Climate Change activism groups in Sonoma County?

[jospencer]

I am in Kentucky until August. My PTSD is so bad I cannot sleep. Can anyone tell me which groups and people are doing climate change activism in Sonoma County.

[cocreator]

Hi Jo,

I'm housesitting right now for the founder and Executive Director of CalCAN
She'll be back in a week, so feel free to reach out then.

Hope you feel better soon!

...Can anyone tell me which groups and people are doing climate change activism in Sonoma County.

[caromia333]

350.org - there are several local chapters
https://350sonoma.org

Center for Climate Protection
https://www.facebook.com/climateprotection

My friend Jane Vosburg runs the Divest CalSTRS campaign under the umbrella of
Fossil Free CA
https://fossilfreeca.org

Climate Action Through Conservation
https://www.sonomaopenspace.org/projects/catc/

I am working on a climate change solution library called EcoNavigator.
it's for young people to share climate solutions and take action.
www.coolplanetlabs.org

And for actions you can take as an individual and with your local community
go to this site How To Start The Revolution
www.howtostarttherevolution.org

In my opinion Transition Towns is one of the best community based climate
models in the world and is all around the world including several in Sonoma County
http://transitionus.org

I believe planting trees is one of the top solutions - as discussed in this video by Jane Goodall
https://youtu.be/Ft3eiQcXAJc

Here is a facebook page I created called SOLUTIONARIES to only post solutions to climate change. They are thousands of solutions around the world - they are breathtaking and way beyond what you imagine.
https://www.facebook.com/BESolutionaries/

I am attaching an older flyer for Cool Planet Labs.

I am in Kentucky until August. My PTSD is so bad I cannot sleep. Can anyone tell me which groups and people are doing climate change activism in Sonoma County.

[EmeraldMatra]

Two years ago on July 31 Occupy Sonoma County hosted the Sonoma County Climate Activists Summit at the Peace & Justice Center. 73 people attended representing 24 Sonoma County climate change groups.
We agreed to continue meeting every month that has a 5th Monday. Together we formed the Sonoma County Climate Activist Network (SoCoCAN!).
This is an active network that coordinates and supports local climate change activism.
The next meeting will be on Monday, July 29, 7-9 PM at the Peace & Justice Center, 467 Sebastopol Ave., Santa Rosa 95401. One of the things we will be discussing is having another summit in early October.
For more information contact [email protected].
Love,
Emerald
Network member

Sonoma County Climate Activist Network (SoCoCAN!)
https://www.facebook.com/SonomaCountyCAN
https://twitter.com/SonomaCA

Can anyone tell me which groups and people are doing climate change activism in Sonoma County.

[350kitty]

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/


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).



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/

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

The Compost Story The Regenerative Secret by Kiss The Ground (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


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


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

[350kitty]

Some other resources:

The Earth Action newsletter by Occupy Sonoma County (OSC) is a great summary of climate news and members can post climate related news and calls to action.

To join, go to this page: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!fo...c_earth-action


Sonoma County Climate Action Network has a great Facebook page with climate news. Emerald posts most of the content, and does a fantastic job of it. She also sends out the OSC Earth Action newsletter as well, so there is overlapping content.

https://www.facebook.com/SonomaCountyCAN/


EcoWatch.com and Grist.org are two of my favorite sites for climate news.

[350kitty]

Here's another suggestion: Climate One podcasts.

I've gone to a few of the Climate One events (in SF, at the Commonwealth Club), which were interesting and well done. But it's far easier to just listen to the podcasts online. These are a great way for people to learn more about climate solutions.

Climate One - home page: https://www.climateone.org/

Podcasts:

https://climateone.org/watch-and-listen/podcasts

I've signed up for their newsletter, which lists their upcoming events and also lists some articles they recommend at the end of the newsletter:

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[350kitty]

Here is a collection of tips from climate activists recommended by Sonoma County Climate Activist Network:

Tips from climate activists on how to change the world

Expand

[350kitty]

My biggest piece of advice for anyone getting involved in climate action:

As I said, the Earth Action newsletter and the Sonoma County Climate Activist Network are great for updates on climate. HOWEVER, if you read mostly the bad news, you may get depressed or feel hopeless.

Make an effort to focus on and actively support SOLUTIONS. You don't have to read every bit of doom and gloom!

They are out there! My favorite is carbon farming!

Also even just changing how you eat (eat less meat, more whole foods, vegetables and fruits) reduces your carbon footprint.

Be sure to compost your food scraps into your yard bin (if your city/county allows this). When food decomposes in the landfill without air, it produces methane, which is a more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2. Composting, and using compost as fertilizer does the opposite: it helps sequester carbon (remove carbon from the atmosphere).

Support climate smart agriculture. Look for calls to action from CalCAN - the California Climate and Agricultural Network.

[DreadTori]

Sonoma Master Gardeners are focusing on carbon sequestering through gardening. I’m a Master Gardener in Santa Rosa and we just had Will Bakx speak at our monthly meeting about carbon farming. Will ran Sonoma Compost, which closed down a couple of years ago (it’s coming back in about three years! Yay!); he shared a lot of info about how to put and keep carbon in our soils. Master Gardeners are pushing no till gardening along with “chop & drop” harvesting so we don’t disturb the carbon and the amazing lifeforms in our soil. Using compost and mulch is the best way a home gardener can help with this.

Soil is alive!

[Shepherd]

Yes, soil lives. Without it, we two-footeds would not survive. I am glad that Will soon will return. On my organic farm we do not irrigate, since that bloats the berries up with water. We use a huge amount of mulch and compost, which we get from leaves and other safe items, which our neighbors help provide. We feed our soil, which makes it happy and productive.

Sonoma Master Gardeners are focusing on carbon sequestering through gardening. I’m a Master Gardener in Santa Rosa and we just had Will Bakx speak at our monthly meeting about carbon farming. Will ran Sonoma Compost, which closed down a couple of years ago (it’s coming back in about three years! Yay!); he shared a lot of info about how to put and keep carbon in our soils. Master Gardeners are pushing no till gardening along with “chop & drop” harvesting so we don’t disturb the carbon and the amazing lifeforms in our soil. Using compost and mulch is the best way a home gardener can help with this.

Soil is alive!

[350kitty]

Hello folks,

We need support for the new reach code at the Santa Rosa city council meeting this Tuesday, Nov. 19. Please come, or at least send an email to city council:

https://www.waccobb.net/forums/showt...242#post230242

Climate activists around the Bay Area have been working hard to pass the best possible reach codes (building codes to reduce the carbon emissions from new buildings.) Thank you!