Great list, Carolyn. Jo, sign up for the Peace & Justice Center's calendar email list. Email
[email protected] to get added to the mailing list. That's a fantastic way to find out about what's going on (particularly progressive events) in the county.
Sign up for 350 Sonoma's mailing list. They have a wonderful newsletter that is a great way to learn about what they are working on. Sign up at the website: https://350sonoma.org/
Indivisible Sonoma County is working on the election. They are a GREAT organization. They organize members to call their members of Congress early and often on various issues. They are VERY EFFECTIVE. You could join them and focus on climate-related issues, and candidates. They even have the Amplify app, which helps alert you to calls to action, provides sample scripts, tells you what phone number to call, etc.
You can check out their online group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/IndivisibleSoCoResist/
(https://www.facebook.com/groups/IndivisibleSoCoResist/) Among other things, CAFF (Community Alliance with Family Farmers) and the Farmers Guild have joined forces. Both work on promoting carbon farming (farming techniques that greatly increase plants' abilities to draw carbon out of the atmosphere. For instance they organize tours of farms and vineyards that do regenerative agriculture, to encourage local farmers to adopt regenerative agriculture practices. It would be great for you to learn more about carbon farming (a.k.a. regenerative agriculture).
One of my favorite climate solutions is carbon farming (or regenerative agriculture).
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Carbon farming (or regenerative agriculture is a great way to spread hope and generate some buzz and interest in solutions that reduce and REVERSE climate change, and produce other tremendous benefits: needing less and less fertilizer (which is often made from fossil fuels), needing less and less pesticides, helping the soil retain much more water, creating food that is not only nutritious but tastier as well! It increases productivity of a farm while lowering costs in many ways - and helps us REVERSE climate change!
Here are some quotes from a keynote speech by Michael Pollan:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/FACA.group/permalink/330439414189302/ (https://www.facebook.com/groups/FACA.group/permalink/330439414189302/)
Here is just one of the quotes (emphasis mine): "This has caught the attention of the City of San Francisco, which under our climate law is required to offset all their greenhouse gas emissions within the next several years. And they're looking at a plan to take city compost and spread it on all the range lands that the city controls around the reservoirs, the verges along the highways and roads, andthey've calculated that if they can spread that half-inch layer of compost on all those lands, they can COMPLETELY mitigate their carbon emissions, year after year after year. They're going to have to do it like every 30 years."
Hallelujah! Imagine if EVERY town did this!
I post about carbon farming and regenerative agriculture as often as possible on Facebook in a group I started called the Food as Climate Action - Group. I do this because teaching people about carbon farming and the critical role of compost in greatly increasing carbon sequestration into soil also helps introduce the general public to the idea of REMOVING carbon from the atmosphere which helps to REVERSE climate change. For the general public - for those who are paying attention, they are being frightened to death. But they are not being given enough information about the many possible solutions that might help us avert the very worst of the climate crisis. Carbon farming is tremendously hopeful.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/FACA.group/
CalCAN - the California Climate & Agriculture Network - http://calclimateag.org/ CalCAN promotes legislation and government funding to assist farmers to transition to carbon farming. They could use some help promoting the legislation they support.
Here are some (mostly) quick videos (very simplified, sorry):
The Soil Story narrated by Larry Kopald (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08TI1RKj54g)
The Compost Story (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqDQD8cvO5Y&t=334s) The Regenerative Secret by Kiss The Ground (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2W8dKdgGhc&t=134s) (8 min)
This is a VERY entertaining and informative video about food waste from The Climate Lab. According to Project Drawdown, food waste is NUMBER 3 on the list of top solutions to reduce and REVERSE the climate crisis.
Food waste is the world's dumbest problem (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RlxySFrkIM)
This is a discussion of regenerative agriculture from the perspective of chef Dan Barber (who has done a couple of TED Talks). Long-ish (25 minutes) - and it'll make you hungry!
Dinner Keynote: The Chef’s Role in the Creation of a Sustainable, Healthy Diet (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQwn69A3z9A)
WASTED: The Story of Food Waste is a feature-length movie (about 1.5 hours long). It's a movie made to appeal to foodies - it's not depressing at all. I really enjoyed it, and learning about the solutions in it.
Trailer - WASTED: The Story of Food Waste (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcVNFJn7NgI)