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The Climate Activist is brought to you by the Climate Emergency Mobilization Team. For more information about the team, please click here.

This newsletter supports local climate activists in their efforts to reduce climate warming emissions and increase carbon sequestration. It also features actions taken by climate activists across the country who are making the transformational changes needed to restore a safe and stable climate.

Source: NOAA Climate.gov

We’ve seen — and perhaps experienced — recent disastrous floods in West Virginia, Kentucky and Wyoming. These were all instances of too much rain, coming down too fast, overwhelming the infrastructure built for what was once a predictable climate.

As the chart above shows, the more we enable a rising temperature, the more water vapor the atmosphere holds and eventually drops in flash floods, hurricanes, heavy snows and other extreme weather events.

It’s up to us to decide whether we want to face a yearly tradition of increasingly torrential, multi-billion dollar storms, or invest more now in cooling our planet.

What can communities learn from one another to address the climate crisis locally?

Better neighborhood streets with the Inflation Reduction Act

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), signed by President Biden in August, unleashes huge investments aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions quickly. The IRA includes tax credits and rebates for electric vehicles, solar panels, and heat pump appliances for houses. School districts and cities can apply for grants to buy zero-emission buses.

There is also money for actions at the community level. A buried treasure in the IRA is the Neighborhood Access and Equity Grant Program, which provides $3 billion for projects in neighborhoods with heavily trafficked roads. It will fund upgrades that redesign roads for the benefit of non-auto users, add walking and biking infrastructure, and make it safer to get around without a car.

Do your streets need better sidewalks, protected bike lanes, or central medians for safe pedestrian crossing? From our Local Climate Actions Toolbox, see Protected Bike Lanes or browse Safe Streets, Vision Zero or Complete Streets to find redesign features that would make your streets safer.

If your neighborhood is eligible, gather support and ask your local government to apply for a Neighborhood Access grant to fund upgrades that improve bike and pedestrian safety. This program will be administered by the Federal Highway Administration.

It’s time to halt the damage of the U.S. consumerist culture — A key contributor to the climate crisis

Americans’ tendency to eat, buy and choose less sustainable products has led to the country’s over-sized carbon footprint and impact on climate change. In particular, our reliance on personal vehicles and our diet preferences are huge contributors to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

The negative effects of this lifestyle are felt most acutely by people in developing countries. The U.S. must take action now to create climate-friendly behaviors and become a role model for other countries.

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Fossil fuel divestment: The role of universities in combating climate change

The current Advocacy Chair for DivestVU, a student-led fossil fuel divestment organization at Vanderbilt University, makes a case for universities to divest fossil fuel stocks from their investment portfolios. Such divestment would stigmatize fossil fuels and reduce the financial desirability of assets in this sector.

Instead, universities should invest in clean energy sources, thus enabling the renewable energy industry to gain financial and political power. Moreover, the clean energy sector is an appealing financial investment since it has shown steady positive returns over the past several years.

The author offers guidance for activists interested in starting a fossil fuel divestment campaign.

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How colleges can reduce their greenhouse gas emissions

Just a handful of U.S. colleges have achieved carbon neutrality through comprehensive climate action plans (CAP).

The author outlines several strategies that colleges can use to reduce energy and transportation-related emissions and to combat waste. The purchase of carbon offsets should be researched carefully and used sparingly. While they are helpful when they support critical projects, they can provide false reassurance as institutions continue their unsustainable practices while paying others to reduce or absorb emissions generated elsewhere.

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The Peaker problem — An overview of peaker power plants and impacts in Boston, Philadelphia, and Detroit

A "peaker" power plant supplies power quickly and temporarily as a region's demand for energy spikes or as a way to balance intermittent energy sources, such as solar, wind. Like other power plants, most of these plants rely on burning oil and natural gas (methane). But they do so inefficiently, a cost of their ability to ramp up power rapidly. As a consequence, they contribute inordinately to emissions, which in turn worsen global warming and harm the health of local communities, particularly in urban areas.

As this report points out, "Nationwide, the majority of peaker plants are located in communities that have a higher than-average percentage of low-income households, and the dirtiest peakers disproportionately impact communities of color." It looks at communities in Boston, Philadelphia, and Detroit, describing the existing burden imposed by peakers and what is being done to support a just clean energy transition.

Learn more about this report >>