Matter and energy

​Read Joe Biden’s Climate Platform

How Inside Climate News sees his track record

Vox on Joe Biden’s chance to change history

About the Sunrise Movement

Kids Bracing for Environmental Disaster

​Last night I attended a Zoom talk by Maya, a leader of the Sunrise Movement, the youth-led climate activists. Fearing a harsh future of environmental disruption, 75% of Americans under 25 say they’re not going to have kids and are altering career paths and life plans to brace for the impact. “Using paper straws — individual action — is not enough,” Maya said. “We’re in the streets demanding change.” Street protests are fewer due to COVID-19, but the message remains clear: “Our house is on fire; act like it!”
Joe Biden read those protest signs and saw an opportunity. His environmental task force includes Sunrise co-founder Varshini Prakash, Green New Deal champion Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Catherine Coleman, founder of the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice — all Sanders supporters and women of color. Can Joe Biden champion the environment in a way that embraces Sunrisers, Pennsylvania steelworkers, and Resisters like us?
I guess we’ll find out. —Karen McCann
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Matter and Energy
America's protests against police violence are continuing, and each time the tone starts to shift from rage to determination, another new overreaction by police only underlines the protesters’ point.
—Kathy Sherretts

Civics 101: Civic Action: Protest (Podcast, 25 min + transcript)
What is protest, constitutionally? Historically? What is protected, and what is not?

Wellesley College Center for Research on Women: White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh
White people carry an invisible collection of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools, and blank checks."Say Their Names" by Kadir Nelson is the cover of this week's New Yorker. Read this closeup examination, in which the murder of George Floyd embodies the history of violence inflicted upon black people in America.
Medium: Climate Activists: Here’s Why Your Work Depends on Ending Police Violence by Dany Sigwalt
If Black folks, Indigenous folks, and other folks of color are shot on our way to joining the climate movement, what’s the point?
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Scalawag Magazine: Black lives matter—so should their votes by Mac McCann (from 2015)
The Electoral College was balanced to empower slave states in the 18th century—and it continues to disempower Black voters today.
NPR: Voting And Elections Divide Republicans And Democrats Like Little Else by Philip Ewing
Republicans are likely to argue that casting a vote is a privilege of citizenship, while Democrats are more likely to see voting as a right.

Just for fun:
Are we done yet?

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Scenes from protests Karen McCann attended in Mill Valley and San Anselmo, California.
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"Say Their Names" by Kadir Nelson is the cover of this week's New Yorker. Read this closeup examination, in which the murder of George Floyd embodies the history of violence inflicted upon black people in America.

​Voting in a Pandemic Year
Help make the 2020 election free, fair, accessible, and secure,
from the Brennan Center for Justice

Learn More About Candidates and Issues! 

• Progressive Action, Global Exchange (PAGE) 
• Americans of Conscience Checklist
• ClimateRecovery.org

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