Friends,

I know that for many of us, this has been a very difficult and stressful time.

350Fairfax began in 2016 basically in response to the election. We were very concerned about our environment and the future of the planet. ?

We came together and made group decisions about the issues we felt were important and decided to focus on 4 issues.

Plastic pollution, including getting the state and county to address single use plastic bag pollution by imposing a fee at the retail level. Because of the work of many of our members we were successful.

Stopping the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley pipelines. We partially succeeded there. The Atlantic Coast pipeline was stopped but unfortunately the Mountain Valley pipeline has been completed and operational since June due to political fast tracking as a federal compromise for passing the budget.

The third was making the public aware and stopping major banks from funding pipelines and new fossil fuel ventures. We protested outside banks, wrote letters, and I think made the public aware of the issue.

The fourth issue was to educate ourselves and the public about environmental issues and work together at a grassroots level. I believe we have certainly have done that . Our compost campaign is a wonderful example of that.

It is time to figure out what are priorities will be and the feasibility of achieving our goals under the incoming federal administration.

In other words, where do we go from here?

So, instead of our usual monthly meetings with speakers, we will spend our time discussing "where do we go from here?"

Please bring your ideas, thoughts and concerns and let's talk at our December 5th meeting.

Sustainably yours

Helene