Dear Emily,
I hope you are staying safe and healthy indoors, and are enjoying the last few days of summer. This month, we're bringing you some exciting opportunities to get involved in national and local politics and an important update for our utility work--ensuring that Washington families have access to water and electricity during this pandemic.
I also highly encourage you to read the article by Michelle, our Public Lands Volunteer Group Leader. In her piece, she talks about how we can all advocate for more diversity in the outdoor community!
Thanks for all that you do,
Jesse Piedfort
Chapter Director
Washington State Sierra Club |
Without a long-term plan in place to help people get back on their feet, thousands of Washingtonians could be left cold and in the dark because they are unable to afford their electric, internet, and water bills.
A plan is currently under consideration that would change how utilities are allowed to collect past-due utility bills in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The commission will take public comment on the proposed changes on October 6th. Here's what you can do to make sure Washington's families are protected:
|
|
|
|
|
For the first 20 years of my life, I spent every summer going to nature camps. Some of my first memories were camping in a tent filled with mosquitos, jumping off a diving board into a lake, and racing up a rock climbing wall. It was here, surrounded by the liveliness of nature, that my love for the outdoors began. Sadly, not everyone has these opportunities. Here's how you can become an advocate for diversity and equity in the outdoors:
|
|
|
|
|
The THRIVE Agenda is a road map to recovery -- a recently-introduced resolution with a plan to put millions of people back to work building an economy that prioritizes climate, racial, and economic justice.
|
|
|
|
Join a small team of volunteers lobbying your representative or senator in the Washington State Legislature. We are working to multiply our impact by recruiting and supporting smart, effective advocates like you who will take the lead on developing a relationship and communicating with their legislator.
|
|
|
|
Do you have questions on the upcoming election? Looking for a refresher on important dates and deadline? Curious to learn more about voting accessibility? Have all your questions answered here:
|
|
|
|
The most meaningful thing we can do right now about tackling climate change is make Donald Trump a one-term president. To do that, we need to get out the vote. Studies show that receiving a personalized letter increases one's likelihood of voting, so we're writing to voters in priority states who we believe are motivated by environmental issues but frequently don’t vote. Our goal is to write and send one million handwritten letters before November 3.
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Northwest Community Bail Fund
The Northwest Community Bail Fund (NCBF) works to ensure that people accused of low-level crimes have an equal opportunity to defend themselves from a position of freedom.
They provide cash bail for people who are unable to pay due to poverty and who are charged with crimes in King and Snohomish Counties and have no other holds. They also provide support to navigate the legal process with the aim of reducing pre-trial incarceration and its consequences, reducing the pressure to plead guilty. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Black Lives Matter is the largest movement in U.S. history, and it’s had environmental justice as part of its policy platform from the start. In today’s show, Alex and Ayana talk about why the fight for racial justice is critical to saving the planet, and what the broader climate movement can learn from the Black Lives Matter movement. |
|
|
|
Our Reading List:
The authors boil down the many human impacts on the environment and connect them to racist policies like redlining, displacement, gentrification and Jim Crow laws. The paper highlights how, when people in power wield influence over the landscape in ways that devalue people’s lives, animals and plants suffer, too — often in ways that further worsen human health.
When you read about the history of Yosemite National Park or Sequoia National Park, white men like John Muir are credited with “preserving” the parks’ landscapes. Varela says that narrative erases the original caretakers of the land. “It does make me really angry to go into the visitors' center in Yosemite and to see that they call people like Muir the first stewards of Yosemite,” she says. “That is a lie.”
But [plastic] is not valuable, and it never has been. And what's more, the makers of plastic — the nation's largest oil and gas companies — have known this all along, even as they spent millions of dollars telling the American public the opposite.
The pandemic could have been the decisive moment in the fight against climate change -- an opportunity for leaders to bail out the environment and pivot the planet toward a greener future.
Instead, CNN has found that some of the biggest fossil fuel-producing countries are injecting taxpayer money into propping up polluting industries. And exclusive new data shows these decisions are taking the world a step closer to a climate catastrophe.
Researchers spotted the killer whale they call J35 alongside her “robust and lively” new calf on Saturday — a ray of hope for the endangered Southern Resident population off the Pacific Northwest.
In the United States - and that qualifier is very important - the people who are least concerned about climate change are white, conservative Protestants and white Catholics. But the interesting thing is that the most concerned people in the United States by denomination are Hispanic Catholics.
NYT: How Decades of Racist Housing Policy Left Neighborhoods Sweltering
Heat is the nation’s deadliest weather disaster, killing as many as 12,000 people a year. Now, as global warming brings ever more intense heat waves, cities like Richmond are drawing up plans to adapt — and confronting a historical legacy that has left communities of color far more vulnerable to heat.
|
|
|
