chestnut_pod: A close-up photograph of my auburn hair in a French braid (Default)
[personal profile] chestnut_pod
National Forests and Grasslands comprise 193 million acres of the protected lands in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. They're less famous than the national parks, so threats to them garner less attention, but they are equally as vital for the preservation of wildlife, clean air, and clean water. The Trump administration's order to hugely inflate U.S. logging puts sustainable forest harvest, the National Forest system, and all the wildlife and people who rely on National Forests to be well-cared-for and extant at risk. 5Calls has a script for encouraging your representatives to protect these often-overlooked elements of the U.S. conservation regime.

https://5calls.org/issue/national-forest-public-land-logging-deforestation/
cream_and_custard: Imai and Atsushi of Buck-Tick (Default)
[personal profile] cream_and_custard
Hello, the admin [personal profile] tanaqui invited me to promote my comm [community profile] green_joy!

Tired of just hearing bad news and having no where to direct my feelings, this community was created for discussing actions we are taking to help the environment.

The purpose of this is to celebrate, bring awareness to, and encourage more action for our betterment. So if there is anything you've done, either personal or political to help the environment please join and tell us what you're doing!

Our latest post is about raising awareness for the organization Fossil Fuel treaty and their goal to put an end to the proliferation of fossil fuels globally.

If you make an awareness post anywhere, share any of their materials, create your own, or have contacted your representatives to encourage them to sign the treaty, please share it with us a post!
chestnut_pod: A close-up photograph of my auburn hair in a French braid (Default)
[personal profile] chestnut_pod
There is a public comment section on a proposed plan for a strip mine to be opened near the Okefenokee Swamp reserve in Georgia.

This post includes links to the comment page, as well as some material for your letters/comments.
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
I recently launched a community with relevance to different types of activism and things people can easily do locally.

[community profile] birdfeeding is a new community started on January 1, 2023. It's all about birdfeeding, birdwatching, and other topics relating to birds. It also touches on environmentalism, nature in general, and observations that may effect bird activity such as local weather. Both text and image posts are welcome.

Community resources include posts about birding events, nurseries that sell seeds or plants attractive to birds, bird identification apps, the benefits of birdwatching, and other useful materials.

Thus far, members include people from far-flung parts of the United States of America as well as Scotland, so we're seeing a nice wide range of habitats and bird species. Birds that are common in one area may be uncommon or unfamiliar in another area.

You can introduce yourself using the form in the Introduction post, or however you like. If you love birds and nature, come check out [community profile] birdfeeding!

Read more... )
tanaqui: Illumiinated letter T (Default)
[personal profile] tanaqui
The National Butterfly Center on the Texas border (which carries out nationally important conservation and education work) is closing to the public indefinitely after attacks from right-wing conspiracy theorists. (The Center has been accused of helping in the sex-trafficking of migrants — the property is bounded on one side by the Rio Grande and fought against having Trump's Wall built through it.)

The Center had already announced a closure over last weekend, after staff at the center had been verbally abused and physically attacked and they were then notified of a right-wing rally taking place nearby that weekend.

The Center has committed to continuing to pay its staff — including those who are paid hourly — but clearly will not be receiving the usual revenues from visitors. They are therefore asking for donations.

You can read more about what's been happening in their two recent newsletters:

https://mailchi.mp/nationalbutterflycenter/v4jla7bmp9-5505325?e=15f8f8f2a5

https://mailchi.mp/nationalbutterflycenter/v4jla7bmp9-5536765?e=73e95bd914

And Donate Here
chestnut_pod: A close-up photograph of my auburn hair in a French braid (Default)
[personal profile] chestnut_pod
This is an environmental and Indigenous-rights set of actions.

Thacker Pass/Pee'hee Mu'huh is sacred and historically significant land to the northern Paiute and the Shoshone. It is unceded, but currently managed as public land by the Bureau of Land Management. It is vital habitat for many endangered flora and fauna, some endemic to only this region. Due to Trump-era environmental deregulation, it is also the proposed site of a giant lithium mine run by Canadian company Lithium Americas.

Lithium Americas says this is a "green" mine, meant to provide batteries for electric cars, but the impact would be environmentally devastating. Lithium mining means open-pit mining and the chewing up of mountaintops in the refining process, such that producing one ton of lithium will require strip mining and processing between ~110 and 500 tons of Earth. Alongside the lithium, the process produces hundreds of tons of sulfur waste, including sulfuric acid. It will also burn enormous quantities of diesel and suck up hundreds of thousands of gallons of water -- in Nevada. All this quite aside from the fact that it will require eating up more than 5,000 acres of sacred and irreplaceable land, threatening the wider watershed, cutting off its relationship to its originary stewards, and truncating a critical wildlife corridor.

How I heard about this was because Lithium Americas is 49% owner of Minera Exar, a South American company accused of misleading and violating principles of free, prior, and informed consent of Indigenous communities in the vicinity of their mine in Argentina. This is only part of the horrific abuses against Indigenous peoples living around lithium mines in the Andes, and you'd better believe the same will happen in the U.S.

All this to say, it must be stopped, and people are working to stop it.

--

Protect Thacker Pass/Pee'hee Mu'huh - Protestors, including Paiute and Shoshone tribal members, are constructing an encampment at Thacker Pass. Learn more about the project and donate to help with construction, travel, and living fees.

Sign a petition to the Department of Interior, crafted by the Fort McDermitt Paiute & Shoshone.

Indigenous Women Hike - Originally founded to help Indigenous women (Paiute, Navajo, and other nations) heal their ancestral connection to Nüümü and Newe territory through hiking and activism, IWH is currently involved in the Thacker Pass action. Check the link in their bio to learn how to donate directly to them or support them through merch.

Text PCLPBP to 50409 to get ResistBot to send Biden a letter telling him to tell the DOI to revoke Lithium Americas' permits.

And then email the DOI (feedback@ios.doi.gov) and the Nevada chapter of the BLM (BLM_NV_NVSO_web_mail@blm.gov) directly, using more or less that same script.

--
ResistBot and DOI/BLM text (also usable as a phone script) )
sea_changed: Angelica Schuyler from Hamilton (hamilton; angelica)
[personal profile] sea_changed
Indigenous and environmental activists in Minnesota have been fighting the Enbridge Line 3 tar sands pipeline for years now, but recently there has been a huge surge in national pushback against the pipeline as well. Here are some ways to help the effort:

1. Contact the White House directly to ask Biden to stop Line 3. The email I sent read:
 
Dear President Biden,

I am writing to you to ask you to stop construction of the Line 3 tar sands pipeline in Minnesota. I am extraordinarily glad and grateful that one of your first acts in office was to stop the Keystone XL pipeline, and so I am asking you to once again product our climate and our future by halting the Line 3 pipeline as well.
 
Line 3 would cross more than 200 bodies of water in northern Minnesota, crossing reservation boarders and land that the Ojibwe and Dakota people hold treaty rights to and use for food production, including most especially wild rice. The likelihood of a leak or spill, and the devastation that that would cause to people and the climate, is enormous. Even if the pipeline works as it should, its climate effects will be horrific and directly counter to this administration's stated goal of tackling the climate emergency--Line 3 would create more pollution than the equivalent of 50 coal plants.
 
As a Minnesota resident I am devastated that my state leaders have abdicated their responsibilities to the environment, to the Ojibwe and Dakota people whose lands we occupy, and to our children's futures by not stopping the constriction of Line 3 before now. President Biden, please step in where they have failed, and call an immediate halt to the construction of Line 3, as well as a stop to the use of the pipeline it was slated to replace. We need you and are counting on you. 
 
Sincerely,
[my name]

Feel free to use that as a guide, though as always remember to personalize based on who you are and what’s most important to you. (And if you'd like help constructing your own letter, please reach out! I'd be happy to help.) See here and here for information on the pipeline to help script your call or write your email/letter.

2. Tell banks to stop funding Line 3. There's an important loan renewal deadline for Enbridge on March 31st, 2021--please use this form to email executives at the banks that are funding Line 3 to tell them to not renew their loans to Enbridge. The text of the letter can be edited, so please take advantage of that to rephrase and personalize the text (while still keeping the main info). Here is my edited version of the text:

Dear bank executives,
 
I am writing to you today to demand that your company does not continue its participation in $2.16 billion credit facility renewal with Enbridge on March 31st, 2021. 
 
Enbridge is the company responsible for the building of the Line 3 tar sands pipeline, which is going on right now in defiance of treaty rights and grave environmental concerns over its construction. If built, Line 3 would cross more than 200 bodies of water in northern Minnesota, crossing reservation boarders and land that the Ojibwe and Dakota people hold treaty rights to and use for food production, including most especially wild rice. The likelihood of a leak or spill, and the devastation that that would cause to people and the climate, is enormous. Even if the pipeline works as it should, its climate effects will be horrific and directly counter to this administration's stated goal of tackling the climate emergency--Line 3 would create more pollution than the equivalent of 50 coal plants.
 
Renewing your loan to Enbridge is a significant social risk to your company's reputation. A wide variety of groups, including the Red Lake Nation, the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, and Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, MN’s Department of Commerce, and multiple environmental organizations, are currently challenging the legality of Line 3 in court. Meanwhile, over 200,000 people have signed a petition demanding that President Biden take Executive Action to stop Line 3, and Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar has written to President Biden demanding the same. Recently, more than 600 people took to the streets of St. Paul demanding a stop to the pipeline. The best-selling novelist and member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Louise Erdrich wrote in the New York Times: “[Line 3] is is a tar sands climate bomb (...) The state’s environmental impact assessment of the project found the pipeline’s carbon output could be 193 million tons per year. That’s the equivalent of 50 coal-fired power plants or 38 million vehicles on our roads.”
 
The climate movement has grown dramatically in recent years, gaining more people and more power. Now that the Keystone XL pipeline has been canceled, stopping Line 3 is the number one priority for huge numbers of climate activists across the United States. Your company's funding of Line 3 will not go unnoticed. 
 
Therefore, I strongly urge your company to do the right thing for the environment, for Native rights, and for your own company's reputation, and walk away from Line 3 and the $2.16 billion credit facility renewal with Enbridge on March 31st.

I kept the general flow of the original letter, but used text from my above letter to Biden and significantly rephrased and edited much of the letter to make it my own.

3. If you have money in a bank that funds Line 3 and other pipelines, strongly consider closing your account and moving your money to a credit union or smaller bank that doesn’t fund climate change. (Click here for a zoom-in-able version of the graphic if you’re having trouble reading it.)

The list includes all the major US banks, including JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Citibank, along with many international institutions, including Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, Royal Bank of Canada, and many more. Tips for moving your money out of these banks can be found here. (The list/graphic look to be a few years old, but I believe it to still be largely accurate. If you'd like help researching your bank, let me know.)

4. Sign a petition. There are lots of these going around, and they take less than a minute each to sign. Here are some I know of, from StopLine3.org, 350.org, the Rainforest Action Network, and the Sierra Club (this last one will require you to put in your address). 
 
5. Donate. You can donate to Honor the Earth, an Indigenous activist group that founded StopLine3.org, here. You can donate to the frontlines trying to keep the pipeline from being built through StopLine3.org here or through the RAN's microgrants program here

6. Stay informed on current developments! StopLine3.org has a frequently-updated news page
beatrice_otter: Me in red--face not shown (Default)
[personal profile] beatrice_otter
If you have any desire to see either Native Americans' voices amplified, or oil companies' voices minimized, or both, and you are a US citizen, now is a great time to send a message to your US Senators asking them to confirm Rep. Deb Haaland as Secretary of the Interior. The Department of the Interior is the department in charge of things like energy and environmental policy, and it's ALSO the department of which the Bureau of Indian Affairs is part. Having an Indigenous woman in charge of that department would be huge. Here's what the Lakota Law Project has to say about it:

[Today] is a huge day for Indian Country. At 9:30 a.m. EST, the United States Senate will begin deliberations on whether to confirm Indiegnous congresswoman Deb Haaland, President Biden’s nominee for Secretary of the Interior. Predictably and unfortunately, as a strong advocate for the environment and the first Native person nominated for a Cabinet-level position, she faces strong opposition from conservative senators who fear she’ll prioritize the protection of public lands over the oil companies who line their pockets at our expense.

That’s why it’s critical — right now — that we continue putting all the pressure we can on every U.S. senator to confirm her nomination. Please use this link and let your senators know it’s high time to put a highly qualified Native woman at the helm of the Interior Department. It’s time to protect sacred lands and water and make sure the federal government’s relationships with tribal governments are overseen by one who deeply understands all the issues we face.

The link leads you to a page with a widget to email your senators. It only takes a few minutes--please take this opportunity to push for things to keep moving in the right direction!
watersword: Keira Knightley, in Pride and Prejudice (2007), turning her head away from the viewer, the word "elizabeth" written near (Default)
[personal profile] watersword
I am thoroughly enjoying emailing my Senators and Representative with requests to work with the Biden administration. Today's was a reminder about the Dakota Access Pipeline and how it needs to be shut down. Since President Biden has committed to shutting down the Keystone XL pipeline, that was where I started my request -- full text beneath the cut, based largely on the text from Earth Justice, available at Google Drive, along with a number of suggested phrasings for social media.

what I sent to Congress )
starlady: Raven on a MacBook (Default)
[personal profile] starlady
The Bureau of Land Management is rushing to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. To discourage public input, only mailed-in or hand-delivered comments will be accepted. Comments must be received in Anchorage by December 17.

The Audubon Society has a downloadable letter that you can personalize to send with your own envelope and stamp. There's still plenty of time to make the receipt deadline from anywhere in the States if you send a letter today. Thank you.

ETA: Protect the Arctic estimates that letters need to be sent on or before December 10 to reach Anchorage in time for the deadline.
tanaqui: Illumiinated letter T (Default)
[personal profile] tanaqui
Since the last check-in, Mueller has submitted his report to the Attorney General. Trump and his allies have declared total vindication based on Barr’s summary. I think we’re all pretty sure it isn’t that clear cut and that there’s plenty for various committees in Congress to pick over (and Mueller’s grand jury is still sitting). Plus I keep reminding myself Watergate took a long time to reach its conclusion.

In better news, a federal judge in Alaska has overturned Trump’s attempt to open parts of the Arctic and Atlantic to oil and gas leasing.

In the comm, we’ve had some great suggestions for action since the last check-in posts.

New posts this week

Research Volunteer Opportunity
Friends of the Earth Green New Deal Toolkit
Josh Marshall of TPM has a suggestion (about the Mueller report)

So, what have you all been up to in the last week or are planning to get involved in next week?

Poll #21707 The Week
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 8


This Week, I...

View Answers

called my one senator
1 (25.0%)

called my other senator
1 (25.0%)

called my representative
3 (75.0%)

called my governor
0 (0.0%)

called my state reps
0 (0.0%)

sent a postcard/email/letter/fax
2 (50.0%)

attended a town hall
0 (0.0%)

donated money to a cause
3 (75.0%)

attended an in-person activist group
1 (25.0%)

participated in phone/online training
0 (0.0%)

View Answers

went to a protest
1 (14.3%)

signed up for alerts
0 (0.0%)

worked for a campaign
0 (0.0%)

did textbanking/phonebanking
1 (14.3%)

took care of myself
3 (42.9%)

not a US citizen but worked in solidarity in my own community
3 (42.9%)

did something else
2 (28.6%)

committed to action in the coming week
1 (14.3%)


starlady: Uryuu & Ichigo reenact Scott Pilgrim (that doesn't even rhyme)
[personal profile] starlady
From the Utah Dine Bikeyah page:

The Bears Ears National Monument Draft Environmental Impact Statement is open for public review. Take action by submitting a public comment. Please ask the BLM to halt this planning process while litigation is underway and if they refuse, ask them to slow down and do this the right way by including Native perspectives as they writing this land plan. A great deal of inter-governmental trust was established in the creation of Bears Ears National Monument, and the entire purpose of creating the monument will be undermined if Native American cultural practitioners are left out.

You can use the link above to submit a public comment letter in support of Bears Ears and the Native American peoples of the area. The deadline is today, November 15, at 5pm Eastern time
executrix: (Default)
[personal profile] executrix
The Department of the Interior's Bureau of Ocean Management is accepting comments until March 9 on its Very Beautiful and Brilliant Plan* to allow 90% of the coast to be used to drill for oil. There is also a schedule of public hearings, although several of them have been marked "postponed" FWIW. For the hearing schedule and the comment form,

https://sierra.secure.force.com/actions/National?actionId=AR0101303&id=7010Z000001P6KJQA0&data=244fc4fb75bca46fdd0b079a13c824e70abecb1d9c33d69f658a95583c1058c883f59830bcab095ce16e9745584d5b50&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sierraclub&utm_campaign=ourwildamerica&utm_content=offshore

If you've never submitted a comment to an administrative agency online, it's easy and fun! The agencies rely on being able to say that the rule must be OK because hardly anybody opposed it. They're still allowed to commit Dirty Deeds at the Crossroads, but they can't say that they had the endorsement of the public, and the comment stream can be influential on judges hearing the inevitable challenges to the rule.



*May contain sarcasm
tanaqui: Illumiinated letter T (Default)
[personal profile] tanaqui
Happy New Year -- and let's hope it is a happier year, and that some of the good things that happened at the end of last year (like the success of the Get Out the Vote operations in Alabama) are carried forward into 2018.

Also, another reminder that we now have a Friending Meme and a (locked) post where you can connect with others with live in the same area. We hope you find both of these posts useful!

Posts in the comm since the last check-in covered:

Actions
Helping take back the House by finding and getting involved with your nearest swing district
Record 5Sec video for #StandwithBearsEars
Sign up to the new ballotpedia service covering primaries
Link Roundup from [personal profile] snickfic

Donations

We had several posts over the holiday period suggesting places to donate. While match funding may have ended, there are lots of great suggestions here if you're looking for causes to support in 2018:

Even more matchy matchy stuff, and some not-matchy stuff
More matchy-matchy
Matchy-matchy

Housekeeping (the usual stuff)
Reminder that we have a suggestion post if there’s a topic that you’d like to see discussed but would like to ask the mods to look into. This can be anything from general information, or a how-to-do-a-thing, or something you may want to discuss as a community. Folks are welcome to post directly to the comm as always, but if you’re not comfortable/don’t have spoons, we can help too.

As we don't always get the time to pull things out of the suggestions post into their own separate posts, it may be worth checking every week (or tracking the post) to see if there's any new information you're interested in.

Also if you need help with tags, PM [personal profile] redbird, who is our tag guru. Both [personal profile] tassosss and I are very grateful for the help.

So, what have you all been up to in the last week or are planning to get involved in next week?

Poll #19278 The Week
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 1


This week, I...

View Answers

called my one senator
1 (100.0%)

called my other senator
1 (100.0%)

called my representative
0 (0.0%)

called my governor
0 (0.0%)

called my state reps
0 (0.0%)

sent a postcard/email/letter/fax
0 (0.0%)

attended a town hall
0 (0.0%)

donated money to a cause
0 (0.0%)

attended an in-person activist group
0 (0.0%)

participated in phone/online training
0 (0.0%)

View Answers

went to a protest
0 (0.0%)

signed up for alerts
0 (0.0%)

took care of myself
0 (0.0%)

not a US citizen but worked in solidarity in my own community
0 (0.0%)

did something else
0 (0.0%)

committed to action in the coming week
0 (0.0%)

tassosss: Shen Wei Zhao Yunlan Era (Default)
[personal profile] tassosss
Happy Father's Day. Sorry for missing last week's check in.

The theme of this week seems to be Secrecy in the Senate to Screw us on Healthcare.

Housekeeping
Reminder that we have a suggestion post if there’s a topic that you’d like to see discussed but would like to ask the mods to look into. This can be anything from general information, or a how-to-do-a-thing, or something you may want to discuss as a community. Folks are welcome to post directly to the comm as always, but if you’re not comfortable/don’t have spoons, we can help too.

Also if you need help with tags, PM [personal profile] redbird who is our tag guru. Both [personal profile] tanaqui and I are very grateful for the help.

Healthcare - McConnell wants the trumpcare vote to happen before the July 4th recess. That's two weeks away.
Healthcare Call Scripts from Indivisble
Indivisible Guide: Contact for Senate Staffers
Senate Contact Info
Stop #TrumpCare Senate Call-In Day
Trumpcare Toolkit

Activism
Hustle and Slack: MoveOn Text Team Training
Action Checklist

LGBT+
Pride Month: Donate to LGBT+ groups

Russia

Brennan Center Report on Trump-Russia Investigation

Climate Change
Mississippi River Alliance
Indivisible: Defending the Climate in Local Action

How's everyone doing?

Poll #18505 This week in activism
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 14


I

View Answers

called my one senator
5 (45.5%)

called my other senator
4 (36.4%)

called my representative
1 (9.1%)

called my governor
0 (0.0%)

called my state reps
2 (18.2%)

called my city reps
0 (0.0%)

sent a letter/postcard/fax/email
5 (45.5%)

attended a town hall
1 (9.1%)

donated moeny to a cause
2 (18.2%)

attended an in person sctivist group
2 (18.2%)

.

View Answers

participated in online phone training
1 (10.0%)

went to a protest
2 (20.0%)

signed up for alerts
1 (10.0%)

took care of myself
6 (60.0%)

not a US citizen but worked in solidarity in my own community
2 (20.0%)

did something else
1 (10.0%)

committed to action in the coming week
3 (30.0%)



ekaterinn: amanda from highlander peering over sunglasses, 'whatever.' at the bottom (as if!)
[personal profile] ekaterinn
Ahoy, crew!

I just wanted to let you know about the Mississippi River Alliance aka the Mississippi River Towns and Cities Initiative (a regional climate change group), if your city in is the Mississippi River Basin Region, they should join the 124 cities currently in the group and doing remarkable climate change activism:

https://www.mrcti.org/

I'm going to start a petition for one of my leaders, Mayor-President Sharon Broome, Baton Rouge to join myself.

Good luck and steady sailing!
executrix: (Default)
[personal profile] executrix
From Wall of Us: suggestion that you contact your mayor (with links) to ask her or him to sign up with the list of Climate Mayors in support of the Paris Accord. (I live in Jersey City, where the mayor is already onside, yay!)

https://www.wall-of-us.org/weekly-acts-of-resistance/2017/6/4/action-2-ask-your-mayors-to-generate-clean-power-to-fuel-our-resistance?utm_source=Wall+of+Us+Newsletter&utm_campaign=f03d41b80c-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_cc0b966781-f03d41b80c-46521285
tanaqui: Illumiinated letter T (Default)
[personal profile] tanaqui
Public Participation in EPA's Regulatory Reform
Deadline: 15 May 2017

From [personal profile] watersword in our suggestions post:
The EPA is soliciting public comment on the plan to roll back environmental regulations; they're required by law to take comments into account when deciding next actions.
You can submit comments in writing using Email, Docket or mail, with the EPA page on the consultation providing the contact details for each method. Note that: All public comments will be accessible online in [the] docket

The docket page helpfully provides a Tips for Submitting Effective Comments (PDF) which is packed with good advice, and you can include attachments. We also have an excellent post from [personal profile] tassosss on how to turn a phone script into a letter (and structuring letters in general) that may be helpful when you're drafting your comment. As both suggest, the most effective comments are likely to be those that are specific and, if relevant, personal. It may also be worth revisiting the post we made about George Lakoff's suggestions for re-framing the debate, so that the focus is on talking about the "protections" that the EPA provides (rather than "regulations").

To figure out what you want to comment on, this article summarises some of the main areas of protection at risk under the proposed cuts. The EPA website provides information on:
  • Regulatory Information by Topic, as well as
  • how to find regulations and
  • how to get regulatory information for your state or region, since many EPA regulations are adminstered by state agencies.
  • Profile

    Never Give Up, Never Surrender

    June 2025

    S M T W T F S
    12 34567
    891011121314
    15161718192021
    22232425262728
    2930     

    Syndicate

    RSS Atom

    Most Popular Tags

    Style Credit

    Expand Cut Tags

    No cut tags
    Page generated Jun. 7th, 2025 05:58 am
    Powered by Dreamwidth Studios