The climate crisis is worsening, but people are taking good actions. Here are updates you have not likely seen.

Public Citizen (www.citizen.org), the excellent non-profit organization founded by Ralph Nader in 1971, announced this:

On September 10, 2018, the head of the United Nations warned that the world is reaching a dangerous tipping point on the climate crisis.  United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called global leaders to work faster to deal with climate change and warned of grave risks of runaway global warming.

See this article:  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/10/climate/united-nations-climate-change.html?link_id=3&can_id=1d662460c0abb8939c5044c82927552b&source=email-florence&email_referrer=email_418174&email_subject=Florence

 

 

This simple chart came from www.popularresistance.org :

Global Occurrences of Extreme Climate Events — up to 2018

This article from November 2017 explains and shows graphs about progress toward meeting the goals pledged in the Paris Climate Agreement.

Some countries are doing well, but some other countries are doing badly.  https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/11/06/climate/world-emissions-goals-far-off-course.html?module=inline

 

 

On August 21, 2018, the City of Olympia urged the Washington State Investment Board (WSIB) to seriously consider selling off its investments in fossil fuels. 

The Olympia City Council unanimously passed their agenda item 4-F.  This accomplishment came after Bourtai Hargrove and Donna Albert spoke to the Olympia City Council’s Finance Committee on August 15 and urged that action. The Finance Committee unanimously recommended that the entire City Council do that, so this was placed on the agenda for August 21, and it passed unanimously.

Bourtai spoke in support during the City Council’s public comment period near the beginning of the meeting. A great many persons signed up to speak on a number of issues, so about half of us had to wait until the Council completed all of its other work. I was the only other person speaking on this issue, and I was the very last public speaker of the evening.  Here is a slightly updated version of what I summarized for them during my public comment:  DIVEST — Testimony to Olympia City Council — Aug 21,2018

Let’s keep reaching out to various constituencies whose pensions are being mismanaged by the WSIB and urge them to step forward to urge the WSIB to divest from fossil fuels. This is not only important for stopping the supply of money to finance climate disruption, but it is also financially prudent because fossil fuels have become risky investments. A great many entities (cities, universities, religious bodies, nations, pension funds, etc.) are selling off their fossil fuel investments. Let’s not be the last one to be left holding the bag when the fossil fuel bubble bursts.

Every month 350Seattle (www.350seattle.org) produces an information-packed online newsletter that provides updated information on a number of climate-related issues and activities in our region.  Keep up-to-date about pipelines, Tacoma’s proposed LNG plant, local organizing, and more.  Visit their website and sign up to receive their online newsletter.

 

 

 

 

 

About GlenAnderson 1499 Articles
Since the late 1960s Glen Anderson has devoted his life to working as a volunteer for peace, nonviolence, social justice, and progressive political issues. He has worked through many existing organizations and started several. Over the years he has worked especially for such wide-ranging goals as making peace with Vietnam, eliminating nuclear weapons, converting from a military economy to a peacetime economy, abolishing the death penalty, promoting nonviolence at all levels throughout society, and helping people organize and strategize for grassroots movements to solve many kinds of problems. He writes, speaks, and conducts training workshops on a wide variety of topics. Since 1987 he has produced and hosted a one-hour cable TV interview program on many kinds of issues. Since 2017 he has blogged at https://parallaxperspectives.org He lives in Lacey near Olympia WA. You can reach him at (360) 491-9093 glen@parallaxperspectives.org