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What Can We Do to Support Climate Recovery? Connect with Local Activist Groups in Seville American Resistance Sevilla and ClimateRecovery.org are Seville’s largest activist groups representing the international community. Several local organizations are doing great work as well, raising awareness among residents and seeking to influence politicians. FridaysForFuture is a student-led group, initiated by Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg, pursuing political action on climate change. The Seville chapter will take part in the national student climate strike on Thursday, April 25 with a gathering at noon in Plaza Nueva and a march at 6 PM at the Setas. For details see FridaysForFutureSevilla on Facebook. La Casa Despierta is a social project active in the El Cerro del Águila neighborhood. This association runs a School of Art for children in which they work on a different project every year; this year’s topic is ‘Madre Tierra’. Find more information on LaCasaDespierta.com. Red Sevilla por el Clima is an association composed of professional people from different fields working together to change local climate policies and develop neighborhood projects. They are working on a proposal to name Seville as European Green Capital in 2023 and welcome the participation of individuals, activist groups, and institutions. For more visit their website. By María Agüera  This strike is organized by young activists, but you don’t have to be a student to participate; join in and show your solidarity for the cause! STOP, LOOK, LISTEN! by Kathy Sherretts A Redactionary Response The release of the Mueller Report (about 85% of it, anyway) has absorbed all of my attention since it came out on Thursday. I haven´t actually read it all, (although you can--here--if you like) but I’ve read and listened to all sorts of dissection and analysis of it. My favorite is this commentary on the document itself, rather than its content—from the PDF Association, on just why the downloadable file was so bad. I hope we all had a little brain space left to enjoy the weekend, possibly celebrate Passover or Easter, and to remember Earth Day and the anniversary of the Columbine shooting. This week, take a moment to write to your representatives as they consider impeachment proceedings. —Kathy Sherretts Podcast: Slate/Trumpcast: Climate change meets the US Border Crisis (29 min) Leaving home, coming back, and the circumstances—personal, political, and environmental—that drive those decisions. Article: New Yorker: The Hustlers and Swindlers of the Mueller Report by Masha Gessen The report exposes the mechanisms and the motives, to be sure, but it’s hard to find collusion among these hustlers—each of them is running his own game. Website: Impeachable Offenses: The Mueller Report by Frank Bowman The caution and restraint of Mueller’s style cannot obscure the facts he meticulously reports, which describe a man by conduct, character, and temperament unfit for the office of president. Podcast/Transcript: NPR: Mueller Report Includes Descriptions Of White House Staffers Refusing Trump's Orders (4 min) Is this a good thing or a bad thing? And who's really in charge? Podcast: Mother Jones Podcast: Columbine Changed Everything (32 min) What has changed in the last two decades in the way the media covers mass shootings? And what has changed in our resolve to address gun violence?  Ready to do more? Learn about the Green New Deal. If you missed our roundtable discussion, you can read the presenters' notes here. Read the Indivisible Guide 2.0, a new strategy for a new congress. Check out the weekly action plan from Progressive Action, Global Exchange (PAGE) which mobilizes progressives living overseas. Sign up for the Americans of Conscience Checklist, a weekly action list that also provides encouragement and good news. Learn more about solutions and actions at ClimateRecovery.org, a new group organized by members of American Resistance Sevilla and other community activists. 
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What Can We Do to Support Climate Recovery? Test Our Environmental Literacy Earth Day is coming up on April 22, so this a good time to take stock of how much we actually know about our ecosystem. Take one or all of these three short quizzes to find out. Earth Day Network Earth Day Environmental Literacy Quiz National Geographic Do You Know How to “Go Green”? Quizony How Eco Are You? Let us know how you did! Write to us in the comments section below. By Karen McCann  STOP, LOOK, LISTEN! by Kathy Sherretts Many happy returns If you file Spanish taxes, you know that they are basically done for you, with all your data compiled for your confirmation. American tax returns could be equally streamlined for the majority of taxpayers, but it turns out that tax-prep services, both online and in-person, have been actively resisting a simpler solution. Congress is close to codifying a ban on simple online tax filing. Many lawmakers didn't actually understand the hidden provisions of the IRS bill, which ostensibly protects taxpayers while forcing them to pay for help filing a return. In other appalling news, David Bernhardt is the new Secretary of the Interior. How did your senators vote on the confirmation of a former industry lobbyist to oversee the management of America’s public lands and resources? Let them know how you feel about it. --Kathy Sherretts Article: New York Times: Thomas Edison Would Not be Happy by C. Barry Edison Sloane and J. Heywood Edison Sloane The European Union, as well as many developing countries, have already banned incandescent and halogen bulbs. America could become a dumping ground for cheap, energy-wasting bulbs. Podcast: Slate/Trumpcast: Climate change meets the US Border Crisis (29 min) León Krauze talks to the New Yorker’s Jonathan Blitzer about how climate change deepens the U.S. border crisis. Article: New Yorker: Why Facts Don’t Change Our Minds by Elizabeth Kolbert Logic hasn’t always been an evolutionary advantage. Podcast: NPR/Fresh Air: How Prosecutors And Plea Bargains Drive Mass Incarceration (36 min) More than 90 percent of court cases end in a plea bargain rather than a trial, which lets prosecutors control the outcomes. What about a defendant’s guilt or innocence? "Honestly, people don't even really talk about those things," says author Emily Bazelon. Show me the money: House Ways and Means Committee: Letter to the IRS from Rep. Richard Neal Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.  No bright ideas on energy efficiency from the Trump administration. Ready to do more? Learn about the Green New Deal. If you missed our roundtable discussion, you can read the presenters' notes here. Read the Indivisible Guide 2.0, a new strategy for a new congress. Check out the weekly action plan from Progressive Action, Global Exchange (PAGE) which mobilizes progressives living overseas. Sign up for the Americans of Conscience Checklist, a weekly action list that also provides encouragement and good news. Learn more about solutions and actions at ClimateRecovery.org, a new group organized by members of American Resistance Sevilla and other community activists.  What Can We Do to Support Climate Recovery? Participate in Seville's New Composting Program Last year Seville launched a composting campaign in Sevilla Este and plans to cover the whole city by 2023. Watch for one of the new brown bins near you. Composting begins with collecting organic waste materials, meaning food and vegetable scraps. Over time, decomposition breaks down these materials and transforms them into nutrient rich soil. How does this help? Composting reduces food waste, the largest source of landfill garbage. When organic waste breaks down in a sealed landfill, it releases high levels of methane, a greenhouse gas 72 times more potent than C02. Composting that material instead means reducing pollution and adding rich nutrients to the soil. The Selective Collection of Selected Organic Waste Begins in Seville By Natalie Snow Purinton  Watch for the new, brown-topped bins marked "Sólo Residuos Orgánicos" in your neighborhood.  Former presidents are completely beside themselves in Williamsburg, VA. (photo by Leland Kent, Abandoned Southeast) STOP, LOOK, LISTEN! by Kathy Sherretts No more speed bumps While Donald Trump has been remaking the executive branch in his own image, the Senate is helping him do the same with the federal courts. And now it can happen faster than ever. This past week, Mitch McConnell led the Republican-controlled Senate to a vote on a procedural change that limits debate on the confirmation of Trump’s nominees to two hours total. Not only does the new rule speed up the placement of federal district court judges (and non-cabinet-level executive nominees) but also keeps relevant objections and debate out of the official record of the process. The new rules eliminate the last pretense of negotiating with Democrats, and even ignore input from Republican senators who may have reservations about appointees who will be serving in their home states. —Kathy Sherretts Report: UCLA Institute for Democracy: School and Society in the Age of Trump by John Rogers Principals report spending extra time on supervision, discipline related to school incivility, and challenges with untrustworthy information and social media. Article: Smithsonian: Judge Blocks Oil Drilling in Arctic Ocean by Jason Daley The ruling says only Congress—not presidential executive orders—has the authority to reverse bans on oil drilling leases Article: Slate: Recycling Isn’t About the Planet. It’s About Profit. by Henry Grabar When you recycle a jug or a can or a jar, you are creating a commodity. At present, the fruit of your labor is not terribly competitive. But your fortunes will turn. Graphic/Article/Interactive: Washington Post: What remains of Bears Ears by Joe Fox, Lauren Tierney, Seth Blanchard, Gabriel Florit, Jake Crump The region includes a stunning variety of topography — flat-topped mesas and expansive valleys, sloping igneous mountains and towering sandstone cliffs. President Trump reduced the protected area by 85 percent following a lobbying effort led by Andrew Wheeler (now head of the EPA).  "Recycling is only the first step of a Coke bottle’s long, uncertain path toward reincarnation." Ready to do more? Learn about the Green New Deal. If you missed our roundtable discussion, you can read the presenters' notes here. Read the Indivisible Guide 2.0, a new strategy for a new congress. Check out the weekly action plan from Progressive Action, Global Exchange (PAGE) which mobilizes progressives living overseas. Sign up for the Americans of Conscience Checklist, a weekly action list that also provides encouragement and good news. Learn more about solutions and actions at ClimateRecovery.org, a new group organized by members of American Resistance Sevilla and other community activists.  What Can We Do to Support Climate Recovery? Avoid Being Fooled by Greenwashing! Remember Starbucks’ big announcement that it was going straw free? Public outcry for a ban was largely sparked by the viral video of a turtle bleeding as a man pulled a plastic straw from its nose. Starbucks jumped on the bandwagon and pledged to eliminate all plastic straws by 2020. However, it did so by replacing them with sippy lids that are made with more plastic than the previous straw/lid combination. And based on my experience as a Starbucks employee, I can tell you people still rampantly use straws with the sippy lids. The point is that we, the consumers, were manipulated into feeling good about doing what we perceived to be the right thing for the environment — when in fact, we were making things worse. As consumer demand for environmentally conscious goods and services rise, so does “greenwashing” — marketing falsely presenting products as more natural, healthier, chemical-free, recyclable, compostable, or less damaging to the environment. Negligible changes to consumer goods are presented as feel-good choices. For example, a 50% increase in recycled material is frequently refers to an increase from 2% to 3%. A trash bag labeled “recyclable” is misleading because trash bags are rarely, if ever, separated from the trash to be recycled. Keep an eye out for these certifications that indicate good green choices: USDA Organic, LEED, Green Business Bureau, Safer Choice, WELL, Green C Certification, Energy Star, EDGE, The Institute for Green Business Certification, Fair Trade USA Certified, PEER, Green Seal, SITES, Forest Stewardship Council, GRESB, WasteWise, WaterSense, BioPreferred, Bay Area Green Business ProgramParksmart, Animal Welfare Approved, Certified Humane, Green America, Green Plus, EPEAT. Video: Greenwashing: Busting "eco" labels, CBC Marketplace What Is Greenwashing? Business News Daily By Natalie Snow Purinton  Green your Spring cleaning: 5 reasons to choose EU ecolabel detergents by Meta, the news channel of the European Environmental Bureau (EEB). STOP, LOOK, LISTEN! by Kathy Sherretts Play ball! What a grim week! For me, the bright spot in the news was the start of baseball season. I felt a bit guilty about ignoring the political and environmental topics that I’m supposed to care about—taking my eye off the ball, as it were. (In case you're wondering, the Pirates split the opening series with the Reds after a rainout of Game Two.) Then I found this piece in the Washington Post that explains "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" as a 115-year-old feminist anthem. After all, Opening Day does coincide with Women’s History Month! As the author notes, Simone de Beauvoir or Gloria Steinem couldn’t have said it better themselves. --Kathy Sherretts Podcast: NPR: Former CIA Deputy Director Explains Why 2020 'Briefing Book' Was Released Early (4 min) The book provides 2020 presidential candidates with unclassified reports on major national security issues. The authors warn about “fake news and foreign election interference”, pointing to Russia as a particular problem. Article: Pennsylvania Capital-Star: Pa. Legislature’s first Muslim woman calls prayer delivered by fellow House member blatant ‘Islamophobia’ by Stephen Caruso and Elizabeth Hardison “As an evangelical Christian, I was offended by [the prayer’s] lack of humility or care or, dare I say, love for a human being duly elected by [her] district. It was mean spirited.” texted Representative Margo Davidson of Delaware County. Article: The Atlantic: Trump’s Opponents Have One Assignment Now by Ronald Brownstein The appeal of Trump’s agenda would not disappear even if he were forced from office. There’s a far better chance of uprooting his influence if his presidency is ended by the voters, not the courts or Congress. Article: The Guardian: US accused of blocking ambitious global action against plastic pollution by Sandra Laville Countries most affected by plastic pollution include the Philippines, Malaysia and Senegal. US oil firms are investing billions of dollars in petrochemical production, possibly increasing plastic production by 40% in the next decade. Report: Energy Innovation Policy and Technology: The Coal Cost Crossover: Economic Viability of Existing Coal Compared to New Local Wind and Solar Resources by Eric Gimon, Mike O’Boyle, Christopher T.M.Clack, Sarah McKee Coal generation is at a “cost crossover” in the United States. Today, local wind and solar could replace approximately 74% of the U.S. coal fleet at an immediate savings to customers. By 2025, this number will be 86%.  A baseball quote for our times: “It ain’t over ’til it’s over.” — Yogi Berra WANT TO DO MORE? Learn about the Green New Deal. If you missed our roundtable discussion, you can read the presenters' notes here. Read the Indivisible Guide 2.0, a new strategy for a new congress. Check out the weekly action plan from Progressive Action, Global Exchange (PAGE) which mobilizes progressives living overseas.
Sign up for the Americans of Conscience Checklist, a weekly action list that also provides encouragement and good news. Learn more about solutions and actions at ClimateRecovery.org, a new group organized by members of American Resistance Sevilla and other community activists. |
resist the madness!American Resistance Sevilla is a non-partisan community mobilizing Americans living abroad to take peaceful action defending our lawful rights and freedoms. Learn more Archives
November 2020
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