By Sheila Chung Hagen
These days, it's hard to read the newspaper in any way other than side-eye. All we see are headlines screaming that Donald Trump is offering our last wild places to the highest bidder, unwinding the Clean Power Plan, gutting the Environmental Protection Agency, and pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord. We alternate between being mystified, horrified, and angry. Yet we have an opportunity to channel that anger and fiery energy into action.
This summer, the Sierra Club’s San Francisco Group organized a community forum with the Club’s executive director Michael Brune and local environmental-justice leaders to ask how we can take action locally to defend our environment and our communities. Here are five concrete actions that you can take:
1) Advocate for the fast, full rollout of CleanPowerSF (and other local clean power programs)
As Michael Brune explained, progress on climate change is not just about responding to and fighting the Trump administration. It's also about advancing our vision of a clean energy future at the local level — something we have been working on through the launch of CleanPowerSF and other Community Choice energy programs all over the Bay Area.
We fought for years to achieve the launch of San Francisco’s new municipal clean energy program, CleanPowerSF, and it’s finally in full swing in several neighborhoods. Now we're pushing for coverage to go citywide as soon as possible, and for more of the power to come from local renewable sources.
You can help promote local power programs in your community. Email melissa.yu@sierraclub.org to get involved.
2) Expose youth to environmental advocacy
When asked to suggest ways of engaging youth in protecting the environment, Pam Tau Lee of Chinese Progressive Association responded, “Don’t go anyplace by yourself. Always take a youth.” That’s right. You can foster activism among young people by bringing them with you to environmental events, asking them their thoughts about the experience, and listening to their ideas for change. You can also introduce them to environmental youth programs at organizations such as Literacy for Environmental Justice.
3) Stand in solidarity with other communities under attack
The attacks by the Trump administration on our local communities are too broad for us as an environmental movement to face alone. It’s important to build solidarity with other groups like immigrants and the LGBT communities that are also facing attacks by the current administration. We can only build a strong resistance if we stand together. That means answering calls to action not just from the environmental movement, but from other social justice movements as well.
4) Fight back against the fossil fuel industry
The Sierra Club and partners opposed Governor Jerry Brown’s recent cap-and-trade bill because, as Antonio Diaz of PODER noted, the negotiations were done behind closed doors with vast concessions made to the oil industry. Now, as local government entities consider regional air-quality standards, you can testify with the Sierra Club in support of rules that track, cap, and reduce refinery emissions.
Photos by Natalie Gee: Top – Anthony Khalil of Literacy for Environmental Justice asks a question about activating youth in the environmental movement; Bottom – Antonio Díaz of PODER and California Environmental Justice Alliance (speaking), Michael Brune (center), and moderator Marisa Lagos of KQED.