2020 Action

Support the National Climate Emergency Act

March 2021 - Climate-related natural disasters have increased exponentially over the past decade—the current calamity in Texas is the most recent example. These disasters cost the US approx. $100 billion per year from 2014 through 2018. This fact is pointed out in a bill introduced in the House in February by Rep. Earl Blumenauer and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. A companion bill in the Senate is in process.

This legislation, H.R.794, requires the President to declare a national climate emergency under the National Emergencies Act of 1976, and would mobilize every resource to halt, reverse, prepare for and mitigate the effects of the crisis. It would require an annual report on actions taken to deal with this crisis.

The legislation calls for investments in large scale mitigation and resiliency projects and public health; upgrades to public infrastructure; modernization of millions of buildings to cut pollution; protections for public lands; support for regenerative agriculture linked to local and regional food systems, and more.

The bills point out that the US, as a primary driver of climate change, has a responsibility to mobilize a response at home and around the world, particularly in frontline communities that have contributed least to the crisis but are already dealing with its consequences.

If the National Climate Emergency Act is signed into law, the United States would join over 38 countries and 1,800 communities worldwide that have formally recognized the climate emergency we all face.

TAKE ACTION: Urge your Representative and Senators to co-sponsor these important bills that call for climate change to be declared a ‘National Emergency’.

CONTACT: Your Representative & Senators in Congress

• Web: Find their names and links to their websites at 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

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A New Sheriff - A New Beginning

February 2021 - With Joe Biden as our new President, we have a brand-new chance to finally address the worldwide nuclear weapons threat that is getting more threatening of late. All 9 nuclear nations are currently in a mad arms race, modernizing their nuclear weapons, making new smaller “more usable” ones, and speeding up their delivery systems. All this unfortunately leaves less time to determine whether what looks like a massive attack is not actually the moon’s reflections off clouds. No joke—that happened!

This is a unique opportunity to finally make preparations for global elimination of nuclear weapons, which every nation on earth has said it favors. The 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is a grand bargain: the non-nuclear nations committed to forgo nuclear weapons, while the nuclear nations at the time, China, France, Russia, U.K., and the U.S. committed to negotiate to eliminate theirs. The U.S. Constitution declares that Treaties are “the Supreme Law of the Land”, so it’s time to move on this. In addition, 122 nations have now voted for the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons which entered into force on January 22 of this year.

TAKE ACTION:

Congratulate President Biden and tell him that you strongly support his aim to re-enter the Open Skies Treaty (allowing limited overflights over Russia, Europe, and the U.S.), the Iran Deal (to prevent Iran from making a nuclear bomb), and the New START Treaty (limiting U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear weapon deployments at 1,550 each, with checks against cheating).

Urge him in the strongest terms to invite the nuclear nations to lay the groundwork for negotiations to eliminate nuclear weapons worldwide, as we solemnly committed to do in the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The UN NPT Review Conference planned for this August would be a perfect time to do this.

CONTACT: President Biden

• Web: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
• Tel: 1-202-456-1414 Leave a message
• Mail: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC 20500

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Extend the New START Treaty

November 2020 - The New START Treaty of 2011, between Russia and the US, is set to expire on Feb. 5, 2021, unless it is extended. This treaty caps the number of deployed nuclear warheads at 1,550 each, with intrusive inspections to prevent cheating. This produces a measure of the all-important nuclear stability, which reduces the threat of an arms race spiraling ever higher, with increased complexity and danger of unintended nuclear war. Extending the treaty for 5 years requires only the signatures of the two presidents. There is no congressional nor parliamentary involvement needed.

We congratulate Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on their history-changing victory. We send him our appreciation of his statement:  "I'll pursue an extension of the New START Treaty, an anchor of strategic stability between the United States and Russia."

TAKE ACTION:

Contact President-Elect Joe Biden, and send him your congratulations and your support and encouragement to work immediately to extend the New START Treaty. 

CONTACT:   President-Elect Joe Biden

Website to leave a message: go.joebiden.com/page/s/contact-us

Mail:     918 Pennsylvania Avenue S.E., Wash. DC 20003

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Our Best Chance to Renew America

October 2020 - The election this fall offers the most significant opportunity in our lifetime to advance the environmental and peace values we hold dear. The next few weeks offer us the very last chance to impact this election at every level. 

Vote: If you have any questions about voting in your state concerning  absentee, early, or regular voting, votesaveamerica.com will answer them. This site also offers an instant way to make sure that you are indeed registered to vote. This site will be useful as well if you want to support friends in registering and voting.  

Volunteer: If you want to do more than vote, votesaveamerica.com provides excellent suggestions for volunteering in your state and for volunteer activities aimed at swing states.

TAKE ACTION:

Finalize your plan of exactly how and when you are going to vote. Redouble your election-related volunteer activities; volunteer to be a poll worker, or find engaging new ways to volunteer at votesaveamerica.com

Multiply this Message: Write a letter to the editor about this important & timely issue. This is a powerful way to educate and mobilize others.

Make a Difference in the Fall Elections

September 2020 - Impacting fall elections is far and away the most powerful way to advance peace and environmental concerns this year. Choose one of these two proven ways to do your part.

Contribute to and volunteer for critical House and Senate races. The Council for a Livable World (CLW) has decades of experience in identifying key races in the House and Senate where candidates that support peace issues need support to win. Contributing and volunteering to candidates backed by CLW will insure that your money and time is strategically spent to advance peace issues. Contact each candidate’s website or local office to volunteer. 

Write personalized letters to key voters in swing districts. Writing letters through VoteForward is an engaging way to reach out to potential progressive voters in swing states. No matter where you live you can reach out to individual voters in the twelve swing states that will affect the outcome of the Presidential race, enable flipping the Senate, and impact redistricting for the next decade. VoteForward has a step-by-step process that enables you to write and mail personalized letters to a list of progressive voters who need encouragement. This is an easy, rewarding and effective way to make a difference in the fall elections.

CONTACT:

Council for a Livable World:                                

Web:   https://livableworld.org/meet-the-candidates/

Tel:     202-543-4100

Mail:   20 1st Street NE, Suite LL-180, Washington, DC 20003                                 

VoteForward: Register at the site, request a letter writing kit, and after a brief waiting period you will receive letters to personalize, addresses and instructions.  

Web:   https://votefwd.org/indivisible
Mail:   611 Pennsylvania Ave SE #192, Washington, DC 20004

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Let’s Get Non-Voting Environmentalists to Vote

August 2020 - A distressingly large number of people who are seriously concerned about the environment turn out not to register and not to vote. The Environmental Voter Project aims to significantly change this. It works to first identify non-voting environmentalists and then turn them into consistent activists and voters. To date, they have personally contacted over 4 million US environmentalists who are potential new voters.

The problem is politicians listen to voters, and if environmental issues are a low priority for voters, they will be a low priority for policy makers. Yet, polls show that tens of millions of Americans strongly prioritize progressive environmental policies—the real problem is that too many of them do not vote. Indeed, even in recent nation-wide elections, over 15 million identifiable environmentalists have stayed at home on Election Day. 

The key to getting powerful environmental policies in place might not be to persuade more Americans to be environmentalists; it may be as simple as getting more of our existing environmentalists to vote. The Environmental Voter Project is a new, powerful concept that (1) uses analytics to identify inactive environmentalists, and (2), applies targeted cutting-edge technology to turn them into registered voters.

TAKE ACTION: Across the country, the Environmental Voter Project is running sophisticated Get-Out-The-Vote campaigns with canvassers, phone-banks, text-banks, and direct mail. Their messages are specifically designed to get non-registered environmentalists to register and then to vote—specifically to vote for candidates who will protect the environment. We encourage you to become part of and support their efforts.

CONTACT: The Environmental Voter Project

• Web: org  - Scroll way down the page and click, “Get Involved”
• Tel: (952) 992-9393

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Don't Withhold Payment to WHO When It's Most Needed

May 2020 - With projected eventual infection rates of 25% or 50%, and 81% in the absence of mitigation, this Covid-19 virus could be a catastrophe of the first order. Daily, we hear of anguished choices made in hospitals. We hear of financial disaster faced by suddenly unemployed workers, and of our faltering economy.

But ..... We must expect a much deeper disaster to develop in the densely populated cities and the desperately poor villages of the third world. Many millions have no clean water, let alone soap or sanitizer or masks or tests. Crowded into one room, people cannot keep social distance. The WHO (World Health Organization) has played a leading role in eliminating smallpox, almost eliminating polio, and developing an Ebola vaccine. WHO is the world's leader in this life-or-death struggle against this virus, yet Pres.Trump chose this moment to withhold payment of our obligation to it. This is beyond shameful: With no prospect of vaccines for 12—18 months, this could develop into a catastrophe comparable to World War I and II.

Pres. Trump has used the Defense Production Act to order US corporations to produce these supplies needed in the US. This order must be increased so we can also send supplies abroad, unless we are content to watch, with our hands folded, as many millions in the third world die preventable deaths.

TAKE ACTION: We desperately need the WHO. Urge your Representative and Senators to enforce Congress's decision to make this payment. And urge them to pass a law that calls forth America's humanitarian instincts to massively produce these basic, inexpensive supplies, that could literally save tens of millions of lives when shared around the world.

CONTACT: Your Representative & 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
  S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515

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Come to the Anti-Nuclear Weapons Rally in NYC, Sunday, April 26th

March - Here's why. When Pres. Reagan took office in 1981, he frightened many Americans with his warlike stance and his nuclear buildup. The very next year, there were one million people rallying in NYC's Central Park to demonstrate against his nuclear weapons policies, probably America's largest rally ever. Partly in response to this rally, he and Pres. Gorbachev signed the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty which removed all intermediate range nukes from Central Europe, and significantly defused the threats of the Cold War.

We are again at such a crossroads. Pres. Trump is blowing up all barriers to a new nuclear arms race. He canceled the INF, he canceled the nuclear deal with Iran, he plans to let the New START treaty run out on Feb. 5, 2021. This treaty is crucial, because it caps deployed nuclear weapons and it allows intrusive inspections which reduce nuclear instability and risk. Instead, our country has embarked on a huge 30-year "Nuclear Modernization" program, projected to cost up to $2 trillion!!! Russia is now following suit.

We must act to prevent this tightening of the nuclear noose. Come to NYC, and call for: 1.)  Congress to pass the ‘No First Use law’ that will keep the US from starting a nuclear war; 2.) the US to renew the New START treaty—all it takes is for Putin and Trump to sign, and Putin has called for it; and 3.) the US to  start negotiations to eliminate nuclear weapons worldwide, as we solemnly committed to do in the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the NPT. 

The April 26th rally follows the ‘World Conference 2020’ about nuclear weapons, and is just before the NPT Review Conference that begins at the UN on April 27th. It's the 50-year anniversary of the NPT, and 75-years since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. So please come to NYC for the rally, and the conference if you wish. If you can’t make it to NYC, attend related events in your area.

National and international sponsors are at worldconference2020.org. Time and place to be posted soon.

TAKE ACTION: Make your plans now to attend and forward this email to your friends & contacts.

CONTACT: Write a letter to the editors of your local, regional or state newspapers to let more people know about this event.

Nuclear Weapons: Armageddon Overlooked?

October 2019 - President Trump is recklessly dismantling the world's defenses against nuclear war: 

1. He withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal which Iran had complied with faithfully. But now Iran has resumed enriching uranium. 
2. On August 2, 2019, Pres. Trump's withdrawal from the INF (Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces) Treaty (agreed upon by Presidents Reagan and Gorbachev) took effect. Pres. Putin is following suit. Together Trump and Putin are trashing the treaty that led to the end of the Cold War! Both countries are now building weapons prohibited by the treaty.
3. Trump has said he will let lapse the New START Treaty which caps the number of long-range US and Russian nuclear weapons, which make up 90% of the world's long-range nuclear arsenal.
4. At an estimated $496 BILLION nuclear weapons budget over 10 years, the US is leading the way in military spending; preparing to fight an actual nuclear war—not merely deterring a war.

While Pres. Trump recklessly ratchets up the nuclear dangers, the American people living in their cities and towns are objecting loudly through the voices of their mayors. On July 1, 2019, the US Conference of Mayors, UNANIMOUSLY—DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS—voted to call on all presidential candidates to make known their positions on nuclear weapons, and to pledge, if elected, to initiate negotiations to eliminate nuclear weapons worldwide. 

TAKE ACTION: Contact as many presidential candidates as you can with a short urgent message and questions:

1. We don't want to die in a nuclear war. It's getting scarier.
   Ask each one, his or her position on nuclear weapons.
2. Do you pledge, if elected, to start negotiations to eliminate nuclear weapons worldwide?

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End U.S. Unconstitutional Participation in Saudi War on Yemen

August 2019 - The Saudi war on Yemen has resulted in unprecedented starvation and death.  U.S. participation in this war is unconstitutional, unauthorized under the War Powers Act of 1973, and immoral. The House and the Senate have both separately passed the Yemen War Powers Resolution, SJRes7, authored by Rep. Ro Khanna, which requires an end to the unauthorized involvement of the U.S. military in this war. This language was also included in the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

When the House-Senate Conference Committee meets in September to agree on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), Speaker Pelosi has another chance to end our participation in this war. She must ensure that the provisions of the Yemen War Powers Resolution are included in the NDAA.

Congress is now in recess for six weeks. This gives time to put pressure on our Representatives to press the message of her opportunity and responsibility on Speaker Pelosi.  

TAKE ACTION

Contact your Representative in Congress. Ask him or her to urge House Speaker Pelosi to appoint Representative Ro Khanna to the NDAA Conference Committee. This will help ensure that the Committee includes the language about Yemen that is in the House version of the Act in the final agreed upon NDAA. If this bill becomes law, it will end all U.S. support for Saudi Arabia’s devastating war on the population of Yemen.

CONTACT: Your Representative in Congress

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

Multiply this Message: Write a letter to the editor about this important & timely issue. This is a powerful way to educate and mobilize others.