Climate Crisis Resources
Discussions through the PPoFT environmental campaign initially began with plastics, but often turned to the climate crisis. We have now combined our plastic and climate change work under the auspices of our Environmental Interest Group. In truth, “Climate Collapse” is the ONLY ISSUE—it is universal, it is catastrophic, it is immediate. The International Panel on Climate Change (a U.N. agency) estimates we have less than 10 years to change the ways we are heating the planet--or else crops will fail, oceans will rise, wildfires will proliferate, and all forms of suffering will make The Flood disaster story of Genesis seem mild.
The overall climate crisis is made up of 3 problems, stated in a single sentence: “We have too many people, using too many resources, and producing too much waste.” We can engage with ANY of these, and we must do it NOW. There are personal aspects to each of these problems, and policy aspects.
Please find below some resources and opportunities for action related to the climate crisis.
Opportunities for Action
MONTHLY PECA EVENTS - many Placer Earth Care Action events happen every month, please click here to learn more
Auburn Climate Strike - EVERY Friday 12-1pm
Earth Day Fair - April 21
Third Act, Best Act: Our Time is Now with Bill McKibben
Climate Action Now: Do you want to be a more active climate citizen? This app will give you opportunities to act.
report from Everyone Under the Sun Rally & Festival
Climate activists, consumer watchdog groups, rooftop solar owners, and solar industry workers joined for a rally and festival at the California State Capitol on October 11th, sponsored by the Solar Rights Alliance. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has been working to create new policy around rooftop solar in California (Net Energy Metering, or NEM, 3.0). So far, their proposed policies have included policies lobbied for by the public utilities such as adding monthly fees for folks who have already installed rooftop solar and removing incentives for those who might consider adding rooftop solar to their homes. The rally and festival was conceived as a way to continue informing Californians about the threat to our Solar Industry and to keep us on guard so we are ready to absorb and potentially react to new proposed policy changes likely to be announced in the near future.
Follow up articles
The Threat to Solar - Solar Rights Alliance Fact Sheet
CPUC Expected to Wait Until After the Election to Issue NEM 3.0 Decision - Oct 4, 2022 article in Solar Power World
What Does Attending the Everyone Under the Sun Rally & Festival Mean for NEM 3.0? - posted by solar distibutor AEESolar
Net Energy Metering - information from the CPUC (California Public Utilities Commission)
What is Net Energy Metering, and How Will It Impact California Solar Users? - an October 5, 2022 article from Solar.com’s Solar Learning Center.
We Put Solar Panels on 1 Million Roofs in California. That Win Is Now Under Threat - Arnold Schwarzenegger (NY Times Op Ed published Jan 17, 2022)
Third Act, Best Act: Our Time is Now
Third Act Sacramento hosted a virtual presentation by Bill McKibben (who founded Third Act) followed by Q&A with and updates about local organizing events and opportunities on May 16th, 2022. Third Act is for people over 60 determined to change the world for the better. They campaign on issues of climate change, racial equity, and the protection of democracy. Click below if you missed this presentation!
Effective Climate Conversations Training
This! Is What We Did offers a free 3-week virtual class (one 1.5 hour session each week) on how to have effective climate change conversations. If you agree with Katharine Hayhoe that the most important thing you can do to fight climate change is to talk about it, then this is the class for you! They offer these classes regularly. Go here for more details: https://thisiswhatwedid.org/become-effective-at-climate-change-conversations/. Barb Munn took the class, you can contact her if you have questions (bjmunn57@gmail.com)
sign a petition asking Amazon to lead on sustainability and Environmental Justice
Consumer Reports has created a petition urging Amazon to electrify its entire fleet and monitor and fix pollution around its warehouses. If you are an Amazon user and are concerned about its impact on the environment and the people impacted by its warehouses, click the button below to sign this petition:
Purchase Carbon Offsets for your Trips
Do you experience carbon-guilt when making reservations to fly across the country to see your family? If so, then purchasing carbon offsets can mitigate some of the environmental impact of your trip, but not all - for truly changing our lifestyles to use less carbon is the optimum response. Carbon offset programs should ideally remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere through actions that would not happen otherwise (a concept known as additionality). An organization created to help people maximize their climate giving, Giving Green, recommends four carbon-offsetting programs that have strong additionality:
Tradewater (finds and destroys chemical refrigerants)
BURN (provides fuel-efficient cookstoves to people in East Africa)
Climeworks (sucks CO2 from the air, then sells it commercially or stores it underground)
Charm Industrial (converts agricultural residue into bio-oil then stores it underground)
Click here for Giving Green’s analysis of each of these companies.
Other places you might consider supporting:
Soul Sister because way to reduce carbon output is by empowering women and girls. Soul Sister does this by investing in local women entrepreneurs to start, grow and sustain successful clean energy businesses. Soul Sister has a 95/100 rating on Charity Navigator.
Rainforest Trust which has made a $500 Million Commitment to help ensure 30 percent of the planet is being protected and preserved in the most important places for biodiversity by 2030. The Rainforest Trust has a 100% rating on Charity Navigator.
If you are interested in funding other emission reduction efforts, check out watchdog groups like The Gold Standard and Green-e to identify worthwhile projects.
There are a number of sites you can use to determine how much your offset should be, just do a search for ‘flight CO2 calculator’, such as the World Land Trust Carbon Calculator. There are also apps that you can get for your phone to do the same. These sites, of course, want you to invest in the offset that they support, but you can use the information to invest in the offset you prefer.
ACTION Organizations
Citizen’s Climate Lobby - members of the Placer Foothills Chapter have been meeting virtually with several other nearby chapters during the pandemic. Watch Ken Moore’s presentation to PPoFT’s Plastic/Climate Action about CCL here:
Sacramento/Roseville Citizen’s Climate Lobby and its YouTube Channel for events they have sponsored.
TH!RD ACT: contact Laurie Litman (thirdactsac@gmail.com) for information about Third Act Sacramento, which meets virtually the 3rd Monday of each month at 6 pm.
Solar Cookers International: based in Sacramento this non-profit group works to improve both human and environmental health by supporting the expansion solar cooking in world regions of greatest need. Click here for 10/6/2021 Studio Sacramento interview of Caitlyn Hughes, CEO of Solar Cookers International, or here for more info about solar cookers.
Fire-Wise Communities
Fire-Wise Communities is a national program to create neighborhood groups of citizens who band together to harden their homes and community properties against the imminent danger of wildfires. Banding a neighborhood to work to make it more fire safe is a one way to face the impacts of climate change.
Click here for an article in the LA Times about the issue of fire insurance in California by Steve Poizner (former CA Insurance Commissioner): Despite no wildfire threats, I suddenly lost my home insurance
legislation
Learn more about the Inflation Reduction Act at these links:
Go Electric! - Rewiring America’s Guide to the Inflation Reduction Act
IRA Fact Sheets (from Rewiring America)
Inflation Reduction Act page from Rewiring America
IRA Calculator: How much money can you get with the Inflation Reduction Act? (from Rewiring America)
Learn more about the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law at these links:
Fact Sheet: The Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal (from The White House)
Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (from the US Environmental Protection Agency)
Compilation of the status of climate-related bills passed by the California legislature in 2021 (spreadsheet created by Bill Murphy, a policy and legislation volunteer for Elders Climate Action and the Climate Reality Project)
LA Times on Senate Bill 1383: California’s climate fight needs your kitchen waste: Starting Jan 1, food scraps must be tossed into the green bin for composting
2023-2024 California Legislative Session:
AB 660 (Streamlining Food Date Labels) is a bill that would require food manufacturers to use uniform terms when labeling their products with "safety" or "quality" dates and bans the use of consumer-facing "sell-by" dates. Studies show that 20% of all avoidable food waste is caused by consumer confusion over expiration dates, and streamlining these dates will reduce food waste, financial losses to consumers, and methane emissions from food rotting in landfills.
AB 1705 (Incinerator Moratorium) is a bill that would prohibit the siting of new incinerators until certain recycling and composting targets are met. Incinerators and chemical recycling facilities have historically been sited in low income communities. Proximity to these sites is associated with respiratory issues, reproductive health issues, and cancer due to the harmful pollutants they emit.
Net Metering In California
Net Energy Metering - information from the CPUC (California Public Utilities Commission)
DOCUMENTARIES
Johnathon Scott’s Power Trip (PBS passport)
Kiss the Ground (available on Netflix)
Youth v Gov (now available on Netflix)
The Letter: A Message for Our Earth (YouTube)
See the list of films shown by PECA
BOOKS
Dirt to Soil: One Family’s Journey into Regenerative Agriculture, by Gabe Brown.
Gabe Brown’s Ted Talk
Speed and Scale - An Action Plan for Solving Our Climate Crisis Now, by John Doerr. Ken Winter recommends this book. Doerr lays out the enormous challenges to meet the crisis, in areas of:
Electrifying Transportation
Decarbonizing the Grid
Fixing Food
Protecting Nature
Cleaning Up Industry
Removing Carbon
Click here for a summary of these objectives, including the key results needed as per John Doerr.
A Bright Green Future, by Dr. Gregory Schwartz and Trevor Decker Cohen
Under the Sky We Make: How to be Human in a Warming World by Kimberly Nicholas
Growing Good Food by Acadia Tucker (regenerative farmer, gardener, and climate activist)
Saving Us by Katharine Hayhoe
Katharine Hayhoe Videos:
A Conversation with Climate Scientist Dr. Katharine Hayhoe (Sept. 2021, Renaissance Society of Sacramento)
McClendon Scholar in Residence -”Saving Us” Dr. Katharine Hayhoe (Oct. 2021, New York Avenue Presbyterian Church)
Click here for a pdf list of seven hopeful books about climate change!
Activities TO do with others
Climate Care Challenge (created by Sue Bordelon for Shepherd of the Sierra in 2021)
Simplicity Circles (created by Barb Munn for Sierra Foothills UU in 2019)
Firewise: work with your neighbors to become a certified firewise neighborhood.
Food Waste / Composting
Apr 2022 review of the countertop Lomi Electric Composter.
Other
Cool Climate Calculator (UC Berkeley’s climate footprint calculator)
Climate Change Solutions Simulator (En-Roads)
Analog Atlas (to find the climate of your future)
Climate Change Impacts in Sacramento and Placer Counties (26 Apr 2022 presentation by Dana Nuccitelli sponsored by Sacramento/Placer Citizen’s Climate Lobby)