Shut Down DC – Global Climate Strike 2019
Youth leaders from around the world have called for a climate strike and global week of action from September 20th-27th. They have been taking the lead so far, but now they are calling on all of us to take action. In Washington, DC we will be answering the call and building on the momentum of the youth climate strikes in a major way:
On September 23rd, we are going to shut down DC.
We will block key infrastructure to stop business-as-usual, bringing the whole city to a gridlocked standstill. Parents, workers, college students, and everyone who is concerned about the climate crisis will skip work and school and put off their other responsibilities to take action on the climate crisis.
We won’t tolerate delay and inaction any longer. We are ready to take the fight for climate justice to the next level. Sign the pledge and join us.
Sign the Climate Strike DC Pledge of Resistance here.
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In August of 2018, Greta Thunberg began striking from school every Friday, choosing instead to sit in front of the Swedish parliament in protest. Within months, the movement had gone global, with hundreds of thousands of students across the globe refusing to go to school on Fridays. Now, we must all follow the example set by the brave youth and do everything in our power to preserve a habitable planet.
There’s no time left for business-as-usual. The climate crisis is here. People around the world are experiencing superstorms, floods, droughts, and wildfires at unprecedented rates. Millions of people are seeing their lives and livelihoods transformed by environmental changes and hundreds of thousands have been pushed from their homes, forced to make long and dangerous journeys across borders in search of safety and security.
If we do not build up the political power to force the government to take substantive action on climate within the next 18 months, it could very well be too late for us to stop the worst effects of climate breakdown. We must rise up in this moment, take bold action, shut down the nation’s capital, and make it impossible for our leaders to continue to ignore us.
To achieve something as monumental as shutting down DC, we are going to need everyone to step up. We need everyone’s creativity, everyone’s energy, everyone’s insights, and everyone’s ideas. Every single person has skills and experience to contribute to the strike.
We do not take this action lightly. We know that this shutdown will cause massive disruption to people who bear no responsibility for the climate catastrophe we are facing. But we will also cause massive disruption for politicians, huge corporations, and the lobbyists who control our government. We need to fundamentally change the power structure of the United States if we want to stop the climate crisis. Shutting down DC is a huge step in the right direction.
This is the mass uprising that everyone with climate anxiety has been waiting for. This is an uprising for life itself, fighting back against the forces of destruction. This is your chance to take action to save the people, plants, and animals you love. Let’s rise to the challenge and shut down DC!
The Interfaith Climate Strike Procession starts from Luther Place Memorial Church and moving west on K street (more details to come). We will gather at 9:30 am with an official send off at 10:00am.
Press Conference for House Resolution Encouraging Teaching about Climate Change in Schools
Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) will introduce a House Resolution in support of teaching climate change in schools on Thursday, September 19th, 2019. A press conference will be held beforehand at 11:00 am at the U.S. House Triangle. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) will be speak about her support for the resolution and the urgency of addressing climate chance. Other members of Congress have also been invited.
Youth climate advocates Jonah Gottlieb (National Children’s Campaign), Kate Roney and Christian Hernandez (Schools for Climate Action), and an educator, Nancy Metzger-Carter (Sonoma Academy, UN Climate Change Teacher Academy) will also speak in support of the resolution.
Representative Lee worked with youth and teacher climate advocates to craft a House Resolution supporting the teaching of climate change in schools because “the global impact of climate change and the urgency and magnitude of the challenge of addressing climate change will eventually fall on current students.”
The House Resolution declares climate change a social justice, racial justice, and human rights issue that disproportionately affects students of color and students in poverty, thereby exacerbating existing inequalities and limiting equality of opportunity. It also refers to a 2019 resolution by the California Association of School Psychologists that declared climate change a potential threat to the psychological and social development of children, in addition to known negative health effects.
One of the lead groups that collaborated with Rep. Lee was Schools for Climate Action, an initiative of the National Children’s Campaign, is a nonpartisan, youth-adult campaign that helps school boards, students councils and educational sector organizations pass climate resolutions calling on Congress to act and bringing awareness that climate change a generational justice issue.
The resolution has been endorsed by: The National Children’s Campaign, Schools for Climate Action, Global Oneness Project, National Association of Geoscience Teachers, National Center for Science Education, Principles for Responsibility Investment, Paleontological Research Institution, Rethinking Schools, Sierra Club and Teacher’s Advocacy Committee.
National Children’s Campaign
National Children’s Campaign advocates on behalf of the nation’s 74 million children. It is a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization to serve as a catalyst to inspire, encourage and empower to make America’s children & youth a national priority by promoting health, education, safety, economic & environmental security through the power of strategic media and internet partnerships, experts, business and community leaders, celebrity spokespeople and grassroots effort.
Schools for Climate Action
Schools for Climate Action, A nonpartisan youth/adult campaign that works with the educational sector to pass climate resolutions that declare climate change as a generational justice issue and call on Congress to act.
Science and Technology at the Environmental Protection Agency
- Andrew Wheeler, Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency
Implementation of Federal Farm and Disaster Programs
- Bill Northey, Under Secretary, Farm Production and Conservation, U.S. Department of Agriculture
#ShutDownDC for Climate Justice: Featuring Naomi Klein, Rev Yearwood
Climate change might well be the greatest danger to the survival of humanity, that we have ever faced. Indigenous peoples, and Black and Brown communities on the frontlines of the interlinked economic, democratic and climate crises, have been leading the resistance to extraction and pollution, fighting to protect Mother Earth, by centering traditional ecological and cultural knowledge and creating pathways for a regenerative future. Students and young people have always been on the forefront in the struggle for climate justice.
Youth leaders from around the world have called for a climate strike and global week of action from September 20th-27th. They have been taking the lead so far, but now they are calling on all of us to take action. In Washington, DC we will be answering the call and building on the momentum of the youth climate strikes in a major way:
On September 23rd, we are going to shut down DC.
Friends Meeting House• 2111 Florida Ave NW
Building a 100 Percent Clean Economy: Pathways to Net Zero Industrial Emissions
- Julio Friedmann, Ph.D., Senior Research Scholar, Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy
- Jason Walsh, Executive Director, BlueGreen Alliance
- Gaurav N. Sant, Ph.D., Professor and Henry Samueli Fellow, UCLA Samueli School of Engineering
- Bob Perciasepe, President, Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES)
- Jeremy Gregory, Ph.D., Executive Director MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub, On behalf of Portland Cement Association
- Ross E. Eisenberg, Vice President, Energy and Resources Policy, National Association Manufacturers
Examining the Macroeconomic Impacts of a Changing Climate
- H.R.__, To require the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Securities and Exchange Commission to each issue an annual report to the Congress projecting and accounting for the economic costs directly and indirectly caused by the impacts of climate change. [DRAFT]
- Andy Karsner, Board Member, Conservation International
- General Stephen Cheney, USMC (Ret.), President of the American Security Project
- Veronica Eady, Assistant Executive Officer for Environmental Justice of the California Air Resources Board
- Alicia Seiger, Managing Director of Stanford’s Sustainable Finance Initiative
- Dr. Marshall Burke, Assistant Professor and Deputy Director of Stanford’s Center on Food Security and the Environment
- Richard Powell, Executive Director, ClearPath
- John Kotek, Vice President of Policy Development and Public Affairs, Nuclear Energy Institute
Markup of ARPA-E Reauthorization Act of 2019 and Clean Industrial Technology Act of 2019
- H.R. 4091, the “ARPA-E Reauthorization Act of 2019” -reported favorably to full Committee
- Amendment to H.R. 4091 offered by Mr. Foster (D-IL) – offered and withdrawn from consideration
- Amendment to H.R. 4091 offered by Mr. Baird (R-IN) – failed by voice vote
- H.R. 4230, the “Clean Industrial Technology Act of 2019” -reported favorably to full Committee
- Amendment to H.R. 4230 offered by Mr. Weber (R-TX) – failed by voice vote
- Amendment to H.R. 4230 offered by Mr. Lipinski (D-IL) – passed by voice vote
- Amendment #02 to H.R. 4230 offered by Mr. Weber (R-TX) – failed by voice vote
- Amendment to H.R. 4230 offered by Mr. Norman (R-SC) – failed by voice vote
- Amendment #01 to H.R. 4230 offered by Mr. Weber (R-TX) – withdrawn from consideration
Solving the Climate Crisis: Manufacturing Jobs for Americas Workers
The hearing will focus on boosting U.S. manufacturing of clean energy technologies and creating new manufacturing jobs.
Witnesses- Zoe Lipman, Director, Vehicles and Advanced Transportation Program at the BlueGreen Alliance. BGA unites America’s largest labor unions and environmental organizations. Lipman previously led work on fuel economy standards at the National Wildlife Federation and is a former trade union official.
- Tarak Shah, consultant and former Department of Energy chief of staff to the Undersecretary for Science and Energy. Shah previously worked for the Department of Defense and the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
- Josh Nassar, Legislative Director for the United Auto Workers. The UAW has more than 400,000 active members and 600 local unions. Nassar previously worked for the Service Employees International Union.
- Edward Stones, Global Business Director for Energy and Climate Change at Dow Chemical Company. Stones leads Dow’s energy conservation and carbon pollution reduction efforts and participates in the company’s global advocacy on climate and energy issues.