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

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

Barb Munn, Mary Jo Buettner, and Linda Franklin made the trip to Sacramento to represent PPoFT’s Environmental Interest Group at the Solar Rights Rally on October 11, 2022

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

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:

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

 

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

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

DOCUMENTARIES

BOOKS

Activities TO do with others

Food Waste / Composting

Other