This post covers what our exit from the Accords means to us internationally; what it means to our planet; what cities and states can do; what an indigenous alliance is doing, and just how advanced climate change may be. There are effective strategies emerging to an increasingly frightening challenge.
Events & Opportunities
The City is seeking individuals to become members of the Pubic Bank Task Force. For information on this opportunity, click here. It is vitally important that this Task Force be comprised of individuals who can create a compelling case for creating a public bank. A public bank could be an important tool in seeking to achieve equity in Santa Fe. Also, click here for opportunities and events coming soon.
What Can We Do On Climate Change to Counter Trump Madness?
What Michael Bloomberg Is Attempting To Do: Michael Bloomberg is forming an alliance of cities, universities, foundations, and corporations to sustain the US commitment to the Paris Accord. Mayors of cities including Los Angeles, Atlanta, Pittsburg, and Salt Lake City have signed on as has Hewlett-Packard, Mars Inc., and dozens of other companies and eighty-two presidents and chancellors of universities. For more on this campaign, click here.
What States Have Been Doing and Can Do: On Thursday, Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, and Gov. Jerry Brown of California, all Democrats, said they were beginning a separate alliance of states committed to upholding the Paris accord. Click here for a Brookings Institute report on impactful state climate change policies analyzed through the lens of ‘decoupling’ — the degree to which continued growth in GDP can occur simultaneously with reductions in CO2 emissions, i.e ‘decoupling’ economic growth from carbon emissions. It is a wonky analysis, but includes some very interesting charts on how states rank in the degree to which they are decoupling from carbon emissions.
What Cities and Counties Can Do: The article describes five strategies cities can employ to reduce carbon emissions: 1) build housing near public transit; 2) create transit options people like (e.g. ride sharing and better public transit); 3) improve energy efficiency; 4) rethink driving (increase parking fees, incorporate more tolls, and eliminate minimum parking levels in zoning, all messages to reduce use of cars, and 5) Invest in renewables. Click here for more on what cities can do.
Divestment Campaign Launched by an Indigenous Alliance. The Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion is a coalition of 121 First Nations and other Indigenous tribes from across North America that are united against major projects stemming from the Alberta tar sands. The Treaty Alliance’s latest targets are the financial institutions currently funding major oil pipelines across Canada and the United States. There are 64 banking institutions that fund at least one of the projects on the full divestment list, but 17 banks that fund the Dakota Access pipeline, and all four pipelines from Canada have been specifically targeted. These include Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, Barclays, Bank of Montreal, Scotiabank and Wells Fargo.For more on this alliance click here.
How Far Along Is Climate Change Change? A Truthout report indicates that by 2050 there will be no glaciers in the US and that “Anthropogenic climate disruption (ACD) is recreating the conditions that caused the worst mass extinction event on Earth, the Permian mass extinction that took place approximately 250 million years ago and annihilated 90 percent of life on Earth. Dramatic oceanic warming and acidification were key components of this extinction event, and that is precisely what we are seeing today.” Click here for an excellent, albeit depressing analysis of climate trends.
In future posts, we will bring this analysis home to New Mexico and Santa Fe to explore how we can integrate economic justice and climate justice initiatives and strategies.
In solidarity,
Paul & Roxanne
Categories: Actions, Climate Justice
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