Four Actions to Address Climate Change from USCAN's June Annual Meeting

PSR PA is one of over 190 US based environmental justice groups who are members of the US Climate Action Network (USCAN) dedicated to fight climate change in a just and equitable way. Our own Tammy Murphy, Medical Advocacy Director and Walter Tsou, MD, PSR board member represented us at their June Annual Meeting in Charlotte, NC.

The major outcome of the meeting is to create four Action Teams where the many grassroots environmental groups can collectively work on goals that have broad impact on climate change. After much deliberation, we agreed on these action teams.

• Breaking the Fossil Fuel and other Extractive Industries Subsidies and Tax Break Cycle

• Centering People and Climate Impacts

• Grassroots Campaign for Vision for Equitable Climate Action (VECA)

• Building Power from the Grassroots Up

Yes, there is some overlap but given the recent Supreme Court decision to limit the EPA's authority to regulate greenhouse gases, it is clear that people and communities are going to have to be the change needed to break the fossil fuel combustion cycle and move us to renewable energy sources. That is why grassroots action will be a needed priority for all environmental groups.

One of the USCAN efforts is Arm in Arm, a direct action mobilization to confront permits and decisions which could institutionalize fossil fuels for another thirty years. We will be writing more about this, but if enough people are willing to join Arm in Arm to fight bad decisions, we can help accelerate our move away from methane and carbon pollution in order to fight global warming which is reeking havoc worldwide.