 It’s time to stop the pollution that is overheating our planet. We have the tools. We know what to do. With the move to clean energy well underway, we need everybody everywhere to push for the real change that makes our communities safer, healthier and cleaner. Following Covid, momentum is building again across our movement, with new progressive groups emerging: legal, conservation, climate, labor, civil rights and think tanks, at every level of government and society. The world is waking up to the dangerous overheating of our environment, but those who are causing it are fighting back with disinformation and delays. That’s where the GRASSROOTS come in! April 22nd is Earth Day and the month is full of opportunities to learn and grow our movement. We think our job at 350 Eugene is to help more people understand the threat of climate change, so that they can care about it and force our leaders to prioritize taking action. Read on for information on our campaigns, and those of our allies, and see how you can join in. April Opportunities for Earth Day(s)Wednesday, April 10th - We’ve been invited to a Community Conversation on climate-change-related topics at the Eugene Library at 6:00 pm. This is the fourth in a series of six informal philosophical conversations on various topics. You can’t get any more grassroots-y than this! Please join your climate buddies at this event!  Are trees the new coal? Friday, April 19th at 5:30 pm - An important film screening, BURNED - Are Trees the New Coal? Join us at the Campbell Community Center at 5:30 pm, 155 High Street, Eugene; free and open to the public. BURNED is a feature-length documentary, which takes an unwavering look at the latest electric power industry solution to climate change. This 74 minute documentary tells the story of how woody biomass has become the fossil-fuel industry’s renewable, green savior, and of the people and parties who are both fighting against and promoting its adoption and use. Joining us in person will be Natural Resources Defense Council Forest Advocate and Nature expert, Rita Vaughn Frost (bio here). Rita will share her expertise on the international biomass industry and how wood pellet mills are popping up everywhere, claiming they’re carbon neutral, but the emissions are worse than coal. Forests play a vital role in mitigating climate change, especially in the Pacific Northwest. Come learn how we’ll defend our communities from this dangerous industry. Watch the 2 minute film trailer here. Save our natural forests! That means don’t grind them up for pellets and toilet paper!  The electric vehicle revolution is going strong! Earth Day is coming up, and one of the best steps you can take to reduce your environmental impact is to electrify your transportation! Discover all the in’s-and-out’s of driving electric at the Emerald Valley Electric Vehicle Association’s car show on Saturday, April 20, at St. Thomas Episcopal Church on Coburg Road in Eugene. EVEVA members will have a wide variety of cars and light trucks on display, and can talk about their experience owning and driving electric vehicles. The organization will also provide information about financial incentives from state and federal governments and from EWEB. EVEVA is a volunteer organization composed of electric vehicle owners, drivers, and enthusiasts, who are excited to share the joy and environmental benefits of driving electric. More information is at www.eveva.org.  Enjoy a beautiful spring visit to an old-growth forest and one of the Coast Range's biggest waterfalls! Sunday, April 21st - Kentucky Falls Earth Day Hike - join our buddies at Oregon Wild and Cascadia Wildlands for a 4.4 mile moderate hike to Kentucky Falls, an icon of the Siuslaw National Forest. Learn about the Northwest Forest Plan, experience and help save our mature and old growth forests. More info and registration here! Children's Earth Day Art Contest - Kids Show Us What They See Monday, April 22nd (the real Earth Day) at Saturday Market on 8th & Oak Streets in Eugene: 350 Families and MECCA have assembled art from local young climate activists. Details to follow. CampaignsElectrify Eugene This spring, Eugene city staff are doing extensive community outreach to take input on plans to clean up dirty energy infrastructure (aka decarbonize our buildings). The Sustainability Office provided an excellent update to the city council on the Climate Action Plan (CAP) 2.0 on March 11th. We are making progress! You can watch it here. The city is considering policies this spring that will improve indoor air quality and reduce carbon pollution in residential buildings. We are watching the city of Ashland, as it makes progress on its policy. Although Eugene withdrew its electrification ordinance last summer due to a legal decision affecting a similar ordinance in Berkeley, there are other electrification options for cities. This blog post from 350 Contra Costa PAC nicely lays them out. The staff is researching options and will provide draft policy in early summer. Fossil Free University of Oregon Since UO is the single largest single-source of greenhouse gas emissions in Eugene, it’s appropriate the students and the community are pushing UO Trustees for the biggest and fastest transition plan to get off their gas boiler system. Students from the Climate Justice League, joined in solidarity by Students for Justice in Palestine, organized a loud rally on March 12th outside the Ford Alumni Center ahead of the Trustees meeting, but despite the consistent engagement of students and the community for two years, the Trustees decided to delay choosing a plan until fall. Shame! Stay tuned. The students are committed. Student rally photos here courtesy of Robert Scherle. Kudos to the Eugene Sustainability Commission: Commissioners sent a letter in January to the Mayor and City Council to raise their awareness about the university’s pending decision about upgrading their thermal heating system. GTN Express Last Wednesday, activists in Seattle faced-off at Amazon’s Headquarters to protest the company’s plans to connect three of its four data centers near Boardman, OR to the planned GTN Xpress gas pipeline expansion. Go, Troublemakers! Read their press release here.  Forest Defense is Climate Defense Board of Forestry Votes to Approve the Habitat Conservation Plan A win! In early March, the Oregon Board of Forestry voted 4 to 3 to approve the long-awaited Habitat Conservation Plan. When implemented, this plan will significantly improve timber management and protect essential habitat in Western Oregon State-owned forests. Opposition from industry was fierce. Long-time activists say this was the first time since 1991 that anything facing united pushback from the timber industry has been approved in Oregon. All the grassroots work that has been done in recent years to secure a more open-minded Board and a new State Forester was fully validated by this vote. Thanks to everyone who submitted comments and showed up at public hearings. When we work together, we win! Where False Climate Solutions Come to Die A reprieve... Drax, the British peddler of false climate solutions has learned what organized opposition looks like in the Pacific Northwest! It has plans to build a wood biomass pellet manufacturing factory in Longview, Washington, downstream from Portland on the Columbia River. However, due to activists' pressure campaign demanding a rigorous environmental review, the Southwest Washington Clean Air Agency (SWCAA) withdrew their clean air permit and cancelled a public hearing on the Drax project scheduled for March 28th. A new permit will likely be submitted at a later date. Sometimes "delays" count as "wins"! Meanwhile, a well-organized ‘Ax Drax’ coalition in the U.S. is hard at work with activists in Asia, the U.K. and Canada to ensure misguided policy is corrected to reflect that burning wood for energy at scale is not a clean energy resource. Once corrected, this will eventually shut off the perverse demand for wood pellets to meet clean energy objectives and relieve the pressure on our vital carbon-storing forests. To learn more about the threat from Drax on the West Coast, tune in to the upcoming online forum on April 15th at 4 pm: “Golden State Natural Resources (GSNR) Biomass Boondoggle”. Register for the forum here. Northwest Forest Plan 30th Birthday Party: April 13th Since 1994, more than 24 million acres of federally-managed lands in the Pacific Northwest have been protected from the worst ravages of industrial logging, the first plan of its kind to successfully protect endangered species. Along with all the nation's national forests, this Plan is now due for an update to include issues not addressed in the original plan such as climate change, carbon sequestration, wildfire and tribal inclusion. A multi-stakeholder Federal Advisory Committee will present its recommendations soon. A public comment period will then begin. Meanwhile groups plan to come together in Portland on April 13th for a 30th Birthday Party for the Plan. Here’s where to find all the details of this free family-friendly event and to RSVP. Gotta celebrate progress! Divest Oregon It’s time to elect the next Oregon State Treasurer! The Divest Oregon Coalition is hosting a candidate forum in Portland on Tuesday, April 2nd.  With the passage of the COAL Act in the Oregon legislature’s short session, this campaign has had tremendous success! Come CELEBRATE the HUGE wins for Divest Oregon and the national divestment movement & KEEP the MOMENTUM going with the next Treasurer! Candidates Jeff Gudman & Senator Elizabeth Steiner will be participating in the forum. Moderated by the Oregon Capital Chronicle's Alex Baumhardt, the forum is free and open to the public. Register to attend or join online here. A celebration reception including food, slide show, music and a chance to meet the candidates will follow. Live Streaming will be available for those outside the Portland area — but you must RSVP. Attendees are invited to submit questions as part of their RSVP. Get Out the Vote Some say this may be the most important election of our lifetimes! According to the US Census, 37.9 million Americans are living in poverty, experiencing the global intersecting crises of climate change and biodiversity loss, all while our Democracy is coming under attack from authoritarians and corporations protecting their short-term profits. What can we do? Here’s one thing… We send postcards to encourage and educate our fellow citizens about the power of their vote. "Your Vote is Your Voice!" Democracy is like a muscle - we must exercise it to keep it strong! If you haven’t already, please let me know if you want to help Get Out The Vote beginning in May! Races are won by very small margins, so every card we send matters! Gratitude to those who have contacted me to participate! Debby at [email protected] (As a non-profit organization, 350 Eugene does not support or provide resources to individual electoral candidates. However, as “Private Citizen Debby," I can. If you want partisan postcards let me know!)  Resilience Mark Your Calendars In the Sacred Grove: Writing Our Relationship With Trees Gathering facilitated by Brian “Bragi” Sunset Saturday, May 11th 9:30 AM - 3:30 PM Campbell Community Center Suggested donation: $30. Pre registration opening soon Brian “Bragi” Sunset is a native Oregonian raised in the Willamette Valley. He holds an MA in Transformative Language Arts from Goddard College, in VT, and is a board-certified Holistic Healthcare Practitioner through the American Association of Drugless Practitioners. Creator of Soulful Oaks Journaling Arts, he facilitates process-oriented writing groups, including Journal to Wellness and In the Sacred Grove: Writing Our Relationship with Trees. Among other pursuits, Brian is currently exploring the ways in which journal writing moves energy, activates flow, and promotes physical, emotional, and spiritual health. In his spare time, he enjoys walking, playing music, and stargazing. Stay tuned for registration details. Sign On Today!Local Active Transportation (walking & biking) allies are working behind the scenes to make Eugene’s sidewalks safer. Please sign the safe sidewalks petition!  Stop Northwest Natural’s luxury travel junkets for politicians! Sign on to Sierra Club’s latest petition about the scandal: Call on all Oregon and Washington legislators to say no to the gas lobby's efforts to wine and dine them in Scandinavia. This fall Salem Reporter article covered the expose. (Maybe we can get the next junket scheduled for April canceled! Can you sign on today?) Also, we got confirmation that the two dems attending are Rep Helm's chief of staff, Greg Mintz, and Senator Meek himself. Please call them and leave voicemails (and write personalized emails!): Rep. Helm’s staffer Greg Mintz - (503) 986-1427 / [email protected] Sen. Meek (503) 986-1720 / [email protected] Talking points here. We're On Social Media
Have you noticed? We have a new FB page! Check Eugene 350 Facebook page here and our Instagram. Like us and share! A quote from Bill McKibben in the film BURNED: “It seems to me like climate change is a kind of final exam for our species. We’ll find out if the big brain was in fact a good idea or not. Maybe if it’s connected to a big enough heart to make a difference. We’ve been given ample warning by the world’s scientists. Now the question is whether we’ll heed it or not.” Bill McKibben, Author, Educator, Environmentalist, founder of 350.org & The Third Act It’s simple: carbon pollution from fossil fuels stays in the atmosphere, causing the planet to overheat dangerously and there’s complete scientific consensus on this fact. Join us in engaging the public to demand we protect our community, conserve and preserve what we love and upgrade our lifestyles to use safe, healthy and clean energy sources.
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