#SummerOfClimateAction

 


The Supreme Court was off the hook last two weeks of June. I'm sure your social media feeds were filled with memes too. Oddly enough, my social media did not have much about West Virginia vs EPA, the SCOTUS ruling which said that the EPA did not have the authority from Congress to regulate cap and trade or generation switching (i.e. requiring power plants to switch to non-fossil fuels). This despite the fact that both the majority opinion and the dissent acknowledge that climate change presents a well known danger1.

The answer, of course, is to elect a different Congress that would grant the EPA such authority. Right now and for the foreseeable future, I'm a single issue voter. Climate change is an intersectional issue meaning that other issues like voting rights and women's rights also walk over to climate so I'm more nuanced than it first appears but yeah, I'm here for the climate. If you want me to support something, it needs to move the needle, even if indirectly, on ameliorating climate change.

Being a voter is good. Giving money to campaigns is good. (I support candidates, not parties btw. My registration is actually no party affiliation which is a whole other post.) But what else can I do?

Enter How to Save a Planet a podcast exclusively (unfortunately2) on Spotify. Most weeks the podcast concludes with a call to action that listeners can take to address climate issues. I am setting myself a challenge of taking on a weekly action from 4th of July to Labor Day from How 2 Planet. When there is no given action for whatever reason, I'll poke through the archives and find one. This way, I will have 9 weeks to complete 83 actions I would not have otherwise taken.

Because I know the power of accountability, I'm cross posting this to my Instagram using the tags #SummerOfClimateAction and #EarthExplorations. I realize that opens me to the charges of virtue signaling, and slacktivism, but I also hope that maybe someone, somewhere will be inspired to take steps towards climate action themselves.

Plus I always enjoy reading articles about people who undertake challenges and what the outcomes are. I feel I should contribute to that genre so I'm not just a taker but I giver too.

Wish me luck.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1 See Section B, Paragraph 14 of the majority opinion and Paragraph 2 of the dissent,

2 I'd rather not give Spotify my ears but I'm pragmatic enough to allow that insisting on absolute purity of cause at all times is making the table smaller rather than bigger. 

3 Why not 9 actions? Because I know me. I'm giving myself a wee bit of wiggle room.


Popular posts from this blog

Autumn Elm

Image
You can live a long time in one place and still make discoveries. Yesterday's discovery was just how many American elms there are around here. American elms used to be common as they were the preferred tree for city planting in the 19th century due to their shape and color. And they are beautiful trees, large, majestic, everything a tree should be. I assumed for quite a while that elms were pretty much a threatened species  well on their way to being extinct thanks to Dutch elm disease which ravaged the population. Dutch elm disease and the monocultivation of elms is Exhibit A in why diversity of planting is a good thing. Diversity provides built in resistance. I was both surprised and pleased to discover about a year ago that on the grounds of the science center where I work there were not one but two large elms. Outside my window. That I looked at every day. I just assumed they were cottonwoods, the other large, beautiful majestic tree in my ecosystem. It wasn't till
Read more

Monday Musing #1

Image
When I started this #SummerOfClimateAction challenge in which I attempt to follow the calls to action as made by How to Save a Planet, I thought I would listen to a few podcasts, email a congressional representative or two, maybe finally commit to composting. You know, stuff like that. Week One: Spark Tank started off with a bang. The topic was electricity storage on the electrical grid and as it happens, my city utility also sent out a communication that related to storage on the electrical grid but left out any mention of climate change (See Climate Change Is Still Worse ). So, yes, I did end up emailing truth to power, calling upon them to "acknowledge the impact of climate change and communicate its relevance in regards to city matters." I'll just say that sending an email through a contact-me box to a representative in far off Washington DC is one thing and emailing your local officials who recognize you in the grocery store is entirely different. Another outcome, I
Read more

Read More, Run More Summer

Image
I have dubbed this summer the Summer of Read More, Run More.  For Read More, my read more goal is to read 5 books by Labor Day. I know for some people that's a Tuesday, but I've been slacking on my reading of late. Reading 5 books is an appropriate level of challenge, I will stretch without overreaching. I want  Read More to be a growing experience, but a fun growing experience and not one where I am grinding through books with a clenched jaw and set brow. If the book I read is particularly enjoyable, I will share it here via what I post on Goodreads . I'm off to a good Read More start: my first entry is below. My Run More goal is to run at least a mile a day from Memorial Day to Independence Day. I'm giving myself permission to skip the days I'm in the Badlands for a class. I know from prior experience that the best laid running plans can be disrupted with proximity to bison. Any days I have to skip, I'll make up by extending the deadline so I complete 35 day
Read more