2020 Action

Think Ahead to Do Your Part in Getting to Global Zero

July 2022 - Clearly, federal, state, and local governments, along with industry have a huge job to do to increase their use of fossil-free electricity and to get themselves off all fossil fuels by 2050. 

But 2050 is coming to us regular folks also, and how do we get ourselves to stop buying gasoline and heating fuel? Switch to electric cars and electric heat pumps to heat our houses. Both cost more initially to buy, but both now have governmental financial subsidies, and both are much cheaper to use over their lifetimes.

The key is to plan ahead now. Furnaces often fail in the winter, almost never in the summer!  So the idea is to get several plans and financial bids ahead of time, so when your furnace fails, you're ready to install your planned heat pump. If you don't do your change-over at that time, you'll want or need to do it at some future time before 2050, when your furnace may still have "years of good life" left in it.

It's similar with your car. As it ages, be aware of electric car options, so when your car needs to be replaced, you'll be ready to buy an electric one. Start now on your way to Global Zero. 

ACTION:

Make plans now about your home heating system. It's critical to be able to move quickly if your furnace dies in deepest January with little time to make a fossil-free decision. The idea is to explore and decide now, ahead of time, before you'd be rushed into another fossil-fueled furnace, which would inevitably need to be replaced by a heat pump before 2050. 

Steps:

1.   Do a home free energy audit. Contact your municipality for information.
2.   Then do an energy and insulation upgrade. Government subsidies are available.
3.   Get 2-3 installation designs along with financial bids and testimonials from prior customers. 
4.   Be ready to make the switch to a heat pump and an electric car when needed.

Please forward this email to family and friends and/or write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue. It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed action.

Heat Pumps - A Triple Whammy Win!!!

June 2022 - When Russia invaded Ukraine, the US and Europe responded with military aid and sanctions, some of which bar European countries from sending money to Russia to buy its oil and natural gas. But many Europeans, especially Germans and Italians, are dependent on Russian fuels and face a cold winter in their homes and places of work. The climate activist Bill McKibben has suggested a proposal, supported by Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) and others. It asks Pres. Biden to invoke the Defense Production Act to engage America's vast manufacturing capacity to make electric heat pumps to sell to Europe to reduce Europe's reliance on Russian fossil fuels.

A heat pump works like a freezer. A freezer takes the cold air in the food compartment and cools it further by taking some of the heat out of the cold air and pumping that heat out of the freezer. Similarly, in winter, a heat pump takes in cold outdoor air, removes some of the heat out of it, and then pumps that heat into the house. Oh, the wonders of Thermodynamics! A heat pump is more efficient than a furnace in generating heat. In the summer, the heat pump is switched to act as an air conditioner. McKibben’s proposal would have three major benefits:

1. It would reduce Russia's income and thus its financial capacity to attack Ukraine.
2. It would give a fast boost to American industry as it gears up for the climate crisis challenge as Americans also change over to electric heat pumps.
3. It would generate lots of well-paying American manufacturing jobs.

This fits right in with an overall climate plan of total electrification powered by fossil-free electricity. The technology is there. We just need to use it.

ACTION: Urge Pres. Biden to use his presidential authority under the Defense Production Act to institute an emergency program to build heat pumps in the USA to sell to Europe to assist Europeans in not buying Russian fuels.

CONTACT: President Biden

• Web: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/  (leave a message)
• Tel: 1-202-456-1111 (leave a message)
• Mail: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC 20500

Please forward this email to family and friends and/or write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue. It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

No Mow May

May 2022 - No Mow May is a tiny idea with huge consequences. The idea is simple, stow the lawnmower for the month of May and let the “weeds” come to bloom. Plants that we consider weeds are actually food that is essential for pollinators just coming out of hibernation. The US has nearly 5,000 species of native bees and many of them overwinter underground. When they come out of hibernation in early spring, they are hungry and No Mow May is all about feeding the bees.

No Mow May is a movement that is successfully growing in Appleton, Wisconsin and spreading to communities across the USA. Dr. Israel Del Toro, an assistant professor at Lawrence University in Appleton, states, “Through No Mow May, we not only feed the bees but also educate ourselves and our neighbors on the many little things we can do to help our struggling pollinators. Not only do we encourage folks to reduce the amount of mowing they do but we also encourage participants to plant native flora, remove invasive species, use fewer lawn pesticides, and herbicides and create more bee friendly habitat. By being good stewards of our biodiversity and protecting our natural resources we too benefit from all of the pollination. Nearly 1/3 of all the foods we eat are pollinator dependent. No Mow May is just a simple initiative to give our bees and other pollinators a leg up and a healthy start to the growing season.” 

Dr. Del Toro and his colleagues studied the impacts of No Mow May on Appleton’s bees. They found that No Mow May lawns had five times the number of bees and three times the bee species than did mown parks.

ACTION: Sit back and watch the grass grow! Put away your lawnmower or contact the person who mows your lawn and give them a month off. If you don’t have a lawn, forward this 2020 Action postcard to friends, colleagues, neighbors, and family who do. If you are inspired, write a letter to the editor of your local paper (easy to do online) so that many more people will learn about and take part in No Mow May.

CONTACT: The Editor of your Local Paper  

• Use the text above to write and submit a letter to the editor about No Mow May.

Click here to read about No Mow May in the March 28, 2022 article in the New York Times.

Please send this email on to family and friends and/or write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue. It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

Declare Nuclear Weapons off the Table in Ukraine

April 2022 - The threat of nuclear war has risen considerably with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Immediately after launching the invasion, President Putin placed his nuclear forces on “high combat alert” and warned other countries that if they tried to stop him they would "face consequences that you have never faced in your history".  

President Biden has already stated that he will not send American troops into Ukraine. This creates an extraordinary opportunity for him to pledge further that the US will not use nuclear weapons in the conflict, and to call on all countries to press President Putin to make the same pledge. Such a declaration on President Biden’s part would lower the possibility of a calamitous nuclear escalation. When the Pentagon conducts war games simulating the use of tactical nuclear weapons, the result inevitably escalates to international catastrophe. Equally important, such a pledge would represent a first-ever official acknowledgement by the United States that nuclear weapons are an unacceptable option in a specific conflict. 

ACTION: Contact President Biden and urge him to declare that the United States will not use nuclear weapons in the Ukraine conflict and to call on all countries to press President Putin to do the same.

CONTACT: President Biden

• Web: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/  (leave a message)
• Tel: 1-202-456-1111 (leave a message)
• Mail: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC 20500

Please send this email on to family and friends and/or write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue. It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

NY Times: Aid Groups Fear Starvation Death of 1 Million Afghan Children This Winter

January 2022 - We are sending you the January 2022 Action early because the need is so urgent. The US has been deeply engaged in and supportive of Afghanistan for over 20 years. Since our withdrawal in August, the billions of dollars annually in US aid to Afghanistan has stopped dead. We also bear a heavy moral responsibility for the sanctions we have imposed cutting it off from most other sources of aid. This has basically collapsed the Afghan economy and caused a food scarcity of crisis proportions. The UN World Food Program and other aid groups have been long established in Afghanistan and can deliver food directly to the people who need it most. But they don't have nearly the resources that are desperately and immediately needed to keep children from starvation.

TAKE ACTION:

1. Contact Pres. Biden who can take Executive action to help avoid a mass catastrophe in Afghanistan. A brief message is best. Below is a letter of the sort you might send to him.
2. If you can, we encourage you to make a personal donation to the UN World Food Program which has worked in Afghanistan since 1963. This would be most helpful because it can be used immediately. They say that a $75 donation feeds a family of 5 for a month. This is only a small part of what is needed, but for that family, for that month, it means survival. Click on  

 https://www.wfpusa.org/news-release/half-of-afghanistans-population-face-acute-hunger/

Then click on the red DONATE sign at the top. Thank you so much.

CONTACT: President Biden

• Web: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/  (leave a message)
• Tel: 1-202-456-1111 (leave a message)
• Mail: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC 20500

 

Please send this email on to family and friends and/or write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue. It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

 

Sample message to President Biden (you can leave this on the White House website: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

President Joseph R. Biden

The White House

Washington DC 

Dear Mr. President,

I am in anguish about the 1 million children that could actually starve to death in Afghanistan this winter (NY Times:  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/04/world/asia/afghanistan-starvation-crisis.html). That is horrific. They are surely innocent by any measure. 

Please do your utmost to prevent this catastrophe: transfer funds to the UN World Food Program and other aid agencies, lift some sanctions on the Taliban, and send emergency food supplies to Afghanistan. We cannot sit by, while we, by sanctioning the Taliban, prevent Afghan children from getting food to survive.

Mr. President, you are an empathic person. I know you are extremely busy, but please act to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe that is surely coming if nothing is done. 

Thank you for your help in this matter. 

Sincerely yours,

(your name and address)

2021 Action Report

2021 ACTION REPORT
on Monthly Actions

January 2021: President Trump Must Not Attack Iran!  Fortunately, he didn’t.

February 2021: A New Sheriff in Town—A New Beginning  With Pres. Biden in office, we urged him to undo the Trumpian withdrawals from existing nuclear agreements. There were three: 

a) The Open Skies Agreement provides stability by allowing U.S. and Russian flights over the U.S., Russia, and Europe. Pres. Trump pulled out, then Russia also, effective Dec. 2021. Talks between the U.S. and Russia are ongoing.

b) The New START Treaty limits U.S. and Russian deployment of strategic nuclear weapons to 1,550 each, with extensive verification. Pres. Trump pulled out of the Treaty, but Pres. Biden and Putin reinstated it on Feb. 3, weeks after Biden's inauguration.

c) The Iran Deal, to prevent Iran from building a nuclear bomb. Again, Pres. Trump pulled out, but in recent days, Iran has announced that it is willing to negotiate and talks are now scheduled to resume in Vienna on November 29^th, 2021.

March 2021: Support the National Climate Emergency Act  H.R. 794, the National Climate Emergency Act of 2021, called on the President to declare a climate national emergency under the National Emergency Act of 1976, to mobilize resources for large-scale climate mitigation and resiliency projects. The bill has 50 co-sponsors but has not been voted on. However, some of these provisions were approved in the Infrastructure Bill in early November.

April 2021: Iran Window of Opportunity  In the 2015 "Iran Deal", Iran gave up 90% of its partly enriched uranium, in return for the lifting of sanctions which had been imposed to prevent it from making a nuclear bomb. Pres. Trump pulled out of the deal in 2018, re-imposing sanctions. After a year, Iran restarted enriching uranium. In April 2021 we encouraged Pres. Biden's efforts to bring back the Iran Deal. Recently, Iran announced its willingness to continue negotiations and talks are scheduled to begin in Vienna on November 29^th, 2021.

May 2021: Eliminate Human Caused Emissions of Methane  Two bills were introduced in the Congress S.645 & HR 7435, to require the Secretary of the Treasury to levy a fee on methane emissions from oil and natural gas facilities, and from other sources.  The goal was to charge $1,500 for each metric ton of methane emitted above thresholds.  Later a provision of the Build Back Better budget proposal would charge oil and gas operators if they release methane above a certain limit and offer $775 million to help reduce and monitor this greenhouse gas.  Recently, the U.S. announced it will join a Global Methane Pledge to cut methane emissions 30% by 2030. 

In Glasgow at the UN Climate Conference, China and the U.S. pledged to enhance emission control in the fossil fuel, waste, and agriculture sectors. They will meet in early 2022 to agree on standards and measurements.

June 2021: No-First Use  HR 921 is a bill that would establish a U.S. policy to not use nuclear weapons first. Although this bill has enjoyed a fair number of sponsors (52, all Democrats) and has been introduced twice, in 2017 and 2019, it has not yet been put to a vote. S272 in the Senate, with a similar purpose, has 7 co-sponsors  (6 Democrats, 1 Independent). It was introduced in 2019 and 2021 but has not yet received a vote.

July 2021: Infrastructure Act and Water Act  The infrastructure Act has passed both the Senate and House and was signed by the President. The Water Affordability, Transparency, Equity, and Reliability Act of 202 provides funding for several programs related to controlling water pollution or protecting drinking water. Although this act was never voted on, some of its goals will be achieved in the Infrastructure Act which dedicates approximately $82.5 billion for a wide range of critical water investments including improvements in safe drinking water and sanitation.  

August 2021: Last Exit off the Highway to Nuclear Catastrophe?  We urged Pres. Biden to make the necessary arrangements to "negotiate in good faith" with the goal of worldwide nuclear disarmament. The press has mentioned no such efforts or arrangements. But our chances for negotiations may improve: China has recently demonstrated its hypersonic, steerable, radar-evading missile, against which our missile defense is useless because it is not steerable. Consequently, the U.S. may develop an interest in beginning negotiations toward nuclear disarmament. 

September 2021: End US Fossil Fuel Subsidies Here and Abroad  We asked that members of Congress act to eliminate all US fossil fuel subsidies within the US and for overseas projects. However, the Infrastructure Bill that Biden has just signed into law included additional $billions in support for fossil fuels, including subsidies for hydrogen made from fossil fuels, a $25 billion loan guarantee for a new liquified natural gas facility in Alaska, and an exemption from environmental review for new gas and oil pipelines across federal lands. The Build Back Better reconciliation bill, expected to be voted on before the end of the year, also includes an estimated $35 billion worth of domestic fossil fuel subsidies. President Biden had identified these for removal but the House has not eliminated them. 

The agreement that has just been finalized by all nations the COP26 includes the request that countries phase out "inefficient fossil fuel subsidies."  No firm dates have been set however for the U.S. to do this. 

October 2021: Global Warming-The Most Certain Threat to our National Security  The Pocan (D-WI) Amendment to the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act called for a reduction of 10% in military spending, which would free up funds to address climate change, the most certain threat to our national security. In a rush of hundreds of votes in the House, dubbed the vote-a-rama, it was voted on, but lost.

November 2021: Stop Adding Fuel to the Fire  We urged Pres. Biden, while he attended the UN Climate Conference in Glasgow, to ask all countries to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies. He was only partly successful. Upon returning home, on, Nov. 17th, his administration complied with a Louisiana judge’s ruling that ended an earlier Biden Executive Order to stop new oil and gas drilling that was permitted by former Pres. Trump. This opens more than 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico and in Western lands to oil and gas drilling leases on public lands. The US Department of Justice is appealing the Louisiana decision. Stay tuned.

We also asked Pres. Biden to call on all nations to regulate banks to no longer loan money for fossil fuel development. He directed all US agencies to seek to end all US and international investments by multilateral development banks in overseas fossil fuel development, and to invest in renewables instead. This does not address domestic fossil fuel development.

In addition, we asked Pres. Biden to call on wealthier countries to increase (and meet) their commitments to support the efforts of poorer countries hard hit by climate disasters. The document, called the Glasgow Climate Pact, urges the developed countries to meet their joint $100 billion annual pledge, and in fact calls for at least doubling it. There is no list of countries that agreed to do this.

2020 Action—Focus, Determination, Persistence

Help us keep Americans informed and engaged
for peace & the environment as we celebrate our 35^th year!

Please be generous with a year-end donation.
Your participation & donation now will help us grow.

Deep appreciation and Gratitude to all 2020 members, Core Group of Researchers & Writers, Donors, Colleagues, and Supporters

Stop Adding Fuel to the Fire

November 2021 - In 1999, 81% of the world’s energy came from burning oil, gas and coal. In 2019, 81% of the world’s energy came from burning oil, gas and coal. The status quo is not progress.

Despite the Earth growing hotter, with all the devastating consequences, we humans continue to add fuel to this fire. Governments, including ours, continue to financially support our fossil fuel corporations. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently reported that worldwide in 2020 governments contributed $5.9 trillion to the fossil fuel companies; this includes direct subsidies of more than $500 billion and letting them—and us consumers—get away with not paying for the enormous climate-caused damages. On the positive side, more than 600 global companies in the ‘We Mean Business’ coalition, including Unilever, Ikea, Aviva, Siemens and Volvo Cars, recently urged G20 leaders to end fossil fuel subsidies by 2025. We need to press for more of this kind of corporate responsibility.

In addition, banks and lending institutions continue to loan money to corporations for fossil fuel development.

Our government is also failing to meet the commitment it made 12 years ago with other wealthy countries to give $100 billion per year to poorer countries who are ravaged by the climate crisis they did little to create.

An opportunity for change is here. The world’s governments will meet Oct. 31—Nov. 12 in Glasgow, Scotland at the 26^th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP-26). Nations will discuss policies and make commitments to reduce their national greenhouse gas emissions and to seriously help meet the needs of poorer nations. President Biden will attend the opening of the meeting Nov. 1 and 2.  

TAKE ACTION: Urge President Biden to press all countries to commit to: 1. eliminate national subsidies and supports for fossil fuel corporations, 2. regulate banks and lending agencies to not loan money for fossil fuel development, and 3. increase and meet commitments to support poorer countries as they struggle with the impacts of climate change.

CONTACT: President Biden (no time for written letters)

• Website where you can type a message: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
• White House telephone: 1-202-456-1111 Leave a message

Please write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue.
It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

Global Warming, the Most Certain Threat to Our National Security

October 2021 - Next year, will we have the same horrific wildfires, unprecedented heat waves, and extreme droughts and floods, all over again?  Yes, if we're lucky!  Because more likely, it will be worse, the science says, if we keep adding to the greenhouse gases already in the air. To stabilize our climate we need to shift our national security spending to where it's most needed. 

This is a perfect time to redirect some military spending to climate protection, for 3 reasons: 

1.  The US fighting in Afghanistan, costing $115 billion annually on average, has ended. 
2.  The Pocan Amendment to cut the Pentagon spending by 10% ($78 billion) failed recently but will probably have a much better chance next year.
3.   The government can use these funds to help Americans buy electric cars and electric heat pumps needed to bring us to zero emissions. Fortunately, electric cars and heat pumps are projected to be cheaper to run than gasoline cars and home furnaces. 

TAKE ACTION:  Urge your Representative to promote the Pocan initiative to reduce the military budget by 10% next year, which would free up funds to help Americans buy the electric cars and heat pumps needed to get to zero emissions. We don't want to end up with lots of military equipment that can't do anything to protect us from having wildfires, or flash floods, or death from excessive heat. The Pentagon has said that global warming is a threat to our national security. We need to treat it as such.

CONTACT: Your Representative in Congress

• Web: Find his/her name and link to their website at house.gov; send an email or leave a message via ‘Contact’ on their website
• Tel: 202 224-3121 (Capitol switchboard-ask for his/her office & leave a message)
• Mail: Representative (first & last name) S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515

Please write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue.
It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

End US Fossil Fuel Subsidies Here and Abroad

September 2021 - American taxpayers have been subsidizing the fossil fuel industry, through direct subsidies and tax breaks, for over 100 years, resulting in climate damaging emissions, pollution, and destruction of habitats. For years this amounted to $15 billion per year, but these subsidies have increased in the past few years to $20 billion, according to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute and others.  

In addition to these subsidies, the US government has been financing billions for fossil fuel projects overseas to benefit US fossil fuel companies, mainly through the Exim (Export Import Bank) and the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). In recent years, they have financed coal in Mongolia, a major integrated LNG project in Mozambique, the Sasan coal plant and mines in India, the Vaca Muerta fracking projects in Argentina, and oilfield services for Mexico’s Petroleos Mexicanos.

The Biden administration has made clear its intention to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies and has announced restrictions on financing fossil fuel investments overseas.  However, these commitments have so far been limited in scope, require legislative action. and are being strongly opposed by the fossil fuel industry. 

A recent letter to Rep. Pelosi and Senator Schumer from over 500 organizations asked for the elimination, in the coming budget reconciliation process, of ALL subsidies for fossil fuel development; these deductions and credits serve to encourage increased oil and gas development, in a time of quickly worsening climate change.  

TAKE ACTION:  Contact your Members of Congress and ask that they end all US fossil fuel subsidies, in the US and abroad. Other major developed countries have made this commitment. Why should taxpayers pay to incentivize oil companies to extract more oil, which only increases the fires Out West, and the floods Down South? That makes no sense at all!

CONTACT: Your Representatives & Senators in Congress

• Web: Find their names and links to their websites at senate.gov, www.house.gov; send an email or leave a message via ‘Contact’ on his/her website
• Tel: 202 224-3121 (Capitol switchboard-ask for his/her office & leave a message)
• Mail: Senator or Representative (first & last name) S. Senate, Washington, D.C. 20510
  or U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515

Please write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue.
It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

Eliminate Human Caused Emissions of Methane

May 2021 - After carbon dioxide, methane is the largest contributor to global warming. The need for deep cuts in methane emissions is made clear in a 2018 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It warns that only with drastic cuts in methane emissions can we avoid a rise in global warming above 1.5 deg C, a cap needed to avoid catastrophic changes in the climate. Human-caused emissions of methane enter the atmosphere in several ways.

1. Methane is leaked, burned off, or just vented into the air from operating oil and gas wells. In the Obama years, the EPA had established regulations to greatly reduce such emissions, but just before Pres. Trump left office, he canceled all these regulations. However, the Congressional Review Act enables Congress to reinstate the EPA regulations if it acts in time. The exact date of their decision is unsure, but it will likely be before the end of May.
2. Methane is continually leaking from an EPA estimated 2.1 million abandoned “orphan” oil and gas wells. Many date from the 1800s. Many others are registered to companies that no longer exist or are insolvent. Pres. Biden’s Infrastructure Proposal contains $16 Billion for states to hire unemployed oil and gas workers to permanently cap these wells. 

TAKE ACTION:  Immediately contact your Representatives and Senators and urge them to:

1. Ask your Representative to sponsor and press for H. J. Res. 34, a Resolution to reinstate the EPA regulations to greatly reduce methane leaks. The Senate just passed its version of the Resolution, S. J. Res. 14, with 3 Republicans and all Democrats voting for it.
2. See that the $16 Billion in the President’s Infrastructure Proposal for states to hire unemployed oil and gas workers to permanently cap ‘orphaned’ and abandoned oil and gas wells remains in the Infrastructure Bills that are passed in the House and Senate.

CONTACT: Your Representatives and Senators in Congress

• Web: Find their names and links to their websites at senate.gov, www.house.gov; send an email or leave a message via ‘Contact’ on his/her website
• Tel: 202 224-3121 (Capitol switchboard-ask for his/her office & leave a message)
• Mail: Senator or Representative (first & last name) U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C.20510, or U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515

Please write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue