Welcome to the October 2024 Climate Action Newsletter
Quote of the Month:
“Our own life has to be our message.”
– Thich Nhat Hanh, “The World We Have”
Action of The Month:
Submit a public comment to the CDPHE: Strengthening Oversight of Suncor Refinery Air Pollution (Plant 2 Title V)
Take action for climate solutions in Colorado
🛑 🗣️Help us STOP DRACO PAD by spreading the word about a new proposed wellpad in Weld County, near Boulder, Lafayette, Erie, and more.
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- Share this post on Facebook or Instagram.
- Follow Erie Protectors and Stop Draco Pad, who are local community groups who are working on getting the word out about this plan. Take a look at their suggested action items and follow through on as many as you can.
☢️💧 Write and submit a letter to the editor or create a social media post on produced water from fracking (It’s toxic!)
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- One of the ways to get your opinions on social issues out in front of others is to write a letter to the editor, a short, written piece for your local paper. You can also create a social media post to share out to your networks!
- Here is a toolkit on writing an LTE on produced water from fracking. It includes a couple of templates for a letter on this topic that you’re welcome to use and modify. And here’s a quick guide on how to write and submit an LTE!
🖥️ 💬Sign up for a conversation about JEDI: Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
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- Thursday, on Zoom, 6-8pm.
- Organizing for a diverse and equity-based movement, and for the future we want, takes dedication and often times unlearning, to learn again.
- This interactive gathering will cover themes such as gaslighting, psychological availability and meaningfulness, as well as recapping some topics we covered in our last workshop series in 2023
- Register here to join us in this workshop and conversation!
- Thursday, on Zoom, 6-8pm.
Organize & Meet Other Activists:
- Join the tabling & outreach crew: We’re so excited to get you connected to this new team! Tabling and Outreach are important and essential tools for organizing – we recruit new volunteers with diverse backgrounds, gather signatures for sign on letters and petitions, and build support for all of our campaigns and committees! Please fill out this form so can get an idea of your background and skillset. Reach out to Melissa (melissa@350colorado.org) if you have questions!
- Join one of our committees or local teams! To get involved, check out this committee list or sign up for a local team near you! See our calendar for all upcoming committee meetings. No matter your experience level with climate activism or organizing, we’d love to meet you and work together. Local teams include Boulder, Colorado Springs, Denver, Northern Colorado, and Roaring Fork.
Recent news:
Colorado lawmakers cry foul over draft oil and gas rules revisions reducing, limiting industry oversight Read this coverage by Mark Jaffe about the changes to the cumulative impact rules for oil and gas.
“The June draft set out conditions under which a permit for a new drilling could be denied or for the commission to act if sectorwide pollution targets had been exceeded. That language has either been revised or removed.”
“Industry will never agree to rules that protect the public through outright permit denials, and the commission must accept that,” said Heidi Leathwood, climate policy analyst for the environmental group 350 Colorado. “Rules do not have to be popular with industry.”
Two oil and gas companies orphaned a record number of wells in Colorado last year, records show
“Omimex Petroleum, Inc., surrendered 339 wells in Phillips and Yuma counties, while WME Yates LLC, offloaded 212 wells in Phillips and Sedgwick counties, the report shows. Both companies are now defunct and the wells are considered “orphaned,” a classification that means they’re effectively controlled by Colorado’s Energy and Carbon Management Commission.”
Zombie wells: The threat beneath
ABC recently aired a special investigating the problem with emissions from abandoned wells nationwide. “A groundbreaking investigation into abandoned oil and gas wells across the country and the threat they pose to communities and the environment.” Featuring our friends at Earthworks.
All about how abandoned, leaking wells actively harm us, the land, the air, and the water. (Everything is connected!)
Meet the 2024 Climate Criminals – Learn More & Divest from Climate Disaster
“Our team has identified the following 24 individuals as the top climate criminals of 2024. Check out their profiles to learn about their crimes against the Earth, how they’ve profited off their crimes, and their connections within the polluter industrial complex.”
An interesting resource to browse and ponder.
Climate Action Books & Podcasts to Check Out for Fall 2024 by 350 Colorado
Quick recommendation list including lots of picks that are relevant to being alive in this moment on Earth, among compounding crises. 350CO staff list some of their favorite media from the last few months or weeks. Three podcast recommendations and several books to add to your reading list, from difficult climate conversations to visionary works illustrating a regenerative future, t0 a breakdown of how meat & masculinity are connected through industry advertising in USA American culture.
Trick or Treat: An Environmentally Friendly Halloween! by 350 Colorado
Halloween is fast approaching, and while many of us love our little ghosts and goblins, princesses and famous persons coming to the door to yell trick or treat, it still leaves many of us in the environmental movement wincing at all that plastic trash that goes along with handing out goodies to kids. This piece was written by Amalthea Aelwyn in 2017 for the blog and all of the tips are relevant today for those who celebrate and want to find ways to make Halloween less wasteful and more Earth-friendly.
Resources of the month:
- Disrupting Dominion: Breaking the Cycle of Toxic Masculinity and Colonial Legacies in the Outdoors (Free, Recorded Webinar)
- Artivist Network – Toxic Bonds Tactics Manual – “This little guide is intended to walk you through a number of different creative tactics that you can use to help draw attention to your actions and campaigns on fossil fuel companies (bond issuers), banks (bond underwriters) and investors (bondholders).”
- River Whirlpools And Birdsong | 10 Hr | Sounds For Sleep Study Focus And Relaxation
- Book Recommendation: We Are the Middle of Forever: Indigenous Voices from Turtle Island on the Changing Earth
- Report names donors bankrolling climate change disinformation
A huge thanks to our October Climate Hero of the Month; Susan Doherty!
Susan’s love for the outdoors, shaped by her childhood in Maine—where she explored the woods, played in the ocean, and confided in a backyard willow tree she was convinced understood her every word—continues to inspire her work as a sustainability consultant.
Susan was clear that she wanted to DO something about the climate crisis and 350 Colorado was more than happy to put her extensive skills and experience to good use right away! Based on her impressive public relations and media relations background, and serious professional skills, we plugged Susan into our efforts supporting and uplifting Save The Aurora Reservoir (STAR), a frontlines grassroots group opposing a massive and dangerous plan to drill over 150 new oil & gas fracking wells in southeast Aurora.
Immediately Susan started connecting with reporters at the local, state, and national level to get the kind of media attention that grassroots fights often only dream of! She worked together with the other members of STAR’s small but mighty communications committee to produce and distribute press releases, media advisories, and a press conference at the Arapahoe County Administrative Building when STAR hand-delivered a petition to the county in June 2024.
Meet Susan!
Upcoming Events & Actions
- Tuesday, Oct. 8th, 6-7pm – 350 NoCO Public Meeting – (Zoom) – Link here
- Thursday, Oct 10th, 6-8pm – JEDI Dialogues: Collaborating for Equity & Diversity – (Zoom) – RSVP here
- Thursday, Oct. 10th, 5pm – Join Third Act for a Conversation with the Chairman of the Colorado PUC – (Zoom) – Register here
- Thursday, Oct 10th – Roaring Fork Team: Film Series! – (Carbondale Branch Library)
- Thursday Oct 10th, 6:30-8:45pm – Anxiety into Action Panel in Boulder (CU Wolf Law Commons) – More info
- Friday, Oct. 11th, 11am – 350CO Defunding Climate Disaster / Fossil Free PERA Call (Zoom) – Sign up
- Sunday, Oct. 13th, 12:30-5:30pm – Celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day (Boulder) – More info
- Tuesday, Oct 15th, 4-6pm – Denver Team Climate Cafe @ Kaladi Roasters on Evans (Denver)
- Tuesday, Oct. 15th, 2-3:30pm – Tillie Black Bear: A Legacy of Resistance That Lives On” Documentary Screening (Virtual) – Register here
- Wednesday, Oct. 16th, 5:30-6:30pm – BoCO Team Meeting (Boulder)
- Wednesday, Oct. 16th, 6:30-8pm – Ikigai Workshop with Boulder Team (The Coffee Stand Boulder)
- Wednesday, Oct. 16th, 6:30-8pm – The Healing Wisdom of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers (Virtual) – Sign up
- Wednesday, Oct. 16th, 6:30-9:00pm – Co-hosting “Fracking The System” at First Plymouth Church (Englewood) – Register for free
- Thursday, Oct 17th – Roaring Fork Team: Film Series! – (Carbondale Branch Library)
- Thursday, Oct 17th, 6-7pm – Fracking Action Committee Bimonthly Meeting (Zoom) – Sign up
- Monday, Oct. 21st, 4-5pm – Suncor Action Committee Meeting – (Zoom) – Sign up
- Tuesday, Oct. 22nd, 7-7:30pm – Youth Action Committee (YAC) Meeting (Zoom) – Sign up
- Wednesday, Oct. 23rd, 6-7:30pm – Movement Building Committee Meeting (Zoom) – Sign up
- Thursday, Oct. 24th, 6pm – 350 Colorado Action PAC Fundraiser – Get tickets
- Saturday, Oct. 26th, 10am-12pm – Ozone pollution reduction planning public meeting (Virtual) – Sign up to give a comment | Use our toolkit
- Saturday, Oct. 26th, 7-7:30pm – 350 Colorado Social Media Engagement Team Meeting (Zoom) – Link here
- Sunday, Oct. 27th, 10am-3pm – 350 CO Action PAC Climate Canvass Day – RSVP here
- Tuesday, Oct. 29th, 5:30pm – Greeley Clean Air canvassing – More details to come!
Please view our full calendar to join local team meetings, committee conference calls & more!
P.S. Please support crucial climate action work in Colorado – become a monthly sustaining donor at $10 or more per month!