Tag Archives: Climate Emergency

Elemental: Reimagine Wildfire 5/31

The UC Davis Institute of the Environment, Environmental and Climate Justice Hub, Climate Adaptation Research Center, and Manetti Shrem Museum invite you to a very special presentation of a groundbreaking documentary urging us to rethink our relationship with wildfire.

Elemental: Reimagine Wildfire screening will start at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 31, at the Manetti Shrem Museum in the Community Education Room on the UC Davis campus. A panel discussion will follow the screening.

This event is free and everyone is welcome to attend. Light refreshments will be served.

With fire seasons growing more destructive and more deadly, we see that our approach to reducing wildfire risk is failing. The way we respond to this risk will have long-term effects on our communities and our forests.

Don’t miss a special screening of Elemental: Reimagine Wildfire, a film that invites you to reimagine your relationship with wildfire through the eyes of top scientists and indigenous fire managers who are leading the way toward living with this essential element.

The film starts at 4:30pm in Community Room at the Manetti Shrem Museum, and after the screening the filmmakers will be available for a Q&A discussion.

About Elemental: Reimagine Wildfire

In the wake of recent fires, Portland filmmakers Trip Jennings, Sara Quinn, and Ralph Bloemers took to the air and the ground to help communities make sense of wildfires in a hotter, drier, more crowded world. Elemental is the product of their journey across the United States and into fire affected communities.

Chief of the United States Forest Service Mike Dombeck (Ret.) remarks that “Elemental is an outstanding film that deserves the widest possible viewing. In a visually stunning manner, it distills what we’ve learned about wildland fire over the decades and provides a road-map for badly needed changes that will benefit thousands of people, particularly in fire prone communities.”

Produced and edited in Oregon, Narrated by David Oyelowo (Emmy & Golden Globe Nominee), supported by National Geographic and Patagonia.

Click here to register!

Third Act National Day of Action 3/21

Please join Third Act Sacramento in a National Day of Action on 3.21.23 when people across the country will withdraw their money and cut up their credit cards from the Four Big Dirty Banks: Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Citibank; the biggest funders of fossil fuel projects.

The goals of this action are:

1) Shame these banks for bankrolling our climate crisis.

2) Let the banks know that we won’t be complicit in the destruction of the earth.

3) Pressure the banks to stop funding fossil fuel projects.

4) Have fun while helping to create a healthier, more livable future.

This National Day of Action is for all ages, and all are encouraged to sign the pledge to move your money. Volunteers in Third Act Sacramento have created a factsheet on local alternative banking options that do not fund global heating and destruction of our precious earth. For more information about the Day of Action and other creative protests in the lead-up to March 21, go to https://thirdact.org/national-day-of-action/ or contact us at thirdactsac[at]gmail[dot]com.

Information on local actions: find the Sacramento or Davis actions on the map and sign up to receive more information and updates.

ECOS Climate Committee Meeting 1/19

Thursday, January 19th, 2023 – 6:00pm-7:30pm

Zoom link: ECOS ZOOM 6656164155 or call: 1 669 900 6833, Mtg ID: 665 616 4155

6:00 Welcome from Ralph Propper, Climate Committee Chair, and Susan Herre, President of BoD

6:10 Featuring: Meg Cederoth, Director of Planning and Sustainability, CA High Speed Rail Authority; Annika Ragsdale, formerly Climate Analyst for CA HSR, currently Lead Resilience Consultant for WSP

  • Overview of the California High-Speed Rail program and current construction activities
  • CA HSR’s Award-winning Sustainability Program: greenhouse gas mitigation and tracking, construction requirements, criteria air pollutant reductions, habitat conservation, and climate adaptation

6:40 Transportation Team Discussion, continued from previous night’s meeting

  • Continue discussion of “green” transportation for Sacramento region. What changes will be needed to meet the State’s climate goals by 2030, 2050? Is it greater than we are imagining?
  • How to make this new transportation team come to life. Where will it focus its energies?

This meeting is open to everyone interested in addressing one of our region’s most pressing challenges.

Climate Update

On June 30, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court said that without “clear congressional authorization,” the Environmental Protection Agency was powerless to aggressively address climate change, to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. Congress is gridlocked now, but one day Congress will act. Meanwhile the Biden administration is working with many other federal agencies and the private sector to implement clean energy projects and operations.

A few weeks earlier, at the Citizens’ Climate Lobby June 2022 conference, Executive Director Madeleine Para referred to CCL’s extended efforts on carbon fees and dividends with the U.S. Congress, and the sad reality that there isn’t yet enough political will to “pass the biggest, most critical climate policies into law.” So, in addition to carbon fees and dividends, CCL has decided to throw its weight behind Clean Energy and Natural/Land-based Solutions, particularly forests and reforestation to store and remove carbon and help insects, birds and animals adapt to an already-changing climate.

CCL is focused on national and regional issues while ECOS focuses on the Sacramento region. It is important that California and Sacramento lead because “when the people lead, the leaders will follow” – Mahatma Gandhi. We need to get local elected officials to be more aggressive in climate action.

The CARB Scoping Plan states “Many jurisdictions are already asserting bold climate leadership, yet meeting the challenge of climate change requires more widespread action at the local level – roughly 35 percent of California’s GHG reduction potential is from activities that local governments have authority or important influence over.” Here’s a good article, As Federal Climate-Fighting Tools Are Taken Away, Cities and States Step Up, about action by localities on climate change.