The Environmental Justice Task Force believes there are many ways we can act  both as individuals and as a community to address climate change:

• Lower our personal carbon footprint by 20%
• Become political advocates, especially on the state level, for legislation to tax carbon, the banning of new fossil fuel infrastructure, and for sustainable energy initiatives
• Consider divesting personal, institutional, state and municipal funds and endowments from fossil fuels

Here are some resources to inform you and help get you started on on being a climate activist.  For questions or suggestions email Follen-ejtf@googlegroups.com. If you’d like to be informed on local environmental issues and actions request to be added to our info list by sending email to follen-environmental-justice@googlegroups.com

Climate Change

Commentary

• The Turning Point: New Hope for the Climate – Al Gore in Rolling Stone, June 18, 2014
• Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math -Bill McKibben’s seminal Rolling Stone article
• The New Abolitionists: Global warming is the great moral crisis of our time – Local environmentalist and writer for The Nation Wen Stephenson on why the climate justice movement must embrace its radicalism
• Video: MSNBC’s Commentator Christopher Hayes on Climate Change
• Parenting in the Age of Climate Change – Written by a local young parent for the Yale Forum on Climate Change and the Media
• Rough Forecasts – From the New Yorker, May 2014
• Fossil Fuel Subsidies Dampen Shift Towards Renewables – Inter Press Service News Agency April 9, 2014

Science

• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – for the latest IPCC report on Climate Change
  • Press Release – April 2014
• NOAA Global Climate Change Indicator – Latest measures from the National Climate Data Center
• Union of Concerned Scientists Call to Action on Climate Change

Coping with the Enormity

• Parenting in an Age of Climate Change: Communicating the Tough Truths to Children – Allison Guerette & John Wihbey, Yale Forum on Climate Change and the Media

• Wake Up! Our World is Dying and We’re All in Denial – Mary Pipher, Alternet News

Lowering Our Personal Carbon Footprint

• Buying into Solar Power, No Roof Access Needed – NY Times, June 19, 2014 
• Cooler Smarter: Practical Steps for Low Carbon Living – from the Union of Concerned Scientists (EJTF has several copies of this book for borrowing. Come to the EJTF table at coffee hour to sign out a copy.)
• Mass Energy Consumer’s Alliance – A non-profit that can switch you to fully sustainable electricity
• Solarize Lexington-Bedford – A state grant allows this organization to offer excellent rates for going Solar. This program will end on June 30, 2014.  Follen was one of the sponsors of the grant request.
• Next Step Living – Free energy assessments, free energy efficient lightbulbs, water saving fixtures, automatic thermostats, etc.
• Clean Energy: Choose Renewables First! – Union of Concerned Scientists
• What You Can Do – Union of Concerned Scientists

Renewable Energy

• China Leads the Way in Renewable Energy Growth – Nature World News, June 26, 2014
• Renewables Provide Small Share of U.S. Electricity But They’re Growing – The Wall Street Journal, June 24, 2014

The Fossil Fuel Divestment Debate

• Divestment Point/Counterpoint – Bob Massey vs. Robert Stavins, Environment 360, March 2014
• To Divest or Not to Divest? The Pros and Cons of Fossil Fuel Divestment Forum – (Video) Panelists: Chuck Collins, Tim Brennan, Bob Massey, Rev. Jim Sherblom, Tim Smith, Lauren Ressler, Stephanie Leighton, May 2013
• Fossil Fuel Divestment is Not the Answer – Tim Brennan, UU World May 15, 2013
• Fossil Fuel Divestment is Moral, Strategic – Rev. Fred Small, UU World May 15, 2013
• Putting the Freeze on Global Warming – Bill Moyers and Company interview – video , 24 minutes, 04/25/2014
• We need an apartheid-style boycott to save the planet – by Desmond Tutu – The Guardian 04/10/2014
• The Financial Case for Divestment from Fossil Fuel Companies by Endowment Fiduciaries – by Bevis Longstreth, Former SEC Commissioner – Huffington Post, 11/2013
• How to Stop Apocalyptic Climate Change –  by Todd Gitlin, Bill Moyers & Company, 11/2013
• Go Fossil Free Resource Page
• Debunking Myths about Fossil Fuel Divestment
• 11 Reasons to Divest from the Fossil Fuel Industry
• Massachusetts bill S1225 to divest the state’s pension funds from fossil fuels
  • Sign the petition in support of S1225
• Top 200 Fossil Fuel Companies

Divestment in the News

• Some Observations On Global Divestment Day 2015 – FossilFreeIndex.com, 2/14/2015 (New)
• Weekly updated list of news articles on divestment (maintained by 350MA) (New)
• Fossil Fuel Divestment. The Dominos are Starting to Fall – Blue Mass Group, May 22, 2014 (New)

UU Divestment/Religious Divestment

• Why Unitarian Universalists Voted to Divest from Fossil Fuels – Simon Billenness, Member of the UUA Committee on Socially Responsible Investment, June 30, 2014 (New)
• Listing of Known Religious Divestment Efforts – Green Faith, July 1, 2014 (Kept updated)
• At Unitarian Universalist Assembly, a vote to divest from fossil fuels – The Providence Journal, June 29, 2014
• UUA GA Talk: Why the UUA Board of Trustees Supports the Fossil Fuel Divestment Resolution (Video) – June 27, 2014
• British Medical Association (BMA) Votes for Fossil Fuel Divestment – The Ecologist, June 26, 2014
• UUA GA 2013 Action of Immediate Witness on Climate Change
• UUA GA 2014 Fossil Fuel Divestment Business Resolution
  • Summary and FAQ on the UUA GA 2014 Business Resolution to Divest from Fossil Fuels
• Unitarian Universalists for Fossil Fuel Divestment and Sustainable Reinvestment
• List of UU Churches that have already divested or have pledged to divest
  • First Parish Cambridge Resolution in Support of Divestment from Fossil Fuel Companies

Investing for a Sustainable Future – Fossil Free or Sustainable Funds

• Fossil Fuel Holdings Decreasing, Advocacy on the Rise – UUCEF.org, 1/4/2014 (New)
• Calvert Investments and Fossil Fuels – Calvert.com, 10/16/2014 (New)
• Fossil Fuel Free Portfolio – SustainableEconomist.com, 10/22/2013 (New)
• Fossil Fuel-Free Index Will Help Investors Manage Climate Risk – Forbes, 5/1/2014 (New)
  • Fossil Free Index – April 2014 (New)
• The Carbon Underground 2015 – FossilFreeIndexes.com, 1/2015 (New)
• Go Fossil Free Personal Divestment Roadmap
• Green Century
• Pax World Global Environmental Markets Fund
• Portfolio 21 – Offer fossil-fuel-free mutual fund that also looks at energy efficiency
• Sentinel Investments
• Trillium Core Fund
• Sheldon Green Alpha Fund
• RBC Global Access Capital Community Investment Fund
• CCM’s Community Development Fund
• Access Capital Community Investment Fund
• CRA Qualified Investment Fund – focuses on community development, including affordable housing, job creation, and neighborhood revitalization.
• Wikipedia: Socially Responsible Investing (SRI), Mutual and Exchange Traded SRI Funds

Fiduciary Responsibility and Financial Aspects of Divestment

• The Financial Case for Divestment from Fossil Fuel Companies by Endowment Fiduciaries – by Bevis Longstreth, Former SEC Commissioner – Huffington Post, 11/2013.
• Divesting From Fossil-Fuel Companies Is Unlikely to Harm Endowments, Report Says – Chronicle of Higher Education
• “Economic Resistance” — a.k.a. divestment – is as American as apple pie. Interview with Bob Massey in The Grist, 11/2013.
• Reason, Rationality, and Fiduciary Duty – Steve Lydenberg, Initiative for Responsible Investment, Harvard kennedy School, Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations

Stranded Assets and the Carbon Bubble

• Axa Investment Managers warns that companies linked to fossil fuels risk their reputations – The Guardian, 1/15/2015 (New)
• The Coming Climate Crash. Lessons for Climate Change in the 2008 Recession – Henry M. Paulson Jr., NY TImes, June 21, 2014 
• The Carbon Tracker Initiative
• Carbon bubble will plunge the world into another financial crisis – Report, The Guardian
• Carbon-intensive investors risk $6trillion bubble, study says, Bloomberg News
• Fossil fuels and vested interests: A society in denial, The Guardian
• Firms own ‘unburnable fossil fuels’, BBC News
• Seven Reasons to Sell Your Oil, Gas, and Coal Stock (Infographic)
• After bubbles in Dotcom and housing, here’s the carbon bubble, Wall Street Journal
• Energy sector seen as threat to stability, Financial Times
• Earth Day debate: Is there a ‘carbon bubble’?, New York Times
• Unburnable Carbon – Are the world’s financial markets carrying a carbon bubble?

Big Oil vs. Sustainable Energy Initiatives

• Koch Brothers, big utilities, attack solar, green energy policies – LA Times, April 19, 2014

Get Involved – Climate Action and Email Info and Discussion Groups

• 350MA.org – Independent grassroots project of the Better Future Project, working to address climate change at the local and state levels with legislation and actions. There are nodes across the state, including Cambridge and Concord.
• 350.org
• Follen’s Environmental Justice Task Force (EJTF) –  for information contact follen-ejat@googlegroups.com
• Follen’s Environmental Justice interest group – for information about environmental and climate change events, activities, news and discussion. Send email to follen-environmental-justice@googlegroups.com.
• Citizen’s Climate Lobby – Working to create the political will for a stable climate and to empower individuals to exercise their personal and political power. A local Lexington Chapter has just been formed. For more information contact  bmw@citizensclimatelobby.org
• Lexington InterFaith Environmental (LIFE) Action group – Contact the curator, Mark Sandeen <marksandeen@gmail.com>
• Mothers Out Front – Mothers, grandmothers, and other caregivers who can no longer be silent and still about the very real danger that climate change poses to our children’s and grandchildren’s future. (Lexington chapter starting up)
  • Mothers Vs. Climate Change – April 6 Boston Globe article on Mothers Out Front

Films and Books

• Carbon Nation (2010) – An optimistic (and witty) discovery of what people are already doing, what we as a nation could be doing and what the world needs to do to prevent (or at least slow down) the impending climate crisis.
• Chasing Ice – Follow National Geographic photographer James Balog across the Arctic as he deploys time-lapse cameras designed for one purpose: to capture a multi-year record of the world’s changing glaciers. (EJTF has a copy of this film for loan to the community)
• Climate of Change (2010) – A documentary focused on the efforts of everyday people all over the world who are making a difference in the fight against global warming.
• Bidder 70 – A film about young UU environmentalist Tim DeChrisopher who derailed an illegal BLM oil and gas auction in a courageous act of civil disobedience.
• Climate Changed by Phillipe Squarzoni – Graphic novel on climate change
• Cooler Smarter: Practical Steps for Low-Carbon Living – Book containing expert advice from the Union of Concerned Scientists (EJTF has 2 copies for loan to the community)
• Oil and Honey – Bill McKibben