A Not-So-Typical Action Round-Up
A Not-So-Typical Action Round-Up
Movement Monday 5/2/22
Hi, all.
Welcome back to another edition of Movement Monday. Our tech guru of the group, Evie, just updated the Climate Action Explorer, and it has over 700 actions on it–yahoo! For this week’s newsletter, I’m going to highlight a few of those actions you can find on there that are maybe a little off the beaten path from your standard petition or march (though we definitely need lots of participation in those too!). In no particular order, here we go:
If you’re looking for a resource about how to get something started in your community, check out The Climate Action Kit from the organization Cook InletKeeper out of Kenai Peninsula in Alaska. The Kit’s tagline is “Climate Change Can Be Confronted With Local Action, And Every Community Has A Part To Play,” which aligns so well with our mission here at On the Level, helping climate-concerned folks take action in the way that works for them. Their webpage even gives examples of three projects (centered on peatlands, compost, and solar power) that they have been able to implement locally through using the framework outlined in the Climate Action Kit.
Share your climate story online with the League of Conservation Voters. As they put it, “We’re building a new campaign to highlight the real impacts climate change is having in our communities and it won’t be a success unless it includes you… We continue to be inspired by you, and we want your stories to inspire other activists throughout the nation!” Kinda cheesy, but they’re not wrong!
Join a climate book club, like this one in Dallas, TX. There are so many thoughtful, interesting climate-themed and climate-adjacent books out there worth thinking and talking about. I’m currently reading Bewilderment by Richard Powers, which is set in the midst of our current socio-ecological crisis and is pretty devastating, to say the least (I probably should have seen that coming after his other heart/gut-wrenching book The Overstory). On the flip side, it also inspires me to engage with the climate crisis, and discussing it with other people helps me form a community around engaging with the climate crisis. If you aren’t in Dallas, I’d recommend a quick Google search to find one in your area, or join a virtual climate book club like this one hosted by Western Michigan University or this one hosted by the org Sustainable Connections.
If you have a kid who is concerned about climate change, check out Families for a Livable Future’s little guide to getting kids involved in climate action. They’re got some kid-themed actions on there (like sidewalk chalk drawing and a heart arts & crafts project) but it also reminds us how universal other actions can be–like getting in touch with lawmakers or talking to neighbors–and how we can do them at any age.
Ok, so this is a petition, but it’s of a slightly different flavor: Sign on to remove climate change denial from Texas social studies textbooks. Agh! This would not have occurred to me that this could be an issue, but of course it is. This is mostly relevant to current Texans, but all Americans can be concerned about this.
Alright–This ended up being a little more book/story-centric than I had anticipated, but the stories we tell ourselves about the climate crisis–whether we have the power to change things or not, or where we can locate hope in a dark world–matter, so I hope this newsletter has given you some ideas about some ~alternate~ ways you can get involved through reading other people’s stories or writing your own. As always feel free to email us (info@beonthelevel.org) if you know of a great climate action or resource that isn’t on our website!
And last but not least, speaking of sharing stories, we have a new podcast episode out! In our latest Climate Convo, Lucy and I talk to Megan Raisle, a former student activist at University of North Carolina about her time there and about how to take action within or around institutions more generally. Listen to it here (or anywhere else you get your podcasts) and if you enjoy it, please be sure to share it as well!
Til next week,
Ingrid