By Liz Theoharis, originally published by Tom Dispatch

Climate change is harming people in the United States and around the world. While climate change harms people from all walks of life, those who have done the least to cause climate change often suffer the most, while those who have emitted the most carbon pollution often suffer the least. Climate change also exacerbates existing vulnerabilities, including those based on personal factors (such as age or existing health issues) and social factors (such as systemic racism and poverty). Moreover, investments in climate change solutions, such as flood protection or renewable energy, often tend to benefit people and communities who are already advantaged...

https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/who-supports-climate-justice-in-the-u-s/

Raise your hand if you’ve recently engaged in an insult-slinging argument that started as an attempt at a civil discussion about some hot-button issue. Many of us have, and with high-stakes elections looming, the already fiery discourse will likely only intensify.

Though it might feel satisfying in the moment, calling someone a bleeping—insert your favorite derogatory term here—is never going to help them understand your point of view. Rather, experts in persuasive communication say, it’s crucial to focus on curiosity and compassion, and to make it clear that you don’t think the person you’re talking to is the enemy—or look down on them...

https://time.com/6224300/how-to-change-someones-mind/

So you think it’s hot out there now? Consider the summer of 2053. That’s what researchers at First Street Foundation, a New York nonprofit that studies climate risk, have done in a report published today.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-15/us-south-midwest-will-reach-temps-of-125-f-by-2050s

Climate change is widely acknowledged as the existential crisis of our time, a “code red for humanity,” in the words of United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. With the Senate’s passage of the Inflation Reduction Act on Sunday — in the middle of a summer that has brought record heat and innumerable weather-related disasters — it looks like the federal government will finally take some long overdue action on climate change...

https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/3594406-can-philanthropy-rise-to-the-challenge-of-combating-climate-change/

Climate Change Teaching for Our Children's Futures

by Ginny Monk May 19, 2022

Connecticut schools will soon be required to teach climate change as a part of the science curriculum, a move state legislators and advocates say will mean changes at a small percentage of schools that aren’t yet bringing the subject to the classroom...

https://ctmirror.org/2022/05/19/ct-schools-will-soon-be-required-to-teach-climate-change/

Connecticut is not on track to meet the greenhouse gas emission goals set by the legislature — and transportation emissions are the main culprit.

The state’s annual Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory released Monday, which looks at data through 2018, shows transportation emissions are higher than they were in 1990, despite greater fuel efficiency in motor vehicles...

https://ctmirror.org/2021/09/07/ct-greenhouse-gas-emissions-rise-transportation-climate-initiative/

On April 6th, Dr. Peter Kalmus, NASA climate scientist and author, walked up to the JP Morgan Chase bank building in Los Angeles, pulled a pair of handcuffs out of a cloth bag and chained himself to the front door. With tears in his eyes, he spoke about the climate crisis to a group of supporters. ..

https://www.salon.com/2022/05/08/prognostic-myopia/

Climate change’s negative effects are coming to bear on high-priority philanthropic issues. More and better funding can protect vulnerable stakeholders and speed the net-zero transition.

https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/sustainability/our-insights/its-time-for-philanthropy-to-step-up-the-fight-against-climate-change

DEEP released the Final Determination for Phase I of the Equitable Energy Efficiency (E3) Proceeding. The Final Determination contains eight high-level Goals and several associated Actions designed to characterize and enhance equity in Connecticut’s energy efficiency programs. More information about the E3 Proceeding, including a summary of public comments and a Summer 2021 Progress Report, can be found on our E3 webpage. DEEP sincerely thanks everyone that participated in this process through the submission of written comments or attendance at public meetings.

The Governor’s Council on Climate Change (GC3) Recommendations included several on sustainable materials management. Important steps were taken to address waste in Connecticut in the 2021 legislative session with the passage of the Public Act 21-58, An Act Concerning Solid Waste Management, known as the “Bottle Bill.” DEEP has begun seeking public input on the implementation of the Bottle Bill. It includes an increased handling fee for containers, expansion of the types of containers covered under the Bottle Bill, increased deposits on containers, and other requirements to streamline the redemption of containers. A virtual public meeting on the stakeholder engagement process  will be held on Monday, August 9, 2021, 2 - 4 pm. Register here. More information on Connecticut's Bottle Bill Modernization Stakeholder Process is available here. The RecycleCT Foundation has also recently launched the Recycle CT Wizard App showing residents which items are acceptable in the recycling bin.

The RecycleCT Foundation has recently launched the Recycle CT Wizard App. The app builds on the successful RecycleCT Wizard search tool. The app languages beyond English and Spanish such as French, Portuguese, and Simplified Chinese. The app shows residents which items are acceptable in the recycling bin. the app also allows users to contact local recycling coordinators, or transfer stations, and to find out how to properly dispose of other materials.

A reminder to check out the FEMA webinar series starting July 28 in preparation for the FY21 $1 billion Building Resilient Infrastructure in Communities (BRIC) grant program to be announced in August. We highly recommend attending these webinars if you are considering applying for these grants. The webinar topics are listed below.

Register here for "Responding to Extreme Heat in Connecticut," a Climate Solutions Webinar, on Monday, August 9, 2021, at 12 pm. More details on this webinar below.

Sincerely,
Dr. Rebecca French
Director of the Office of Climate Planning

It is hard to make good decisions without good data. From the scale of nationwide efforts to improve education and healthcare to the day-to-day decisions faced by boards and staff of the smallest nonprofit organization, access to data that can be trusted to be true is critical. We trust those who collect our history and data—organize it and make it available—to do their jobs with integrity and a commitment to guarding its accuracy and completeness. We trust them to protect it from those who may have a reason to twist, hide, or destroy facts and stories they do not like...

https://nonprofitquarterly.org/the-national-archives-in-one-more-case-of-whitewashing-the-historical-record/

By DANA KAWAOKA-CHEN | December 4, 2018

AnonMoos [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons

As we prepare to close out 2018 and reflect upon the past year, it’s overwhelming to think about the countless crises that have erupted and disrupted communities around the country, including the growing incidence of extreme climate events, mounting wealth and income inequality, increasing urban displacement, gentrification, and families separated at the border. The rising tide of crises demonstrates the need for massive and systemic change...

More than forty years after Dr. King asked, “Where do we go from here?” American society is still grappling with the question.

From Chicago to Minneapolis to Baltimore, our nation is in the midst of a defining moment of racial, social, and economic change. For communities of color, this moment is particularly stark and has been magnified by the courageous #BlackLivesMatter movement, which emerged in response to a long history of police violence and criminal injustice against black men and women.

Social justice, racial equity, and systems change are critical for today's black men and boys, particularly given the barriers... more.