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Sun Day Visions of a Brighter Future
From one corner of the continent to the other, Americans figured out dozens of ways to make their hopes for the future felt, even in this darkest of political periods.
Sep 22, 2025
Your correspondent is…bushed, so excuse typos, lapses of thought, and imprecise prose. But I wanted to tell all of you about how Sun Day played out across the country on Sunday before I fell into bed. In a word, spectacular.
You know, from reading these missives, that this day has been in the works a long time; we needed, in the face of massive and bizarre attacks from the White House and Congress on sun and wind power, to stand up for the idea of cheap, clean energy. At nearly 500 events across the country, that’s what happened. From one corner of the continent to the other (still waiting for pictures to come in from Alaska and Hawaii) Americans figured out dozens of ways to make their hopes for the future felt, even in this darkest of political periods. A remarkable account in the New York Times quoted one organizer, summing it up beautifully:
“I really wanted it to be celebratory and uplifting,” said Laura Iwanaga, who led the organization for Portland’s Sun Day event for the local chapter of Third Act, a nationwide climate advocacy organization founded by Mr. McKibben. “We all know what we’re fighting against, but we don’t always think about what we’re fighting for.”
For me, the very first picture of the day came from my grandson, out to greet the rising sun.
Soon they were pouring in from events across the country. Many featured big crowds and important people: I was in New York, where people crammed into a downtown church to hear the city’s comptroller Brad Lander talk about deploying the city’s $300 billion pension fund to back clean energy...
...and then spilled out into a nearby park for speeches from a US senator (Peter Welch), the state’s remarkable lieutenant governor (Antonio Delgado), a state assemblywoman (Emily Gallagher), and the ever-present and ever-powerful Rev. Lennox Yearwood. Oh, and a unforgettable rendition of "Here Comes the Sun" from Sun Day musical ambassador Antonique Smith.
Those were powerful memories that will last my life. But I was also taken by the pictures that showed quieter moments—for instance, people huddled in basements so that they could see their neighbor’s heat pumps or solar inverters, demystifying the whole process of converting to clean power. This is from South Carolina—and it’s how we’re going to turn people into solar consumers across the country.
And here are Wisconsites setting out on a solar tour of the state’s capital.
Some of the images were spectacularly beautiful. Christal Brown choreographed a dance among the solar panels on the campus of Middlebury College.
And some were literally sweet—here’s someone making s’mores in a solar oven in San Leandro, California.
Everywhere the beauty of the logo (thanks Brian Collins, Beth Johnson, Eron Lutterman) was on display. (Oh, and read the account of its design from Fast Company).
So many people and organizations helped make the day happen: Fossil Free Media, of course, with Jamie Henn and Deirdre Shelly leading an amazing crew; Solar United Neighbors, the Sierra Club, Mothers Out Front, Climate Revival, Green Faith, Dayenu, a hundred more. My colleagues at Third Act were absolutely crucial: here’s Deborah Moore and Anna Goldstein, who worked around the clock.
But everywhere there were kids out enjoying the spectacle. Our great hope is that they’ll grow up in a world where it seems utterly obvious to power the planet with clean energy from the sun, instead of filling the air (and their lungs) with the smoke from humanity’s fires.
For a day it was possible to believe in all of that—and the human energy that belief unleashes allows us to make it happen. Even as the afternoon went on, I was hearing of plans to introduce balcony solar laws in half a dozen states (and of plans to take this day global in the years ahead). In some sense the work has just begun.
I’ll have many more images and reports in the days ahead—we’ve barely begun to sift through all that’s been pouring in these last hours. But time for a well-earned rest (and I have an early morning trip to Chicago—the beat goes on!). As the sun goes down (and the batteries that have been soaking up sunshine all afternoon kick in) I just want to say: Thank you all so very very much
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Green Groups Organizing 'All Out on Earth Day' Protests Against Trump Authoritarianism
"Trump is dismantling critical environmental safeguards, putting lives at risk, and leaving working people to suffer the devastating consequences," said one campaigner.
Apr 14, 2025
A coalition of green groups on Monday promoted plans for nationwide "All Out on Earth Day" rallies "to confront rising authoritarianism and defend our environment, democracy, and future" against the Trump administration's gutting of government agencies and programs tasked with environmental protection and combating the climate emergency.
Organizers of the protests—which are set to take place from April 18-30—are coalescing opposition to President Donald Trump's attacks on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other agencies, which include efforts to rescind or severely curtail regulations aimed at protecting the public from pollution, oil spills, and other environmental and climate harms.
"This Earth Day, we fight for everything: for our communities, our democracy, and the future our children deserve."
The Green New Deal Network, one of the event's organizers, decried Trump's "massive rollbacks" to the EPA and noted that funds "for critical programs have been frozen and federal workers have been unjustly fired" as Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, takes a wrecking ball to government agencies.
"This Earth Day, we fight for everything: for our communities, our democracy, and the future our children deserve," Green New Deal Network national director Kaniela Ing said in a statement.
"Trump, Musk, and their billionaire allies are waging an all-out assault on the agencies that keep our air clean, our water safe, and our families healthy," Ing continued. "They're gutting the programs and projects we fought hard to win—programs that bring down energy costs and create good-paying jobs in towns across America, especially in red states."
"So, we need to make sure the pressure continues and our protests aren't just a flash in the pan," Ing added. "When we stand together—workers, environmentalists, everyday folks—we can not only stop them, but we can build the world we deserve."
All Out on Earth Day participants include Sunrise Movement, Climate Power, Third Act, Popular Democracy, Climate Defenders, the Democratic National Committee Council on Environment and Climate, Unitarian Universalists, NAACP, Dayenu, Evergreen, United to End Polluter Handouts Coalition, Climate Hawks Vote, and the Center of Biological Diversity (CBD).
Last month, CBD sued five Cabinet-level agencies in a bid to ensure that DOGE teams tasked with finding ways to cut costs—including via workforce reductions—fully comply with federal transparency law. This, after DOGE advised the termination of thousands of probationary staffers at the EPA, Department of the Interior, and other agencies.
Although a federal judge last month ordered the Trump administration to reinstate thousands of government workers fired from half a dozen agencies based on the "lie" that their performance warranted termination, the right-wing U.S. Supreme Court subsequently sided with the White House, finding that plaintiffs in the case lacked the legal standing to sue.
Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org and founder of the elder-led Third Act, harkened back to the historic first Earth Day in 1970.
"Fifty-five years ago, a massive turnout on the first Earth Day forced a corrupt Republican administration to pass the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act, and create the EPA," he said on Monday, referring to the presidency of Richard Nixon. "Let's do it again!"
Aru Shiney-Ajay, executive director of the youth-led Sunrise Movement, highlighted the need for action now, noting that Trump "is giving oil and gas billionaires the green light to wreck our planet and put millions of lives at risk, all so they can pad their bottom line."
"Just three months into the Trump presidency, the damage has already been catastrophic," she added. "Trump is dismantling critical environmental safeguards, putting lives at risk, and leaving working people to suffer the devastating consequences. "This Earth Day, we stand united in defiance of their greed and fight for a future that prioritizes people and the planet over profits."
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Justice for All: Road-Tested Strategies for Building a Bigger Movement
Three members of the Just Economy Institute share their insights on how to weave multiple worlds together to accelerate change.
Oct 27, 2024
Most activists sense the dense web of connections linking social, economic and climate justice issues, yet stick largely to their own anchor points. It’s time to come unstuck. To make progress at a pace that matches the urgency of our problems, we must widen the circles of activism and invite everyone in.
“We need to take big leaps of faith,” says Akaya Windwood, lead advisor for Third Act and founder of the New Universal Wisdom and Leadership Institute. “There are enough of us now doing this work. We have everything we need in order to make transformation happen.”
To find out what it means to pull all the pieces together, we interviewed three members of the Just Economy Institute who are doing it: Windwood; Tzeporah Berman, international program director at Stand.earth; and Stephone Coward, economic justice director at the Hip Hop Caucus. Here are their insights on how to weave multiple worlds together to accelerate change.
Make Money’s Role Visible
Many fellows who came to our program with a social justice focus have dissociated from money. What they find, though, is that tracing its flow reveals hidden leverage points.
“There’s an opportunity to lean more into the power that people have through their money—even if they don’t have a great portfolio—to send a message that we can’t prioritize profit over people,” says Coward.
To that end, Coward recently launched Bank Black and Green, a multiyear campaign to rally impact investors to shift capital to Black-owned banks that pledge not to finance the fossil fuel industry or mass incarceration.
“These minority depository institutions are frontline actors in a just transition from the current extractive economy to a regenerative one,” Coward says. Meanwhile, “fossil fuel companies come into underdeveloped communities with the promise of good jobs and actually end up poisoning these communities, lowering the value of homes and local businesses, and driving away other forms of economic investment.”
Meet People Where They Are—Literally and Figuratively
“We need to bring the organizing away from the centers of power and into the centers of impact, where climate change is already hitting hard,” says Coward. “New York, D.C., L.A.—places like that are important, but the people who live in the Gulf states also want and need to be a part of this work. We have to build power and mobilize people in the South.”
That requires a long-term commitment, he adds—not just “parachuting into communities to do some type of vanity project and then leaving. And in order for us to do this financial activism and climate activism work together, we’ve got to understand where people are currently.”
“If we’re actually going to change things, we need to start finding honest common ground.”
This is true in every dimension of difference. “It’s been eye opening to me to understand that we are having two very different conversations generationally,” Windwood says, “and I'm coming to the understanding that cross-generational work is as essential as working across race, gender, and class—and perhaps more salient now than anything else.”
Doing that work, she adds, requires moving away from negative communication habits.
“One of the most toxic patterns in our social movements is the critiquing that we do, the contest to see who’s the smartest person in the room—and the way I can tell you that I’m the smartest person in the room is by tearing down your ideas,” Windwood says. “If we’re actually going to change things, we need to start finding honest common ground. Imagine going to a social justice gathering where we are welcoming and kind, and can disagree with some grace.”
Do the Work to Work Across Difference
“We have got to learn how to listen—listen to understand, not to respond,” says Berman, whose organization builds power side-by-side with the frontline communities most impacted by environmental crises.
“There is an inherent tension in the work we do, because when you work on environmental and climate issues, you always feel like you’re racing against the clock,” she says. “Yet true justice-based relationships that are not extractive take trust, and trust takes time.”
Building trust—especially with frontline communities—starts with the approach to developing the campaign, she adds: The most effective actions involve co-creating the strategy, not just giving people the opportunity to have a voice in it. Berman offers Stand.earth’s Amazon campaign, which persuaded banks to shift billions of dollars away from financing oil extraction.
“We built a resistance strategy jointly with Indigenous associations and leadership. And when we decided to try to convince banks to stop funding oil drilling in the heart of the Amazon, we weren’t just facilitating Indigenous leaders to do a speech to a bank,” Berman said. “Instead, our researchers briefed them on all the financial information and answered their questions so that when the Indigenous leaders showed up in a meeting with vice presidents of some of the largest banks in the world, they were negotiating with real information, and they were equal partners.”
“Those bank executives were hearing not just the story of impacts on the land and in the forest, but an assessment of their recent financial transactions in the oil trade and a direct request to stop this contract and no longer pursue this particular company. They didn’t expect that.”
Bring the Storytelling, the Hope and the Joy
Activism by its nature is focused on problems, and that can make the work feel grim to people who don’t do it for a living—and even to some who do.
“We need people to stay for the long-term. Our hope must be louder than the other side’s grievances,” Coward says. “We can use the power of storytelling to put out something aspirational, to talk about what a society that doesn’t prioritize profit over people looks like.”
Windwood echoes the need for “stories that tell us of possible futures,” along with an experience of community. “I think that’s why Third Act is so effective, and how we went from an idea two years ago to having over 70,000 members today,” she says. “When we say, ‘Let’s go sit in front of the banks in our rocking chairs,’ people want to do that. Why? Because it’s fun.”
Berman’s parting advice: “Find ways to experience joy together. It will do more to strengthen your work than anything else because joy is the justice we give ourselves in troubled times.”
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'What Real Eldership Looks Like': 69 Senior Climate Protesters Arrested at CitiBank HQ
Wall Street giant responsible for massive funding of fossil fuels accused of "robbing our grandchildren's future."
Aug 27, 2024
The " Summer of Heat on Wall Street" protests continued Tuesday with at least 69 elders arrested while blocking Citibank's New York City headquarters to demand an end to the bank's financing of climate-wrecking fossil fuel projects.
"I'm here for my children and grandchildren," one woman explained as she was led away by a New York Police Department officer, wrists zip-tied behind her back. "I have kids and they need to live a better future!"
She was among several protesters who wore signs hanging from their necks that said "I'm here for:" followed by photos of loved ones.
BREAKING: NYPD arrests 29 grandparents at @Citibank HQ for demanding an end to Citi’s financing of oil, gas and coal projects.
“I have kids and they need to live a better future!” #SummerofHeat #CitiDropFossilFuels pic.twitter.com/j93mMl1YhS
— New York Communities for Change (@nychange) August 27, 2024
Bill McKibben, a 350.org co-founder arrested at a related action earlier this summer, welcomed Tuesday's protest on social media. Borrowing a phrase from Hip Hop Caucus' Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., he
declared, "Can't stop won't stop!"
"Old and bold!!" he added in response to footage of some arrests, also highlighting Third Act, his group for "Americans over the age of 60 determined to change the world for the better," which organized Tuesday's protest.
The Summer of Heat campaign was
initiated by a coalition that includes Climate Defenders, New York Communities for Change, Planet Over Profit, and Stop the Money Pipeline with support from more than 100 environmental and racial justice groups.
"Since the campaign launch on June 10, over 4,000 people have joined protests as part of the Summer of Heat," according to organizers. "And over 500 people have been arrested for engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience protests, urging banks like Citigroup to stop bankrolling new coal, oil, and gas."
Sharing a photo of one protester on social media Tuesday, Stop the Money Pipeline director Alec Connon said that "when I'm older I hope I will be like Pat, who was just arrested for blocking the doors to the headquarters of the world's largest funder of fossil fuel expansion since the Paris agreement. In a time of climate crisis, this is what real eldership looks like."
Tuesday's action in New York—which came as over 60 million people in the U.S. Midwest and Northeast faced heat advisories—followed a July demonstration in which Third Act members led a "funeral procession" near Citigroup's headquarters to honor elders who have died during recent dangerous heatwaves. That protest also led to arrests.
Other Summer of Heat actions targeting Citibank that resulted in arrests have been held by cello-playing grandfather, faith leaders, and mothers who gathered with their children outside bank CEO Jane Fraser's luxury apartment building.
This past weekend, over 30 self-described "climate feminists" were arrested in another demonstration outside Fraser's home, where they chanted: "Methane Jane, you can't hide. We charge you with ecocide."
More than 30 feminists sit down in the street in front of Methane Jane Fraser’s TriBeCa apartment. There’s nothing feminist about funding ecocide. pic.twitter.com/CtuQGWVaqh
— New York Communities for Change (@nychange) August 25, 2024
An annual report released in May showed that in 2023—the hottest year on record—the world's 60 biggest banks committed $705 billion to companies conducting business in fossil fuels, bringing the total since the Paris agreement to $6.9 trillion. Citi's totals were more than $30 billion last year and $396 billion overall.
This post has been updated to clarify when Bill McKibben was arrested and to include additional arrests after publication.
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Elders Arrested Protesting Citibank Funding of Planet's Destruction
"We are on the cusp of a ruined planet, and the big banks like Citi are funding it, to the tune of trillions," said one organizer.
Jul 08, 2024
As Earth sizzles during what's likely to be its hottest summer on record amid a worsening planetary emergency, dozens of elder climate campaigners including 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben were arrested Monday in New York while protesting Wall Street giant Citigroup's continued fossil fuel financing.
Members of the group Third Act—who are mostly aged 60 and older—led a "funeral procession" near Citigroup's Manhattan headquarters in remembrance of the senior citizens who have died during recent dangerous heatwaves and to call out the bank "for being the number one funder of fossil fuel expansion in the world," according to Summer of Heat, which is organizing a series of ongoing climate protests.
Summer of Heat said McKibben was one of 46 demonstrators arrested Monday, and that "with today's protest, there have now been 305 total arrests in this summer's historic campaign of relentless, disruptive protests to stop Wall Street funding the oil, coal, and gas projects that are making our planet unlivable."
According to Summer of Heat:
Older Americans are worried about growing climate extremes and how Wall Street is using their savings to harm the planet and their grandchildren's future. Third Act supporters are retired teachers, healthcare professionals, lawyers, union members, parents, grandparents, great aunts, uncles, and now activists. They are taking action—together with youth and families—to make a difference! They are calling on banks like Citi to invest in a peaceful and livable world for all.
"It might feel very hot to us, but it was 122 degrees (Fahrenheit) in New Delhi two weeks ago. Lots and lots and lots of people died," McKibben told protest participants before his arrest. "Things like this now happen every day around the world, and they happen worst [and] first in the places that have done the least to cause this crisis."
"This is the deepest question of justice the world has ever come across," McKibben added. "And the bank that we're outside has done more than almost any institution on Earth to make it worse. Given full warning by scientists of all kinds for the last 30 years, they have decided instead to try to make profit off the end of the world."
Margaret Bullit-Jonas, an Episcopalian priest and author who took part in Monday's protest, said that "Citibank is destroying the world that God loved into being and entrusted to our care."
"At this decisive moment in history, we teeter on the brink of climate chaos," she added. "Now is the time for Citibank to choose life and to stop financing fossil fuels."
Third Act members were joined by activists from various climate, environmental, and social justice groups. Summer of Heat organizer Liv Senghor said that the campaign "is an intergenerational and intersectional movement."
"We know that there is no climate justice without social justice," Senghor said. "And we know that if we do not stop financial institutions like Citibank right now, we will all feel the deadly consequences today, tomorrow, and for generations to come."
HipHop Caucus president and CEO Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr. asserted that "to limit ongoing damage, and ensure a bright future for the next generations, we need bold action now to curb emissions, transition to clean energy, and to help households and communities mitigate current and future risks."
Gus Speth, a former U.S. Council on Environmental Quality chair, warned that "we are on the cusp of a ruined planet, and the big banks like Citi are funding it, to the tune of trillions."
"It's time for the Citigroup board of directors to wake up to their responsibility," he added. "Citi talks about environmental sustainability but practices environmental destruction."
Citigroup contends that it is "supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy through our net zero commitments and our $1 trillion sustainable finance goal," and that its "approach reflects the need to transition while also continuing to meet global energy needs."
However, since the 2015 signing of the Paris agreement, Citi has provided $204.46 billion in financing for new fossil fuel projects, according to Stop the Money Pipeline, a Summer of Heat co-organizer.
"From the Bronx to the Gulf South, Black, Latine, Asian, Indigenous, and low-income communities living on the frontlines of the climate crisis—and the ones least responsible for it—face the highest asthma rates and staggering cancer rates while an unprecedented number of people are dying from heat waves," Summer of Heat said.
"Instead of staying home and hiding from the heat, organizers are calling on all New Yorkers and climate defenders from across the globe to take to the streets and demand that Wall Street stop destroying our future," the group added.
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The Next Few Years Will Decide What Kind of Future We Leave for My Grandchild
Everyone’s job this decade is to arrest the sudden and sickening lurch upward in temperature, so that there’s somewhere at least a little stable for young people to stand as they build that new world that must come.
Mar 31, 2024
Asa Caleb Crane was born over the weekend; he came into the world with a full head of hair, and on first impression an undeniable charisma, a full array of important moral virtues, and a calm but determined approach to the new world in which he found himself.
And I found myself both entirely agog at his general niftiness, and bowled over by the fact that I now know, very intimately, someone who God willing is going to exist in the 22nd century.
I can compass the passage of time; my grandmother, who I knew well, was born in the latter part of the 19th century, and I can imagine most of the changes of her life—feel in some visceral way the increase in mobility, in communication, in opportunity, in ease. My parents were born in the Depression and came of age in the great postwar boom; my daughter was born just as the internet was getting off the ground. It all makes more or less sense to me; but of course the future is harder, and the future now is harder than ever. In fact, there have been a spate of stories this week pointing out that even our greatest climate scientists are having a hard time explaining the rapid rise in global temperature over the last 12 months—and others explaining just how hot it has become. Here’s a compelling Guardian account of the record heat across much of Africa in recent weeks.
Tarly in Ivory Coast explained: “All I can do is open the windows and the door to let the air flow, but even the air doesn’t move.”
He lives with a one-year-old child, who cries at night because he is hot, and his two teenage daughters, who wake up in the middle of the night to shower before returning to bed where they lie in front of the fan. Still, the heat clings; it does not go away.
“At four in the morning, it’s when it’s least hot and you can sleep better, but I have to wake up to go to work,” Tarly said. “When it’s this hot, mixed with humidity, time stands still.”
Of course time in the larger sense, rushes on—and right now the very real-time acceleration of warming scares me more than I want to admit. It also makes me think—as you might guess from the title of this newsletter—that the next few years may be the crucial ones between now and 2100, maybe even between now and 5100. Because if we don’t break the momentum of the warming then it will build unstoppably on itself—and that will foreclose all kinds of options.
It’s keeping those options open that matters to me. I don’t think we can reasonably plan all that far into the future—new technologies, new politics, new attitudes will inevitably shape how things happen 20 or 60 years from now. But I do think we can see the outline of our politics through the end of the decade, and I think it basically involves a single choice: Do we go all-in on the energy transition as the world pledged in December at the last global climate talks, or do we back off, following the advice of, say, the (wildly applauded) Saudi Aramco CEO who said last week at a Houston energy conference that “we should abandon the fantasy of phasing out oil and gas and instead invest in them.”
The first option—going all-in on the energy transition—doesn’t get us where we need to go, and certainly not by 2030. I don’t see any chance that the temperature won’t still be rising then. But done with vigor it keeps possibilities open: Politico this week reported, for instance, on the growing competition among blue-state governors to come up with more renewables and more efficiency, and the remarkable Kingsmill Bond at the Rocky Mountain Institute reported on the growing competition between the superpower blocs for green energy supremacy.
China, Europe, and the United States make up 80%–90% of deployment of key clean technologies.
China dominates the supply chain, but change is happening. China has outspent the United States and Europe 10-fold in the past five years to achieve market share in manufacturing of over 90% in solar and 70% in batteries. But United States and European capital expenditure is set to increase 16-fold by 2025, and opportunities for leadership abound; only 20% of final energy demand has been electrified; and technologies to enhance flexibility are still in the early stages.
Europe leads in solar and wind share of generation. Europe has the largest share of electricity from solar and wind, and all three regions are moving rapidly up the S-curve towards solar and wind dominance.
What I’m trying to say is, we have the chance to move over the next five years to establish a counter-momentum to the rising temperature. If we do, by 2030 we’ll be in a place to weigh the options going forward; if we don’t then nature will be making decisions for us, and we’ll be reacting.
For those like me of a certain age we have no real business telling young people what kind of world to build—that will be their opportunity and their responsibility, and my sense is that they have the savvy to do a good job of it. But our job—everyone’s job these next five years—is to arrest the sudden and sickening lurch upward in temperature, so that there’s somewhere at least a little stable for those young people to stand as they build that new world that must come. The best proxy for that stability is the number of solar panels and wind turbines and batteries we install between now and the end of the decade.
I’ve always thought this to be true; it’s why this newsletter is called what it is, and it’s why I do the work I do at places like Third Act. It’s just that all of a sudden I take it even more personally. Hi Asa!
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Worried About the Climate Crisis? Just Start Doing Something
No matter where you are on the political spectrum, there is a group for you.
Feb 09, 2024
The world has temporarily reached the 1.5°C of warming that scientists had long warned must not be exceeded. And more and more people are feeling the consequences directly—most recently in Chile, where over 120 people have been killed by wildfires that were partly fueled by climate change. Global heating also contributed to the atmospheric rivers drowning California in torrential rains, creating mudslides, and causing hundreds of thousands to lose power. Scientists now say that climate change might lead them to add a Category 6 to the hurricane scale. January 2024 was the ninth-straight-warmest month on record and yet another record-breaking month after 2023 was the hottest year on record.
You would think that all this would finally make Americans want to prioritize climate protection. Instead many are lining up behind a man who does not accept the scientific consensus on climate change, who ridicules what he calls climate fanaticism, and promises to “drill, drill, drill” from his first day in office. And American banks are changing their mind and investing in fossil fuel infrastructure again. That should be considered criminal under these circumstances. No wonder the rest of the world is staring at us in disbelief.
But there is hope: In surveys conducted by Yale Climate Change Communications last year, 64% of Americans said they are worried about global warming. The problem, according to Anthony Leiserowitz, who has been leading this research, is that many also say they “don’t know what to do. They are actually quite eager to do something but have never been asked by someone they like and trust.”
I have a solution for all you worriers waiting to be asked, and it’s a simple one. Just start doing something.
We need everyone to change everything. That includes you.
Millions are already doing something, because the information about what to do is easily available. Rob Hopkins has written a whole book about The Power of Just Doing Stuff to address climate change. Joylette Portlock has a wonderful series of YouTube videos telling people “Don’t just sit there, do something” about climate change.
You don’t have to do this alone. No matter where you are on the political spectrum, there is a group for you. Start in your own neighborhood and see if yours is a Transition Town. If not, consider becoming one! If you’re able to devote time to organizing others, join a chapter of 350 or Extinction Rebellion. If you’re into lobbying, join Citizens’ Climate Lobby. Hey, and if you’re over 60 there’s even a Third Act. The Climate Disobedience Center has done a stellar job supporting those who put their bodies on the line. At a minimum, you could open your pocketbook and help fund any or all of these groups.
Some people also say the climate crisis is simply too overwhelming, and they aren’t wrong. It is perfectly normal to be seriously concerned about a planetary crisis that threatens life on Eearth. Every climate scientist and climate activist experiences bouts of deep grief over the losses we are already incurring. You’d have to be either heartless or brain dead or both if you weren’t just a bit overwhelmed by it all. But that’s no excuse not to do anything. Not until you’ve tried everything.
And climate activism is really something everyone can do. To be sure, if you saw recent coverage of Greta Thunberg in court or Jane Fonda in Denver, Colorado you might get the idea that climate activism is something just for VIPs. But it’s not. Yes, every now and then there are spectacular events—large rallies or headline-grabbing stunts—where people take great risks or commit a lot of time; some also choose to break the law to raise attention to the crisis.
But the vast majority of a climate activist’s work isn’t risking arrest or marching. It’s taking time to meet and strategize, reaching out to others to get them informed and involved. It’s reading a lot and writing op-eds like these. It’s much less glamorous and much less risky than the media coverage suggests.
And we could really use your help. Because the other side is unrelenting in its attacks on climate protection.
There’s no more room for excuses. (If you don’t trust me or don’t know where to start—there are plenty of official websites—from the U.N. to the EPA to WWF to EarthDay.org to explain the basics.)
The good news is that climate activism works. We saw that most recently when the Biden administration put a pause on LNG export facilities, meeting a major demand by climate activists across the country, and especially at the frontlines in the Gulf region.
But we need everyone to change everything. That includes you. Please join us.
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This Could Be Start of the Biggest Climate Victory of All
Yes, there are always devils in the details. And it doesn’t guarantee long-term victory, but it sets up a process where victory is possible.
Jan 24, 2024
A few minutes ago The New York Times moved a story saying that the White House has decided to pause permitting for new LNG terminals—if it’s true, and I think it is, this is the biggest thing a U.S. president has ever done to stand up to the fossil fuel industry.
The Times story begins with the next project in line, the mammoth CP2 export terminal planned for Louisiana:
The Energy Department is required to weigh whether the export terminal is in “the public interest,” a subjective determination. But now, the White House has requested an additional analysis of the climate impacts of CP2.
Natural gas, which is primarily composed of methane, is cleaner than coal when it is burned. But methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas in the short term, compared with carbon dioxide, and it can leak anywhere along the supply chain, from the production wellhead to processing plants to the stovetop. The process of liquefying gas to make it suitable for transport is incredibly energy intensive as well, creating yet more emissions.
Whatever new criteria is used to evaluate CP2 would be expected to be applied to the other 16 proposed natural gas terminals that are awaiting approval.
Yes, there are always devils in the details. And it doesn’t guarantee long-term victory—it sets up a process where victory is possible (to this point, the industry has gotten every permit they’ve asked for). But I have a beer in my hand. If the administration backtracks, it will be a disappointment of epic proportion that I can’t imagine them doing it. Here’s what veteran energy analyst Jeremy Symons, who has been a rock in this fight, just emailed campaigners:
I am heartened by several things in this article, including, critically, that the full array of LNG projects are potentially implicated. Also, this: "Within the White House, there is little division over the decision to delay CP2, in part because it is not seen as a major energy security issue, said people familiar with the discussion. That’s because the United States is already producing and exporting so much gas. That capacity is set to nearly double over the next four years, making the need for CP2 less urgent."
As you all know, this is a sea change in how the administration has viewed LNG. It is not by any means a final victory, but we KNOW that the facts will win the day when given a fair hearing. We have never had a fair hearing, until now.
One reason to think the Times story is correct is that the right wing is already screaming. Mitch McConnell took to the floor of the Senate to say
“This move would amount to a functional ban on new LNG export permits,” Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “The administration’s war on affordable domestic energy has been bad news for American workers and consumers alike.”
As usual, he’s wrong. Exporting natural gas of course drives the price up for American consumers. That’s how economics work—so President Joe Biden’s stand is an actual live inflation reduction act.
And the only other argument that the fossil fuel industry has mustered—that Europe needs more gas in the wake of Putin’s invasion—is simply wrong. We’re already sending them plenty—the world is awash in cheap gas. As Ben Jealous (head of the Sierra Club and former head of the NAACP) said in The Washington Post this morning:
the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis makes clear that European demand for natural gas will steadily drop in the years ahead, because the continent, in the wake of Vladimir Putin’s invasion, dramatically stepped up its conversion to renewable energy.
This decision is brave, because Donald Trump (the man who pulled us out of the Paris climate accords on the grounds that climate change is a hoax) will attack it mercilessly. But it’s also very very savvy: Biden wants young people, who care about climate above all, in his corner. They were angry about his dumb approval of the Willow oil project in Alaska. CP2 alone would produce 20 times the greenhouse gas emissions of Willow. And of course everyone understands that if Biden is not reelected this win means nothing—it will disappear on day one when the ‘dictator’ begins his relentless campaign to ‘drill drill drill.’
I’m holding my breath as I type this post. After pouring my heart into this fight for the last six months it seems almost too good to be true. But there are people who have been pouring their hearts into it for much longer than that. I just got off the phone with the marvelous Roishetta Ozane and she was in tears of joy, so I soon joined her in that condition. There’s James Hiatt, John Beard, Travis Dardar, Ann Rolfes, and many many more like them down on the Gulf, and people like Rev Yearwood of the Hip Hop Caucus who are at home both in the bayous and in the D.C. swamp. There’s the wonder-workers at Third Act who started conjuring together what now looks like it may be an unnecessary protest action in D.C. next month—even this morning they were wrestling with questions like “can we use upper bunkbeds to house people coming for the protest?” There’s a huge pick-up crew of hardy souls from the big environmental groups like NRDC, LCV, and all the other mighty initials; there are TikTok magicians like Alex Haraus; and there are and remarkable behind-the-scenes coordinators like Jamie Henn and Maura Cowley. I could go on almost endlessly, and I imagine I will in the weeks ahead.
The Times gave me entirely too much credit (and, ironically, so did The Wall Street Journal yesterday in their editorial opposing this move, where they called me “chief climate lobbyist”). It was actually, well, you who rose to the call. When I started writing about this at summer’s end, it was hard to get people all that interested in “LNG export,” which does not sound on its face like that sexy a topic. But man did you go to work—writing letters, making calls, signing up to go to jail. I just want to say thanks. This community gets things done.
When we fight, we sometimes win. More often than I’d guess, actually.
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Launching a Sweet Climate Campaign to Urge Costco to Drop Citi
The campaign is designed to get the world’s third largest retailer to pressure its bank—Citi—to stop funding fossil fuel expansion.
Jan 20, 2024
We live in a highly polarized society—The Washington Post reported this morning that “science is revealing why” we’ve become so sharply divided in our political life. They have one expert after another explaining that evolution set us up for this ugliness:
The tendency to form tightly knit groups has roots in evolution, according to experts in political psychology. Humans evolved in a challenging world of limited resources in which survival required cooperation—and identifying the rivals, the competitors for those resources.
“The evolution of cooperation required out-group hatred. Which is really sad,” said Nicholas Christakis, a Yale sociologist and author of Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society.
I’m not a thousand percent convinced of this explanation—I grew up in a time of somewhat gentler political competition, and I live in a place (Vermont) where that old era still holds: We have a Republican governor whom I disagree with on some things but respect. It seems unlikely we’ve devolved in the course of a single generation, and so I doubt Darwin alone can explain our current travails. But there is no gainsaying the story’s basic point: “This country, though politically fractious since its founding, is more polarized than ever, the rhetoric more inflammatory, the rage more likely to curdle into hate. It’s ugly out there.”
So, a question is: Can we sometimes conduct politics—even politics about life and death matters like climate change—in a way that doesn’t do further damage to our society? And are there cases where it might be more effective to do it that way?
I’m thinking about this right now because on Thursday my colleagues at Third Act, with other activists, launched a campaign designed to get Costco to pressure its bank—Citi—to stop funding fossil fuel expansion. It’s an interesting fight for several reasons:
Costco is the third largest retailer on our overheating planet, trailing just Walmart and Amazon.
Thirty-seven percent of Americans shop at Costco.
And Citibank is the second largest funder of the fossil fuel industry.
So, a big deal, and a point that needs making.
But it’s also interesting because Costco is a basically good company. It treats its employees fairly by most accounts, paying wages well above the average, and providing decent benefits. I am a big advocate of local food, but so far my valley is not producing its own razor blades, and the one Costco in our state has, exclusively, my very favorite cheese (Mad River Reserve, from the Cabot Cooperative, which is a blend of cheddar and parmesan, and just writing about it means that I’m stopping to go slice off a little hunk). (Actually, it turned out to be a large-ish hunk).
Costco’s problem is not that it is bad—it’s that it’s fallen in with a bad crowd, that bad crowd being the amoral money-center banks that have ignored the world’s climate scientists and continued to pump money into pipelines and LNG export terminals and all the other things that damage both communities and planets. Because of their size, Costco pressuring Citi would have enormous benefits; it might actually convince the bank to shift, because losing Costco’s business would be as painful as losing Big Oil’s. And it’s not an impossible ask: Costco’s main competitor, the much-less-socially-conscious Sam’s Club, offers their credit card through a supplier called Synchrony which is… not the second-biggest funder of fossil fuels on planet earth.
Furthermore, Costco’s customers, surely, mostly fall into that huge demographic of normal suburbanites who polls show care about climate change. So they’re open to the notion that Costco should change—that’s why 40,000 of them have already signed a petition asking for it to happen. But they also like the store—by a wide margin it’s the most loved of the big box stores, and only Trader Joe’s approaches it for general affection. It therefore wouldn’t work to mount a frontal attack, insisting that it’s an evil company. Because it isn’t.
So, the sheet cake. And the party hats. We launched this fight on the month that Costco’s new CEO, Ron Vachris (who started at the store as a forklift driver, which should tell you something right there) took over. We billed it as a celebration, and said we were counting on his openness to new ideas.
And Friday, at the annual shareholder’s meeting, Vachris said: "Citi is indeed a key partner for Costco Wholesale, and we are aware of those petitions that were signed. We are going to continue moving forward with our climate action plan, and have been in discussions with Citi about their carbon reduction plans in the future. We're going to focus on our efforts, and we'll stay close to Citi and their efforts as well."
That’s not a win, but it’s a start—something we can hold them to. And we understand it’s not easy—if Costco did the right thing, no doubt they’d face pressure from the oil-saturated far right, who would gin up something about them going “woke.” I don’t think it would damage them, but businesses are always wary. So, the process is begun, and I have no doubt it will continue. The magazine Progressive Grocer (and it was worth starting this campaign just to find out there was a magazine called Progressive Grocer) reported on the launch, noting new data that showed Costco’s money in Citibank produced far more carbon emissions than its warehouses or its trucks. Over time—hopefully not too much time—that will weigh on any serious executive.
Can we sometimes conduct politics—even politics about life and death matters like climate change—in a way that doesn’t do further damage to our society? And are there cases where it might be more effective to do it that way?
There are other shades of this, places where activists need to choose not just what to fight but how to fight. At the moment, for instance, we’re pressing the Biden administration to stop granting export licenses for new LNG facilities. It’s crucial—the biggest fossil fuel expansion project on the planet. And we’re doing civil disobedience next month outside the Department of Energy—because we have to stop this. But it’s going to be very civil civil disobedience, because the DOE is only partly an adversary—half the people in the building we’ll be picketing are busy doing some of the most cutting-edge work in the world, figuring out how to get as much renewable energy as possible to the communities that need it the most.
And, of course, we don’t want to damage Joe Biden, who is going to have to beat Donald Trump in November, or else we will lose all these fights immediately and comprehensively.
Trump, of course, is the wild card here—and I’d argue that he, more than “evolution,” has changed the flavor of our political life. There is no way to take him on without absolute clarity: He is an adjudged rapist who put his own interest above the country’s in a way none of his predecessors ever imagined when he egged on the January 6 rioters; he is eager to use the saddest strains of the American past and present—racism above all—to his own advantage; I would not leave my child in his company for five minutes while I went to the corner store to buy some milk.
I find it hard not to extend my disgust with him to his supporters (and with know-better lickspittles like Elise Stefanik I routinely fail), but on a wider scale that’s almost certainly a bad strategic move. (I’ve heard plenty of people defend Hilary Clinton’s “deplorables” remark as correct, but none as politically savvy). Still, there’s no way to take on Trump without being… divisive. It is a division, and one we must come out on the right side of, or lose our country and our world.
But we don’t want to lose our society in the process, if that’s still possible. We need to cling to the idea that we can rebuild a working country—a job that I think Biden has in certain important ways begun.
Or at least I need to cling to this belief, which may in some ways explains my thinking about Costco. You’ve probably noted that its house brand products are called Kirkland, for the Washington town where it had its first headquarters. As it happens, my beloved grandfather was the town doctor in Kirkland for 50 years, when it was a small ship-building town, and on occasion he served as mayor; my beloved father grew up there, playing baseball and hiking the Cascades. I think of them every time I unscrew the cap on my bottle of olive oil, and I’d love to be able to do it without thinking of Citibank as well.
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After Bank Collapses, US Regulators Urged to Impose Rules on Climate-Related Financial Risk
"If management at a wide swath of banks failed to properly address a well-understood risk, they cannot be trusted to independently address other complex emerging risks," argued 50 green groups.
Mar 28, 2023
In the wake of recent bank collapses and protests across the United States demanding financial institutions end fossil fuel financing, 50 climate, environmental justice, and Indigenous rights groups on Tuesday advocated for new regulations.
"We the undersigned strongly urge financial regulators and Congress to learn from the collapse and bailout of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and rapidly implement new regulations to mitigate against climate-related financial risk," the coalition wrote.
"Climate-related risks are moving us toward a financial crisis. But regulators have not taken adequate steps to actually mitigate those risks."
The groups' letter was sent to key leaders at the U.S. Treasury Department, Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), National Economic Council, and relevant U.S. House and Senate committees.
After explaining how the SVB collapse is partly the result of poor management enabled by regulatory rollbacks under the Trump administration, the letter states that "this is only the latest example of a bank being wholly unprepared for a large and obvious financial risk."
The letter continues:
It is a stark reminder of the chaos that can unfold when a financial institution has high exposure to a risky industry, and of the fact that the leaders of major financial institutions are frequently far more concerned with their short-term gains than with robust risk management measures that ensure their safety and the safety and soundness of the financial system. As a reminder of the latter, senior managers at SVB paid themselves millions in bonuses hours before their bank failed and the federal government financially backstopped it. Here again, stronger rules—including the Dodd-Frank executive compensation rules that remain unfinished—could have incentivized greater bank attention to risks.
To prevent any potential for a cascade of bank runs after SVB's collapse, federal regulators have now effectively set a precedent of guaranteeing all bank deposits in all banking institutions nationwide, to be backstopped by the Federal Deposit Insurance Fund and then taxpayer dollars. Moreover, the Federal Reserve has begun lending at extraordinarily generous terms to any other banks with assets whose real value has been curbed by interest rate hikes—in effect, the Fed is offering a first-of-its-kind, get-out-of-bank-failure-free card to any firms that made the same foreseeable mistake as SVB. Regulators justified this extraordinary shift in the structures of American finance by relying on emergency rules in place to prevent systemic risk to the financial system. In effect, regulators argued that SVB's inability to mitigate one of the most obvious forms of financial risk—the potential for rising interest rates amid high inflation—constituted a grave risk to the whole financial system, and, thereby, the whole economy.
"If management at a wide swath of banks failed to properly address a well-understood risk, they cannot be trusted to independently address other complex emerging risks," the groups argued. "Regulators must intervene to protect the financial system from risks associated with climate change and the ongoing transition to a green economy."
The letter notes recent remarks from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen about the economic and financial impact of the climate emergency as well as how, as it worsens, "banks of all sizes holding mortgage-backed bonds will see their assets drop in value" while "banks invested in the fossil fuel industry will eventually be saddled with stranded assets."
"Climate-related risks are moving us toward a financial crisis. But regulators have not taken adequate steps to actually mitigate those risks," the coalition warned, calling on U.S. policymakers to:
- Move with urgency and speed to implement proposed guidance for banks and financial institutions related to preparation for climate-related financial risks and to follow up with more detailed guidance;
- Rapidly move forward on rigorous exams for banking institutions, including for medium-sized banks, regardless of industry pressure for light-touch supervision of climate-related risks; and
- Please also see previous coalition letters recommending action on the Federal Reserve's and the Treasury Department's climate guidance.
"Banks cannot be trusted to independently evaluate and protect against the systemic risks of the climate crisis in real-time. They also cannot be trusted to avoid creating risks for other institutions and the financial system through their support for fossil assets and greenhouse gas emissions," the letter says. "This process requires regulators to set clear rules and ensure banks and financial institutions do not engage in unsafe behavior and do not create undue risks and costs for the financial system and the economy."
Signatories include Greenpeace USA, Lakota People's Law Project, Sierra Club, and Third Act—who came together earlier this month for a "Stop Dirty Banks" national day of action, the first elderly-led mass climate demonstration in U.S. history.
"Today is a major drive to take the cash out of carbon," declared Third Act's Bill McKibben. "We want JPMorgan Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America to hear the voices of the older generation which has the money and structural power to face down their empty, weasel words on climate. We will not go to our graves quietly knowing that the financial institutions in our own communities continue to fund the climate crisis."
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