As I write this, yellow-orange late afternoon light is filtering across the county, through smoke from the Alexander Mountain Fire, which broke out in the mountains west of Loveland on July 29th. The summer passes, in a procession of ozone alert days, heat warnings, and a slow drip of disasters. In less than a week, I will drive through the desert to inland Southern California which has been rocked by a punishing series of heatwaves since June. My brother will drive to western Montana, which last week experienced a terrifying thunderstorm accompanied by hurricane-force winds that plunged the city into a series of difficult-to-resolve power outages.

If nothing else, this summer has reminded me that climate change is both global and intensely local, and that the local problems tend to be the ones that feel least abstract and most actionable. Thinking about every part of the problem all at once is impossible, and working to make ambitious change in a place you know and already care about in whatever way you can is critical. Communities know their own issues, and often know what they need to do to stop fossil fuels and adapt to a changing climate on the ground. And, in turn, action taken at a local level contributes to solving the problem as a whole. As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change noted back in 2017, “cities and regions may also be powerhouses of ambitious mitigation and adaptation measures that are hard to legislate and implement at the national level” (IPCC Secretariat, 2017). 350CO’s Movement Building Director, Chelsea Alexander says, “We have all of the means right now to continue implementing changes in our communities that better align us with maintaining a liveable climate. And if we leave it up to just our elected officials or heads of corporations to ‘do the right thing’ then we are going to miss the mark every time. Each and every one of us, regardless of our background or experience, has an emergent role to play in this process of rapidly transitioning our fossil-fuel dependent society to a regenerative energy future, and our team at 350 Colorado is ready to help people in doing that.”

This summer, 350CO has been working on continuing to build the movement for grassroots local organizing that helps local communities make change and sustain themselves through the impacts of the climate crisis. Most notably, this summer, we’ve launched a new volunteer opportunity: ZIP Leading, or Zoning Interpersonal Power! ZIP Leaders help 350CO to build our movement locally in their specific zip code, and facilitate communication between the organization and their communities about how to implement the climate solutions needed in their backyards.

“We see ZIP Leading as an exciting new opportunity to really transform the climate movement in Colorado” says Chelsea. “Our whole mission is to build a powerful grassroots movement of activists and people that are taking action for the climate. If we could secure leader(s) in each of the 500+ zip codes there are in the state, we would have some serious leverage and people power at the legislature and at the local level.”

 

Here are some ways you can get involved!

1. Become a ZIP Leader! Read the ZIP Leader Position Description, and fill out the interest form and we’ll be in contact with you!
2. Make sure you’re signed up for your local team’s emails, and make sure you’re following your team on social media for local actions!
3. Attend an environmental event or action in your area in August. Here are some ideas!
   1. Join 350 NoCO at our demonstration against PRPA’s proposed $300M new methane plant at the Fort Collins Energy Board meeting on Thursday, August 8, at 4:30 pm at 220 LaPorte Ave, Fort Collins. The meeting starts at 5:30 pm. Please wear green, bring signs, and consider giving public comment.
   2. Boulder County Team is hosting another exchange with South Korean climate activists on August 13th at the First Congregational Church on Pine Street in Boulder from 2pm-4pm!
   3. On August 15th, 350CO is participating in 350.org’s national Utility Justice Campaign. Join us in Pueblo to take action against Xcel’s coal plant!
   4. Join us in Erie, CO on 8/17 11:45am-3pm with Earthworks for a fracking action tour! RSVP here for a spot and we’ll be in touch with more information (minimum age to participate is 15 years old).
   5. Join us in Greeley, CO on Saturday 9/7 from 11:45am-3pm with Earthworks for a fracking action tour! RSVP here for a spot and we’ll be in touch with more information (minimum age to participate is 15 years old).
4. If you know of an opportunity for an action or event that doesn’t exist yet, reach out to your local team coordinator!