Happy November! Welcome to our monthly newsletter, where we highlight some of the amazing work our volunteer teams have been up to. We also want to take this moment to offer some resources for National Day of Mourning tomorrow. Together, let’s continue our commitments to decolonizing ourselves, our communities, and our movements.

The Indigenous Solidarity Network created this extensive Rethinking Thanksgiving Toolkit, which includes accurate histories of this “holiday” and answers to common myths, questions you can use as prompts around the dinner table, places to donate and support Indigenous-led movements and organizations, and lots of resources on decolonizing and reparations.

“There are many different experiences we will have over Thanksgiving – some of us will have lots of food, some of us will struggle to have enough. Some will be surrounded by people and some will be alone or with just one other person. For many, it’s an important time of coming together with family. This day also gives us a chance to look at and change stories we have about our families and ourselves. Thanksgiving is based on myths that hide and erase the genocide that the United States is founded upon. What would it mean to tell a different story; an honest story?

This past year has been filled with an emboldening of white supremacy. At the same time, more and more people are working to create something different. We cannot expect that justice will ever come if we are not willing to face the injustices of our past and present. Holidays can be a time to connect and talk about these realities and touch people’s hearts in profound ways. This can be fertile ground for lasting change.” — Indigenous Solidarity Network, from their Rethinking Thanksgiving Toolkit.

We also recommend listening to this podcast episode from All My Relations: ThanksTaking or ThanksGiving? and donating money to the Chúush Fund from the Warm Springs Reservation. The Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs is the largest reservation in Oregon, and since May of 2019 they have not had access to clean drinking water after a water main line broke. You can learn more about this issue from a webinar here.

Read on to learn about our team’s accomplishments, how you can join their work, and opportunities to take action!

350PDX December General Meeting

Join our next General Meeting Wednesday Dec 8, 6:00PM – 7:15PM on Zoom. These monthly General Meeting are open to all. Whether you’re a new or existing volunteer with us, these meetings are a great place to meet staff and other volunteers, hear what the other teams are up to, and deep dive into a specific topic. In December, we’ll hear from our new Forest Climate Manager, Brenna Bell, who will be diving into the climate science and ecology of our forests, and what the 350PDX Forest Defense team is doing about it. Hope to see you there!

TEAM UPDATES

Read more about the teams and volunteer opportunities Volunteer Opportunities page
Want to get involved but not sure where to start? Fill out the Volunteer Form

Fossil Fuel Resistance Team

We continue to be hard at work in our campaigns to fight the dangerous myth of “natural” gas. Did you know that cutting methane is the strongest lever we have to address climate change in the next 25 years? And at COP26, countries around the world signed a global pledge to reduce methane emissions. But locally, we still have incessant greenwashing to fight coming from local utilities. That’s why we’re developing educational materials to share with our legislators and neighbors about the dangers of methane gas, and calling on Multnomah County to enact a ban on new buildings hooked up to fossil fuels.

TAKE ACTION:

Send a message to Oregon Public Broadcasting telling them to stop airing greenwashed advertisements from the fossil fuel industry. You may have heard on the radio — OPB has been airing ads for NW Natural, allowing the gas utility to manipulate public opinion and share misinformation about gas. Our public radio should not be taking money from the fossil fuel industry — send this tool to your friends to help us get lots of messages to OPB!

Submit a public comment against the Carty Generating Station, a fracked gas power plant in Boardman, OR. PGE is seeking a new permit to allow more air pollution at the facility. Let’s make sure the Oregon Dept of Environmental Quality hears from us loud and clear: don’t give PGE a green light to pollute!

GET CONNECTED: It’s a great time to join the team! We meet virtually every other Tuesday at 5:30pm, and our next meeting is on Tues, Nov 30. To get the zoom link and/or to schedule a new member orientation meeting, reach out to Melanie (melanie.plaut@gmail.com).

Defund/Divest Team

Our team follows the money, working as part of the national coalition StopTheMoneyPipeline (STMP). We call on financial institutions, insurance companies, and the government to divest from the fossil fuel industry. This year, the 350PDX Defund/Divest Team started a the statewide coalition: Divest Oregon: Reinvest in a Fossil Free Future.

What’s happening now:

• Divest Oregon: Reinvest in a Fossil-Free Oregon – a statewide coalition that our team helped to found – is now 70+ organizations strong! We’re pressuring the Treasurer and Oregon Investment Council to end new investment in fossil fuels, disclose the holdings they manage, transparently phase out current fossil fuel investments, and move to climate-safe investments using a social justice framework. How much are we talking about? $120 Billion, $90 Billion of which is state employees’ retirement.
• Divest Oregon workgroups reflect our multifaceted campaign: Outreach (to organizations, individuals, and legislators asking them to join us), Legislation (to support a bill for Treasury disclosure of the holdings they manage and mandating climate risk analysis), Research (to back public records requests and inclusion on gubernatorial candidate questionnaires), Communications (media outreach and social media campaigns), and Strategy (to keep it an effective effort!) See slides from our November general meeting for an overview.
• The Defund/Divest Team is taking a break from monthly meetings until the end of January. We keep communication going with a weekly email about actions of our team and our allies, such as pressure campaigns on corporations and the government and support for frontline resistance to fossil fuel infrastructure. Local divestment campaigns in educational institutions are ongoing, with our team providing resources and support.

TAKE ACTION: Tell the State of Oregon to divest from fossil fuels

GET CONNECTED: Reach out to Jenifer (jenifer@350pdx.org) for a conversation about our team and to receive our weekly team email. Meetings are the third Wednesday of the month at 2 pm; workgroups meet during both day and evening. Click here to join the Divest Oregon team! Meetings are the third Wednesday of the month at 2 pm; workgroups meet during both day and evening.

Forest Defense Team

We fight climate change by protecting Oregon’s forests from harmful logging practices and building forest climate resilience. One of the biggest community impacts of industrial logging is the degradation of community water supplies. Our team is working on a multi-level approach to reduce industrial clear-cut logging, which will lead to greater carbon storage and cleaner water for people and fish!

Over the past month, the Forest Defense Team:

• Encouraged the Board of Forestry to adopt the Oregon Department of Forestry’s first Climate Change & Carbon Plan – which passed unanimously! Thanks to all who sent messages to the Board of Forestry urging them to take bold action on climate. Now, the Forest Defense Team is going to make sure the CCCP is implemented!
• Urged the Oregon Environmental Quality Commission to take more responsibility for forest waters, including regulating logging practices to bring streams and lakes into compliance with the Clean Water Act. We submitted comments connecting clean water and climate change and urging real change in forestry regulation.
• Took a great hike together in Tryon Creek State Park! We’re planning another team hike on Saturday December 18th, and all are welcome.

TAKE ACTION: Join members of the Forest Defense Team on December 9th at Bark’s People’s Forest Forum: Unsettling Mt. Hood Ecologies for critical discussions about race, colonization, conservation and place.

GET CONNECTED: Join us at our next team meeting on December 6th at 6:00pm to learn about issues of equity (or lack thereof) in the Urban Tree canopy with Ted Labbe of the Urban Greenspaces Institute, or contact Brenna Bell (brenna@350pdx.org) to learn more.

City/County Watchdog Team

We’re ramping up efforts to get environmental justice and climate action addressed in the City Charter Review process. The City’s charter is like its constitution, and the review process is a once-in-a-decade opportunity to transform structural barriers into supportive and responsive systems and institutions that will support Portland in surviving and thriving for the decades to come.

TAKE ACTION: Submit a public comment on the Charter Review process by Dec 9th.

GET CONNECTED: Join us at our next Watchdog meeting on Thursday, December 2, 5:30-7pm. Contact Brooke (brooke@350pdx.org) or Indi (indi@350pdx.org) for meeting details or for more info about the team.

Creative Team

Right now, we’re collaborating with the Fossil Fuel Resistance team on their gas campaign. Over the summer we started exploring how a story-based strategy might shape how the campaign is shared with various audiences. After a pause, we’re picking that back up and considering which words, images and methods might help us reach a specific target audience with limited resources. We’re also planning to work on our training offerings so new folks can get up to speed on what a “story-based strategy” is.

Some things we’re attending / exploring right now:

• Center for Story-Based Strategy Story-Telling 101
• The Race Class Narrative webinar (recorded here) from the group We Make The Future

GET CONNECTED: Fill out this form to get on our roster. 

Arts Team

These past few months, the 350PDX Arts Team hosted fun Art Builds, assembled posters, repaired puppets, wrote poetry, painted Earths, and screenprinted muslin. You can do all this, too! Join us as we add visuals, color, and texture to Portland’s climate movement.

In November, we also launched our Arts Team Fundraiser! The fundraiser was so successful last year we are doing it again, and you can help. Reach out to Donna Murphy (murph1949@aol.com) if you’re interested in helping out with the art sale! You can also purchase pieces from the art sale here – all proceeds go to 350PDX to support our climate justice work!

GET CONNECTED: Join us for our monthly meetings – next meeting is Dec 27, 7:00-8:30pm. Reach out to Donna Murphy (murph1949@aol.com) for more information.

JEDI Team

This month the JEDI Committee is focusing on making 350PDX more accessible, specifically our virtual team meetings. Some of the ways we’re continuing that journey is by ensuring that we use Zoom’s live captioning in all our Zoom meetings; making sure to give folks the opportunity to let team leads know if they have accessibility needs before meetings, and providing resources and advice for teams to meet those needs; and doing a better job of providing materials ahead of time, so folks know what to expect in the meeting, and can get caught up beforehand.

SW Team

The 350 SW Team has been an active neighborhood team of 350PDX since 2015. We have about a dozen active people, with others who follow what we’re doing and join us for our monthly Monday meeting when they can. You’re welcome to check us out!

What’s happening now:

• Climate Action Now – sidewalk sign-holding/waving to drivers every Wednesday, 3:30-4:30 p.m. through December 1, 2021. Since daylight is waning, we’ll resume again on January 5, 2022 at the corner of SW 35^th and Multnomah Blvd, if it’s not raining. We have signs to share! Please check the 350PDX calendar for details and join us if you can.
• We’re sending individual comments on behalf of forward-looking climate policies (Carty Generating Stn, DEQ to protect water quality, Portland’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability re: clean air and City of Portland’s Charter Review).
• We’re starting a process to decide which campaigns we might engage in ongoing as a team. Please join us the third Monday of January (January 17, 2022) on Zoom, 6:30-8:00 p.m. to participate. Newcomers welcome!

GET CONNECTED: Contact emilypolanshek@msn.com or patk5@msn.com to get on our email list or find out more about us!

Washington County Team

GET CONNECTED: The 350 Washington County team meets virtually at 6:30pm on second Tuesdays. For more info or to join the group, please contact Debby Garman at debbygactivism@gmail.com

In solidarity,

350PDX Staff – Brenna, Chris, Dineen, Gaby, Indi, Jana, and Julia
350PDX Board & Team Leads