New year, same old climate disaster… Whoops! We resolved to be positive: Hey kids, here’s something to get stoked up about!!!
FOSSIL FREE KING COUNTY
On January 28, King County Councilmember Upthegrove will introduce a #FossilFreeKC ordinance that prohibits all new major fossil fuel infrastructure in King County, like new oil storage terminals or expanded gas pipelines. It’s up to us to make sure it passes—so let’s build a groundswell of community support that resonates more loudly than fossil fuel money!
Here are three ways you can help us win a Fossil Free Future:
Learn more about the campaign and get plugged in!
Thursday, January 10, 6:30–8:00pm
1919 E Prospect St, Seattle 98122. More info and RSVP here.
Art Build! Art Build!
Saturday, January 19, 12:00–4:00pm
Fremont Powerhouse, 3940 Fremont Ave N, Seattle 98103 Details here.
LET’S GO, OLYMPIA!
Just two weeks until this year’s session starts in the state legislature, January 14th. The Governor has a climatepackage and the big greens have priorities. There are other climate bills coming forward, too. With more climate-aware legislators than ever before, is this the year we finally make progress?
Find the town hall nearest you and ask your legislators! Better yet, sign up for Lobby Day and ask them in their offices:
Lobby Day for Climate
Tuesday, January 29, 8:30am–5:00pm
United Churches, 110 11th Ave SE, Olympia, WA 98501 Click here to sign up.
35th Ave NE
Thanks to everyone who wrote asking the Mayor to complete the 35th Avenue portion of Seattle’s Basic Bike Network as promised. We expected an announcement right before the holidays, and we hear that the reason the Mayor is holding off is that she is doing “more business outreach,” which means we citizens clearly need to do more Mayoral outreach: Please keep the pressure up and send this email to the Mayor now.
Moving through the #SeattleSqueeze
On December 11th MASS (Move all Seattle Sustainably) used the one-month-from-Seattle-Squeeze date to generate press for our transportation proposals. Expect more noise from us as #SeattleSqueeze begins in January. A small group of us are analyzing bus real-time data in order to be able to make informed proposals for transit improvements, and we are thinking of additional fun stuff, like real-time experiments testing and publicizing how fast biking is relative to cars during #SeattleSqueeze. Contact Alice if interested.
Transportation Team Monthly Meeting
Monday, January 14, 4:15–5:45pm
Room 330, Vance building, 1402 3rd Ave, Seattle 98101
HOUSING
The housing fight at the city level is quiet this month… but things are starting to move at the state level, and we’re tracking a few interesting bills. To stay in the loop, email Emily.
STRONGER TOGETHER
Frontline Allies welcomes your participation in everything from organizing trainings on undoing oppressive systems, to supporting our allies in climate justice work. To join, contact Kara. More information is available here, including upcoming support and education opportunities.
Our monthly meeting is a great place to learn about our work, including our new project focused on economic justice and just transition, the upcoming Our People Gonna Rise Workshop Series, and more.
Frontline Allies Monthly Meeting
Monday, January 14, 7:00pm RSVP to Kara for the address of a home in Seattle’s Wallingford neighborhood.
Frontline Allies study group on What It Means To Be White by Robin DiAngelo
All welcome! Barbara (350 Seattle Book Club) and Karen (Breaking White Silence) will co-facilitate using Robin DiAngelo’s curriculum. Tentatively scheduled to start the second Sunday in February (Feb 10) at 2:00pm. Location to be determined based on feedback. We have some copies of the book for folks to borrow. Questions, RSVP’s—write to bookclub@350Seattle.org.
Undoing Racism: Our People Gonna Rise Workshop Series
Offered again in early 2019! This 3-part series (Allies to Immigrants, Black Liberation, Solidarity with Natives) is facilitated by the Mangrove Collective. Each 6-hr workshop creates a safe space for difficult conversations as we come together and commit to ending racism in our work. The format mixes short presentations on how racism and other oppressions work, and how individual experiences intersect with different oppressions; small-group storytelling (with opportunities for deeper sharing and listening); large-group sharing (with highlights from small group discussions); and time for individual reflection. To be notified when registration is open, email Kara.There will be one workshop per month in March, April, and May. Take one or all three! It’s designed as a series, so to get the most out of it, all three are encouraged.
Solidarity with Unist’ot’en Camp
Update: The Gitdumt’en Clan of the Wet’suwet’en have erected an access point about 20 km away on the same logging road in support of the Unist’ot’en. The injunction filed by TransCanada against the Unist’ot’en has been updated to include the Gitdumt’en. Please donate if you can. To learn more about the Unist’ot’en and to donate, go to http://unistoten.camp/. You can also follow Unist’ot’en Camp and Wet’suwet’en Access Point on Gidumt’en Territory on Facebook for the most recent information.
PLEDGE OF RESISTANCE
Was your New Year’s Resolution to learn a new skill? How about learning the art of keeping the peace at demos, rallies, and marches! We only have a handful of spots left in the Peacekeeper Training, part of our Pledge of Resistance Training Series. Peacekeepers at demonstrations, marches, and actions help organizers to achieve their goals. Come learn and hone your skills in being alert to situations and intervening appropriately, de-escalation, and communicating with participants. In this interactive workshop we’ll look at the role of peacekeepers, practice together, and examine the specific issues that a peacekeeper coordinator needs to think about. Whether you work with 350 Seattle and want to be an active participant for upcoming actions, or if you’re planning on being in the streets on MLK Day or for the Women’s March—come have fun and practice useful skills.
Peacekeeper Training
January 12, 1:00pm
Rainier Beach Library, 9125 Rainier Ave S, Seattle 98118
Suggested donation of $10-$50 but any amount is welcome, no one turned away for lack of funds. Space is limited, so register here today!
TACOMA LNG
Check out our new Tacoma LNG info page to learn more and stay connected to the fight!
Public money for corporate profit
As currently outlined, Puget Sound Energy (PSE) has been authorized to pass on 43% of its construction costs to residential rate-paying customers—even though customers will receive less than 2% of the project’s output. The majority of this fracked gas refinery and storage facility will be used to sell the gas for a profit to industrial and maritime customers; a small fraction will be used to provide backup power to residential ratepayers on the coldest days of the year, a practice called “peak shaving.” How is that fair to rate-payers?
What’s more, the Tacoma LNG project would lock us into decades of climate destructive fossil fuel use and create health and safety issues for local residents, and is currently being built in violation of the Medicine Creek Treaty. This project is clearly not in the public interest!
Please sign this petition to tell PSE and local decision-makers that we won’t pay millions for this disastrous fracked gas project!
Shipping fuel alternatives
Puget Sound Energy and TOTE Maritime suggest that we need LNG as a cleaner fueling option for the shipping industry. While it’s true that LNG is a cleaner fuel at point of burning, when all the methane emissions from the fracking extraction, transportation and storage are taken into account, LNG is as bad as coal! We are past the point of using “bridge fuels” instead of real green solutions.
We would like to highlight the recent climate strategy announced by Maersk, the world’s largest container shipping company, as an example of a corporation that is taking the climate crisis seriously and investing in the new technologies needed to have carbon neutral, commercially available vessels by 2030, with additional goals of making the entire company carbon neutral by 2050.
That type of approach needs to be taken by TOTE and the rest of the shipping industry, and also by the cruise ship industry, especially as the Port of Seattle invests in huge upgrades.
WHAT’S YOUR CLIMATE PLAN, AMAZON?
Speaking of corporate behemoths behind the climate curve, in December, twenty-eight current and former Amazon workers officially co-filed a shareholder resolution asking for Amazon’s plans for “reducing its company-wide dependence on fossil fuels.”
The press has covered the significance of the action—the New York Times broke the story—and Amazon’s significant impact on the climate. The Seattle Times covers the climate angle, including 350 Seattle’s research!
GREEN NEW DEAL
The youth-led Sunrise Movement has transformed the national climate conversation by calling on House Dems to support a Green New Deal—a transformative plan to address climate change and inequality that’s in line with the scale and urgency of the climate crisis.
With the announcement of a “toothless” Select Committee on Climate Change that doesn’t have subpoena power, lacks a mandate to create Green New Deal legislation, and allows committee members to take fossil fuel money, we need to keep the pressure on House Dems.
Can you make three quick phone calls in support of a Green New Deal? We give you talking points and phone numbers for Speaker Pelosi, Rep. Smith and Rep. Jayapal.
We’ve formed a GND team that’s organizing in solidarity with local Sunrise leaders. Reach out to Jess to learn more or get involved!
TRADE POLICY
In the coming months, Congress will be asked to approve the re-negotiated North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Despite claims it’s much improved, NAFTA 2.0 fails to repair the climate and environmental flaws of the old NAFTA. In fact, NAFTA 2.0 offers special handouts to history’s largest corporate climate polluters, allows further outsourcing of pollution and jobs, and locks in continued fossil fuel dependency. It not only fails to mention climate change—it would actively contribute to the climate crisis.
It also threatens the excitement and hope of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s push for a Green New Deal: several NAFTA provisions could allow trade challenges to key planks of a GND such as Buy Local, Buy Clean, and green subsidies. And while GND policies are geared toward reducing air, water, and climate emissions, status quo trade policies like NAFTA 2.0 allow corporations to continue emitting at high levels by transferring production to countries with weak standards.
Please call your Congressional representative, as well as Senators Murray (202-224-2621) and Cantwell (202-224-3441), and tell them you expect them to vote no on Trump’s new NAFTA.
DEFUND DISASTER
Oh, JPMorgan Chase… what will we do with you? On the same day that we put a fifty-foot pipeline through Chase’s regional HQ, the bank not only renewed its $1.5 billion loan to TransCanada but actually increased it… by four billion dollars. Chase continues to be the number one funder of climate disaster on Wall Street—and, for as long as that is the case, we will continue to hold them accountable. One way to do that is to support Chase customers to make sure they know how to have their voices are heard. If you are a Chase customer, please sign up here to receive our Chase Customers’ Toolkit.
FUND A PUBLIC BANK!
In slightly better news, the City of Seattle has taken the next necessary step toward creating a public bank: it funded a public bank business plan in its most recent budget. Because we know that Wall Street banks don’t have values that are aligned with our city, we’ll be continuing to track this closely. And, for the time being, please check out this recent YES! article, featuring our friends from Mazaska Talks, to learn more about why we need a public bank.
ARTFUL ACTIVISM!
A Happy New Year to you all!! Artful Activism welcomes all skill levels in any art form, and have lots going on to jump into, from occasional participation to leadership opportunities. Join online here or come to art builds whenever you can! They are fun, no-skills-needed, community gatherings with food and good connections.
CORRECTION! The Artful pARTay is POSTPONED. Apologies friends, our schedules and venues could not align! Finding time and space in Seattle is a challenge but we hope to have an artful party in early spring!! Stay tuned for more information!
But guess what?! We have our first ART BUILD of 2019:
Create imagery for the Fossil Free King County campaign!
Saturday, January 19, 12:00–4:00pm
Fremont Powerhouse, 3940 Fremont Ave N, Seattle 98103 Click here for details.
Looking for a mural wall
We are still looking for a high visibility wall for a beautiful mural. Know of one? If you do or would like to paint bus shelters with young people, contact Doug.
Join the Deployment Team!
Ever wish you had a role during actions and events? Come learn crucial skills with us! We need you! Contact Shemona.
And if you’re a skilled artist (visual, theater, dance, music…) and want to apply your skill or show others how, please let us know! Contact Lisa.
INTERESTED IN EVENT PLANNING?
Our event team is looking for party planning go-getters to join our team! We’ll be working on 1 or 2 big fundraising events this year and we will need all the help! Please contact Shemona for more details.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
Our year end fundraising drive was a success! Thank you!
We exceeded our year end fundraising goal by $1,700—huge thanks to the 378 people who made donations and to our 3 matching gift challenge donors!
And thanks to all of you for everything you do!
350 Seattle
PS Dress for success in 2019
These People Over Pipelines shirts never go out of style—now in blue and red! Order online here.
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