Add “Prison Reform” to your Climate Activist To-Do List. Yes, really.

Racial Injustice in the time of COVID-19 

As we’ve seen so often during the coronavirus crisis, we know that COVID-19 does not impact all people equally. In the United States, we have seen the virus expose the dark divisions in health and income disparities between white Americans and Black and Latinx Americans. Moreover, the ongoing protests surrounding the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and countless others at the hands of police have revealed the systemic racism that keeps populations in our society unequal. Activists and educators have pointed to the statistics that show even more severe inconsistencies between Black and white Americans in the level of services accessible in the form of access to jobs, healthcare, affordable housing, and education. However, out of all populations that COVID-19 is hitting the hardest, Americans in prison are dying at a disproportionate rates and spreading COVID-19 faster than outside populations, due to the intersections of of racial injustice, poor health outcomes, and lack of basic medical care that is lacking in our prisons and jails. 

These disparities should cause alarm for anyone wishing for America to move towards a more just and equal society. For us as climate activists, we already know the data shows us that communities of color bear the brunt of fossil fuel pollution and climate impacts. We should examine how to help every community in our society have a higher chance of survival against the virus, so that we can begin to create the truly green and safe future that we strive towards. 

How does the legacy of white supremacy impact the current criminal justice system? 

In the United States, 70 percent of American prisoners are non-white – part of this has been fueled by decades of mandatory minimum sentencing for crimes that fall under the categories targeted by the “War on Drugs” or “broken windows” policing strategies. Legal scholar Michelle Alexander in her award-winning book “The New Jim Crow” argues that the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a system that upholds racism, even as it formally adheres to the principle of colorblindness. “People of color are being incarcerated at far higher rates than their counterparts, while neighborhoods that are economically or politically disenfranchised will also have an accumulation” said Barun Mathema, an epidemiologist at Columbia University. A 2016 study by the Sentencing Project found that Black Americans are incarcerated in state prisons across the country at more than five times the rate of whites, and at least ten times the rate in five states.

What does this mean during COVID-19? During the COVID-19 crisis, these inequalities are even more magnified. People in prisons are often at heightened risk of contracting COVID-19 due to close proximity, inability to practice social distancing, lack of adequate sanitation and hygiene, high incidence of underlying medical conditions, and lack of adequate medical care in prisons and jails. Even in non-pandemic times, prisons and jails fail at providing the most basic of physical and mental healthcare. And noting the earlier statistics on which groups make up the majority of prisons (Black and Brown people of color), we see that the intersections of race and COVID-19 are a death sentence for the most vulnerable populations in our country. This needs to change. 

Connecting the Dots: COVID-19, Climate, Injustice

Some of you might be asking now: Why should we work to make reforms now to the criminal justice system during COVID-19? Racial injustice has fueled this crisis in America’s prisons, and just as with calls to reform police departments because of brutality, we should also seek to reform this system for the better overall public health and sustainability of our communities. 

If it weren’t enough that prisons are pushed to extremes during a pandemic, we face the duality of knowing that climate change impacts are hitting us already, and the more extreme impacts that we know will come if fossil fuel pollution is left unchecked. If we recognize that people of color are the ones most often on the frontlines of climate change, we must also recognize that prison populations are also on the front lines of climate change. Organizer Jay Ware notes that imprisoned people also suffer from climate catastrophes, “whether this is families fleeing climate change in the Global South being detained and separated into immigrant detention facilities or other black, brown, and poor white prisoners from typically toxic neighborhoods ecologically who are held in toxic prisons.” Not only are the climate impacts experienced prior to incarceration by families and communities, but for people currently living in prison, climate impacts of intense heat, extreme cold, and flooding inflict both physical and psychological suffering: 

“Every time a large-scale hurricane approaches a coastal stretch of the United States, gruesome stories surface concerning prison officials who refuse to evacuate their prisons. The consequences of this malign neglect can be devastating, and sometimes fatal. During Hurricane Katrina, thousands of prisoners were left to rot in waist-high water; in 2017, Hurricane Harvey saw 3,000 prisoners in Texas stranded without food or water for days; in 2018, prisoners within the evacuation zone on Florida’s coast were left to fend for themselves when Hurricane Michael hit; and when Hurricane Florence rolled through South Carolina, the state declined to evacuate more than a thousand people across multiple prisons.” – Kim Kelly, “The Climate Disaster Inside America’s Prisons” 

Furthermore, with the threads of mass incarceration, health inequality, and the climate crisis seemingly intertwined – some officials look to prisons for help in fighting climate change. In California, during the unprecedented fire season in 2018 and onwards, prison labor has been used to fight wildfires. Prisoners in California’s Conservation Camp program were fighting the fires alongside civilian employees, earning just $1.45 a day for their work, significantly less than minimum wage that their counterparts earn, but carrying all of the dangerous risks that fighting fires entail. If you do not see the issues with labor exploitation during a climate crisis, the ACLU makes it clear: “We should use incarceration as a last resort to protect public safety — not to create or maintain a pool of cheap labor for the government.” 

Next Steps on Criminal Justice Reform 

So where do we go from here? What would reform look like? An immediate next step that all climate activists must take is to dedicate some of your time as activists to guarantee that the human rights of all Americans are being protected, now during the COVID-19 crisis and into the future when we know that climate impacts will arrive in our cities and communities. 

Since it has been noted that one of the main causes of COVID-19 spreading quickly throughout the prison system is due to prison overcrowding – one solution proposed is to reduce the overall number of people in prison – something that health experts and criminal justice reform advocates now agree on. Activists have been calling for this for many years, because we already know prisons are stacked with more and more individuals serving extremely long sentences for nonviolent offenses.  

Human Rights Watch, a global nonprofit organization dedicated to human rights issues, recommends releasing: 

  • those held for minor offenses
  • those nearing the end of their sentence
  • those jailed for technical violations of probation or parole
  • incarcerated children, older, and otherwise medically vulnerable people, and people who are caregivers to vulnerable people
  • detainees who have not been charged
  • detainees held in pretrial detention, unless they pose a serious and concrete risk to others

in order to best stop the rampant spread of COVID-19 and other health ailments. 

Research released in April by the ACLU found that if prison reform measures were taken, the U.S. could “save as many as 23,000 people in jail and 76,000 in the broader community if we stop arrests for all but the most serious offenses and double the rate of release for those already detained.” 

And it’s not just activists sounding the alarm on this issue either – our government must take notice and take action towards reform. On April 6, Attorney General William Barr sent a memo to federal prosecutors urging them to consider Covid-19 risks when making bail decisions. The memo cited the risk of in increasing jail populations during the pandemic, as well as concerns about risks to individuals. The memo still instructs prosecutors to detain people who pose a public safety threat, despite concerns about the virus. If the Trump Administration recognizes this as a problem, it’s clearly even more serious than they let on. 

Concluding Thoughts 

Finding solutions for all of the intersecting systems of climate justice, racial justice, and mass incarceration can feel overwhelming. But we can draw some conclusions from analyzing all of this information: The same systems that result in a fossil fuel-burning power plant located closer to a Black neighborhood is the same system that resulted in higher incarceration rates for Black Americans and ultimately higher rates of transmission of COVID-19. If we want to fix one of these problems, we actually need to solve both, because climate justice is inherently linked to rectifying racial injustice. 

If we want to create a more sustainable future with clean energy, access to family-supporting jobs, and homes safe from climate impacts of extreme heat, storms, and rising seas, we first need to work to improve the systems that keep us unequal: the unequal access to affordable healthcare and safe homes. For a truly just transition, there can be no one left behind. 

Here are some organizations that are working on this issue in the DC, Maryland, and Virginia region that I would encourage you to learn more from and support: 

If you’re confused or have more questions, I would love to talk with you more about this issue, please feel free to email me at stacy[at]chesapeakeclimate.org 

Resources for Further Reading: 

References

We support “Defund the Police.” Here’s why, and what’s next

We are at a crucial point in history for racial justice. There are no neutral actors here: Silence itself is a dangerous act. 

That’s why we at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network are raising our voices for a world where Black Lives Matter. Not just because Black and Latinx Americans care most on average about climate change. Not just because the climate fight would be nothing without a diverse movement. Not just because we need every community to join us in our fight for climate solutions for it to succeed. Not just because we need to be able to protest without entire populations fearing for their lives. 

But because the fight for a safe climate future is a fight to save lives. And millions of Americans are fighting for their lives right now.

At this critical moment, we are following the lead of Black-led organizations at the forefront of this struggle. We are signing on in support of the broad movement to reduce funding for police and reinvest in communities under the banner of “Defund the Police.”

On Tuesday night, CCAN Board of Directors voted unanimously in favor of a resolution to support this movement. Click HERE to see the resolution. 

In practical terms, here’s what that means for us at CCAN: 

  • We will support efforts spearheaded by Black-led organizations to pressure our legislators to meaningfully divest from police programs that directly or indirectly give rise to brutality, and invest in public services and other public safety measures that don’t involve police force or incarceration. This means weighing in on state and local budget hearings, and encouraging our supporters to do the same. More on that below. 
  • We pledge to not pay for police services at CCAN events — like protests and conferences — unless absolutely necessary. Often, police departments require activists to pay for police presence at public marches and rallies. Our refusal to pay such fees will force us to make sure we’re asking the right questions up front and will help us to choose venues and vendors that share our values. We expect to formalize this new policy in the coming weeks.
  • We will connect our supporters with anti-racism trainings and resources and maximize trainings for staff to ensure that racial justice is a centerpiece of our climate campaigns.
  • We will invest in voter education campaigns to help protect vulnerable communities from voter suppression efforts — and encourage all voters to support leaders who advocate for meaningfully divesting from police to better fund social programs instead. 

You may be wondering, what do we mean by “Defund the Police?” It doesn’t mean getting rid of all police overnight — or necessarily ever — and it won’t mean the same thing in every city, town, or locality. It means redistributing the hundreds of millions of dollars we spend on policing back into essential public services that have been gutted over the last few decades as police budgets ballooned. It means mental health professionals answering calls about mental health crises, and addiction experts answering calls about opioid abuse, instead of armed officers. It means tackling our social problems with tools that could help solve them rather than resorting to violence and criminalization, a system that was borne out of racism and has intentionally disrupted and devastated Black, Brown, Indigenous and poor communities since its inception centuries ago.

This effort draws parallels to the fossil fuel divestment campaign as well. We’re not proposing eliminating all forms of energy, just the dirty ones; we still need to keep the lights on and the internet flowing, now more than ever in the era of coronavirus. Similarly, we still need systems to keep our communities safe. We’re just opening our minds to what those systems look like. And we’re taking our cues from the groups, communities, and thought-leaders most impacted by the current broken system.

If you’re still skeptical, click HERE to watch a video with CCAN Board Members Terence Ellen and Reverend Lennox Yearwood Jr. discussing what “Defund the Police” means for CCAN and why it’s important for climate activists to support it.

Here at CCAN, we know that the fight for climate justice and racial justice are one in the same. People of color disproportionately bear the impacts of climate change, from extreme storms to flooding from sea level rise to heat waves to air pollution. It’s also no coincidence that fossil-fueled power plants and refineries are disproportionately located in black neighborhoods, leading to poor air quality and putting people at higher risk for coronavirus. The forces behind the climate crisis are the same forces behind racial inequality. As Eric Holthaus put it, climate change is “what happens when the lives of marginalised people and non-human species are viewed as expendable.” We have to work together for permanent and durable solutions that protect every single person of every single race — particularly the most vulnerable — now and in the future. 

That’s why we will continue to shine light on police brutality and work for solutions everywhere to this ongoing tragedy. And we ask you to do the same. Please do what you can to use your voice to demand justice. 

Here’s where to start:

The fight for justice becomes more crucial every day. We’re glad to be fighting with you. 

In solidarity, 

The entire team at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network and CCAN Action Fund

Why Climate Activists Need to Be Anti-Racist Activists

Whose apocalypse do you care about?

I was originally supposed to write this blog post about why we need the climate movement to get huge, and discuss Harvard researcher Erica Chenoweth’s discoveries about how relatively small proportions of the population are needed to overthrow tyrannical governments. This is all still true and important; I highly suggest you watch her TED talk here.*

However, today I have something even more pressing to discuss. I want to talk about why all climate activists should become anti-racist activists. If you are a white activist and recent events have stirred you to start down the path of anti-racist practice, welcome, this post is for you. 

For those of you who are people of color: Our hearts are breaking for you. If you have a story about what’s going on you’d like to share, we’d love to amplify your voice. Simply email info@chesapeakeclimate.org and we’ll work with you on this. 

I’d like to first acknowledge that I benefit from white privilege and it’s important to put my words here in that context. That isn’t to say I haven’t experienced challenges, and I have other parts of myself that are not fully liberated in this country (notably, I’m a woman, queer and neurodivergent). Many of my family members have experienced poverty for generations and still continue to experience it today. But yet even with all of that being true, I still very much benefit from a history of white supremacy. And *all* of the challenges I face are made easier for having white skin. This is a foundational principle of intersectionality (a term coined by a black woman): no struggle is faced in a vacuum That is why we will never truly win on a single issue that is “good for everyone” without specifically addressing how racism undermines our movements. We’ve seen this time and time again throughout history, from black suffragists excluded from the women’s movement, to 53% of white women voting for Trump in 2016.

Francis Elen Watkins Harper, an intellectual and poet who spoke out about exclusionary practices in the women’s suffrage movement

Anti-racist practice is the constant examination of the way that race interplays with every aspect of life, and at every stage demanding differently. Scholar Ibram Kendi compares racism to the cancer he lives with; unexamined, it metastasizes through the whole body. The treatment is to remove tumors (racist policies) and medicate the entire system (commit to anti-racist education). 

How do we move forward from here?

So if you are white, how do you go about educating yourself and others about race?

Step one: Always trust black and brown people’s authority on this subject first.

Seriously, don’t just take my word for it. No matter how woke you get, or how much you are connected to black people in your personal life, if you are white you will not understand what it is to personally be subject to racism and wake up black every day (this poem by Candace Williams helped me to understand this emotionally). Black and brown people have been doing this work intergenerationally. Another analogy here – doing anti-racist work is like doing calculus in a burning building, where people of color are the experts and white people have not started learning basic addition. If you’re just coming into this understanding, there is a lot of learning and listening to do. This means frequently passing up the microphone, and committing deeply to self-work.

Now, important caveat here: You should absolutely read resources authored by people of color and listen when they are speaking, but do your best not to come with too many questions to individual people of color. A constant state of rehashing basic principles and convincing people of your humanity is exhausting. Research shows that this is the number one reason for burn out among anti-racist acitivists of color (more tips for avoiding this contained in the link).

This is one of many reasons step two is very important: White people need to talk to other white people about anti-racism.

To Kendi’s point, these ideas need to permeate the whole system. If you are a white person, you have access to white spaces and ears that black and brown people do not. Be that person and bring up this issue everywhere you go, from the policy table to the dinner table. As you progress on your journey, you will also learn how to speak to other white people at different levels of understanding (back to that calculus analogy – this is like forming a study group). You have the opportunity to leverage your relationships and position strategically. While big visible protests can be really important, we would not need them if we committed to doing this work full time. This is -really- hard. I’m certainly not an expert, but groups like Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) work on this effort constantly.

Whiteness in the climate movement

Now with all of that given, let’s talk for a moment about whiteness in the climate movement specifically. First, let’s establish that if you truly care about the principle of a stable climate, you should absolutely care about racial justice. Think of all the grief and post apocalyptic imagery that we understand so well in the climate movement. Do those images involve terror, conflict, lack of access to safe water and food? We have seen constantly in the news that many people in this country are already living that reality for being black. Native activists have also written about already living in a post-apocalyptic world. So the apocalypse is already here, it just might not have touched you yet. And climate change will absolutely make all of these problems worse for people already facing extreme living conditions. 

Meanwhile, the environmental movement has centered white voices and priorities for decades and is overwhelmingly white. A 2014 study conducted by environmental expert Dorceta Taylor examined the composition of environmental groups and found what we can see anecdotally; through and through white faces dominate at events and on staff. This research also examined some of the reason that might be the case, including a lack of funding dedicated to this cause and a lack of transparency about the state of diversity in our movement (here at CCAN we are working on understanding the composition of our own base; you can take a survey here). Not understanding this has significantly cost progress, and as we move into a “majority minority” composition in this country, we will suffer for it if we don’t quickly adapt. Even more disturbing is the fact that white supremacist groups have begun co-opting environmentalist messaging. Allowing this to sit unexamined will become a truly deadly cancer indeed. We need to make sure that at every turn we are denouncing racist practices, in our spheres of influence and especially in ourselves. This is why it is so important to listen to POC community leaders and incorporate their policy demands into our climate policy. 

We always have the opportunity to do differently. We can each decide to change our own mindset and start learning that calculus with urgency. In addition to the many resources I have linked throughout this post, I have also linked below a compilation of resources I have found helpful. The best time to start is now; the building truly is on fire. I would be happy to study with you. 

Resources

**(also, please note that while Chenoweth’s research shows that non-violent movements are ultimately easier to carry out and are often more effective in the long run, she does not condemn rioting when there are no other options left. Many black scholars, including Martin Luther King, have written about why rioting occurs and should be understood in context)

During coronavirus, Flint residents still do not have access to clean water. Photo by Karla Ann Cote/NurPhoto via Getty Images

George Floyd


The recent brutal murder in Minneapolis has forced all of us at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network to confront the injustice that runs rampant throughout our country. Our hearts and thoughts are with the families and communities of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, and countless others.

Lives have been senselessly taken, and that can’t be undone. But we can work to shine a light on police brutality, and join justice advocacy organizations to find solutions to this ongoing tragedy. 

Systemic racism permeates nearly everything — from brutal police killings to COVID-19’s disproportionate mortality rate among African Americans to the fact that people of color are disproportionately affected by runaway climate change. We have to work together for permanent and durable solutions that protect every single person of every single race — particularly the most vulnerable — now and in the future.

As an immediate step, we encourage everyone to donate generously to organizations promoting racial justice and raising funds for those affected by this crisis. A few recommendations: 

We also condemn all statements that condone or incite violence against those who are exercising their First Amendment rights to protest this and other recent deaths of African Americans across our country.

The right to protest is a cornerstone of our democracy. We at CCAN have participated in dozens of demonstrations that have been essential for growing momentum for climate solutions. Yet, too often, African Americans are disproportionately targeted at these protests. When CCAN Board Member and frequent climate justice advocate Reverend Lennox Yearwood Jr. participated in the March for Science, he was targeted and assaulted by the police. When we joined with the #ShutdownDC Coalition to temporarily block traffic around the nation’s capitol to draw attention to the climate crisis, our largely white group was able to block off several intersections without trouble from the police — while the Black Lives Matter blockade was immediately targeted for arrests during the protest and hassled afterwards. 

Everyone should have a right to protest without fearing being killed. Everyone should have a right to walk down a street or sleep in their own bed without fearing being killed. 

For those of you reading this who are white, we encourage you to take this opportunity to learn as much as you can about institutional racism and privilege: 

For those of you who are people of color: Our hearts are breaking for you. If you have a story about what’s going on you’d like to share, we’d love to amplify your voice. Simply respond to this email and we’ll work with you on this. 

There is no climate justice without racial justice. 

In solidarity forever, 

The entire team at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network 

Graduate student life in a pandemic

Written by Joanne Sims, Virginia Commonwealth University

Good Bye Spring Break, hello social distancing

It was a rare occasion that the news was on in the middle of my spring break. The first COVID-19 cases had just spread to Virginia.  Suddenly the post-midterm peace was pushed aside for a pandemic. 

About a week into “stay at home” my socials became littered with “the earth is resetting itself” type posts about how the oceans and sky were cleaner now that we all stayed inside and it made me a little fearful. Climate change, an issue you can’t see, was still happening whether I went outside or not. Suddenly all my classes were discussing COVID-19 impacts on sustainability practices and public health. 

Jack of all trades! How I became a student, teacher, and caretaker all at once.

I had already planned to go back to my mom’s house for part of the break so I just headed there with way fewer clothes than would eventually be required. My spring break got extended to two weeks when the stay at place order and school cancellations were announced. Thankful for my mother free child care was delivered right at her doorsteps (Me!).

I have two younger siblings, one in pre-school and one in high school. My new role became part time-grad student and substitute teacher. My day consisted of waking up, doing pre-K worksheets, prepping breakfast and lunches, and organizing a schedule of daily classwork for my high school sibling. 

This was my first semester in graduate school, studying sustainable planning. Switching to an online format was… WEIRD. I’ve only done 1 class online before and hated every second of it. Writing memos on environmental impact assessments with Peppa Pig blasting in the background is far from ideal. 

Thankfully most of my professors were pretty chill and the amount of work required this semester was reduced and altered to better fit an online format.  The worst part of virtual learning is honestly discussions on zoom. I used my phone for the first couple weeks because my laptop broke just in time for online classes. Trying to find a time to interject when you can only see a quarter of the class and it feels like your professor is looking right at you is an introvert’s nightmare. 

We had a discussion in my environmental policy and planning class about whether this prolonged isolation will cause a surge in suburban living. The resources strain of urban spawn is less than ideal environmentally, but the idea of having space at a time when parks and other public green spaces are closed is appealing. 

Being at my mother’s house where we have a yard and the ability to not run into anyone was nice at first but something about being able to see and hear people from your 2nd-floor window has a kind of peace to it as well. It is my hope that we’ll see a rise in tiny green spaces, more apartments with courtyards and balconies at least.

I’ve been really thankful that my family has been safe and pretty fortunate so far. My mom’s job actually decreased her hours in order to limit the number of people in the building. They even gave masks to all the employees and their family members. 

I definitely think being in the house with my family, who I normally see a couple of times a month, has been very stressful. Homework and babysitting don’t always agree with each other. I took a short oasis to my apartment to work on the finals. This increase in family time has made me value my peaceful one bedroom. 

One of my biggest concerns during the pandemic has been my grandmother. She doesn’t drive and relies mainly on carpools and public transportation and the majority of her time was spent at church in large group settings. 

I’ve been in charge of ordering all her groceries and working as tech support so she can video call family. Grocery delivery is super easy but she isn’t very adept with technology so a lot of my free time has been occupied with opening facebook’s lives of her pastor. 

My next goal is to get her to figure out how to open Netflix or at least send her some DVDs so she’ll stop impulse buying from catalogs out of boredom. She called asking if I could send her a VHS player so I got my work cut out for me. 

Looking into the future

Prior to the pandemic, I was feeling wishy-washy about my future. I was thinking about leaving graduate school but the state of the economy is making a Masters degree look more appealing. I’ve only been on the job/internship hunt for a couple of months and since COVID I’ve noticed a significant drop in job opportunities. I’m still hopeful but I’m definitely expanding my net to things that weren’t necessarily interesting to me. 

I have a bachelor’s in Environmental Studies and I’m not sure how a lot of the non-profit work I’m interested in will be fairing during a recession. An economic downturn won’t help already disinterested people care about the topic of climate change but it should. 

The speed of how quickly things turned from bad to worse with the pandemic can happen with our environment. It also gave me hope, seeing how quickly we’ve adapted to things like social distancing.

Hopefully, this shows people that fast-pace advancements for the health of our country are feasible and that we are resilient when it comes to change. 

Mental Health and Activism During the Time of Coronavirus

I saw a tweet the other day that went something like this:

My therapist: Your OCD is irrational

The Government: Wash your hands 19 times or else your dad will die

I couldn’t help but laugh at the grim reality of this tweet. I’ve had OCD my whole life, but was only formally diagnosed in the past couple years. I think it took so long because there’s a general misunderstanding of what OCD actually is. Although I relate to the above-mentioned tweet, I don’t have hand-washing compulsions. I also don’t compulsively straighten picture frames or clean (although sometimes I wish, since I have to deal with OCD anyway, I could at least get a clean room out of it).

OCD is actually a cycle of obsessive thoughts, anxiety, compulsions, and temporary relief. I’ll have an upsetting thought that I just can’t let go of, which results in almost unbearable anxiety. To relieve it, I’ll do something that my brain has decided makes me feel better – that could be turning my lamp off and on ten times, checking that the oven is off over and over before I go to sleep, or tapping my foot in a specific way on a crack in the sidewalk. I’ll feel better then, but just for a little while. Usually, giving in to the compulsions just makes the cycle more vicious, and soon enough, the compulsive behaviors are more upsetting than the obsessive thoughts.

All this to say, coronavirus has made OCD much more difficult to manage. It’s a time of extreme uncertainty, I have absolutely no control over it, and I’m stuck inside all day without many outlets for my energy. Everyone with OCD is different, but for me, it’s really the perfect storm.

That means prioritizing my mental health has been more important than ever. But that’s not true just for me. We are in stressful, unprecedented times, and many of our coping mechanisms, such as spending time with friends and family or going to the gym, aren’t available to us in the same way. It’s more important than ever for folks to learn about their own mental health, and figure out the best ways to take care of it.

For me, taking care of my mental health in quarantine has looked like this:

  • Therapy. I’m lucky enough to have a therapist that specializes in OCD and is also there to talk about pretty much anything I want. It took me a really long time to go to therapy – I procrastinated for about two years. But it’s one of the best moves I’ve made for my mental health. I’m lucky enough to have health insurance that covers my visits, a workplace that lets me adjust my hours so I can make my appointments, and a therapist who has transitioned to tele-appointments during coronavirus. Not everyone has the same access to therapy, but it’s worth doing the research – you may be surprised at the affordable options out there! If you’ve been on the fence about therapy, take this as your sign. DO IT!
  • Being kind to myself. This one takes constant work, but is more important than ever during coronavirus. I tend to get down on myself for not doing enough or being enough, whether that’s because I ate chips and salsa for dinner three nights in a row, or because with all this free time, I’m still opting for netflix over the books on my bedside table. Once I became aware of this thinking pattern, it became easier to recognize the moments where I am unnecessarily hard on myself. And in those moments, I gently remind myself that we are in a global pandemic, and that I am doing enough. Another trick that’s been particularly helpful has been writing down all the things I get done at the end of the day – that way, I can remember all that I’m doing, and not fixate exclusively on the unchecked items on my to-do list. 
  • Exercise. Whatever that means for you! I’ve never been a big walker, but suddenly I have a lot of free time – and I’ve discovered I actually love going on walks. However, not everyone lives in an area where it’s super safe to be outside right now. So listen to your body, and do whatever feels good to you.  But, truly, getting a little bit of exercise every day has been critical for me and my mental health. (The photo at the top is one of the many photos I’ve taken on my daily walk. This is one of my favorite views near my mom’s house.)
  • I know I said I would never show anyone my embroidery, but I guess I’ll make an exception. It’s a small, simple design, but the process is so therapeutic!
    Creative outlets. I will never let anyone see my watercoloring or embroidery, and absolutely NO ONE will ever be hearing me play the guitar, which I started learning a couple months ago. But that’s because these creative outlets aren’t for other people, they’re for me. Coronavirus means a lot of staring at screens and redundancy in everyday life. Spending time being creative feels like a breath of fresh air for my brain, and I’ve found it really helps reduce my anxiety.
  • Doing what’s in my control – like fighting climate change. I think mental health can be so tricky to manage right now because it truly feels like nothing is in our control. When things first started to pick up in the US, I was one of those people who was frantically googling coronavirus numbers at three in the morning, and checking every single news alert that came onto my phone. But this just left me feeling anxious and hopeless. I’m so grateful that I’m not in that place anymore. Instead, I’ve directed my energy into what is in my control – Which is where climate action comes in.

Climate Action: Necessary for the planet, equally necessary for my mental health.

I always knew that climate action was important to me for the obvious reasons. Our lives and the lives of future generations are at stake, and the most vulnerable communities will be hit hardest by our changing climate. Taking action on climate isn’t just an environmental necessity, it is a human rights necessity. However, during the coronavirus, taking action on climate has been equally necessary to maintaining my mental health. Because, even though climate change is a complex, global issue, I still have control over my impact. I feel better knowing that I am taking action, and that my small impact is still a real impact.

Of course, climate action looks a little different during a stay-at-home order. Strategy meetings are now on zoom, protests are on twitter, and educational events are on Facebook Live. And although I am eagerly awaiting the day we can all operate in-person again, I’m also feeling better and better about virtual activism. There is a huge, passionate community of people that are doing everything possible to avoid future catastrophe – and a stay-at-home order hasn’t stopped them. Folks are posting more about climate on social media, contacting their legislators over the phone or email, and are attending educational webinars hosted by organizations across the country. I am confident that this momentary pause in physical activism is only fueling the passion and drive that climate activists have always possessed. When this is all over, we’re going to fight harder than ever.

There are a lot of organizations doing a ton of great work right now, but here are a couple things that CCAN has lined up to help you get involved in climate action during coronavirus.

A skill-up on digital advocacy. We’re holding a training for how to best use social media for climate advocacy. Have you heard about the “Facebook townhall” feature, where you can reach out to all your local officials on Facebook at once? Learn this and more by watching this uber-informative social media training for climate activists.

Learning about the next big clean energy campaign in Virginia. We’re not just going to build a movement for the sake of building a movement. We’re going to put our new skills and communities into action! The next big clean energy fight in Virginia will be on transportation. Learn about what opportunities we have, like fare-free public transit, and how you can help us win! Click HERE to RSVP for the transportation info sesh with experts on May 26 at 7:00pm.

I hope that, sometime soon, you can take a moment to really consider your mental health. Sometimes, it can feel easier to ignore the question of how you’re doing than to really take a moment and check in with yourself. But, at least for me, prioritizing my mental health has been critical to staying afloat during coronavirus. It’s not always easy, but it’s definitely worth it. 

An example of virtual activism! I participate in weekly virtual climate strikes. Email me at hannah@chesapeakeclimate.org to join me!

Student Activist Maddie Graham: “Nothing has changed. Everything has changed.”

Transcribed interview has been lightly edited for clarity. 

Maddie Graham: My name is Maddie Graham. I’m 17 years old and I’m a junior in high school. 

CCAN Organizer Anthony Field: You were recently featured in a Washington Post story called “The Foot Soldiers of the New Environmental Movement.” I read through it and saw the pictures and it was really incredible. How did you feel about it? 

MG: It was really cool to see myself in the Post. It made me seem a lot cooler than I am. But it could’ve been any of my organizer friends in that story. The movement as a whole, the youth, all of us are so incredibly brave and strong, so I think that story could’ve been about any of us. But it is pretty cool. 

AF: How did you get started in climate advocacy? 

MG: I’d always been into the environment. I was in the environmental club in middle school, I always had a garden, I liked to climb trees and be outside. But it was in my sophomore year of high school, during the mid-term elections, when my chemistry teacher told us that if we wanted to make a video — I’m in a communications climate program at school, so I film — she told us if we wanted to make a video encouraging people to vote green she would let us out of class. So that’s what we did, and it got 300,000 views and Bill McKibben retweeted it which was wild. At first people wanted to talk to me about that video, and through that I got connected to other people in the environmental movement. I really enjoyed making that video and wanted to do more. So then I found Sunrise really quickly after that, and then Fridays for Future really started to pick up steam in the USA after that. From there I’ve been organizing every way I can. 

AF: How has organizing changed in this time period? 

MG: On the one hand, it seemed the physical act of organizing hasn’t changed. We were always using Zoom. Most of our organizing happened not in person. On the other hand, everything has changed. Earth Day was online, something we’ve been planning for half a year, we had to pack up and move online. I still think the Earth Day actions were a success and we did a good job with what was given to us, but it was still kind of sad to be sitting inside on Earth Day. 

AF: You can’t necessarily be with friends and family in person, but is there something you can point to that’s been helping you through this situation?

MG: Harry Potter. Definitely. Rereading. Not so much watching the films. This has gotta be my 150th time rereading them. I love Harry Potter. 

AF: Any final thoughts? 

MG: Just want to make sure everyone knows if you do want to digital strike, you can find instructions for doing so at @fff_digital on twitter and @fff.digital on Instagram. It’s easy! Take a picture of yourself with a sign of that week’s theme, tag FFF Digital and DM them if you want to be included in the collage. 

My Covid-19 Story — Visible and Invisible Despair

“I shouldn’t even be out and about. My demographic is the most at risk, but I couldn’t miss the chance to see everyone,” said a good friend and fellow climate activist at a happy hour in Annapolis. A good friend whose words echoed in my mind whenever I began lightly coughing on my drive home. 

“See you tomorrow,”  Mike Tidwell, CCAN’s Executive Director, said as we bumped fists goodbye. A gesture that I thought about as I lay in bed hoping to escape the chest pains by sleeping.

“We’re here for you,” rang a cacophony of voices from friends, family, and co-workers as I read the word across my screen: POSITIVE.

How it started

The first symptom manifested as a slightly annoying dry cough the evening of March 9th as I left a happy hour in Annapolis. This cough was quickly followed up by a fever and sore throat. “Is this it,” I thought to myself as I googled COVID 19 symptoms for the 5th time the next day. 

The next week was a whirlwind of google searches, news articles, and sweating through every article of clothing I had as the fever worsened and my breathing became harder. The symptoms kept building up to the point that simply walking to the bathroom in my small 1 bedroom D.C. apartment felt like an Olympic feat.

Eventually, after a virtual visit with my primary care doctor, I was able to secure an appointment to get tested. I was terrified of the very real possibility that I have the Novel Coronavirus. Terrified that I would join the rapidly increasing number of positive cases in D.C., the United States, and around the world. 

Being Negative About The Positive

POSITIVE

Reading the word made it real – and it freaking sucked.

I immediately notified my co-workers of the results. They had already begun taking precautions around the workplace. Limiting face-to-face meetings, disinfecting workplaces, allowing staff to work from home. But this news required additional precautions: Notification of building management that someone was exhibiting symptoms and an order for all staff to work from home for the duration of this crisis.

CCAN couldn’t risk the possible transmission of the virus within the office. But, with all those precautions, all they could do was hold their breath and wait to see if they too began exhibiting symptoms. This was the case for dozens of my friends and colleagues who I had met within the previous weeks. Who knows when and where I contracted the virus and who I may have exposed. 

This positive diagnosis did not weigh on me for my own sake, but because of the fear that I put dozens in danger. I was like a barrel of toxic radiation and for all I knew I had been harming people for days before I noticed the symptoms. 

Corrosive Thoughts

By now I am sure everyone knows about the physical symptoms of the Novel Coronavirus: 

  • Cough
  • Shortness of breath
  • Chest pain
  • Fever
  • Chills
  • Muscle pain
  • Headache
  • Sore throat

However, dealing with being COVID positive while also living in this crazy new world of social distancing and cosplaying as your favorite Mad Max character just to go to the store, there was a lot of mental weight as well:

  • Guilt. The guilt of possibly infecting others was ever-present. There was the guilt of knowing that in spite of how bad I felt, there were thousands dealing with this crisis while not having access to health care, a stable income, or a means of feeding themselves and their families.
  • Despair. Then there were the thoughts of uselessness. The crippling feeling of being worthless in your everyday life, unable to leave to go to the store or check the mail. Feeling useless while your co-workers continue on to fight the good fight while I struggle to sit up without coughing out a lung. 

I know I am not alone in feeling this way. Many have even reported feeling “Survivor’s Guilt” after recovering. I can certainly understand that too.

But we are not forever bound by these corrosive thoughts. This crisis, this virus, cannot last forever.

Taking a Deep Breath

About a month after COVID-19 decided to pay me a visit, I finally started feeling better. I could YAWN without it being interrupted by a two-minute coughing fit. I wasn’t afraid of switching positions while I was asleep and waking up choking and gasping for air. I could go a day (don’t shame me) without showering because I was no longer sweating profusely throughout the day due to a high fever. I even moved into a new house in Takoma Park!

I was finally starting to feel like myself.

Though, I would be lying if I said I was excited to get back to work.

My Second First Day

So that last sentence was more so for dramatic effect, but for real, I was extremely nervous. Getting back to work felt like my first day all over again. The CCAN staff had been weathering this storm and steering the ship through this crisis for a month without me. Would I even remember how to work? How would the others react to me having been gone for so long and would they think of me as that guy that got away without working for a few weeks?  What even is a “climate”?

CCAN is a special place. I was lucky enough to have the full support of the CCAN staff, even getting a care package of toilet paper delivered to me from our General Counsel, Anne Havemann.

As cheesy as it sounds, we are a family. More importantly, we are passionate about protecting the climate. We have a job to do. And unfortunately, the climate crisis isn’t on pause.

Even through the worst of times.

That is not to say individuals cannot take their time. There is nothing more important than ensuring your own stability. It just means that, no matter what, when you’re ready to rock n’ roll again, a spot is always open. 

Continuing the Fight

The fight never stops.

We find ourselves in a moment in time where millions are income insecure, our food supply chains are failing, and Maryland is in desperate need of a plan to deal with both the fallout from the covid-19 pandemic and the ever-present climate crisis. One part of that plan needs to be providing well paying and stable jobs for Marylanders,now and into the future.

With over 300,000 thousand Marylanders now having filed for unemployment benefits, we will soon need to create many new jobs for a sustainable new economy. And we have the opportunity to rebuild a new, CLEAN AND HEALTHY economy with renewable energy. Yet our clean energy industry has taken a hit. There are more than 40 utility-scale solar projects and two major offshore wind projects in danger of being held up in Maryland in part by the slow pace and misguided regulatory focus of the state’s Public Service Commission.

One thing you can do right now is sign this petition calling on the PSC to not delay clean energy in Maryland any longer. But that’s not the end, far from it. We’re going to keep fighting for clean energy. Because our health depends on it.

Don’t Strand Your Assets

Some of our oil and gas reserves “will never see the light of day.”

Dominic Emery, British Petroleum’s (BP) Head of Strategy, July, 2019

In fact, a LOT of BP’s oil and gas reserves will never see the light of day!  Neither will ExxonMobil’s, Chevron’s or Total’s. BP was one of the first of the Big Oil companies to admit that the immense reserves they have carried on their accounting books as “assets” for years may turn out to be “liabilities” instead. They are called “stranded assets,” meaning they were once assets to the company that are never going to be needed or used. 

Why?

The demand for fossil fuels is drying up. The Paris Agreement calls for every country in the world to limit their carbon dioxide emissions and prevent the atmosphere from warming more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees F). Burning fossil fuels for electricity, heat and transportation is the most carbon intensive and damaging environmental act there is.

Pie chart of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by economic sector in 2017. 27 percent is from electricity, 28 percent is from transportation, 22 percent is from industry, 12 percent is from commercial and residential, and 10 percent is from agriculture.
Source: EPA.gov

Each country around the globe signed it. When have you ever known all the leaders of the world to agree on anything? Then, in 2019, the US announced plans to withdraw from it. These plans are effective one day after the next Presidential election, on November 4, 2020. Luckily for the U.S., cities and states in America are taking matters into their own hands. Fed up with methane leaks, oil spills and water polluted by coal ash, communities across the nation have been embracing “clean” energy through solar, wind and thermal sources. It is better for our health and for the planet. Not to mention that the price of renewable energy has fallen dramatically, especially in the last 10 years. The green movement has caused investors to demand that colleges, pension funds, and IRA’s be “divested” of fossil fuel companies or those that rely on dirty energy. The rallying cry to “leave it in the ground” has gotten louder while Big Oil has been asleep at the wheel. 

Enter the coronavirus in January, 2020.

Talk about grinding the gears of the economy to a halt! Airplanes were grounded. Shipping cargo was set adrift. Cars and buses all but disappeared from streets and highways. People stayed home. In just 3 months, energy stocks crashed by 50%. What that looks like in dollars is staggering: the top 25 oil and gas companies lost an eye-popping $811 billion by the end of March. Close to one million fossil fuel workers have been laid off, and bankruptcies could number over 150 companies in the oil and gas sector. Shale-drilling companies will be among the first to go since they are already debt-heavy and unable to borrow any more money.

Much like the “tech bubble” of the 2000’s and the “housing bubble” of 2008, a looming “carbon bubble” has developed. Big Oil needs to earn about $40/barrel to be profitable. Today, it is going for $15.35, and it has been much worse. For Big Oil, stranded assets are not just their oil and gas reserves; its’ also the 2.6 million miles of pipelines and the fossil fuel power plants that they connect. Here are the numbers:

  • Over $120 billion of oil and gas assets will be stranded in the next 15 years in the U.S. ($90 billion in fossil fuel power plants plus $30 billion in pipelines).
  • Globally, there are $22 trillion worth of stranded oil and gas reserves. The U.S. fossil fuel industry can claim at least $5 trillion of this. 

Stranded assets are not a new concept. They are part of a technology evolution called “creative destruction”, which is essential for innovation and growth. The idea is that every new technology replaces or destroys the one before it. For example, handwritten manuscripts were replaced by printing presses which were replaced by word processing software. Railways replaced canals and were in turn replaced by automobiles. Whole societies have fallen victim to it as well. Remember the Ottoman Empire? By refusing to adopt the printing press, the Ottoman’s had no mass communication in place to warn their population when invading armies attacked. Over half of the Fortune 500 companies from the year 2000 do not exist today. How can Big Oil prevent becoming the next Kodak or Blockbuster?

The companies that embrace and morph into the next technology the soonest are the ones that will survive. Companies such as Orsted are successfully evolving. Formerly the Danish Oil and Natural Gas Company (DONG), it changed its name in 2017 after divesting of upstream oil and gas businesses and switching to renewables.

It’s named for the man who discovered electromagnetism, Hans Christian Orsted, and it built the largest offshore wind farm on the planet, the Hornsea Project in the U.K. It also built the first offshore wind farm to the U.S., off the coast of Block Island, Rhode Island. There, the turbine bases serve as artificial reefs, attracting marine life and fisherman (so much so that it figures prominently in the Block Island Tourism Guide). The Madrid-based company, Repsol, is also adapting to the “new normal.”  A self-proclaimed “leader in the clean energy transition” it has committed to having net-zero emissions by 2050 by developing wind and solar renewable energy projects each year. Repsol is transparent about impairment caused by stranded assets, lowering the value of its reserves and taking a $5.17 billion dollar loss on production assets in 2019. Repsol considers it part of the price tag for their environmental ambitions. It may be a small price to pay for survival. Other fossil fuel companies would do well to follow their lead, writing off stranded assets and transitioning to renewable energy projects. That may be the only way to guarantee a place in the Fortune 500 in 2050. 

Photo at the top via Flickr Creative Commons

The Vanishing Need for Fracked Gas in Virginia

Last week, Governor Ralph Northam signed the Virginia Clean Economy Act into law, making Virginia the first Southern state with a goal of going carbon-free by 2045. Thanks to the bill, Virginia’s energy future looks a lot cleaner.

The future for gas, on the other hand, is a lot less rosy. 

The VCEA floors it on clean energy, taking Virginia from nearly zero to 100 in a matter of years. It mandates that the state’s biggest utility, Dominion Energy, switch entirely to renewable energy by 2045. Appalachian Power, which serves far southwest Virginia, must go carbon-free by 2050. It requires Dominion to build 16,100 megawatts of onshore wind and solar energy, and it proclaims up to 5,200 MW of offshore wind by 2034 to be in the public interest. 

The General Assembly also passed a bill this year allowing Virginia to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a regional carbon-trading program now in place from Maine to Virginia. With Virginia joining RGGI, all fossil fuel generating plants will be required to pay for the right to spew carbon pollution. 

What might all of this mean for gas? 

We got an early sign earlier this month when Dominion asked its regulator, the State Corporation Commission, to relieve it of a requirement to model new gas plants. In December 2018, the utility was planning for eight to 13 new gas combustion turbines (a plan the SCC rejected because the company inflated electricity demand).

Today “significant build-out of natural gas generation facilities is not currently viable, with the passage by the General Assembly of the Virginia Clean Economy Act of 2020,” the company wrote in its filing.

You read that right. Their previous plans are no longer viable.

If additional gas plants aren’t viable in Virginia, then what’s the purpose of the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley pipelines? 

Dominion’s primary argument for the ACP has been that “Virginia needs new pipeline infrastructure” for home heating, manufacturing, and electricity. “Demand for natural gas is growing,” Dominio CEO Tom Farrell continued in an October 2018 op-ed in the Richmond Times Dispatch. Likewise, MVP claims its gas is desperately needed. 

Yet even before passage of the VCEA, the need for these pipelines was in question. Only about 13 percent of Mountain Valley’s gas was spoken for, with the destination for the remaining 87 percent “unknown.” And, in a brief before the U.S. Supreme Court, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring argued that Virginia already had no demonstrated need for the expansion of fracked-gas infrastructure, with demand only projected to decrease in the foreseeable future. 

Is Dominion on its way to walking away from the project?

One sign that Dominion might be on the way to abandoning the ACP is the fact that the company did not oppose HB167 (sponsored by Delegate Lee Ware), which is now law. This bill requires an electric utility that wants to charge customers for the cost of using a new gas pipeline to prove it can’t meet its needs otherwise, and that the new pipeline provides the lowest-cost option available to it. This bill makes cost recovery for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline–and the Mountain Valley Pipeline–much more difficult. Dominion’s acquiescence to the bill could be an indication that the company is preparing to fold up shop on this project.

With Virginia now on a path away from fossil fuels, the ACP and MVP are not needed to supply electricity to Virginians, if they ever were. Dominion and EQT should cancel their plans and move on. 

Two other projects may also be on their way out under Virginia’s new commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. 

Developers are proposing two huge new gas plants only a mile away from one another in Charles City County. Neither the 1,600 MW Chickahominy Power Station nor the 1,050 C4GT plant plan to sell power to Virginia utilities; their target is the regional wholesale market. So, while the VCEA won’t force them to go green, they will have to pay to pollute under RGGI. This added cost, plus the permitting issues the plants are encountering, could persuade them to abandon their plans. 

And, if the C4GT plant goes away, so too should Virginia Natural Gas’s plans for a gas pipeline and compressor stations to supply the plant, what we’re calling the Header Injustice Project.

All in all, gas is on its way out in Virginia. We only wish the companies had seen the writing on the wall before they started seizing land, cutting down precious trees, and clogging rivers and streams with sediment.