Third Act Educators Working Group presents the second edition of our bi-monthly newsletter!!
Twice each month you will have the opportunity to share important information with the rest of the working group within the following categories: “What to do this week”, “Ways to Protect the Vote”, “Celebrations/Hope” “Resources” and “Miscellaneous”.
Deadlines for inclusion in the next newsletter: 1st of the month and 15th of the month.
Please send all announcements to Lenore at LMKENNY@aol.com to be included in the next newsletter. Please include the words “For Newsletter” in the subject line.
Third Act Educators!!! Join over 3000 other teachers and researchers, including none other than Bill McKibben, in signing the Fossil Fuel Non Proliferation Treaty.
Order your voter lists and scripts now. If you don’t yet have postcards, don’t fret. We will continue our Post-Card writing until October 20th.
Third Act San Francisco Bay Area Bank Visit Survey
Third Act San Francisco Bay Area Working Group wants is creating teams that will visit local bank branches during the week of November 14th. If you live in, or near, the Bay Area and would be interested in joining this group, please fill out this survey here.
Join Third Act members from all over California and Nevada (remotely and in person) in Reno the Week of October 24
Bill McKibben and Rebecca Solnit will join Third Act members in Reno for canvassing week. The races in Nevada are tight. We need to hold on to that Senate seat to keep a majority and help win State elections to defend voter integrity and democracy. For more information, visit this webpage. Join In-Person and Virtual Events.
Several Third Act SF Bay Area members are traveling to Reno, October 29 - 31. Please caravan with us! We have filled one condominium with SFBA Actors. Will you make arrangements and take the trip, too? We plan to do door-to-door canvassing with our comfy shoes on and our digital clipboard on our phones.
We are going to attend:
“Stop the Fascists Day of Action,” featuring Rebecca Solnit and Bill McKibben. Saturday, October 29, 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM PT. Interested? Please RSVP to Maureen at thirdactsfbayarea@gmail.com
If you or anyone you know is a lawyer interested in climate activism, consider joining Third Act Lawyer Working Group
Third Act Lawyers Working Group is forming!! If you know a lawyer who might be interested, please reach out to Pat Almonrode (he/him). NYC
palmonrode@gmail.com
718-687-3690
TIAA-Divest
TIAA is the investment company that holds the highest amount of teacher retirement funds in the United States. We are asking them to divest from fossil fuel companies. Join this campaign!!
If you would like to join the TIAA-Divest-Volunteers email list, please email Kish@browncow.com and he will be happy to handle all requests. There will be actions listed that you can take!!
We are excited to announce the start of our Climate LIVE K12 series!!
The second Wednesday of each month from November 2022 until June 2023 between 4-5:00pm ET/1-2:00pm PT.
Climate LIVE K12 is an online video series that features experts from across the Columbia Climate School presenting climate and sustainability content for educators, students, parents, and the public.
All sessions are online and free. Pre-registration is REQUIRED for each event. Descriptions of the offerings and the RSVP links are here.
Once registered, you will receive a Zoom Webinar link for the session. All sessions will be hosted live and then placed on the Columbia Climate School's YouTube page for easy accessibility.
Ways to Protect the Vote:
Option #1: Sign Up to Help Protect the Right to Vote
Sign-up to volunteer here with several essential programs to protect the right to vote, keep local polling places open, fight election misinformation, and ensure votes are counted securely. Get trained now so you are ready to volunteer as early voting starts, on election day, and when votes are counted.
Option #2: Work the Election Polls
We are redoubling our work to make sure every American’s right to free and fair elections will NOT be infringed upon and that every eligible vote is accurately counted.
This fall, the non-partisan Election Protection program is mobilizing an unprecedented grassroots volunteer program for this midterm election — recruiting, training, and placing hundreds of nonpartisan volunteers across the US to help voters know their rights and to ensure that votes are properly and correctly counted.
You will be trained as a nonpartisan poll monitor volunteer, to serve as voters’ first line of assistance through complicated voting rules, against rampant misinformation, and around obstacles to the ballot box. Sign up to be a:
In-Person Poll Monitor (both roving and stationary): monitor polling places, report problems and assist voters.
Social Media Monitor: identify mis/disinformation and help answer voter questions online.
Option #3:
Were/are you a public school teacher
and member of an AFT local?
Get Involved with our Democracy
We know that everything is on the line this election year. Now is our moment to stand up and act—by raising our voices, getting engaged and voting. A recording of an AFT Call to Action is available here:
Reach out to Samantha Galing (sgaling@aft.org) and Marcia Reid (mfortson@aft.org) for more information about campaign deployments in battleground states. They need people “on the ground” in those states!
Option #4:
Third Act Educators is partnering with Protect the Vote this election!
They are the largest, non-partisan voter protection coalition.
Choose your course of action for the Midterms: (Common Cause, Scrutineers, Power the Polls). You can find info about them all here.
Celebrations/Hope:
Blog Posts
Russ Vernon-Jones, Teacher and activist, wrote a post on his blog giving some ideas about the climate and about how to stay hopeful during this turbulent time on our Earth. You can read it here.
Excellent blogpost from Sharon Salzberg of Ten percent Happier regarding staying mentally positive while the elections get closer. You can read the post here.
Solidarity!!
Third Act Educators Working Group Facilitators sent a letter of endorsement to British Columbia Teachers Fund Divest in support of the demands of our colleagues in British Columbia, Canada for the divestment of the British Columbia Teachers Fund. To learn more about what they are doing, and to lend your individual support, go to this link.
Good news!! Electric vehicles increasing rapidly in China
In China one of the four top contributors to greenhouse gas emission, there is new data! 25% of all the new cars sold in the last quarter were electric vehicles. (In the United States roughly 5% were electric.) Prices in China start at $5,000 for a small electric car. China has doubled the number of EV chargers to roughly 4 million in the last year. (It would be better to have more mass transit and fewer cars, but if there are going to be cars, having them not burn fossil fuels is essential for addressing climate change.)
Community organizes to ban and remove oil wells
“Communities for a Better Environment”, an environmental justice group in Los Angeles, CA., has been rallying the community around the issue of pollution and health — and pushing for change. Earlier this year they won an important victory: The Los Angeles City Council voted to ban new oil and gas wells in the city and to phase out the many existing ones. Now the activists and community members are continuing their work to make sure that the city follows through on this commitment.
Resources:
For K-12 Teachers: Here is a useful link to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) with descriptions of how they relate to teaching about climate change. We all want to be teaching about Climate Change!!
Here is a podcast from ‘The Ezra Klein Show’ discussing both the path to decarbonizing America and the impact the Biden administration’s climate bills could have on that effort. You can listen on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google or wherever you get your podcasts.
,
High School Teachers–A resource for you and your classes!
Exploring Climate Dynamics with the Global Climate Solutions simulator: En-ROADS
Media headlines in past months tell a familiar story: while we are making some progress on climate action (e.g., the breakthrough U.S. climate legislation and a surging global clean energy economy), we are still struggling to handle the immensity of the climate crisis (e.g., devastating Pakistan flooding, record China heat wave, supercharged Hurricane Ian). In this interactive webinar, we will explore the good and the bad news in our En-ROADS simulator.
Specifically for use in groups, especially effective in high schools. Get to know and understand the En-ROADS Climate Solutions Simulator as we use it to explore global climate policies, technological innovations, co-benefits, and visualize the impact of different climate solutions in real-time—while working together to build a scenario for a better climate future. We'll be offering this special En-ROADS Climate Workshop experience at two times, 7am and 2pm ET/4am and 11am PT
on Thursday, October 20.
The En-ROADS Climate Workshop is a free event, and is a great remote learning experience for people of all backgrounds and expertises. We encourage you to invite your co-workers, community group, family, and students.
Join us on October 20, 2022 at one of the following times*:
“The moral covenant of reciprocity calls us to honor our responsibilities for all we have been given, for all that we have taken. It’s our turn now. Whatever our gift, we are called to give it and to dance for the renewal of the world.”
