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| Divesting for Earth Day 2022 |
Most years Earth Day seems to be about empty proclamations and privatized gestures on the consumerist model of personal choice. You know, drive out to the Oregon Garden and learn how to upcycle in a neat craft project, or get tips on how to compost. The driving itself nullifies other benefits, and there's almost always a mismatch in scale, too much micro and not enough macro. This is ultimately victim-blaming, because you personally can never do enough.
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| Today: Make a "kid-friendly craft" |
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| Today: Military and climate |
But even the military thinks climate disruption is big. They wouldn't say the problem was not enough upcycling.
This year Earth Day seems a little more consequential, with events focusing on policy and macro-scales.
On Wednesday the 20th, Bill McKibben is going to help launch a report on the Oregon Treasury.
From Divest Oregon (promo tile at top):
From heat domes to droughts, climate change has already arrived in Oregon with devastating impact for Oregonians navigating rising houselessness, the state’s legacy of white dominance, and rural poverty. Is our state government doing all it can to protect our future? Despite broad commitments to climate action, the Oregon State Treasury--which manages $140 billion of our money--still has billions invested in fossil fuels, a sector that has contributed more than any other to the climate crisis.
We will feature never-before-published analysis of the state's fossil fuel holdings. Learn just how much the Oregon State Treasury is invested in fossil fuels and why ditching oil, gas, and coal from our pension funds and retirement portfolios makes climate AND economic sense!
And Willamette University finally is joining in a little. Despite having a focus on "sustainability," even a formal Sustainability Institute, they have been awfully quiet on efforts by the City and State to reduce emissions from greenhouse gas. It really has been striking how absent as an institution they have been in public, really avoiding policy and the appearance of advocacy, generally preferring that model of private, individual action.
On Thursday the 21st, linked with a class on climate justice, there will be a short seminar on fracked methane gas and its greenwash as "natural" gas. This is great to see.
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| WU and 350org |
And of course in Portland and Seattle the President is going to have some Earth Day and climate adjacent sentiment in lobbying for his legislative program. But there are real questions about the depth and coherence of his commitment to climate.
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| via Twitter |
Maybe there will be more, even. Hopefully this Earth Day builds stronger momentum for climate action.
1 comment:
(As a footnote, I should have added that what is likely WU's first public support for Salem's Climate Plan came in a letter from the Provost the first of December last year, in 2021, published with this packet on an information report at Council on Dec. 6th, 2021. The tide seems to be turning, and this is great to see.)
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