MANY HAPPY RETURNS

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
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​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.
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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. 
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