Howdy!

Awesome people power attended the September 17 March to End Fossil Fuels in New York City when over 75,000 people marched, calling on President Biden to stop approving fossil fuel projects, phase down oil and gas drilling, declare a climate emergency, and provide a just and equitable transition off fossil fuels. There were also hundreds of thousands of people in over 650 actions across the world that weekend. An action to take and links to programs and press below:

Tell President Biden: #EndFossilFuels Now here.

Recording of the livestream of the NYC March to End Fossil Fuels here.
People’s Forum launch here.
People’s Forum Teach-In that includes NC’s Dr. Crystal Cavalier here.
Demanding an End to ‘Deadly Fossil Fuels,’ Tens of Thousands Take the Streets in NYChere.
The Climate Ambition Summit Exposed US Fossil Fuel Failure by Jean Su & Nyshie Perkinson here.
“President Biden can no longer hide his abysmal fossil fuel record behind renewable energy investments. The oil rig in the room has been exposed for all the world to see.”
“Stop Financing Fossil Fuels”: 149 Climate Activists Arrested Blocking NY Federal Reserve, Hit Banks from Democracy Now! here.


IEN photo from March to End Fossil Fuels

Mountain Valley Pipeline and MVP Southgate
Gov Cooper vetoed HB600. Now the bill, which would speed up the unnecessary MVP Southgate project and sacrifices water quality and community health to benefit polluters, heads back to House and Senate, where they can sustain the veto, or override it. Contact your legislators and ask them to vote NO on HB600. More information at stopmvpsouthgate.com.
October 10, Protect our Water: Stop HB600 Lobby Day
9 am – 5 pm, NC General Assembly, 16 Jones St, Raleigh
More information and register here.
October 20, #DefundMVP Bank Teach-In Action
12-1:30 pm, Charlotte
Part of October #StopMVP Solidarity Month, hear about the money from Bank of America and other big banks behind the Mountain Valley Pipeline and learn about the divestment movement and alternatives to major banks. More details soon.
Join 7 Directions of Service for door-to-door canvassing shifts on weekday nights and on weekends to spread awareness about water quality threats (like HB600) in communities along the proposed route of the MVP Southgate Extension in Alamance and Rockingham Counties. Learn more about the Water Protectors Canvassing Team here.
Appalachian Voices statement on safety agency PHMSA release of consent order for perilous Mountain Valley Pipeline here.
MORE UPCOMING EVENTS
October 5, Climate Convergence 2023
12-7 pm, online
Hosted by Pachamama Alliance, join an all day event highlighting the dynamic dimensions of the climate justice movement. More information with speakers and registration here. (Still taking place now.)
October 10 & November 21: Visionary Voices of Environmental Justice – Community Conversations
6:15-7:15 pm,  Field Auditorium, (Grainger Hall, Duke West Campus), Durham
Invitation from Ryan Emanual with the Nicholas School of the Environment for two evening events. Historian, professor, and radio host Darin Waters will host conversations with Rev. Bill Kearney (October 10) and with Donna Chavis (November 21), two environmental justice leaders from North Carolina. Rev. Kearney is a long-time advocate and community leader from Warren County, a birthplace of the US Environmental Justice movement.  Ms. Chavis is a Lumbee elder and community organizer based in Robeson County.
October 10, Broadening our Ideas of Climate Justice Workshop 3: The Prison Industrial Complex and Climate Justice

7 pm, online
Hosted by Stop the Money Pipeline, in this workshop, learn how the forces of exploitation and abuse that fuel the climate crisis are also driving the prison industrial complex.  Isaias Hernandez (Queer Brown Vegan) will be facilitating, and speakers include Russell Armstrong (Hip Hop Caucus), Nikkita Oliver (Hearth Works Art Collective), and Mei Azaad (Fighting Toxic Prisons). Register here.

October 11, Unveiling the Impacts of Oil and Gas Exports

An excellent 5-part webinar series that delves into the detrimental consequences of expanding oil and gas export infrastructure on the Gulf Coast of the United States. Four of the webinars have already taken place with one more left. Registration for the last one focused on Health Impacts, and recordings of the first four can be found here.

October 12, NC DEQ Secretary’s Environmental Justice and Equity Advisory Board

3 pm, Holden Building, 3040 Cornwallis Rd., Research Triangle Park, Durham
Also online here.
Phone: +1-415-655-0003
Meeting Number (access code): 242 670 65418
Webinar Password: EJEAB (35322 from phones)
There will be a public comment period starting at 5 pm. To comment in-person or online, fill out the speaker sign-up form here by 12 pm on October 12.

October 20-21, NC Environmental Justice Netork 2023 Annual Summit: False Solutions, Honest Repair

Franklinton Center, Whitaker, NC
Our annual EJ summit is a two day convening for organizers, community members, and professionals working/living in environmental justice spaces. This year’s theme, False Solutions, Honest Repair, is a reflection of both the claims at providing ‘solutions’ to environmental injustices that actually either aggravate or merely ‘move’ the harm, and the organizing paths to repairing our communities from those harms. Register here.

October 23, Third Annual Prayer Chain for the Earth: “Read the Signs, Be the Change”
5-6:30 pm, 3313 Wade Ave, Raleigh
Interfaith Creation Care of the Triangle invites people of all faiths and people of conscience from around the Triangle to join anytime between 5 and 6 pm in forming a human prayer chain starting on the sidewalks at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Raleigh, 3313 Wade Ave, Raleigh, NC  and heading east toward and beyond the United Church of Christ.  A 15-minute prayer circle will follow at 6 pm. More info and register here.

October 27, Rights of Nature Movie Night & Community Meal
Kindred Seedlings Farm, 948 Moore’s Chapel Cemetery Rd., Graham
Join 7 Directions of Service for an all-ages evening of short films highlighting the local Indigenous-led movement for Rights of Nature and Water Protection. Dinner will be provided. RSVP required here.

Save-the-date
November 3-4, Power Up For Climate Solutions

As fossil fuel companies announce their next round of quarterly profits, just before world leaders meet at the next UN global climate talks (COP28), people all over the world will demand governments shift money and political power away from fossil fuels and towards community-centered renewable projects. More info here.

MORE ACTIONS!
Take action to call for Hoang Thi Minh Hong’s release and stand in solidarity with all climate defenders here.
Citibank is the second-largest funder of fossil fuels in the world. To move Citi off of fossil fuels, we need some of Citi’s biggest clients to demand change.
Tell Costco to drop dirty Citibank as its credit card issuer here.
Stop the Dakota Access pipeline! The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is now taking public comments on DAPL’s fatally flawed Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). Demand that the Corps shut the pipeline down and conduct a proper environmental review, not one prepared by the fossil fuel industry. Take action to End DAPL here. More info from Indigenous Environmental Network here.
ARTICLES
The River is My Kinfolk. It Deserves More Rights than Dirty Pipelines, by Crystal ‘Red Bear’ Cavalier-Keck here.
“If the Haw River had rights, we would be able to stop the Mountain Valley Pipeline!”
Severe flooding increasingly cutting people off from health care here.
 
A New Tool Mapped Out 184 Climate Risks for Every Community Nationwide. Check Yourshere.

The U.S. Climate Vulnerability Index —  https://climatevulnerabilityindex.org/
 
A warming planet is creating a booming, and dangerous, disaster-restoration industryhere.
“Fueled by immigrant labor, the loosely regulated industry exposes workers to lethal toxins that are making them sick long after the cleanup.
 
NASA confirms summer 2023 was Earth’s hottest on record here

“Without those human contributions to the drivers of climate change, we would not be seeing anything like the temperatures that we’re seeing right now.”
Election season! You will need a photo ID to vote in NC elections this year.  Information on acceptable photo IDs for voting is here.  More info here.
 
Thanks for reading for taking action! Peace and love for our beautiful Earth, Karen