Greta Thunberg spoke at the United Nations Climate Action Summit yesterday. "You have stolen my dreams and my childhood!" roared Thunberg to the world leaders gathered for the Summit. "People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!"
Indeed, how dare they. The Summit, was convened to garner commitments for more aggressive action against climate change, and it did not go well. While some smaller nations stepped up to the plate with deeper, though still inadequate, commitments, the three biggest greenhouse gas emitters -- the United States, China, and India -- failed miserably.
Over 11,000 people and eighteen presidential candidates are expected to attend Saturday's Polk County Steak Fry. We plan to bird-dog every politician there on one or more aspects of the climate crisis, and to make a strong showing for climate action before local, national, and international media, too. If you're coming and would like to help, let us know ASAP.
Dear Friends, Socrates was condemned for corrupting the youth of Athens. At the risk of being accused of corrupting the youth of Iowa, I ask K-12 and college students to join School Strike for Climate on March 15 … and beyond. All successful movements are built on a foundation of failure interspersed with moments of incremental progress. It’s important to recognize the seeds of climate action sown in the past. But with only eleven years to transform our world to keep global warming below 1.5°
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Dear Friends, “Everything needs to change, and it has to start today.” Those are the words of 16-year-old Greta Thunberg of Sweden. If even 1 percent of the 8,500 people receiving this email watch Greta’s speech and embrace her call to “change everything,” we’d have another 85 people committed to tackling the climate crisis. What an impact that would have! So please, invest eleven minutes and eleven seconds RIGHT NOW in this simple ask. Watch Greta’s TED talk. And if you’re as inspired as I
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