Don’t Forget About Climate at the Ballot Box

In This Issue

• Larry Coble: Our New Executive Director

• Upcoming Events

  • 11/2- 350 Chicago at Patagonia

  • 11/9- Chicago Climate Connect Food Waste Panel

  • 11/11- 350 Chicago General Meeting

  • 11/13 - 350 Speaker Series Fine Tune your BS Detector

  • 11/14- Chicago Climate Connect Fireside Chat with Mycocycle CEO

  • 11/15- Blacks in Green: Old Time Mississippi Fish Fry

  • 11/30- 350 Chicago at Trashy Holiday Market

  • Plant Chicago Events

• In Brief

  • IL EPA Opening up a New Round of Rebate Applications for EV Purchases

  • Save the Date: Giving Tuesday 2024

  • 350 Chicago Joins Community Shares of Illinois

• Vote for Climate Solutions

Larry Coble: Our New Executive Director

Congratulations to Larry Coble, the new Executive Director of 350 Chicago! This is the first ever full time paid position in 350 Chicago’s history and will allow us to work full time to push for solutions to the climate crisis. Larry co-founded 350 Chicago 10 years ago and we are extremely excited for him to lead this new phase of growth for 350 Chicago!

Events

350 Chicago at Patagonia

• Saturday, November 2nd, 12:00pm- 3:00pm

• Patagonia Fulton Market, 1115 W. Fulton Market, Chicago, IL 60607

Join us at Patagonia Fulton market where we will be tabling and collecting postcards to send to your state senators and state representators to encourage them to support the Illinois Fossil Fuel Divestment Act! Our tabling activities have been very successful so far and we have collected hundreds of postcards to be hand-delivered to state representatives encouraging them to support divesting Illinois pension funds away from fossil fuel companies.

Chicago Climate Connect Food Waste Panel

• Saturday, Nov 9th, 3:30pm- 5:00pm

• Plant Chicago, 4459 S Marshfield Ave, Chicago, IL 60609

• RSVP HERE

Join Chicago Climate Connect for a special Saturday afternoon event in partnership with Plant Chicago. Plant Chicago is hosting a Mercado de Intercambio and annual post-Halloween Pumpkin Smash and have partnered with Chicago Climate Connect to host a panel event towards the end of their day-time activities. The panel will focus on the impact and importance of preventing and diverting food waste and showcasing Chicago companies and leaders in waste that are making a difference in the space. This RSVP is only for the panel portion of the afternoon, and seats are very limited, so please make sure to only RSVP if you intend on attending. Also, make sure to come before 3:30 to enjoy their on-site farmers market and pumpkin smash!

350 Chicago General Meeting

• Monday, November 11, 6:30pm

• Online only

• Email [email protected] to join!

Join 350 Chicago for our General Meeting! During the meeting, we will provide campaign updates and discuss the work 350 Chicago is doing in Chicago and Illinois to help preserve a livable planet. We will also provide information about ways to volunteer and get involved with 350 Chicago.

350 Speaker Series- Fine-Tune Your BS Detector!

• Wednesday, November 13, 6:00pm

• Online only

• REGISTER HERE

Climate misinformation causes damage in a number of ways – not just confusing people about the reality of climate change but even reducing trust in science and civic engagement. Communicating facts – including fact-checking – is an important and common way to push back against misinformation. However, another powerful tool can neutralize misinformation across topics – critical thinking. Learning the tricks used to deceive helps people spot attempts to mislead them, and builds their “immunity” against being misinformed. Another powerful benefit of the critical thinking approach is that it conveys immunity across topics – once you know a misleading technique, you can recognize it whether it’s used in misinformation about climate change, health issues, or in political arguments. Critical thinking is a universal vaccine against misinformation.

In this presentation, Dr. John Cook will delve into the research on countering misinformation using critical thinking and how it can be practically implemented in fact-checking as well as other applications such as misinformation games. Dr. John Cook, who holds a PhD in Cognitive Science, is a Senior Research Fellow at the Melbourne Centre for Behaviour Change at the Univ. of Melbourne. is a research assistant professor at the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason Univ. He founded Skeptical Science, and published a landmark paper that proved a 97 percent scientific consensus on human-caused global warming.

Chicago Climate Connect Fireside Chat with Mycocycle CEO

• Thursday, Nov 14th, 6:00pm

• mHUB, 623 W Fulton St, Chicago, IL 60612

• REGISTER HERE

Join Chicago Climate Connect for a fireside chat with Mycocycle's CEO Joanne Rodriguez. Joanne and her team are leading a revolution in waste management by harnessing fungi to transform toxic waste into sustainable materials. With over 30 years of experience in the construction industry, she is merging her expertise in sustainability and circular economy practices with cutting-edge mycoremediation techniques to change the world!

Blacks in Green: Old Time Mississippi Fish Fry

• Friday, November 15, 4:00pm- 9:00pm

• Green Living Room, 6431 S. Cottage Grove Avenue, Chicago, IL 6063

• REGISTER HERE

Join Blacks in Green for their upcoming community event, the Old Time Mississippi Fish Fry. Learn how to increase your household income in a walk-to-work, walk-to-shop, walk-to-learn, walk-to-play village, own the businesses, own the land, and live the conservation lifestyle. Enjoy the delicious food & drinks, learn what resources are available to you through BIG’s programs in the neighborhood as part of our Sustainable Square Mile initiative, and connect with your neighbors! FREE to West Woodlawn neighbors and $25 entry fee to all others.

350 Chicago at Trashy Holiday Market

• Saturday, November 30, 12:00pm- 5:00pm

• Bartleby's Ice Cream, 1943 West Byron Street, Chicago, Illinois 60613

350 Chicago will be tabling at Bartleby's Ice Cream at the Trashy Holiday Market to collect signatures to send to your state representatives, urging them to support the Fossil Fuel Divestment Act!

Some information about the Trashy Holiday Market, brought to you by Nowhere Collective:

Featuring ingenious local artisans who work their magic to turn almost-trash into one-of-a-kind wonders. Plus, enjoy other waste-less activities and creative reuse crafts. Support 35+ eco- & socially-conscious local businesses offering an array of uniquely upcycled, hand-crafted wares, like home goods, planters, art, fashion, bath & body and more. Plus, more hands-on, trashy activities for all ages.

Plant Chicago Events

Plant Chicago is hosting four upcoming events in November and December at The Firehouse at 4459 South Marshfield Avenue. (Including an event with Chicago Climate Connect, in our Events section above). If you're a fan of growing and harvesting, food systems, or circularity, these events are for you! 350 Chicago is supporter of Plant Chicago and you will often find us tabling at The Plant, a community of food businesses located in an abandoned former pork processing plant.

In Brief

Illinois EPA Opening up a New Round of Rebate Applications for EV Purchases

Considering buying an electric car in Illinois? The Illinois EPA will open the next rebate application cycle from January 21, 2025 to April 30, 2025. The program may provide a rebate to anyone meeting the requirements and in particular for anyone meeting the “low income” requirement.

Illinois residents that purchase a new or used all-electric vehicle from an Illinois licensed dealer may be eligible for an Illinois' Electric Vehicle Rebate:

• A $4,000 rebate for the purchase of an all-electric vehicle (non-motorcycle)

• A $1,500 rebate for the purchase of an all-electric motorcycle.

See the Illinois EPA’s Electric Vehicle Rebate Program and FAQ for details

Save the Date: Giving Tuesday 2024

Save the date! Giving Tuesday is on December 3, 2024 and 350 Chicago is working hard to make sure all donations are working as hard as possible to make a difference pushing for climate solutions in Chicago. We use our funds to:

• Raise awareness of the climate crisis in Chicago and Illinois.
• Advocate for better climate policies, including the Illinois State Fossil Fuel Divestment Act, clean energy, utility accountability and ending the fossil fuel era.
• Build coalitions with other climate, environmental, and social justice groups
• Perform outreach to communities in Chicago and Illinois.
• Strengthen our current State Divestment and Utility Accountability Campaigns by hiring organizers
• Grow our organization
• Empower thousands of Chicagoans to take action

350 Chicago Joins Community Shares of Illinois

350 Chicago has joined Community Shares of Illinois’ coalition of nonprofits and will now benefit from donations received through giving campaigns at workplaces throughout Illinois.

Community Shares organizes workplace giving campaigns throughout Illinois. Donors can specify 350 Chicago as the recipient of their donations and we can earn more from a general fund by participating in Community Shares. With these donations 350 Chicago will continue to fight the climate crisis in Illinois. Our mission is to build a sustainable and resilient state by educating ourselves and our communities, engaging with leaders, organizing coalitions to achieve goals, and taking grassroots action.

If you are a current state or county employee in Illinois including at Illinois universities and the public school systems, you can donate to 350 Chicago through the State and Universities Employees Combined Appeal (SECA) website HERE. If you are submitting the paperwork manually, you will need to include the seven digit designation code of 903-0710 to correctly identify our organization for the donations.

Does your employer offer workplace giving campaigns which include Community Shares of Illinois? If not, contact Community Shares to learn how you can have your workplace included.

Don’t Forget About Climate at the Ballot Box

by Joshua Horwitz

This November, the world’s eyes are on the US Presidential Election, but something has been missing from this entire campaign cycle. As observers around the world have noted, climate change has “taken a back seat”, and “lingered on the sidelines” for both campaigns. This is especially surprising considering its prominence in the 2020 election. But make no mistake: the issue of climate is absolutely on the ballot. According to Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org, this year’s US presidential election is “the most important election in climate history.”

The effects of climate change have never been more apparent, or extreme, leading up to an election. We are seeing a myriad of increasingly devastating natural disasters such as hurricanes, wildfires, and other climate issues that are causing devastation and population displacement as predicted by climate scientists (see IPCC 6th Assessment Report). And regardless of the strategic focus of each campaign, it’s clear that the two candidates and parties have very different reactions to climate change issues, as discussed in our October Newsletter.

This election will have impacts that reverberate for decades to come: far longer than four years. The US president makes decisions which are not easily or quickly reversed: they will choose supreme court justices, they will add to or cut expertise within critical government agencies, they will enact laws that cannot be easily repealed, they can fund critical climate technologies or subsidize fossil fuel companies to pollute for long after they would otherwise be economically nonviable. The US president is a leader on the world stage one way or another: either the US will be seen as a leader in the fight against the climate crisis, or leading the charge to stick our head in the sand and ignore the problem until it engulfs us. This is not an election that will impact only the next four years; it is an election that will impact generations.

And remember that the US President isn’t the only one on the ballot. The down ballot races matter as well, and fights on climate can be won at the national, state, and local levels. 350 Chicago knows about these fights all too well, such as when we succeeded in getting the City of Chicago to divest its portfolio from fossil fuels in 2022.

350 Chicago, as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization, cannot and are not making endorsements for any political candidate or political party. But we can urge you to keep climate in mind when you’re deciding who to vote for, or whether to vote at all. Neither candidate may be a perfect fit for your priorities, but if our planet is to be habitable for future generations, we must keep our eye on the ball. So I urge you to go out on November 5th (or before!), and vote: https://vote.gov/