’s lands by 2030. Existing Wildernesses, national parks and other protected lands constitute 12 percent. NREPA represents over 3 percent of the lands that will need to be protected to meet the 30 percent goal, bringing the total from 12 percent to over 15 percent, or halfway to the goal. And NREPA does it in the right way by protecting large Wildernesses connected by biologically effective corridors that give wildlife of the Northern Rockies region the best possible chance to survive far into the future; and
  • The science is abundantly clear: the two most efficient, effective, and environmentally sound ways to address the climate crisis is to reduce emissions of greenhouse gasses and to maintain our existing national forests, which absorb 10-13 percent of our country’s carbon emissions.

You can help make this visionary Wilderness bill a reality by encouraging your members of Congress to co-sponsor and support the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (S. 1276/HR 1755)! : https://wildernesswatch.salsalabs.org/support-nrepa/index.html

ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND

1.   Read and share our blog post highlighting President Biden’s 5 most important climate actions in his first 100 days and the 4 things his administration can do next.
2.   Take action on our Go Bold America” Petition supporting the key policies to drive America toward net zero climate pollution by mid-century — a critical milestone to prevent climate catastrophe: https://www.edf.org/blog/2021/04/16/now-time-go-bold-climate

 

Write to Committee chairmen to oppose

PUBLIC LANDS: More than 30 conservation groups oppose the nomination of an Alaskan attorney for deputy Interior secretary, with one saying “he has too many conflicts of interest and is too beholden to the fossil fuel industry.”

“Tommy Beaudreau exemplifies the worst type of revolving-door cronyism, jumping back and forth between representing fossil fuel interests and working for the government,” said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “He has too many conflicts of interest and is too beholden to the fossil fuel industry to implement President Biden’s bold vision for ending new fossil fuel leasing on public lands and waters.”

Beaudreau’s financial disclosure report reveals numerous, deeply troubling conflicts of interests with the fossil fuel industry. As a partner in the law firm Latham & Watkins, he represented numerous coal-mining, oil and gas, pipeline development and mining companies including Arch Resources, Total, Beacon Offshore Energy, Epic Midstream, Unocal Pipeline and BHP.