CRY HAVOC...

What Can We Do to Support Climate Recovery?
 
Show, don't tell, on that family visit 

In the last two entries in this series, Karen listed ways to cope with eco-anxiety and tips for sustainable travel. Our annual US visit encompasses both factors, I think, with a dose of superadded family dynamics. 
Generally, I feel pretty good about living sustainably at home in Sevilla, where I bike, take the bus, shop in the local market, and manage the hellish heat with persianas and fans (before resorting to the aire!). 
But when I’m a guest, it’s out of my control. In the States, I will be visiting in the homes of beloved family members who turn on the TV as soon as they wake up, blast the AC, and leave them both running while they leave the house to drive a mile for milk. They burn trash outdoors, they buy individually plastic-wrapped cheese slices. They pre-wash their dishwasher-bound plates.
Now, none of these individual actions is going to sink us, any more than me filching a Coke can out of the trash is going to save us. As Eve Andrews points out in this Grist article about environmental anxiety, there are a million ways to attack a problem as big as climate change; a single one of them can’t fix the problem, but each chips a small piece off the carbon burden. 
And showing is better than telling when it comes to climate action in someone else’s home. It all serves as a useful corrective to my urge to slap the styrofoam takeout container out of my sib’s hand.
—Kathy Sherretts
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Do you really need to pre-wash your dishwasher-bound plates?
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STOP, LOOK, LISTEN! by Kathy Sherretts

Cry havoc…
Our 4th of July celebrations are a commemoration of the US War of Independence—the fireworks that echo that origin are my least-favorite thing about the holiday. (Ask any dog.) Now, elements of the Trump administration are pushing for a literal war with Iran. The conflicting messages about the status of Iran relations and more recent news about North Korea and the G20 summit make it hard to know where we stand now. Please, contact your elected representatives this week to remind them that Congress has ultimate responsibility for declarations of war.
—Kathy Sherretts

Article:
Mother Jones: One Man Is Trying to Fight Climate Change By Mobilizing an Unlikely Team: Iowa’s Farmers by Brian Barth
“Nobody’s giving them credit.”

Article:
Pacific Standard: Do Debates Change Voters' Minds? Here's What the Research Says. by Rebecca Worby
There is plenty of time for US voters to shape and reshape their opinions of the 24 contenders for the Democratic nomination. Will debates actually change how voters feel?

Another one rides the bus:
Grist: Why is bus ridership falling almost everywhere except Pittsburgh? by Eve Andrews
I can hardly wait to renew my pass! 

Pride Month WrapUp:
WaPo/Retropod: The First Pride Parade (3 min)
It’s not what you think… Philadelphia, July 4, 1964. 
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Matt Russell directs the Iowa branch of Interfaith Power and Light, a nonprofit that promotes a religious response to global warming through sustainable farming. Image: Marco Cibola

Ready to do more?
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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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