February 6th Third Act Educators' Newsletter
Day of Action and More!
Next Third Act Educators Working Group Meeting
Bill McKibben will join us
An event not to be missed!!!
Feb. 8th, 6pm EST/3pm PST.
Bill McKibben, Third Act’s inspirational founder, will be speaking at the next Third Act Educators Working Group meeting. He will bring us the latest thinking and organizing on the Day of Action and share his perspective on future directions of Third Act. He will also take some questions from our group!! Lucky us!
Come and be inspired!!
Register for the call here.
All Third Act Educators are encouraged to send in the questions or topics they would most like to hear Bill speak about.
Send questions/topics to: thirdacteducators@gmail.com
Invite your friends and colleagues, and after they are inspired by Bill, invite them to join Third Act Educators here.
HOW AND WHERE TO MOVE YOUR MONEY
*Here is an excellent, step-by-step guide on how to decide where to move your money and what credit cards to open instead of with the “Big Four” banks that fund fossil fuel extraction. It’s called “MOVE YOUR MONEY” from one of Third Act’s partners, This! Is What We Did.
This! Is What We Did has worksheets and ways to proceed to move credit cards.
https://thisiswhatwedid.org/move-your-money/ ;
See especially “Getting ready to act” near the bottom.
*In addition, here is a list of resources for the Banking on Our Future campaign, compiled by Third Act SF Bay Area.
Day of Action Information
Third Act Educator, that’s the big question, right?
3.21.23 is an ! point on Third Act’s continuing climate campaign
to pressure the big 4 banks to divest.
On 3.21.23, Third Act initiative groups will be hosting a Day of Action to make an impact, garner publicity, and inspire more third actors to join us!
It’s a big day for Third Act and we want everyone to take action in their communities, at their schools, at the banks, and out in the streets!
3.21.23 is all about pressing the big 4 banks to divest!
If you need more information about why divestment is so important to our climate
(in addition to the image above), start here.
The Map: Click here to view our interactive map to see an overview of actions happening around the country, as well as details on how to get involved at particular locations. This will be updated as the event draws closer.
The Toolkit: Click here to view our comprehensive event toolkit. This document includes a tremendous amount of helpful information all in one place.
Third Act is no longer using the ‘DOA’ acronym. Best practice is to fully write or speak ‘Day of Action’ or use ‘3.21.23 events’
We have unbelievably great art resources for 3.21.23. David Solnit and his crew have just finished a weekend-long 'art build' with lots of volunteers: their work is gorgeous, and you can use resources to make your own.
Third Act Educators is an affinity group. As an affinity working group with supporters from across the nation, here’s where our Educators Group fits in:
For All Educator Affinity group members: Third Act will be sending you a list of contacts for your closest geographic working group so that you can reach out to collaborate on local 3.21.23 actions in person.
For Educator Affinity group members WITHOUT a geographic working group that is close enough to join: You will be encouraged to organize your own 3.21.23 actions! Third Act Educators’ Teach-in project team is designing, developing and facilitating a teach-in with a focus on what Third Actors can do as individuals for 3.21.23.
Additional points of connection between affinity groups and geographic working groups will be possible through sign ups on map events.
About the Day of Action, From Bill McKibben:
“We've already got momentum! In December the biggest bank in Europe just announced it won't lend for fossil fuel expansion, and last week the biggest bank in Denmark went even further. The biggest pension fund in Europe put all the world's banks on notice that they have to move to divest; so did the comptroller of the city of New York, who has a quarter trillion dollars to back up his words. So we've got a chance!”
Start planning now -- And please include plans to take and share photos!
Third Act Educators’ Excellent Initiatives for 3.21.23
Divestment *** Teach-ins *** K-12 Climate Education Legislation
Please take time to read through the descriptions below and then complete the form indicating which project team you are interested in joining.
1. THIRD ACT EDUCATORS’ DIVESTMENT PROJECT of 2023
State Teacher Pension Divestment Project
Third Act Educators is teaming up with Climate Safe Pensions Network for this project. Teacher pensions invested in fossil fuels present a particularly tragic irony for Third Act Educators: Our retirement dollars are being used to destroy the future of the young people whose future it has been our whole life’s work to improve.
Working with CSPN Educators we will be plugged into pension divestment movements where they exist, and help initiate campaigns in locations where they don’t yet exist. We are also being provided access to their superb master resource depository. And please make use of their new email tool to write your state representatives to demand divestment: email-to-target-tool.
College and University Endowments Divestment
Third Act Educators will be engaged in outreach to alumni associations and student climate action groups—both those in their particular areas, as well as those of which they may be alumnae/alumni—to advance institutional divestment.
Educators continue to be engaged with TIAA-Divest! and encourage all our members to join their effort by signing their petition here. Further discussions with Vanguard-SOS will also be taking place.
So there is a lot of work to do, and we need all hands on deck. If you are interested in joining our divestment project team, please use this form.
2. TEACH-IN PROJECT
As Third Act educators, we are engaged in Third Act’s mission to muster political and economic power to move Washington and Wall Street in the name of a fairer, more sustainable society and planet. To that end, Sheryl and I would like to invite everyone with a passion for drawing on our expertise as educators to join the Teach-ins team.
This project team envisions designing, developing and providing teach-ins focused around 32123, to be held up to and including the day of action. This team needs members to curate content, to write scripts, to proofread, to curate images, to create Google slide decks or learn to create Google slide decks for each teach-in. January and February may be intense for this team as the goal is to complete the design/development of the teach-ins of extraordinary value to our working group and to Third Act by March 1 and to facilitate them ramping up to and on the day of action.
Possible topics will be determined by the team and may include:
Local actions a Third Actor might take as an individual:
Climate change
The 4 big banks and uncovering the relationship between cash and carbon
Divestment
Responsible Finance with a focus on credit cards and banks
Climate Education Legislation
We invite all those engaged in the mini action teams to continue their good work and join us under the umbrella of teach-ins for our day of action. Following 32123, the team will continue to design, develop, and hold teach-ins in areas they feel will meet the needs of our working group supporters and other Third Actors. If you'd like to join us, please use this form.
3. K-12 CLIMATE CHANGE EDUCATION LEGISLATION RESEARCH PROJECTS
K-12 public schools are emerging as a crucial arena for the climate change fight. Youth activism, civic engagement and voting, and the power of integrated climate change education have caught the attention of fossil fuel interests, which are attacking public education to undermine the strength of the climate movement.
Yet there is also widespread emerging organizing centering around a Green New Deal for Public Schools. This offers the opportunity to decarbonize schools and implement climate change education in communities around the US while building a broader climate movement. There are two critical research projects where Third Act Educators could play an essential role.
Join us in creating the database we need for informed action!
If you are interested in joining in this work of assuring all young people are given the information they will need to be informed, active citizens in the times to come, please use this form to sign up.
Wondering What You Can Do in the Next Two Weeks?
Third Act has you covered!
Eldering Series: Shifting and Sharing Power
February 7, 2023 3:00 pm ET/12pm PT
One of the best ways to help safeguard democracy and help stop climate change is to examine our approach to working with youth activists and how we show up as elders.
Join our intergenerational conversation in shifting and sharing power to learn more.
Make a video for the Youth Video Contest: Intergenerational Activism!
Third Act has partnered with 3Generations.org for a Youth Video Contest to inspire elders to build intergenerational connections that support and amplify youth voices! Work with your grandchild! Partner with your young neighbor! Create a video together!
Sign the Banking on our Future Pledge
If you have not signed the pledge, click here to do so!
And if you have already, please send the link to at least 3 friends/colleagues and see if they will sign too.
Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper!
Third Act Central is encouraging everyone to write letters to the editor of your local paper in response to any news article on climate so you can pivot to Banking on our Future. In that vein, Third Act Educators is throwing a Letter to the Editor writing party, facilitated by Mark Wallach, on Zoom for supporters of our working group on February 15, 1pm PT/4:00pm ET, complete with music, good conversation, byob, templates to start your letter, suggestions on how to do it from Bill himself.
Celebrations/Hope
Teaching for Climate Justice! In Rethinking Schools, Winter 2022-2023, pg. 31.
Excellent NEWS!
Replacing US coal plants with solar and wind is cheaper than running them. It now ‘unequivocally’ costs less to build new renewable energy projects than to operate existing coal plants. Read about it here.
Find Hope in Trying Times:
Learn more about hope and action. Join Hope Meetup, a special Zoom event hosted by Green Change on Monday, January 30, 2023 at 6pm Pacific Time. Key-note speaker, Sci-fi writer Kim Stanley Robinson, will discuss how to take action to save our planet.
Solar Power is Increasingly Accessible:
Prices of solar power on the market have decreased by 15% with help from the Solar Investment Tax Credit, Inflation Reduction Act, community-based solar cooperatives, federal grants, and more. Read about it here.
Creation of a National Green Bank is Getting Closer
Read the article here.
Climate Change Education Across the Curriculum:
Student art from Carolyn McGrath's high school art class.
New Jersey is the first state to integrate Climate Change Education across all grade levels and content areas! From the arts to social studies, standards and lesson plans have been created to allow climate change to be taught across the curriculum. They are working to empower students of all ages to take action! Way to go New Jersey!!
Fender’s Blue Butterfly Reclassification:
Through proper management efforts across Oregon. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services reclassified the butterfly from “endangered” to “threatened”.
Connecting Climate Change and Your Health
Harvard Medical School has decided to formally integrate information on how climate change impacts our health into all four years of its medical school’s curriculum. Read the article here.
A special thank you to Lani, Kate and Sheldon for their wonderful contributions to this edition of the 3rd Act Educators Newsletter. And a special thank you to Grace and Heather for their help and expertise in producing this newsletter.
Resources
**Resource Showcase for February**
Scientist Rebellion:
This organization works to create connections between scientists and educators of all disciplines so together they can shift the course of the climate crisis. Find resources from their website here.
The Cool Down
“Good news, green hacks, and the latest innovations in building a better future - in your inbox every week!” This digital community was created to help everyday eco-friends learn more about sustainable living. Sign up here.
NSTA
The National Science Teachers Association has free resources highlighting cutting edge climate science.
The Activist’s Media Handbook
David Fenton, who recently spoke at a Third Act Educators’ meeting, wrote a handbook for activists about media campaigning. Watch his interview on MSNBC about this work here.
View past newsletter resources here.
View our ongoing accumulation of Third Act Educator Resources here.
“The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.”
- Robert Swan