350PDX Art Team is between projects, waiting for the PCEF campaign to announce what sort of material design is needed for that action. In the meantime, we are experimenting with large puppet making using paper mâché. On Saturday, April 28th we will have a small Team workshop, lunch, and meeting to hone our skills in order to present and facilitate a larger workshop for many people to attend later. Read more
Last November, twenty arts leaders from climate organizations across Oregon and Washington met for a two-day workshop presented by David Solnit, the lead arts organizer for 350.org, at the Center of Equity and Inclusion in Portland. At the workshop, 350PDX members practiced making flags and banners, large and small, via silk screen and hand painting. Mary Rose introduced the art and science of making a flash mob, and Barbara Ford shared expertise and led a discussion about how to use songs and chants specifically designed for parades and actions. Read more
Written by Kayleigh
Congratulations! The Portland Community Sustenance Program has accepted your application to become a Local Gastronomic Pioneer. As an Early-Adopter, you will be able to sample the freshest local ingredients and create new and tantalizing dishes to share with your fellow citizens.
As you know, the U.S. government passed the People Over Profits Act (POP Act) three and a half years ago in an attempt to combat climate disruption. The POP Act reduced the working day to 6 hours, increased minimum wage, and instituted a Universal Basic Income along with universal healthcare. By focusing on well-being instead of arbitrary measures of economic growth, we were able to significantly reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. Life expectancy is already on the rise and overall health and happiness are skyrocketing. With more free time, many in our community have turned to gardening and small-scale farming. These local farms and the eateries they support have further reduced our state’s greenhouse gas emissions, and our now overstocked kitchens have led to some amazing community potlucks, pop-up diners, and three new Michelin-starred restaurants.
That’s where you come in: with all this mouth-watering local bounty, people are rediscovering the flavors of the Pacific Northwest! Your expertise in crafting classics like vichyssoise with spiraled nettle crème, garlic-roasted Jerusalem artichokes, and huckleberry parfait cheesecake will help our community continue to thrive on local, seasonal foods.
Twice a month, you will host a community dinner at one of the city’s newly planted parks and share your culinary discoveries. Aside from semimonthly dinners, your work schedule is up to you. We never ask for overtime and per the POP Act, we fully support working from home. Your kitchen is where you create best — let it be your muse! We also have a number of community kitchens available if you need special equipment or simply want to collaborate with one of your fellow Gastronomic Pioneers. Your local Community Sustenance team lead can provide you with any ingredients you need, or we can provide you with a stipend to use at your preferred farmers’ markets and co-ops.
We look forward to tasting your creations. Thank you for serving your city, and welcome to the most delectable team in Portland!
Pipe Dreams is a series from 350PDX that imagines a better future for our planet. Read more at https://350pdx.org/pipe-dreams/ .
Written by Che Lowenstein
September 30, 2019
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a surprise move, the Republican Party leaders held a joint press conference this morning to announce that they have just realized their children and grandchildren will grow up on the same ruined Earth as everyone else. Read more
by Donna Murphy
Credit: Donna
“Did you know that you have a constitutional right to a clean environment?” asked Julia Olson, lawyer for the Our Children’s Trust lawsuit. The answer would have been a resounding NO or silence at the beginning of an after school class I taught last year. Four days each week, January – May, I worked with about a dozen 4th-6th graders at an East Multnomah County elementary school to create an original opera entitled “Kids Teach Kids Climate Change”, which we performed this spring.
As of August 18, 2017, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will no longer accept proposals for siting permits of fossil fuel projects. The decision comes two days after 20,000 people drove their cars into downtown Washington DC, filled their gasoline tanks with sugar and slashed their tires, effectively disabling them. The streets surrounding the National Mall and the White House were also blocked by dead cars. Read more
Pipe Dreams is a new project to write about the wildest, most far-reaching positive future scenarios we can imagine.
This is a challenge to pick up your pen and paper, or dust off your chunky home computer, and have some fun. What is the news article you want to read tomorrow morning that heralds the most unbelievably positive climate news? What headlines would make your heart sing with joy? What can you see while sitting on your back stoop–after all of our hard work in climate justice has paid off? Read more
California is our nation’s environmental umbrella. Although the EPA generally has complete authority to set pollution standards for cars, Section 209 of the Clean Air Act grants CA the power to set its own emissions standards for new motor vehicles through the use of waivers, i.e. – CA has the ability to set a higher standard than the federal government. In addition, other states can opt into CA’s higher standards over the federal ones. 14 states, totaling 40% of the US’s population (states in green) have adopted CA’s standards. With such a large proportion of the nation’s autos covered by the higher standards, automakers are forced to abide by the higher standards or lose money making vehicles that meet two different regulations.
For forty years the EPA has granted all but one of the more than 100 waivers sought by CA and the single denial was later overturned.
Think of this bowl as representing the Earth’s sea ice (a hyper accurate visual, clearly). It’s 33% gone – and it’s melting fast.
There is now less sea ice on Earth than at any time in recorded history. Since 1980, the Earth has lost about 1/3rd of its total sea ice volume.
To illustrate how outside of normal climate behaviors the earth is experiencing: In December global sea ice extent fell 4.4 million sq km below average, an event eight standard deviations from the normal range. In other words, the statistical probability of that event happening under past expectations of average is 1 in 30 billion, aka: hugely unlikely aka climate change has disrupted what “normal” climate looks like. Read more
So it begins.
Before the Portland March for Science began at 11 AM on Earth Day 2017, this was the question in my mind. Because it was Earth Day and the March was happening in hundreds of cities worldwide, I decided to think about it in a context broader than just Portland or the United States. Here’s what I came up with.
There are more than seven billion humans on planet Earth right now, which is an objectively spectacular number. As writer David Quammen puts it in his book Spillover: “We’re unique in this history of vertebrates. The fossil record shows that no other species of large-bodied beast — above the size of an ant — has ever achieved anything like such abundance as the abundance of humans on Earth right now.”
And we’re not done achieving abundance. We will probably hit 9 billion in the next two decades. Read more
