Opinion: Love, Justice, And Climate Change. Local Climate Action Drives The Movement Forward

On a number of occasions, I’ve encouraged you who read my blog to join a local climate organization and get involved in some project with them. A problem as large and systemic as the climate crisis is not going to be solved by individuals acting alone. There is power in numbers.

I thought you might be interested to know what my experience has been in getting involved with a local climate organization, and also to learn how one small organization has made a difference and contributed to the larger climate movement.

The first thing I had to do was rearrange my personal schedule so I was available to attend the meetings. That took some doing, but it was worth it because I soon began to meet other people who cared about climate and were taking some action. I started to learn what people were doing and to learn more about the issues and possibilities.

A Pipeline Struggle
When I first got involved in Climate Action Now of Western Massachusetts (CAN) a new pipeline that would carry fracked gas was proposed to be built across Massachusetts.  CAN participants were already writing letters, making signs, speaking at public hearings, talking to local landowners, walking the pipeline route in protest, and making it clear that some of them were prepared to commit civil disobedience to stop the pipeline. I joined in. I attended a training for those considering risking arrest and those ready to support other people who got arrested. The campaign proceeded on many fronts at the same time. Eventually the pipeline company realized we were going to resist them at every step of the way and decided that even in the unlikely event they succeeded in building the pipeline, the resulting delays would make the project unprofitable. They abandoned the project. We had won!

Divestment
Another small group of CAN participants was leading a divestment campaign–trying to get the state to divest all public pension funds from fossil fuel companies. I helped write letters, signed petitions, and cheered on the local leaders. Those leaders connected with other activists across the state and eventually built enough pressure to persuade the statewide teachers’ union to come out in favor of divestment. The statewide coalition got a pension divestment bill introduced in the legislature. We still haven’t gotten that bill passed, but climate organizations in other states have won such legislation. We also supported the student divestment campaign at the University of Massachusetts by writing letters of support, rallying alumni, and joining them in protest rallies. This student movement got the Board of Trustees of the University to start to divest.

Legislation
Meanwhile, another CAN committee has been monitoring climate-related bills in the state legislature. They have joined a coalition with other groups and now climate organizations across the state collaborate and choose a few bills to prioritize and advocate for each year. The committee keeps all CAN participants informed about the key legislators to contact about each bill and when a hearing is coming up at which we can testify. The committee helps organize us to meet with our legislators locally and prepares key talking points for those meetings. We’ve had several legislative sessions that resulted in disappointing failures, but the most recent session saw the passage of a very significant omnibus climate bill with strong environmental justice provisions.

Monthly Meetings
Our monthly general meetings are open to all, (on Zoom during COVID, of course) and always include an informative program. Featured topics have included: a new anti-pipeline campaign, the role of trees in carbon sequestration, local municipal climate proposals, a report from people who traveled to Minnesota to support indigenous groups opposing the Line 3 pipeline, and strategies for challenging the utility companies and their regulators. There’s often a new song or inspiring video, some important announcements, and opportunities to meet in small groups, get to know each other, and get answers to our questions.

New Working Groups
Since I’ve started attending regularly, new working groups have formed–each originally initiated by one or two people who put forth an idea, found some supporters, and started investigating and learning together. One group has focused on the role of farming, forests, and food systems. They have really moved all of us to start thinking not just about fossil fuel emissions, but also about all the ways that plants sequester carbon and what policies can increase carbon sequestration. Soon they were finding action opportunities and offered a series of excellent webinars for the general public that have been very well attended.

Another group, one I’m personally involved in, has focused on how climate, racism and white supremacy are related and has gotten everyone thinking about key justice issues. Every meeting (of this predominately white organization) now includes a mini-lesson from that group and an opportunity for everyone to participate in a 2-person listening exchange for reflection on how racism has affected each of us and how we can grow to be more effective in dismantling it.

A Biomass Campaign
Our biggest recent victory came in joining forces with people in Springfield who were opposing a proposed biomass plant that a private company (apparently with the support of our governor) wanted to build in a black and brown community. This plant would have been horribly polluting–further deteriorating the air quality in a city already known as an asthma capital of the U.S. It would also have increased emissions of climate-destroying greenhouse gases. An ad hoc coalition formed that fought it on many fronts– at city council, before state regulatory agencies, in the courts, and in the state legislature. (As part of this campaign, one night I found myself painting a paper mâché model of a powerplant chimney–white with red stripes around it, visible in the photo above–as a prop for a demonstration the next day.)

This proposed biomass plant was classic environmental racism–a company seeking to make profits at the expense of poor people of color, in complete disregard for public health or for the global effects of carbon emissions on the growing climate crisis. We worked to help the public see how racism and climate denial were combining to create a disaster. Scores of people worked hard to mobilize thousands of voices in opposition. Some legislators said they had never seen such an outcry on a single issue. 

In the end, the city council refused to renew an expired permit, the legislature prohibited subsidies to such plants and added protections for environmental justice communities, so that probably no polluting biomass facility can ever be built in our state. This victory gained some national attention and activists in other places are re-energized in their local fights on behalf of public health and the climate. We don’t always win, but what a feeling when we do!

Not every local climate organization has the experience, the leadership, and the people-power to do all that this amazing group does, but every local organization can make a difference. If you aren’t already involved, see what you can find near you. If there really is no local organization, contact a national group that has local chapters and get help starting one. Only when we join with others, can we make the difference we need.

Russ Vernon-Jones was the Principal of Fort River Elementary School from 1990 to 2008. He is a co-facilitator of the Coming Together Anti-Racism Project in the Amherst area. He chairs the Racism, White Supremacy, and Climate Justice working group of Climate Action Now of Western Mass., and blogs regularly on climate justice at www.RussVernonJones.org.