HARM TO ONGOING MATTER

What Can We Do to Support Climate Recovery?
 
Talk About It

I talk about climate change a lot; just ask my friends, relatives, and bartenders. The most common response is a frozen stare, even from people whose views align with mine. The subject is huge and frightening, and the marketing departments of big oil companies have spent billions trying to convince us we’re not to blame, there’s nothing we can do, and hey, losing a few polar bears 100 years from now is a small price to pay for cheap fuel today.

It’s time to replace those lies with honesty. Before trying to sway hardened climate-change deniers, talk with like-minded friends. “The challenge,” writes Jane Burston in World Economic Forum, “isn’t awareness. It’s action. Concerns exist, but do not influence day-to-day decisions. Rarely is climate change a critical factor in elections. People tend not to think about climate change when deciding how to travel, how to invest their money or which energy supplier to use...Have a conversation about climate change with someone you live or work with. Because ultimately, one conversation at a time is how we’re going to turn widespread awareness and concern into meaningful action.”

When speaking with climate-change deniers, remember their beliefs are part of their tribal identity. “Social science has taught us that if people have built their identity on rejecting a certain set of facts, then arguing over those facts is a personal attack,” explains climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe. “It causes them to dig in deeper, and it digs a trench, rather than building a bridge. Instead of starting up with your head, start from the heart … with genuinely shared values.” For more, watch Hayhoe’s TED Talk: The most important thing you can do to fight climate change: talk about it.

By Karen McCann
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Talking with like-minded friends keeps us energized for the tasks ahead. Photo by Karen McCann

STOP, LOOK, LISTEN! by Kathy Sherretts

Harm to Ongoing Matter
I love this phrase from the redacted sections of the Mueller report—it sounds like the title of an Emerson, Lake and Palmer album. We can only hope that the “ongoing matters” in question include a good close look at Jared Kushner.
--Kathy Sherretts

Article:
ACLU: Settlement Reached to End Texas Voter Purge
The state of Texas has settled with the ACLU and other civil rights organizations to halt a purge of voter rolls that targeted naturalized citizens and those with Latino names.

Graphic:
Grist: This GIF captures just how gigantic the U.S. carbon footprint is by Zoya Teirstein

Document:
EPA: Guidance about Planning for Natural Disaster Debris | Managing Materials and Wastes for Homeland Security Incidents
A straightforward message for coping with natural disasters: Start planning for the fact that climate change is going to make these catastrophes worse. By contrast, EPA head Andrew Wheeler says that “most of the threats from climate change are 50 to 75 years out.”

Article:
New York Times: The Racial Bias Built Into Photography by Sarah Lewis
Frederick Douglass knew it long ago: Being seen accurately by the camera is a key to representational justice.
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A boy walks through the cracked earth of an empty pond as he herds his cow during the dry season outside of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Friday, April 26, 2019. Cambodian authorities have ordered a one-hour reduction in the length of school days because of concerns that students and teachers may fall ill from a prolonged heat wave. (Heng Sinith/Associated Press)

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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