Just because we didn’t have a general meeting this month doesn’t mean we’re on vacation!
JOIN FRIDAYS FOR FUTURE
For those of you who haven’t seen the tweet thread, our amazing young friend Zoe (of Fridays for Future, Climate Action Families, and 350 Seattle) was arrested on Friday, because she’d been told the can she was given was spray chalk (it was paint), and she used it at City Hall. The police reaction is certainly…open to question (5 cars, about ten officers, and handcuffs, for a thirteen year old who was remorseful and totally cooperative).
What’s not open to question is her dedication. If you’re moved or appalled by what happened, what she’d really like you to do is please come support her and the other Fridays for Future kids this Friday at 1pm at City Hall (and every other Friday you can manage too). Zoe will also be there tomorrow for our…
SEATTLE FOR A GREEN NEW DEAL
This Monday, the Seattle City Council will vote on a Seattle for a Green New Deal resolution. Join us at the Council to show your support!
Vote YES for Seattle’s Green New Deal
Monday, August 12th, 2:00pm
Seattle City Hall, 601 5th Ave., Seattle 98104
RSVP and more details here.
The Green New Deal for Seattle resolution will lay out the vision, values, goals and timeline for the implementation of a transformational Green New Deal for our city. The Council can take this historic first major step toward implementing a Green New Deal for our city―and with corporate money pouring into the election, it’s more important than ever that everyday Seattlites show up to demonstrate that we, the people of Seattle, support a just, equitable Green New Deal for our city.
Whether you are able to make it on Monday or not, here are three things you can do right now to support the campaign: Sign our Petition.
Invite any organizations, community groups, faith leaders or small businesses that you know to endorse the campaign by adding their voice to this community letter.
Sign up to volunteer for the campaign! If enough of us come together, we can win meaningful change in our city.
PUBLIC HEARING ON TACOMA LNG
Listen up! We’re down to the wire on keeping Puget Sound Energy’s proposed fracked gas mega-project from becoming operational and we need your help!
Show up to a public hearing on the project and tell Puget Sound Clean Air Agency to deny the final permit for this toxic refinery! The agency has already announced that they intend to approve the permit–so show up, wear red, and help change their minds!
Public Hearing for PSE’s Tacoma LNG Plant
Tuesday, August 27
Testimony taken from 2:00–5:00pm and 6:30–10:00pm
Rialto Theater, 310 S 9th St, Tacoma, 98402
Stand with the Puyallup!
Before the hearing, join members of the Puyallup Tribe for a march to Rialto Theater followed by a rally!
Tuesday, August 27, 11:30am
Puyallup Tribal Administration Building, 3009 Portland Ave E, Tacoma 98404
Join us during the break for a free screening of Native Daily Network’s documentary “Ancestral Waters” which chronicles the Puyallup Tribe and Water Warriors’ movement to resist the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) facility currently being built without proper permits on the Tribe’s ancestral tide flats in violation of the Medicine Creek Treaty.
Screening of Ancestral Waters
Tuesday, August 27, 5:00pm
Urban Grace Church, 902 Market St, Tacoma 98402
You can also submit written comments on the permit through September 9th – here’s a handy comment link!
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE
New safety Information recently unearthed by Advocates for a Cleaner Tacoma shows that the City of Tacoma has been withholding critical safety analyses from the public: An evacuation zone stretching 12.6 miles in every direction!
Back in 2016, Grant Ringel, Director, Customer Market Strategies and LNG spokesman for PSE stated in the Tacoma News Tribune, “It is required that we are able to demonstrate through that process that whatever happens on the site, whether it be a pipe break or whether it be a roof of the tank collapsing, whatever might happen there, we have to study that and demonstrate that it is contained within the fence line,” He said. “If we can’t prove that, we will not be able to operate the plant, and I think this is really important for that to be out there and to be considered.”
So, by PSE’s own admission–this project is too dangerous to operate. You might want to include that when you personalize your comment on the project here.
Advocates for a Cleaner Tacoma has engaged an experienced environmental attorney to pursue regulatory and legal action to prevent the start-up and operation of the LNG tank. Your tax-deductible donations can help fund that work! Find the Donate button here.
SEATTLE CLIMATE WALKOUT
Young people around the world have organized massive global climate school strikes inspired by 16-year-old Swedish student Greta Thunberg’s leadership. This past March a record-breaking 1.4 million young people took to the streets to stand up for a safe, just, and healthy future. Now the youth climate movement is asking adults around the world to stand in solidarity with their upcoming Global Climate Walkout on September 20th. This event is shaping up to be the largest climate mobilization in history—at least three million people around the world are expected to take to the streets to call for climate justice.
Here in Seattle a broad array of multicultural and intergenerational organizations has come together to plan a major, peaceful, youth-lead Climate Walkout event on September 20th. Here’s how you can get involved:
350 Seattle General Meeting–Climate Walkout Informational
Wednesday, September 4, 6:30pm, doors open at 5:30
University Friends Meeting, 4001 9th Ave NE, Seattle 98105
Come hear how you can take part in the international walkout on 9/20 and the accompanying global week of action!
Climate Walkout Art Build at the Powerhouse
3940 Fremont Ave N, Seattle 98103
Monday, August 12, 4:00–8:00pm
Bring smiles, friends, food to share, and dress for mess!
Seattle Climate Walkout
Friday, September 20, 12:00pm
Seattle City Hall, 600 4th Ave., Seattle 98104
SEPTEMBER WEEK OF CLIMATE ACTION
As you and we both know, a one-day walkout, however well attended, won’t be enough. That’s why we’re joining with hair-on-fire climate activists around the world to call attention to the changes that need to be made to, well, save the effing planet, basically. Here’s one place to see, join and post actions across the state.
Washington Climate Week
Friday September 20–Friday September 27
Various locations around the state
Already in the works: opportunities to pressure decision-makers to do the right thing on the proposed LNG fracked gas project, including a 4 day walk led by Protectors of the Salish Sea beginning on Friday, September 20th at the LNG site, culminating in a climate emergency rally at the Capital Building in Olympia on Tuesday, September 24th. And the Power Past Fracked Gas coalition will be leading a visit to the Department of Ecology in Lacey on Monday the 23rd!
SKILL UP FOR ACTION
With the recent (re)approval of the TransMountain pipeline expansion, the continued construction of Puget Sound Energy’s fracked gas facility on Puyallup land without consent, and other unsustainable new and expanded fossil fuel projects proposed in our region, we’re gearing up the resistance. As the Global Climate Strike on September 20 and the subsequent week of action approaches, there may be calls to risk arrest or support those willing to do so. Our Pledge of Resistance team is launching a training series focused on nonviolent direct action to help skill up our movement to be ready for the call to action! More info and RSVP links here.
Upcoming Pledge of Resistance Trainings
Thursday, August 29: Security Culture 101, 7:00–9:00pm
Tuesday, September 10: Staying Healthy & Safe at Protests, 7:00–9:00pm
Thursday, September 12: Jail & Legal Support, 7:00–9:00pm
Saturday, September 14: Nonviolent Direct Action, 1:00–6:00pm
Locations vary, check details for each training.
TACOMA TRAIN WATCH
What the heck goes into the Port of Tacoma by rail, anyway? To find out, 350 Tacoma is organizing a 24-hour survey of fossil fuel rail traffic into, out of and through Tacoma. The hard data collected by intrepid volunteers like you will help educate the public, inform interim regulations, and establish a baseline for future surveys.
Train Watch Training
Monday, August 19, 6:30pm
350 Tacoma, 311 Puyallup Ave, Tacoma 98421
Tacoma Train Watch
Thursday, August 22, 8:00am–Friday 23, 8:00am
Collect data in the comfort of your car! Sign up for a two-hour shift here.
BUILD THE MOVEMENT
How will others join the climate movement if you won’t ask them? Chances are, they might not! Put yourself in the position to ask the curious and newly concerned to take their first steps on climate action by tabling and helping with outreach at any number of fun events this month: Outdoor music festivals, talks with athletic superstars, events with science geeks—we’ve got it all. Email Meg to sign up.
STRONGER TOGETHER
Frontline Allies welcomes your participation in everything from organizing trainings on undoing racism and other oppressive systems, to supporting our allies in climate-related justice work. To join contact Kara. More information and links are available here, including upcoming support and education opportunities.
We will be taking a break from our monthly meeting in August to work on some restructuring. If you’d like to step up to co-lead a team focusing on a specific issue connected to the systems of oppression that cause climate chaos, please contact Kara to discuss your interest and capacity!
Book club
The fall study group of “What It Means to Be White,” will have its first of six meetings on the evening of September 9th. Meetings will take place on the same day every other week. Email Barbara for details!
Mark your calendars!
Walk to Protect and Restore the Salish Sea, September 20-24:
Join Protectors of the Salish Sea and grassroots partners in an Indigenous-led walk from Puyallup lands to Nisqually village site of St,chas (Washington State Capitol) to demand the State of Washington to officially declare a Climate Emergency, and for our Legislators to draft Emergency Legislation to terminate all current fossil fuel expansion projects such as Tacoma LNG, Kalama Methanol, Puget Sound Pipeline (tar sands oil), Snohomish County Bilateral Pipeline, etc. The walk will culminate in a Climate Emergency Gathering at the Washington State Capitol on September 24. There are ways to plug in and support, or just come for the walk! More info coming soon, email Kara if you want to find out about specific roles.
A Gathering to Celebrate Xw’ullemy (the Salish Sea), September 27:
Please join Lummi Nation to celebrate and protect Xw’ullemy! If you’re coming by land, gather at Marine Park at high tide for speakers, music, and a demonstration of unity. If you have a boat—Tribal or non-tribal, fishing or leisure, big or small, Canadian or American—gather on the water at the border.
High Tide, 5:00 to 7:00pm at Marine Park in Blaine, WA
TRANSPORTATION UPDATE
Last Friday the Move All Seattle Sustainably (MASS) coalition presented its transportation package to the City Council’s Transportation and Sustainability Committee. The package includes proposed legislation on creating new bike lanes, improving bus priority on our streets, building sidewalks and making crosswalks safer. 350 Seattle is a member of the coalition, and we are proud to be part of this comprehensive effort to transform Seattle’s transportation system into one that is safer, more affordable, and less polluting of our air and climate!
MASS is working to get sponsorship for all the ordinances in the package in the coming weeks. If you can help work with council members to sponsor and pass these key bills, sign up here!“
PORT TEAM
Despite its reputation as an environmental leader, the Port of Seattle is planning to greatly expand aviation and cruising in coming years, notwithstanding the fact that this is incompatible with…life on Earth. So we’ve started a Port team! We have sub-teams focused on maritime, on aviation, on our vision for a real Port of the Future, and more. Email Emily to get plugged in.
THIS PLAN NEEDS YOUR INPUT
Ever heard of the Puget Sound Regional Council? They make the big, region-wide plans around here, and they’ve got a new one: Vision 2050, which will guide where growth occurs in our region over the next 30 years.
Ensuring transit-oriented growth, compact and clustered around transit connections, is key to reducing climate pollution from cars — and, right now, the plan doesn’t do nearly enough to promote transit-oriented development. We’ll submit an organizational comment, but more voices are needed—we encourage you to get involved and comment too.
Vision 2050 Open House
Tuesday, August 13,
Workshop 3:00–5:00pm, Open House 5:30–7:00pm
Union Station, 401 S Jackson Street, Seattle 98104
This is a good one to attend–more climate voices need to be heard by these folks!
OH NO NOT AGAIN
Noted chair-stealer Tim Eyman’s I-976 will be on the ballot this November, and, if passed, would slash revenues for Sound Transit, Seattle’s Transportation Benefit District funds, and a host of multi-modal transportation projects. In classic Eyman fashion it threatens a huge setback to climate-sensible transportation. And alas, the measure is polling well because it would save car owners a few bucks on their tabs and registration. Go here right now to learn more about the No on I-976 campaign and talk to all your car-owning family, friends and co-workers.
NAFTA UPDATE
Trade agreements are dangerous territory for Democrats because the corporate Dems tend to be pro trade, and yet, who wants to be on the side of Trump these days? Nevertheless, our Washington delegation (except for Pramila Jayapal and Adam Smith) still has not come out against Trump’s climate-killing NAFTA, even while all the leading Democratic contenders for President have signed a statement opposing the deal unless major changes are made.
So, this week and last, the Trade team has been meeting with Congressional reps in the Seattle area to continue to educate them about the horrendous aspects of NAFTA related to climate and workers. To get involved, contact Selden.
And keep an eye out on social media for an upcoming video about Trump’s NAFTA, starring some 350 Seattleites whose acting talent had previously been kept secret!
ARTFUL ACTIVISM
We welcome 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.
Mural wall needed
We need a high visibility wall for a beautiful mural that will stay up and raise awareness. Know of one? If you do or want to help us find one, 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.
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.
Join our Photo/Imagery Library Team!
We’re organizing our photos and imagery data and are looking for folks who want to join a team to do photo sorting and labeling for our events and our imagery library. Launching the team this month! Also looking for an imagery co-librarian! Contact Lisa.
ART IN THE PARK
Here’s a free outdoor all-ages event in Discovery Park featuring a screening of the symphonic multimedia Terra Nostra (“Our Earth”), “EarthQuake” by the Khambatta Dance Company, “Inhale/Exhale” animation by Artist Rachel Lodge, and a resource fair and family activities centered on the timely and important subject of climate change with local artists, scientists and environmental groups.
Symphony for Climate Change
Saturday, August 17, 4:00–7:00pm
Upper field, Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center, 5011 Bernie Whitebear Way, Seattle 98199
Bring something comfy to sit on, a picnic, and hope for great weather (wear sunscreen)!
GOT A CLIMATE QUESTION?
This year’s Ask a Scientist event will be an extravaganza of scientists, engineers, and other climate and energy experts with plenty of answers to those perplexing climate questions, like, Should the global warming potential of methane be counted over 20 or 100 years? And, how long do we have, anyway?
Besides the engrossing discussions over beer and tasty food, there will be hands-on scientific demonstrations of ocean acidification, global warming, and extreme weather events, as well as a climate bingo game with prizes, and a raffle! Fun for all ages!
Ask a Scientist
Monday August 26, 5:30–8:30pm
Lagunitas Seattle Tap Room & Beer Sanctuary
1550 NW 49th St., Seattle, Washington 98107
SEEKING EVENT SPONSORS! We’re holding our luscious, fun fall fundraiser, Intertwined, again this year on Friday, November 15th at the Centilia Cultural Center. The Events Team is looking for sponsors—are you a business owner or part of an organization that wants to support 350 Seattle by sponsoring our event? Here’s our sponsorship packet. Your support helps power our fight! Contact Shemona to sign up.
VOLUNTEER DROP-IN HOURS
Join us for our monthly drop-in hours to help make all the little behind-the-scenes tasks get done, or just chat with our volunteer engagement team to learn more about what’s going on with 350 Seattle.
Monthly Drop-In Hours
Wednesday, August 21, 3:00–7:00pm
350 Seattle, 1127 10th Ave. E., Seattle 98102
Contact Sheryl for more info.
That’s what we’ve got for August, climate warriors. Get ready for a rockin’ September!
