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INTRO
We start this month with joy and renewed energy because of some landmark victories we helped win in the California legislature. These victories build our power and momentum, encouraging us to keep going and showing everybody that we can defeat the fossil fuel industry on issues that significantly restrict its power to cause harm.
The legislature passed a ban on new permits for oil and gas drilling within 3,200 feet of “sensitive areas” (homes, schools, hospitals, etc.) This means, not only an end to new wells in those areas, but a phaseout of existing wells, which occasionally need new permits to keep operating. We want to get setbacks even further - to the point where it will not be worth having them there at all - but this was a victory big enough to celebrate. The other big victory is a ban on the use of “carbon capture and sequestration” technology for “enhanced oil recovery.” So they can’t use the captured carbon to get more gas and oil out of tired wells, which would increase GHG and pollution.


ACTION ALERTS

1) September 20: Send a Message to Chase: Stop Funding Climate Chaos
 


 
JP Morgan Chase, biggest funder of fossil fuels in the world, is holding its annual “team-building” race in San Francisco Tuesday, September 20, 6pm.. Join Oil and Gas Action Network and other climate justice groups to send a strong message: Chase must stop funding the climate crisis! Info/register here
Grandmother kayakers: Confront the Chase runners from the water with a kayak action at McCovey Cove, which has high visibility on the race route. After our stunning success on Aug 6 at the 10-year anniversary of Chevron's explosion in Richmond, we’re ready to show up at the Chase race. If you have an extra kayak to bring and share that'd be great.  If you’re interested, contact Maureen on Signal 510-506-6963.
 
2). Sept 23 – Global Climate Strike/No Coal in Oakland
Oakland is again threatened with the possible shipment of coal from its port. And the next Global Climate Strike is focusing on economic, racial, and international justice: #PeopleNotProfit!  # Climate Reparations! Youth vs Apocalypse is leading Oakland’s Global Strike event, saying NO to coal in Oakland and NO to all forms of violence.  They will gather at Oscar Grant/Frank Ogawa Plaza (Broadway and 14th St. Oakland). march on a 1-mile loop through downtown, then return to the plaza for a rally. Join them!  More info here and here. Join them!
 
3). Tell California Climate Planners: Phase Out Fossil Fuels!    
The California Air Resources Board is now making a plan for state climate action for the next five years. Join the California Environmental Justice Alliance and frontline community residents to call on Governor Newsom to support:
  • an economy-wide plan for a fossil fuel phaseout with 
  • no carbon capture scams in the 2022 Climate Change Scoping Plan. 
Urge Governor Newsom to direct his top air regulators to plan for a phaseout of fossil fuels in California
Call (866) 932-1358 or head to caleja.us/newsom to take action. More info here

4) Protect Juristac – No Quarry on Mutsun Ohlone Sacred Grounds
 


The sacred ceremonial heartland of the Amah Mutsun tribal band, near Gilroy, is threatened by a proposed 403-acre sand and gravel mining operation.  Your voice is needed during the public comment period to respond to the Environmental Impact Report; tools & text are provided at: protectjuristac.org/deir
 
6). Tell Congress to block Manchin’s dirty bill now! 
This “deal with the devil” would put frontline  communities at risk from projects like the Appalachian Mountain Valley Pipeline in Virginia, and would require the Interior Dept. to sell off millions of acres of public lands and waters for oil & gas projects. Take action here. 
More information about the Mountain Valley Pipeline and the people who have been fighting to prevent it here
 
7). Take Action to Stop Line 5! 
The Sierra Club recommends writing a Letter to the Editor of your local newspaper to help STOP LINE 5. Here is a summary of the main points of what damage Line 5 would create if it gets built:
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Announcement:
2022 Elections: Grandmother support to call key battleground states *

1)  We are organizing a training for Grandmothers who want to call voters in battleground states from your computers.  We have found an east-to-learn program for calling voters to assist them with voter registration and to get out the vote   We have set up a training next Friday September 16 at 10am-11:30am.. Val Robb, a Grandmother who lives in San Francisco, will be training us on Zoom to use the DNC's  new simple dialer system from our computers.  The training only takes about 15 minutes and then we will have time to make calls with tech support as needed. Please email Carolrothman@gmail.com to get a zoom link. If you can't make this training but are interested,  let Carol know and we will connect you with another training.
2). Please join us in phonebanking! 1000 Grandmothers' member Jane Lawhon will host a breakout group for Grandmothers from a small but mighty group of phone bankers which has roots in Swing Left and relationships with many campaigns including the DNC, Georgia Democrats, Abrams, Beto & more!  The DNC has great new technology with the Scale to Win predictive dialer, an excellent, accessible, intuitive platform.
The Grandmothers breakout group for phone banking will be every Monday from 3:30-5:30, starting Sept 19 (with the exception of Sept. 26, Rosh Hashanah) through Nov. 7.  We'll call into swing states, and a Zoom room will be open the whole time in case you get into trouble with technology.  All welcome to join.  Contact  mjanelawhon@gmail.com
  *These opportunities grew out of the work of the Election Work Group
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For weekly updates on actions and events with a focus on the Bay Area, check out the newsletter of the  Sunflower Alliance
 
1000 GRANDMOTHERS KEEP ON SHOWING UP
Sept 1: “No Dirty Pipeline Deal!” rally
 

 
Grandmothers joined many other climate activist groups on September 1 blocking the entrance to Senator Feinstein's office, while a smaller group staged a sit-in (six were later arrested). They demanded that Senator Feinstein, Speaker Pelosi, and all members of Congress commit to stopping the dirty deal written by and for the fossil fuel industry, promoted by Senator Manchin. If it becomes law, the deal will greenlight new fossil fuel projects that will perpetuate climate destruction and environmental racism.
 


 "HAVE YOU HEARD" - Climate News Highlights 

GOOD NEWS
  1. 3,200 ft Setbacks on New and Existing Wells Passes through the Legislature. In a major victory for the climate and polluted frontline communities -- and a major defeat for the fossil fuel industry – the California legislature just passed a bill that would ban new oil and gas drilling permits within 3,200 feet of homes, schools, hospitals, etc. The bill would not only stop new wells but put the brakes on existing wells, which sometimes require new permits to continue their operations.   
  2. “California pumps the brakes on gas cars” enacting a rule that will ban the sale of gasoline-powered passenger vehicles in the state by 2035.  The state aims to make 35% of new cars sold emissions free by 2026 & 68% emissions-free by 2030—a move that could reshape the U.S. auto market & eliminate the equivalent of the CO2 emitted by 100 coal plants in a year.  (This is a good first step – but we also need massive investment in a clean, convenient accessible public transportation system) 
  3. Congress reins in the recent horrible SCOTUS EPA decisionThe Supreme Court said the EPA couldn’t make any regulations not specifically authorized by legislation – but now the Inflation Reduction Act has amended the Clean Air Act’s definition of “greenhouse gases” to specifically include carbon dioxide. This strengthens the EPA’s underlying legal authority to regulate climate pollution.
BAD NEWS:
  1. Not so fast, Joe!  The Indigenous Environmental Network calls the Inflation Reduction Act a "Trojan Horse” —“an ineffective distraction that fails to address the root cause of the climate crisis--the necessity to ban extractive industries from further exploitation".   Instead of phasing out the fossil fuel industry, the IRA sets up a framework where wind & solar development is tied to increased oil and gas leasing for "energy security", e.g. no offshore wind lease sale without FIRST holding an offshore oil and gas lease sale of at least 600,000 acres. Most climate provisions are investments into false solutions like CCS, nuclear, hydrogen, biofuels & carbon trading, with the fossil fuel industry set to receive public funds for the development of these unproven technologies.  The IRA also sets up an infrastructure whereby carbon offsets are bought by fossil fuel industries to falsely claim they are "net-zero" or "carbon neutral" while continuing to pollute the atmosphere.  
  2. California Legislature Greenlights Carbon CaptureThe California legislature passed a bill that creates a process to facilitate carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) projects in the state. The silver lining (inserted after diligent advocacy by climate activists) is that the bill prohibits using the captured carbon for “enhanced oil recovery.” Most CCS projects pressurize the captured carbon dioxide and use it to force more oil and gas out of tired wells. This obviously adds to emissions of greenhouse gases (and frontline community pollution) so it defeats the whole idea of reducing carbon in the atmosphere.
     
Resources
Climate Solutions from Global Women and Gender Diverse Leaders, September 20-22
 

 
In the runup to the COP 27 in November, WECAN, (Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network) is hosting a three-day,  in-person and online forum: Women Leading Fossil Fuel Divestment and Resistance, featuring grassroots, Indigenous, Black, Brown, and frontline women and gender diverse leaders talking about the need for “the solutions of women and gender diverse leaders to protect our communities and the global climate,” and demanding that “governments and financial institutions take urgent climate action while supporting women’s leadership.”  Details and register here
 
More on actions we can take for real solutions to the climate crisis:
 Anya Crittendon has summarized in Green America’s magazine some of the clear actions one can take to work toward an equitable and diverse future of environmentalism. https://www.greenamerica.org/publications-flipbooks. [Download Summer 2022 issue and see page 8].


Some Recent Reports on False Solution
Carbon Capture and Sequestration
1).  Suck It Up
This article by Paul Lauter in the summer issue of the Sierra Club magazine reports that the IPCC says stopping greenhouse gas emissions is not enough – we need to pull carbon out of the atmosphere. But environmentalists say this should be accomplished naturally in soils and forests. This article shows why the fossil fuel industry’s Carbon Capture and Sequestration doesn’t work and can’t work to solve the problem, even though the federal government is heavily subsidizing these projects. 
 
2).  Every Dollar Spent On this Climate Technology is a Waste 
This OpEd from the New York Times details the ways that the fossil fuel industry’s strategy of Carbon Capture and Sequestration is a dangerous diversion of resources from real solutions. 
 

Carbon Offsets
3) This John Oliver video, The Problems with Carbon Offsets,  exposes the fake science and the scams behind the idea that it’s OK to keep emitting carbon dioxide if you buy “offsets” that supposedly reduce climate destruction.
 



 GRANDMA SAYS

This month, Grandma has been spending time with her new grandchild.  The moments are filled with awe, excitement, falling in love, and feeling the heartache of imagining his future as this climate crisis progresses.  1000 Grandmothers is clear and adamant in explaining that we define 'grandmothers' as a generational term (not a biological one).  At the same time, it is also true that many of us have biological and non-biological grandchildren who we love dearly.  Unlike the image of 'retirement' as one filled with free time and leisure, those of us lucky enough to live near our grandchildren are often depended on for regular and suddenly needed childcare.  Our lives are shaped dramatically by our grandchildren as they have always been shaped by our children.  This month, I would like to appreciate the deep love and connection we have to the future through our grandchildren, and recognize that this is one of the profound stakes we have in participating in building the power of the Climate Justice Movement.
 If you are in contact with Grandmothers in other states (particularly purple states) that you think might be interested in starting 1000 Grandmothers chapters where they live, please contact nancy at nfeinst@gmail.com and put 'Grandmothers in other states' in the subject line.


OUR ORGANIZATIONAL WORK - inside story - COME JOIN IN with us
 
Coordinating Committee
The Coordinating Committee continues to be in discussion about how to frame and communicate  the strategic question of what is included in   1000 Grandmother's  focus on climate justice, and what lies outside what we do as 1000 Grandmothers (even if it is something important for us to engage with as individuals).     We have also shifted some of our energies to support election efforts during this time.  And we are in conversation with Third Act about working together. 
 
Engagement Working Group 
   
 
1000 GRANDMOTHERS INFORMATION SESSIONS ON ZOOM
Tuesday, September 20, 7:00-8:15pm
Sunday, October 16, 4:00-5:15pm
 
The Engagement Working Group has launched monthly Information Sessions with great success. Attendees have found them fun and inspiring. Several new Grandmothers have joined circles and working groups.
Whether you’re new to the Grandmothers or already active, you’re invited to join a small intimate Zoom gathering to learn about 1000 Grandmothers’ history and principles, and how to get more involved to address the climate emergency and further the work for climate justice!! 
To sign-up for the September or October sessions, please email info@1000grandmothers.net using subject line: “Interested in Information Sessions” and let us know which month you wish to attend.
Also, the ENGAGEMENT WORKING GROUP WELCOMES NEW MEMBERS!  We are a hard-working group of dynamic women!  We prepare the Information Sessions desribed above. We also help to facilitate the formation of new circles.  We'd love to have you join us! Email nikkisachs@gmail.com

Election Work Group  
Our Election Work groups are hard at work sending thousands of postcards and letters to battleground states.  See above, (highlighted in yellow in this newletter) for information about phone-banking. Also, regarding canvassing,   a reminder from info you received from 1000 Grandmothers  this weekend:  If you are interested in doing in-person canvassing in the key battleground state, Nevada, contact rbaker@berkeley.edu

Nonviolent Direct Action Group (NVDA Group)
The NVDA Working Group is for members of 1000 Grandmothers who want to engage in peaceful protest, blocking streets for indigenous allies, participating in group demonstrations, and street art.  New members welcome. If you’re interested, email: info@1000Grandmothers.net 
Our next NVDA meeting will be on Sunday, September 18, 2-4 pm outside in person at:
Maureen’s backyard
643 San Fernando Ave.
North Berkeley, CA 94707 
510-506-6963
If you’re taking BART, get off at the North Berkeley BART station and someone will pick you up and drop you back off after the meeting. Please let me know (rather than Reply All) so I can match you up with a driver.
Please let Leanne know (leanne@portfolio-of-passions.com) so she can match you up with a driver.
NEED DRIVER VOLUNTEERS PLEASE! If you can do pick-ups and/or drop-offs at the North Berkeley BART station, please let Leanne know. She will put you in touch with riders.
NEED A RIDE? Please let Leanne know if you’ll need a ride from BART to the house and vice versa.
 
Legislative Working Group
            We have been busy! We tracked the California legislative session in conjunction with the Eliminate Fossil Fuels 350 Bay Area Legislative Action Team. With our help, and efforts of countless others, the following important climate bills passed and are headed to Governor Newsom’s desk:
  • AB 1757 (C. Garcia and Rivas): Requires state agencies to set targets for natural carbon removal on natural, agricultural, and urban lands, 
  • SB 1137 (Gonzalez): Establishes 3,200-foot public health setbacks between new oil and gas drilling permits and homes, schools, playgrounds, and hospitals, an effort led by frontline community groups in the VISIÓN coalition.
  • AB 1279 (Marutsachi): Establishes a statutory target for reaching carbon neutrality and reducing emissions at least 85 percent by no later than 2045.
  • SB 1020 (Laird): Accelerates California’s interim clean electricity targets, including a goal to reach 90 percent by 2035.
  • SB 1314 (Limón): Bans the use of enhanced oil recovery, a practice commonly employed by the oil and gas industry in fossil fuel carbon capture and storage. 
Thank Governor Newsom for his leadership and urge him to sign these bills into law :

 On the federal side we have been working with 350 Bay Area’s Federal Action team to urge all Northern California Congressional Reps (including Speaker Pelosi and Sens Padilla and Feinstein) to form a united front on the Climate Crisis, calling for, among other things, a phase-out of ALL use of fossil fuels within 10-15 years. 
We have already met with (retiring) Congressman Jerry McNerney, and the staffs of both Senators, Jared Huffman, Barbara Lee, Mark DeSaulnier, Ro Khanna, and John Garamendi.  We are planning meetings with the staffs of Nancy Pelosi and others.
Each meeting includes a strong pitch for OPPOSITION to the so-called Side Deal to the Inflation Reduction Act, which would ease the permitting process for new fossil fuel projects.
Call or email me if you wish to join our team as an active member.
Barbara Rhine
(510) 407-6158
barbrhine@pacbell.net
 

Book Group
For September and October the 1000 Grandmothers book group is reading Orwell's Roses by Rebecca Solnit. We follow a simple format: sharing a significant passage from our readings or a concept and a personal check-in.  Somehow, this approach results in good conversation about our reading and sets the stage for a wider or more focused open conversation.  Participants in the group decide on the reading. We meet the first Thursday of the month from 2 to 3:30 pm.  All are welcome.  Attendance at every meeting, which is virtual, is not required. Contact Grace at gracehisaye@gmail.com to join.
 
Book Recommendation
 

What Storm, What Thunder, a novel by award-winning author Myriam J.A. Chancy, manifests the varied voices of Haitians at the time of the 7.0 earthquake in January 2010: Haitians who live in tent cities, engage in sex work, possess great wealth, are mothers who survived without their children, an emigre musician and more. Chancy, a Haitian-Canadian-American writer and professor at Scripps College, intertwines the lives of her characters, pulling the reader into the trauma of that day and the days that follow.
Excerpt:
“…I needed freedom from the land that had borne me yet would suffocate me with the dust these women swept up in the dance of moving between sacks of beans and towers of avocado, kicked up between feet and pleated skirts. The women of my childhood were dreams, long-ago apparitions, ghosts."
 

1000 Grandmothers San Francisco Circle
In August, the SF Circle heard reports from members involved in 1000 Grandmothers activites, including legislative work, the NVDA group, the engagement working group, and work on the elections. In addition, members reported on Fix My Funds (which provides guidance on how to tell if investment funds are truly fossil free), the Bay Area Climate Justice Spokescouncil (which coordinates the work of local groups), and resources explaining why “carbon capture and sequestration” is a false solution to the climate crisis.
The SF circle held its September meeting on the 8th to accommodate some members’ travel schedules. As part of a plan to look together at the Grands’ Organizational Principles over the course of the next few meetings, they discussed the first principle (nonviolence).
If you live in San Francisco, you are welcome to join the SF Circle. Please contact Circle member Sharn Matusek, <smatusek1@sbcglobal.net>and/or sign up to attend a 1000 Grandmothers Information Session by emailing <info@1000grandmothers.net>

Green Grannies Circle
We are excited to introduce ourselves as a new 1000 Grandmothers circle.  We call ourselves Green Grannies in Action (Green Grannies for short). We have members from both SF and the East Bay. This is our circle’s origin story. Many of us are in a book group together. One member, China, is on the board of 350.org and proposed reading The Ministry for The Future by Kim Stanley Robinson. Our conversation about the book and the world, led some of us to be eager to join 1000 Grndmothers. We asked a few other friends to join our circle. Other friends have expressed interest in joining us in the d,irect actions when they can. Although many of us have been activists for decades, we vary greatly as to our understanding of the global climate crisis. Most of us have much to learn. We are drawn to 1,000 Grandmothers because of its principles and the opportunity to take action to save the planet.
As part of 1,000 Grandmothers, we all agreed that the Nonviolent Direct Action Committee (NVDA) is what we are most interested in. We start our meetings with a poem.  At our last meeting, we discussed our feelings and thoughts about the Biden legislation on climate. We’re starting to learn about 1000 Grandmothers and get involved. We went to the picnic in Berkeley. A number of us are attending the NVDA Committee meetings. Our member Nancy K has volunteered to be the holder of 1000 Grandmother shirts in the East Bay for the organization.


IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS OR LETTERS TO THE NEWSLETTER EDITORS, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CONTACT us at jeantepper@gmail.com 

 


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