NO MORE SPEED BUMPS

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
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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). 
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"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.