350PDX Weekly Update – 1 week until Earth Day – Apr 16 2020
Hi everyone,
In a week today the whole world will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. It will be very different from what we imagined when we first started planning, back in the days just after our Sept 20th Climate Strike last year.
An amazing 350PDX team – led by Dineen our Campaign Manager, Dallas our temporary Earth Day organizer, and Sue and Jenifer and the Defund / Divest Team, in coalition with youth, frontline organizations and other climate justice groups – have developed a brilliant and innovative two days of action.
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There’s more info on other things happening next week at 350pdx.org/earthday
Going fully virtual has been a steep and quick learning curve, but by throwing ourselves into digital organizing we are learning skills that will be essential during this pandemic, and once the era of distancing ends they will strengthen our in-person organizing too.
The fights against the coronavirus and the climate crisis go hand-in-hand. As we work to flatten the curve of this pandemic, we must strive toward the longer term goal of building a society rooted in justice for people and our planet. The 50th anniversary of Earth Day is an opportunity to demand immediate investment in a regenerative economy, and mark a new beginning for the modern climate justice movement.
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Check out the 350PDX Actions page for all the actions you can take right now. It’s different every week and there are 10 actions on there right now!
Here’s your 350PDX weekly update.
COVID-19 Resources
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Request Support Form / Offer Support Form
Our biggest priority right now is making sure folks in the 350PDX community can get the support they need. Please use the request support form if you would like food and other supplies delivered to you, and the offer support form if you would like to volunteer to help. It is being run by an all-volunteer grassroots network that has sprung up to provide mutual aid across the city.
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350PDX COVID-19 Resources Page
Check it out for the full list of resources for self care, community care, tackling bias/xenophobia, and organizing during this time. Take a look here.
Actions
All these actions and more are listed on the new 350PDX Actions page!
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Build a Neighborhood Pod
In the midst of a pandemic and economic crisis, we’re required to stay at home and physically distance from one another. But we need support more than ever — one way to give and get support in this moment is to set up a hyper-local, 350PDX support network on your block.
Read more about our neighborhood pods or jump straight to our guide to starting a pod on your block.
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Record a 30 second video for YouthPass
Transportation is Portland’s biggest source of climate pollution, and our transit system is taking a big hit in this pandemic. Once the quarantine passes it will be critical to encourage folks to trust public transit again, and to take it more than ever. It will also be crucial to reduce the financial barriers folks experience to transit due to the economic crisis. YouthPass4All – providing free transit ridership to all 18 and under – does this, and is both a pandemic solution and a climate solution.
But we need to pressure Metro and Trimet to make this happen! Record a short (30 second) video to tell them that YouthPass4All is a solution to this economic crisis! We have a full guide on how to do it here. We’re especially looking for young people (under 25) and transit-dependent youth to record videos, but all videos from all people very welcome!
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Allow Digital Signature Gathering for Citizen’s Initiatives During COVID-19 State Of Emergenc
A better future is possible on the other side of this crisis, but we need your help to strengthen the democratic process. In-person signature gathering is impossible to conduct safely during the coronavirus pandemic, and we need a legally valid digital option for signature gathering in this critical moment. Please sign and share this petition to establish an emergency digital option today! Sign the petition here.
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Sign this thank you letter to landowners impacted by Jordan Cove LNG
Southern Oregonians who live along the route of the proposed Jordan Cove LNG Export terminal and Pacific Connector Pipeline have spent 15 years fighting a project proposed on the land they love and call home. They have spent a significant amount of time and energy in fighting a fight they did not choose. Let’s come together to show them that we fundamentally disagree with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s decision that their land can be seized for a Canadian gas export project, and that if they choose to challenge eminent domain, we will do all we can to support them. Let’s show them they’re not alone. Sign the letter as an individual or as your organization here.
News
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Lawsuit won against the Crystal Clear timber sale!
Local environmental profits including Bark have won a game changing lawsuit against the proposed biggest timber sale in over 20 years in Mt Hood National Forest! This could set an important precedent, and is much needed good news in this time of suspended enforcement of environmental regulations! Read more about it here.
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Some Reading
‘The impossible has already happened’: what coronavirus can teach us about hope – Rebecca Solnit
The green dream of Portland – Curbed – written by Britany Robinson, 350PDX volunteer
We can act in a crisis. Except when the crisis is climate change – Oregonian Opinion
Coronavirus could trigger biggest fall in carbon emissions since World War Two – Reuters
Climate activists pivot amid the pandemic – 350PDX interviewed in Street Roots
Climate Opportunities
- Earth Day Virtual Rally
Wed Apr 22, 4:00PM – 5:30PM @ OnlineIn a time where community and togetherness are needed more than ever, join us to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day by rallying together for climate justice—from wherever you are.
This will be a historic event: the largest digital rally for climate justice Portland has ever seen! Join us to learn about campaigns for climate justice here in Portland: YouthPass for All, the Oregon Green New Deal, and the need for a true People’s Bailout to survive this crisis and build resiliency for the climate crisis. RSVP here to be sent the link!
- Digital Chase Bank Takeover!
Weds Apr 22 – Thurs Apr 23 @ OnlineJPMorgan Chase is the world’s largest funder of the fossil fuel industry, and by a wide margin. It has provided $269 billion in financing for the industry since the Paris Climate Agreement was signed in 2016, and has been increasing this funding each year, even during a global pandemic and economic recession. Chase Bank is the world’s largest funder of ultra-deepwater oil & gas, coal, tar sands, and the largest US funder of the Jordan Cove fracked gas project in Southern Oregon. It’s time to demand JPMorgan Chase stop profiting off climate chaos and human rights abuses.
Join us in a “Digital Takeover” at every JPMorgan Chase Bank branch this Earth Day. With your help, we’ll post thousands of educational reviews for every Chase branch on Facebook, Google Maps, Yelp and other sites to emphasize the bank’s dominant role in funding the fossil fuel industry and destroying our communities and the climate.
We’re creating everything you need to write a powerful review and make your voice heard. To get our Action Toolkit, sign up and share with your friends!
- Intro to Project Drawdown
Weds Apr 29, 7pm @ Online – Send RSVP to Mogsaway@yahoo.com with “Drawdown” in the subject line.On April 29 at 7 pm the NE 350PDX Team will host a Zoom presentation by Pachamama Alliance Portland introducing Project Drawdown’s upbeat, game-changing compendium of ways to reverse global warming. The session will include oral presentations, slides, video clips, music and breakout sessions. It will focus on the information presented in Paul Hawken’s monumental best-selling work, Drawdown, The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming, which presents 80 individual well researched methods by which the climate crisis can be brought to heel, if they are scaled up on individual, neighborhood, town, state and national levels. Find more info here.
Thank you all for the work that you do, stay safe, and we’re all in this together,
Ashley, Chris, Chuck, Dineen, Lucy – the 350PDX staff
