Dear friends,
This is a(nother) post about environmental justice. If you are a NYS resident, please go to the last action and start there, as it is time-sensitive!
I was invited to join an anti-racist discussion group on Wednesday night. We had done some reading about Cancer Alley in Louisiana and the determination of residents to fight against the powerful and moneyed forces that pollute their communities and treat them and the land they live on as disposable.
We talked about environmental racism and the problems with capitalism and the secrecy and deception deployed by those who want to bypass the people most affected by zoning and other policy changes.
And we agreed that while we are all vulnerable to toxic exposure, we are not all equally vulnerable. We have an obligation to inform ourselves and take action on behalf of the most vulnerable people.
It is at that moment when one could hear the exhaustion set in. It’s a lot of work to understand our role in these issues. Although there were ideas and energy in the Zoom room, a number of people mentioned feeling guilty about their ignorance.
I am here for education and activation and even a healthy dose of complaining, but this is a zone without guilt. We will do what we can and conserve energy by never wringing our hands.
You may have missed the local stories about the toxic indoor air pollution in the Gowanus neighborhood in Brooklyn. Cancer, headaches, and liver damage are among the dangers of long-term exposure to trichloroethylene (TCE) — an industrial solvent that lingers underground and resists degradation.
The NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) found pollution by TCE at 20 times the allowable limit.
TCE is not the only toxic contaminant in the area. Containment is underway and the DEC expects to share its findings by the fall of 2023.
Tell Governor Hochul that all toxic sites in Gowanus need remediation to protect the people in the community. This quick action is from Toxics Targeting.
If you are interested in writing a more personal appeal to the governor, follow the link below about tonight’s community meeting and scroll down to the bottom for sample letters. By all means, go to the meeting if you can, too!
Attend a community meeting about the Gowanus Cleanup this evening.
The institutions that finance dirty fossil fuel projects have to be held accountable. Citibank is the world’s second biggest bank funder of coal, oil, and gas.
A group of nuns, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, own shares in Citibank as part of their investment portfolio and they are taking steps to challenge the institution’s practices. They — along with the St. Joseph of Peace congregation — have filed a resolution, on the basis of Citi’s funding to Enbridge, the Canadian company behind the Line 3 and Line 5 pipelines.
The sisters and their congregation are demanding a report on the impact of Citi’s corporate financing on Indigenous rights.
Check your investment portfolio. If you have shares in Citi, please vote yes to support the Sisters’ resolution at the April 25 shareholders meeting.
The good people at New York Communities for Change, Th!rd Act, and 350.org, among others, are planning to meet in the streets ahead of Citi's annual shareholder meeting to stand against continued destruction by fossil fuel projects.
Join the rally against fossil fuel finance on Monday, April 24 in Tribeca!
Here’s a nice, short explainer of cap and invest, an environmental recommendation from our state’s Climate Action Council that would make polluters pay for their emissions and use the funds to pay for the energy transition we need.
The budget is late and there’s time to make sure that the proposed Cap and Invest system sends
billions of dollars back to working people in the form of rebates, funds for community-led energy planning, worker transition job training, and the creation of thousands of good, green union jobs.
That means there must be guardrails so that the money is equitably distributed and invested.
Collective relentlessness is what moves the needle on big problems. The folks at NY Renews are great at coordinating our individual efforts to hammer home the most important messages to our legislators. A call relay stacks up hundreds of phonecalls — choose a time convenient for you — so that legislative staff are hearing from us all day long!
Join tomorrow’s call relay with NY Renews to ensure that the state’s cap and invest plan will protect communities, ensure emissions reductions, promote equity.
Halligan is a private lawyer with some liberal bonafides: clerking for Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, and an Obama nomination to the federal bench.
The problem is that Halligan has some fossil fuel filth under her nails.
According to court filings, Halligan was part of Chevron’s legal team in the landmark case Chevron Corp. v. Donziger. In a nearly three-decade legal battle, the oil giant sought to take Donziger down after he won more than $9 billion in damages for poor and indigenous Ecuadorians over the company’s decades-long pollution of the Amazon.
Understandably, those of us working for climate justice are not pleased with this choice. The folks from Public Power NY — a coalition of grassroots organizations working for “clean, renewable, affordable, accessible and democratically-controlled public power” in New York State — offered this comment on Halligan’s nomination:
“It’s time for Hochul to pick a side: does she stand with corporate polluters or with Environmental Justice communities here in New York and across the world?”
Call your NY State Senator today to register your opinion. I wrote a script!
with love,
L