Happy Spring!

Happy World Water Day (March 22) and International Day of Forests (March 21). Springtime ALWAYS leads to LOTS of activities and actions, including the local World Water Day Celebration at Northgate Park in Durham on Saturday, Moral March on Raleigh on Monday, and more that you’ll find below!
 
EVENTS!
March 23, Third Act’s March All-In Call
8 pm, online
Join Third Act’s monthly all-in event with special guests (Bette Midler and Rep. Barbara Lee), music, and movement highlights. We’ll share campaign updates, what’s up next, and how you can plug in over the coming weeks. Register here. Also, don’t forget to sign onto Third Act’s Banking on our Future pledge here to pressure Chase, Citi, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo to stop funding the fossil fuel industry.
 
March 24, Building Systemic Change: Frontline Women-Led Solutions for Climate Justice

12 pm, online

At this moment of colliding crises, it is vital to build a foundation of deep systemic change. Hosted by Woman’s Earth and Climate Action Network, during this event Indigenous, Black, Brown, and frontline women leaders and global advocates will address multiple interlocking crises, and present a diverse array of visions, projects, policy frameworks and strategies based in a climate justice framework, including forest and biodiversity protection, Indigenous rights, food sovereignty, protection of women land defenders, and community-led solutions. Register here
March 24, 5 Reasons to Grow Your Food

3 pm, online
Hosted by Green America, learn about permaculture gardening and growing your food with Nicky Schauder from Permaculture Gardens. Register here.
March 25, Global Climate Strikes
Raleigh Global Climate Strike, 12 -2 pm, Meet outside the NC General Assembly: 16 W Jones St. Join the Raleigh/NC community in our fight for a livable future! We’re marching through Downtown Raleigh to call on local government officials to prioritize People not Profits. A Just Transition Framework is needed if we want to protect our vulnerable communities and everyone’s future. More info and register here.
 
UNC-Chapel Hill Climate Strike, 12 pm, “The Pit”: 203 South Rd, Chapel Hill. Join a coalition of UNC student organizations and others marching in solidarity with hundreds of other climate strikes around the world. We are striking to demand the UNC System Schools divest university endowment funds away from fossil fields, purchase university energy from renewable sources, commit to UNC Climate Action Plan goals through increased transparency, and commit to environmental justice, equity, and inclusion on campus and in our community.
March 26, World Water Day Celebration. Groundwater: Making the Invisible Visible
1-4 pm, Northgate Park, W Lavender Drive, Durham
Join us for the World Water Day celebration with activities for all ages including Native American water blessing, hands-on water activities, Paperhand Puppets, interpretive dance, Raging Grannies, and more!
March 28, Moral March on Raleigh
5pm, Bicentennial Plaza in Raleigh (across Jones St from the NC General Assembly)
The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival is bringing a Moral Monday March on Raleigh to the steps of the state legislature on Jones Street. In North Carolina we know the power of bringing together a fusion coalition of people around a common set of demands. The state legislature continues to drive its extremist agenda using voter suppression and gerrymandered maps. Their policies are disproportionately hurting the 4.6 million poor and low-income people of our state. And the US Congress has failed thus far to pass real support that would fill the gap. We are coming to Raleigh to tell our state and federal elected officials that this system is killing ALL of us and we can’t…we won’t…we refuse to be silent anymore! The Moral Monday March on Raleigh is part of a 10-stop mobilization tour toward the Mass Poor People’s and Low Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls on June 18, 2022. The Moral Monday March on Raleigh will lift up the voices of impacted people from across NC as well as Virginia and South Carolina, joined by faith leaders, moral allies, and artists to demand that NC and this whole nation do MORE to live up its possibilities. More info and register here. Click here if you want to reserve a free seat on the bus to the event.
March 30, 12 Principles for a Carbon Plan in the Public Interest
6 pm, online
Hosted by People Power NC, join us for an informational webinar to learn about the state’s carbon planning process and how you can speak up for the energy future you want. Check out www.fossilfreenc.org for more information and register here for the webinar.  
April 1, Fire Drill Friday: Earth Day edition!

2 pm, online

Jane Fonda and Greenpeace USA will be joined by special guests Bonnie Wright and Leah Thomas. More info here.
April 7, We Believe We Will Win – A Rally to Stop the Mountain Valley Pipeline
7 pm, online
Bringing together community leaders to share how they achieved recent wins, what it will take to stop this disastrous pipeline, and how you can help!
• Karenna Gore, Executive Director, Center for Earth Ethics
• Anita Royston, President, Pittsylvania County NAACP
• Crystal Cavalier-Keck, Co-founder, 7 Directions of Service
• Desiree Shelley Flores, Climate Justice Organizer, Mothers Out Front
• Autumn Leah Crowe, Program Director, West Virginia Rivers
• Russell Chisholm, Co-Chair, Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights Coalition (POWHR)
• MC: Joshua Vana, Director, ARTivism Virginia
Register here. Also, check out this great article –  The Mountain Valley Pipeline is far from inevitable.
April 7, 7th annual NC BREATHE Conference
A hybrid event, will be hosted both online and in-person at Catawba College in Salisbury, NC
Join community groups and leading voices in the fields of health, science, and policy as we seek climate change solutions that advance both health and equity in North Carolina. More information and registration here.
April 9, Resist the Manchin Coal Machine

Join or support the Coal Baron Blockade as they engage in a mass, nonviolent direct action at the power plant that burns all of Senator Joe Manchin’s fossil fuel – where he earns $500,000 per year while killing climate legislation. More information here.
April 22, Earth Day Celebration in Carrboro
5-7:30 pm, Town Commons in Carrboro
A joint event with the Town of Carrboro and Climate Reality Orange County. There will be vegan and vegetarian food, art, live music, children’s parade, information tables, electric cars, free plants, and book swap.

April 23-24, 25th Piedmont Farm Tour

The Piedmont Farm Tour is the nation’s largest sustainable farm tour, welcoming visitors each year to 30+ working farms across North Carolina’s piedmont region to learn more about where their food comes from, build relationships with farmers, and cultivate a love for the land and our environment. It’s $30 for both days for a car full of people. More information and buy your pass here.
April 23, Umstead State Park 2022 Walk/Run/Bike
8 am-1:30 pm
Enjoy a great day on park trails with a 4-mile walk/run or 4, 7 or 12-mile bike tour. Participants are serenaded along the route by supporters and musicians and greeted at the finish with snacks and acoustic music from the stage. There are children’s activities, art vendors, exhibitors, a silent auction, food trucks and more. Funds raised go to support William B. Umstead State Park. Register here.
April 26, Congress Can Act on Composting
7-8:15 pm, online
Worldwide about 33% of soil is degraded. In the United States, soil is disappearing 10 times faster than it’s being replenished naturally. Join Interfaith Creation Care of the Triangle for a program on building healthy soil, protecting water resources, and increasing agricultural productivity while increasing the ability of soils to store carbon and help combat global warming. Register here.
ACTIONS TO TAKE!
Water is Life! On this World Water day, the Water Affordability, Transparency, Equity and Reliability (WATER) Act was introduced. Send a message to your representatives asking them to co-sponsor the WATER Act here!
Tell Congress: It’s Time to Stop the Oil Profiteering!

There’s a simple way to stop this profiteering: put a tax on the excess profits oil companies are making because of this crisis and use the money to send a check to the people who need it. Congress must pass a windfall profits tax to stop Big Oil’s profiteering. Sign here.
Call President Biden’s Chief of Staff and tell him Biden must declare a #ClimateEmergency, ban federal fossil fuel leasing, and jump-start just, renewable energy production using the Defense Production Act. It’s time to build a new, healthier world! Ron Klain, Chief of Staff, (888) 431-7599.
The time has never been more important to build a future without reliance on fossil fuels causing death in destruction across the world. President Biden can use his executive powers under the Defense Production Act to swiftly and equitably ramp up the deployment of renewable energy technologies. The Act gives the president the authority to rapidly scale up the production and adoption of renewable technologies — such as heat pumps, battery storage, and weatherization technologies — and in so doing, create millions of good-paying jobs and clear the path to clean energy! Sign here.
Tell the NC Utilities Commission: Save NC Solar! Duke Energy has filed a petition with the NC Utilities Commission to change the rules on net metering, making rooftop solar less accessible at a time when climate scientists say we must be moving full-steam to decarbonize. Click here for more information on how to share your comments with the Commission.
Plastic pollution in our waterways is more than just unsightly. Learn about the harms these plastics do to our ecosystem, what Waterkeepers across NC are doing about it, and how you can help the Haw River Assembly. Check out this video for information. You can register to be a Haw River Trash Trout team member by contacting Emily Sutton, the Haw Riverkeeper, at [email protected].
Wall Street banks and insurance companies are the largest financial backers of corporations expanding their fossil fuel operations. Tell Wall Street: Stop Funding Fossil Fuel Expansionhere.
VOTE! The 2022 elections are going to be soooo important this year! We need to be sure we elect people who will vote with climate emergency, equality, health, and justice on their minds! The 2022 primary election will be held May 17, with early voting April 28-May 14. The general election is November 8. Check out the NC State Board of Elections,  You Can Vote,  Democracy NC and The New North Carolina Project for information on voting, where to vote, and ways you can volunteer.
Articles, recordings, and more
Bill McKibben’s latest essay is getting a lot of attention. In a World on Fire, Stop Burning Things
Check out the recording here of the great The Climate Emergency and Executive Actionevent last week when Congressman Earl Blumenauer, John Beard, and Jean Su joined in conversation to discuss why President Biden must declare a climate emergency! Recently over 1,100 organizations from all 50 states sent a letter to President Biden urging him to declare a National Climate Emergency and initiate an immediate transition off fossil fuels and towards a just, renewable, and resilient energy future! #PeoplePower!
Authored by grassroots, veteran organizers, movement strategists and thought leaders from across our climate and environmental justice movements, click here for information about the third edition of Hoodwinked in the Hothouse. Also, check out the recordings of the three part webinar over the past few months:
Part I: Examining False Corporate Schemes being advanced through the Paris Agreement here.  
Part II: Frontline Voices of Indigenous Resistance beyond Climate False Solutions here.
Part III: Would Build Back Better Burn Billion$? here.
For Women’s History Month, read Ruth H. Hopkins’ words here that honor the Indigenous women land defenders who have been leading the way in protecting and defending our first mother: Planet Earth.
 
Divestment
When 350.org started their divestment campaign in 2012 via the Do The Math tour (we hosted one of the tour stops in Durham!), it was a relatively unknown strategy to address climate change. Today, over $40 trillion in managed assets have been divested by more than 1,500 institutions across the globe. We need to go much further to divert the money funding fossil fuels into a renewable energy-powered Just Transition! Check out this Move the money to build our future. blog from 350.
500+ leading academics — including Nobel winners, IPCC authors, and top climate scholars — call for an end to fossil fuel funding of climate research! Read the Fossil Free Research letter here.
Save-the-Dates!
 
May 24th-June 6th, Walk for Appalachia’s Future!
Community members, land defenders, activists, and people of all walks of life are joining the Walk for Appalachia’s Future. We will be traveling along the route of the Mountain Valley Pipeline and will seek to amplify the voices of frontline Appalachian communities and others in their fight for environmental justice and renewable energy. More information and register here.
June 18, Mass Poor People’s & Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly & Moral March on Washington and to the Polls
Washington, D.C.
It is NOT just a day of action. It is a declaration of an ongoing, committed moral movement to 1) build power, 2) shift the political narrative and 3) make real policies to fully address poverty and low wealth from the bottom up. There will be buses going from NC. More info and register here.
Hope to see you at some of the events! Thanks for reading and for taking action!

Peace and love for our beautiful Earth, Karen