sometimes climate action is spooky
The rich and powerful have a busy fortnight ahead. COP 26 began today in Glasgow, where world leaders are meeting in what feels like our last chance to secure a non-dystopian future. U.N. Secretary General António Guterres called it “a critical milestone in our efforts to avert climate catastrophe” back in February.
Meanwhile, Congress is is rapidly butchering what began as an ambitious climate agenda, cutting away critical programs that could have given us a real shot — and for what? To cater to a couple senators who want coal money and media attention more than they want to make this country a better place.
It's difficult not to feel hopeless right now. The infuriating, immovable truth is that our politicians care more about the rights of the wealthy to make more money than they care about the rights of the vulnerable to live. I am tired, bone-tired, of arguing for my life while oil and tech moguls are given an even greater platform to argue for their comfort and supremacy.
So it is with a bone-weary sigh, a sigh that echoes in the realm of the dead on this spooky Halloween day, that I’m going to commit to something very annoying but very necessary:
I’m gonna call my goddamn reps
I’m willing to bet that “Contact Your Representatives” is the most popular call-to-action in political movements but the least followed up on. People hate doing this; I definitely hate doing this. But it does make a difference.
Call4Climate is a hotline developed by Fossil Free Media that connects you to your members of Congress so you can speak to someone in the office or leave a voicemail. They also have a short, punchy script for you to read from. In my experience volunteering for campaigns, scripts like this are extremely helpful to calm your nerves and guide you through the process. However, I have a bit more to say, so here’s the version that I’ll be reading off this week:
Hi, my name is Lauren, and I’m a constituent living in Denver. I want to ask the [Senator/Representative] to support a bold climate bill that takes urgent action to address the climate crisis. This means funding policies that deliver on President Biden’s goal to cut carbon pollution in half by the end of the decade.
This crisis directly impacts your constituents. Denver had some of the worst air quality in the world this summer, and it will only get worse for the rest of my life unless you support big changes right now. We need you to fight for us. Please go big on climate action NOW. Later is too late. Thank you.
There’s a lot more I could say, but I’m keeping it short to give myself less work to do. Because y’all, I really hate doing this. I hate it a lot. Calling anyone on the phone makes me anxious, let alone someone who is making decisions that directly affect how much misery I will endure for the rest of my life. But the dread that I feel when I pick up the phone is nothing compared to the dread of imagining that our elected officials may come out of these next few weeks having changed nothing, having decided that our future is not worth saving.
So I’m going to do the damn thing, and I’m going to ask you to consider doing the same.
Call your goddamn reps with me
Dial 202-318-1885. This is the Call4Climate line. Using this line stores your number in the service’s system, and you may get texts from them later on with major updates or action items.
Give the hotline your ZIP code and wait to be connected to the right office. Alternatively, you can reach your reps directly — find your senators’ numbers here and your representative’s number here.
When you’re either connected with a person or prompted to leave a voicemail, you can read this script from the Call4Climate website, or you can say something of your own.
And that’s it! It’s not fun, but it’s not very long either.
I’m going to do this at least once a week, for each of my elected officials (that’s three total: two senators and a rep). All of the people on my list are Democrats, which makes this a bit easier. But if you are represented by Republicans, you should still let them know that their jobs are on the line, and that there will be backlash if they oppose the legislation we need.
Apply some peer pressure
Every call does count, even if it doesn’t feel that way to us. But numbers matter here. Government offices use calls from constituents as data to determine what they should focus on, so more calls = more pressure. If you call the hotline, once you’re done, invite five friends (or 100 newsletter subscribers) to do the same. Show them that you lived to tell the tale, and that anyone can take three minutes to do this.
Think of it as my special Spooky Season request. If you can make it through a scary movie, if you can spend 45 minutes on your (I’m sure very excellent) Halloween costume makeup, then you can do this scary thing. If nothing else, just know that if I can do it, you can definitely do it.
If you do contact one of your reps in the next couple weeks, please reply to this email and tell me how it went! I’d love to send an update in the next newsletter showing what our collective efforts have added up to. It feels so much better doing these activism chores when you know you’re not alone.
One more thing
You may not know about this, but a handful of youth activists from the Sunrise Movement are currently 12 days into a hunger strike in front of the White House. One has been sent to the hospital for urgent medical care.
We don’t have to starve alongside these people to support them — we just have to make their protest more visible. If you have a moment, check out their solidarity toolkit and share news about what they’re doing. At the very least, give their updates a boost on Twitter and Instagram.
Day 1️⃣2️⃣: @POTUS, we will continue to sit starving outside the @WhiteHouse everyday until you use your power as elected president of the United States to deliver your mandate for bold and transformative climate action with justice and for jobs. https://t.co/zmejyIC7ud
— Hunger Strike 4 Climate Justice (@HungerStr1ke) October 31, 2021
Links in this newsletter
#Call4Climate – call 202-318-1885 to tell your members of congress to act now
As leaders gather for crucial climate summit, high expectations collide with uncertain reality (Washington Post)
How Joe Manchin controls the climate (Heated)
The gray and the pink (Washington Post) (cannot stress how delicious the author’s evisceration of Kyrsten Sinema is in this)
Contacting U.S. Senators · Directory of U.S. Representatives
"Joe Biden is, frankly, being a coward": A conversation with the White House climate hunger strikers (Salon)
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