350PDX Weekly Update – Preparing for the Election – Oct 7 2020

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Hi everyone,

This November our democracy is at stake. We are seeing unprecedented voter suppression across the country, with polls being closed, voter rolls being purged, voter intimidation at the polls, and attacks on USPS and mail-in ballots.

We’re also seeing efforts to de-legitimize the election process. We have a president who has openly said he might not respect the outcome of our election. We have to be ready if he claims victory before votes are counted, tries to stop counting, or refuses to accept a loss. And if this happens, we need to call it what it is – a coup – and act accordingly.

It is an overwhelming time to be an American, not to mention an activist, and our instinct might be to freeze in the headlights of the multiple crises. But that is exactly what the enemies of democracy are counting on happening. We need to not agonize, but organize.

We at 350PDX are working on our plan with a range of other local and national organizations to mobilize in the post-election period to prevent a coup, and we’ll be sharing more of that plan soon. In the meantime, here are two tangible things to do now.

  1. Join the Climate Vote Project nonpartisan Get Out The Vote phone banks
    Before the election, the most important thing you can do is get out the vote and fight like hell to protect people’s right to vote.     In partnership with the Environmental Voter Project, 350PDX volunteers are making thousands of calls to swing state voters who are likely to care about the environment but who don’t always make it to the polls. Sign up here and we’ll send you a weekly email with phonebanking events happening with our 350 partners every day of the week – so you can engage when it works best for you.
  2. 350 Solidarity School – Protecting Votes & Building Power: Climate Justice & the Election
    TONIGHT Wed Oct 7, 5:00PM – 6:00PM – Online
    Part of the 350.org Solidarity School, tune into this mass call to hear the national strategy for protecting the results of this election and ensuring climate justice is part of it. Register here.

Here’s your 350PDX weekly update!

Great news – we reached our summer appeal goal! Thank you so much to everyone who donated this summer and to the amazing person who matched $10,000 in donations. We are a people-powered organization and your support lets us keep fighting for climate justice day in day out.

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Last year The Intercept and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez came out with “A Message From The Future“, a beautiful video envisioning a future after we won the Green New Deal. A lot has changed in the last year, and the same team just released “A Message from the Future II: The Years of Repair” that talks about how we move forward from here – pandemic, polarization, fascism, wildfires. Watch it here.

Actions

All these actions and more can be found on our website’s Take Action page – 350pdx.org/action

  • Join the 350PDX Solidarity Team

    The (new!!) 350PDX Solidarity Team organizes in the intersections of climate justice and social justice movements through genuine partnership and coalition building. The Solidarity Team is currently focusing on the following issue areas: racial justice, immigration justice, global solidarity, and indigenous sovereignty. Through our hub-and-spoke model, representatives focused on one of these issue areas keep our base up to date on the ways that 350PDX volunteers can show up in solidarity with other movements for change.” Contact Indi – indi@350pdx.org – to get involved.

  • Tell your Congressperson to Support the BREATHE Act

    Our nation is facing a turning point. We can either stand up and demand change, or we can continue watching as our Black and Brown neighbors choke on expired tear gas, disappear into unmarked vans, and bear the brunt of police brutality in this nation. The BREATHE Act is a 21st-century Federal civil rights bill that will help communities of color not just survive, but thrive, led by the Movement For Black Lives.

    They’re building support for the BREATHE Act from the ground up — and that starts with showing Congress that communities across the country demand change. Because it’s not enough to just say that Black Lives Matter — we need to live it. We need the BREATHE Act. Write your congressperson here.

  • DEQ and Climate Need Our Help

    DEQ is currently receiving public testimony concerning the cap-and-reduce program, which is part of the Oregon Climate Action Plan (OCAP) under Executive Order 20-04. The DEQ has set three hearings for October and we need Climate conscious Oregonians to show up and, if you can, testify!

    The Governors executive order directs state agencies to take actions to reduce and regulate greenhouse gas emissions. One major component of the OCAP is a directive for the state Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to set up a new program to “cap and reduce” the climate-harming pollution released by Oregon’s largest polluters. By no longer allowing these major polluters (like oil companies, fossil gas companies, and industrial manufacturers) to spew unlimited amounts of greenhouse gas emissions, this new policy can help transition Oregon to cleaner ways of powering our economy and communities.

    We need a large turn out for DEQ’s Town Hall meetings on October 8th and 14th.

    Click here to register to attend one or more of the Town Hall meetings, click here for talking points from our movement partners that you can use when you testify. You’ll receive information on how to participate in the Town Hall. Please show up to the Town Hall to show DEQ the breadth of support for ambitious climate action now!

  • Stop the Kalama Methanol Refinery

    As wildfires exacerbated by the burning of fossil fuels ravage our region, a plan to build the world’s largest fracked gas-to-methanol refinery on the Columbia River carries on. The Kalama methanol refinery would use more fracked gas than all of Washington’s gas-fired power plants combined. This project would be an outright disaster for our climate and our communities and it must be stopped. We’re in a crucial comment period this month and need your help to make sure we stop this project.

    The Washington Department of Ecology recently released a new draft analysis showing that the Kalama methanol refinery would be a major climate polluter—one of Washington’s most significant sources of pollution. Unfortunately, the study also relies on an speculative and unenforceable market analysis to support this dirty, climate-wrecking proposal. Join us and urge Ecology to deny this project and to reject false claims from Northwest Innovation Works (NWIW), the refinery’s backer: Write a comment against the Kalama methanol refinery now. EXTENDED DEADLINE UNTIL FRI OCT 9!

Resources

  • BIG NEWS! Chase is bending to pressure

    A win for our Defund / Divest team this week! After years of relentless pressure on the bank from climate groups, Indigenous leaders, and shareholder activists, JPMorgan Chase, the world’s largest banker of fossil fuels, announced yesterday afternoon that it is committing to push its clients to align with the Paris Agreement and work towards global net zero-emission by 2050. In short, Chase said it is committing to push its clients to align with the Paris Agreement and work towards global net zero-emission by 2050.

    CONGRATULATIONS to the Defund / Divest team on this huge step…in a journey that has many steps to go!

    The announcement said nothing about reducing the bank’s massive lending to fossil fuel companies. Since 2016, Chase has financed over $268 billion of fossil fuels, and as long as they’re funding fossil fuels, they’re still part of the problem.

    So the fight will go on, but it’s heartening to see one of the world’s biggest banks bending to pressure from groups like ours, and to see that the world’s largest lender to the fossil fuel industry has clearly signaled that the fossil fuel game is coming to an end.

Opportunities​​​​

Thank you all for the work that you do, stay safe, we’re all in this together,
Ashley, Chris, Chuck, Dineen, Indi, Lucy – the 350PDX staff

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