After years of inaction, the passage of the federal Inflation Reduction Act means the US finally has a fighting chance at meeting our climate goals. But the IRA is just the start -- now we have to do the hard work of implementation, everywhere. Cities, including San Francisco, have a critical role to play to ensure we get to net-zero carbon emissions as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, San Francisco is already behind. While we have an ambitious Climate Action Plan (CAP), Mayor London Breed, who proudly introduced the CAP in 2021, has been surprisingly reluctant to actually commit funding to carry it out. In the last two budget cycles, she included $0 for implementing the CAP in her budget proposals, and it was only through heroic efforts by advocates to the Board of Supervisors that any money was restored. This year, the San Francisco Environment Department (SFE) is requesting $7 million for staffing and programs essential for achieving the CAP on schedule. This is a minuscule amount in the city's overall $14 BILLION budget, and yet we will need to fight tooth and nail for the funding. Mayor Breed has still not committed to SFE's request, and now is the time to let her know that another snub to climate funding is simply not an option compatible with maintaining a livable planet. The climate crisis impacts the city in countless ways. It is a public health crisis, and funding climate initiatives will improve residents’ and the planet’s health. Such initiatives are also critical to address environmental justice and equity issues in San Francisco and improve the lives of underserved, lower-income, and BIPOC communities. Climate initiatives will attract more businesses and tourists, create jobs, and elevate the status of San Francisco as a world-class city. President Biden and Democrats nationwide have campaigned on climate, and won, proving that it is a winning issue. Mayors around the world are leading on aggressive climate policies in their cities. It's time for Mayor Breed to show that she is a serious leader who recognizes that climate action is the path to a livable, equitable, and rejuvenated San Francisco, by committing to funding $7 million for SFE in her 2023-2024 budget.

+ The Back Bay Fens, Justine Mee Liff Park, and The Riverway are among the oldest portions of Frederick Law Olmsteds' Emerald Necklace, serving as an important resource for people and wildlife, and spanning key portions of the Muddy River watershed; and + These parks are visited by thousands of daily users including runners, bikers, walkers, and commuters, serving as sites for the BAA half marathon, art festivals, public art events and environmental classes and as public lands, are meant to serve as respite and resource to a dense and growing community; and + The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently completed a multi-decade flood management program of the Muddy River watershed; and These parklands provide key environmental benefits, increasingly important to Boston's climate resilience. + The proposed building heights in the project are up to 320 feet, and violate both building heights and shadow restrictions under the Longwood Medical Area Interim Guidelines, currently in effect; and + The proposed project will cast significant new shadows (Over 3 hours in some areas) onto the parks, exceeding limits set forth in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area's Interim Guidelines, permanently altering the park's ecosystem and the conditions of human access experience; and will also cast significant new shadows (Over 3 hours in these areas) onto Boston University Wheelock Family Theater, Boston University Fenway Student Center and Residence Halls; and + These impacts will permanently degrade the quality of life of residents, students, workers and park patrons and set dangerous precedent for monetary payments for irreparable loss to public parks;

We believe the requested Rezoning and Land Use Designation Change are not an improvement to the General Plan, nor is this development in scale or does it fit with the identity and character of the surrounding areas. We would hope the Peoria Planning Commission and members of the City Council of Peoria will honor the original intentions of the city of Peoria’s visionaries by rejecting Simpatico’s application.

The headline repeated by media outlets across the country at the end of last month was that Coterra (formerly Cabot) the driller responsible for contaminating the water supplies of people in and around Dimock, Pennsylvania, 14 years ago pleaded no contest to criminal charges and agreed to pay more than $16 million for a water line to provide water to affected residents and cover their water bills for 75 years. Justice for Dimock... FINALLY, we thought. Wrong. The Associated Press is now reporting that the Department of Environmental Protection "quietly lifted its long-term moratorium on gas production in Dimock" the very same day Coterra (Cabot) pleaded no contest. The AP reports, "At the news conference, Shapiro punted a reporter’s question about whether Coterra would be permitted to resume drilling in the moratorium area, pointing out the administration of Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf was still in charge." Not for long, Governor-Elect Shapiro. As Attorney General, Shapiro came to know how badly the people of Dimock have suffered. As Governor, he needs to make right what the state has gotten so wrong and permanently ban all drilling and fracking activities in Dimock. Read the AP's story here - https://apnews.com/article/business-pennsylvania-state-government-climate-and-environment-politics-778fffd63ac1db58ab7df86fe1958ffa Demand Justice for Dimock.

“Pennfield has obtained a Co-Product status instead of Waste with our brine. What this means is you don’t have to report spreading and it can be spread all year round. I know this is hard to believe because D.E.P. doesn’t make anything easy, but it’s true…,” the company told townships that were potential customers. Titusville Oil & Gas Associates’ president wrote, “I do not currently supply any oil and gas produced water to these entities or any other entities for the purpose of treating dirt and gravel roads in Forest County and have not done so since the Department of Environmental Protection - Bureau of Waste Management (BWM) issued letters to multiple operators in the business of spreading produced water on dirt roads that their co-product determinations were largely inadequate.” The company reported spreading 1004.01 barrels of produced water in Forest County in 2021. Tachoir Resources, a company that entered 278 records of road spreading a total of nearly 600 barrels of drilling waste in 2021 says it subcontracted the hauling to another company, Anderson Energy Services. Anderson also reported road spreading of waste, 240 barrels of it, for the first time since 2017, told regulators in August, “Per our conversation we have not been disposing brine for spreading for well over a year and are not in the future.” Additionally, that same company routinely lists the same amount of waste spread for each of its entries in a county. It might explain why their client did the same. How much of its own waste and its client’s it actually spread is unknown. These are among the discoveries the Better Path Coalition made in our latest review of records we obtained from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Waste Management in response to a Right-to-Know request. The records round out our collection of documents pertaining to the use of a loophole conventional drillers found in BWM’s Coproduct Determination program to "legally" continue the practice of spreading toxic, radioactive waste on unpaved roads in Pennsylvania after the Office of Oil & Gas Management put a moratorium on the practice. Collectively, the documents reveal that not one conventional driller reporting road spreading of waste from 2018 to the present submitted a Coproduct Determination report that met the regulatory requirements of the program. Road spreading of unconventional drilling wastewater was banned in 2016. Since then, studies have confirmed that conventional drilling wastewater is harmful to human health and the environment and that it's no better than rainwater at suppressing dust. Meanwhile, conventional drillers have done everything they can to circumvent the 2018 moratorium. It's past time for an outright ban on road spreading of ALL drilling waste. Governor-Elect Shapiro must make it a priority to bring an end to this dangerous practice.

Why is this important? It seems that communities are being led to believe that fracking will be a golden goose while the real economic, human, and environmental impacts are being downplayed using tactics similar to the tobacco industry. Consider who would be impacted by the immediate and long-term adverse effects. We are concerned for our health, our reservoir, and our community and refuse to be the next Hinkley, Dimock, or Flint. We want clean water. We want clean air.

It seems that communities are being led to believe that fracking will be a golden goose while the real economic, human, and environmental impacts are being downplayed using tactics similar to the tobacco industry. Consider who would be impacted by the immediate and long-term adverse effects. We are concerned for our health, our reservoir, and our community and refuse to be the next Hinkley, Dimock, or Flint. We want clean water. We want clean air.

We are in a drought. The human and environmental impacts are being downplayed using tactics similar to the tobacco industry. We are concerned for our health, our reservoir, and our community. We will not be the next Hinkley, Dimock, or Flint. We want clean water. We want clean air.

Catastrophic flooding has left one-third of Pakistan underwater and devastated the country’s healthcare, education, and agricultural infrastructure. 1 in every 7 Pakistanis has been impacted by the flooding. This has displaced 7.9 million people, impacted more than 33 million people, and killed at least 1,600 people and counting. After record flooding, the UN health agency warned that the country is on the verge of a public health crisis as millions suffer from waterborne diseases. Relief agencies have warned that the wait for the water to recede could last at least six months. Pakistan emits less than 1% of the world’s planet-warming gases, but it is the eighth most vulnerable nation to the climate crisis. [https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/30/asia/pakistan-climate-crisis-floods-justice-intl/index.html] While the United States sent some relief in monetary aid, this is simply not enough to counteract the impact of the climate crisis that Pakistan is not even responsible for. Temporary Protective Status (TPS) and Special Student Status (SSR) are humanitarian protections that have benefited numerous foreign national groups in the U.S. over the past few decades. Pakistani nationals and students should not be excluded from this humanitarian relief. **Sign this petition to demand President Joe Biden and Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas designate Temporary Protective Status for impacted Pakistanis and protect Pakistani nationals already working and studying in the United States.** We also urge the Biden administration to enact policies that communicate a more serious commitment to support Black and Brown working communities, here and abroad, that are disproportionately impacted by climate disasters. The humanitarian crisis facing ordinary Pakistanis is unthinkable. Millions of people lack access to food, clean potable water, or safe shelter and have lost their ability to work the lands impacted by the floods in a country where agriculture is the predominant source of livelihood. The hit to the agricultural sector threatens a severe food crisis. There is not enough dry land to properly bury those killed due to the floods. To make matters worse, over 1.1 million houses have been washed away, an estimated 18,000 schools have been destroyed, and millions of Pakistani mothers and infants face increased risks to life and health. Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) can designate a country for TPS if the country is experiencing ongoing armed conflict, natural disaster, or other extraordinary and temporary conditions. TPS allows its beneficiaries to stay in the U.S. during the designation period and receive work permits. It is lifesaving, blanket protection that allows people from a designated country to remain in the U.S. while conditions in their home country make a safe return impossible. In addition to these more immediate demands, we believe that longer-term action is urgently needed. Governments can no longer ignore their responsibilities to fortify communities vulnerable to global warming, center safe pathways for migration as essential climate adaptations, enact stronger legislation to eliminate carbon emissions, increase mitigation efforts, and implement equitable climate finance like the Loss & Damage Finance Facility being discussed under the UN Convention on Climate Change. **While longer-term commitments are needed to support Black and brown communities disproportionately impacted by climate disasters, the best thing President Joe Biden and DHS Secretary Mayorkas can do right now is to use programs like TPS and SSR to provide relief and respite for impacted Pakistanis.** A designation of TPS and SSR would allow Pakistani immigrants, including students, the ability to work in the U.S. and provide relief to their families back home while bolstering the larger economy. Sign this petition to request relief for impacted Pakistanis. – Coalition partners: Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, Communities United for Status and Protection (CUSP), Climate Justice Collaborative at the National Partnership for New Americans (NPNA), and Desis Rising Up & Moving (DRUM) – Banner image credit: Guardian/Husnain Ali/AFP/Getty Images – For more context, read these reflections from Pakistanis directly impacted by the floods. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/10/opinion/pakistan-floods-flood-crisis.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/11/world/asia/pakistan-floods-food-crisis.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/15/world/asia/pakistan-floods-dadu-sindh.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/03/opinion/environment/floods-in-pakistan-climate-change.html https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/scale-of-destruction-due-to-pakistan-floods-nearly-incomprehensible https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/30/climate/pakistan-floods.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/14/world/asia/pakistan-floods.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/15/climate/pakistan-floods-global-warming.html

Catlin Gabel fully relies on energy produced outside of school, which means a lot of money is being spent on electricity, and some of those energy sources may not be very sustainable. Solar panels are a great energy alternative as they can reduce electricity costs in the long term, emit less carbon, and reduce our dependency on fossil fuels. Using solar panels can typically decrease the cost of electricity bills by 15-25%, and they pay for themselves after 6-10 years. After only 3 years, solar panels pay off their carbon debt, and become completely carbon neutral for the rest of their lifetime, which is at least 25-30 years. Even in cloudy Portland weather conditions, solar panels can generate electricity, as they can work using both direct and indirect light. All of these reasons make solar panels a great investment for our school, and will allow us to work towards a better future!

Due to people are getting sick from mold , preventing people who work from home to make living!

The Boundary Waters Wilderness in northeastern Minnesota is America's most-visited Wilderness and a wildland refuge critical to people and the planet. Anishinaabe people (also known in this region as Chippewa or Ojibwe) have lived in the area for countless generations and have a deep relationship to these lands and waters. Indigenous people continue to harvest wild rice in the Boundary Waters region and maintain treaty rights to hunt, fish and gather. As sovereign nations, tribes play a central role in protecting the Boundary Waters and have called for its protection. This wild and beautiful place is threatened by proposed sulfide-ore copper mining, but we can protect this place if enough people take action. Visit www.SavetheBoundaryWaters.org to learn more.