We have a very important request for you today.
[[link removed]]

Dear John,

We usually reach out to you with a sense of bursting optimism. We have a can-do
spirit at CCAN like no group I know of. In the face of polluters who would
contaminate our air and wreck our climate, we say, “Bring it on!” And then we
fight. And in our 18 years, we’ve beaten the polluters up and down this region,
countless times.

But we’ve never faced an enemy like COVID-19. Like many of you, the virus has
left us unsure how to best do our work. We’ve felt lost and off balance as the
economy crashes around us and so many people are hurting. So, since mid-March,
we’ve simply done what comes naturally to us: We’ve reached out to help everyone
we can, we’ve gotten creative, and we’ve gotten to work.

We’ve let our staff know that they will have whatever sick time they need during
this crisis. We’ve raised thousands of dollars for the Capital Area Food Bank in
DC. We’ve assisted high school students in Maryland as they demand free speech
rights during the pandemic. And we’ve organized thousands of Virginians in
demanding Governor Ralph Northam follow the science before reopening the state –
no matter what the protestors yell outside his doorstep.

But now… CCAN needs your help.

In this uncertain time, to those who are able, we are asking for the certainty
of your financial support. Would you sustain our work towards a healthy climate
and society with a monthly gift of $5, $10, $15, or more? Will you chip in today
so we have the resources we need all year?
[[link removed]]


[[link removed]]

Of course, not everyone can give money right now. We understand that. In fact,
if you’ve lost a job or been furloughed, don’t even think about it! We feel your
hurt. Many of you have given us your time instead — and your creativity and your
bravery. The climate movement needs all of that every month too. We rode bikes
with many of you on May 1, for example, safely distanced. We encircled the US
Capitol building as part of the #Shutdown DC action, demanding new jobs and
safety for workers. We’ll be in touch with more actions like that across the
region soon.

But if you can give money right now, here’s why we ask. In this new world we
find ourselves inhabiting — where in-person organizing is increasingly replaced
with organizing by Zoom, video recordings, and text messages – this new world
costs money. Novel and effective “digital tools” are not free. By making a donation, especially a dedicated monthly gift, you help us thrive
in this new world.
[[link removed]]

And thrive we must. Our goal for the rest of 2020 is simple: Rebuild our economy
with jobs that go to the people who lost their jobs first and who need them the
most. Clean-energy jobs, of course. We’ll be on Capitol Hill advocating for
stimulus dollars that benefit vulnerable families, not polluting corporations.
We’ll be in Annapolis and Richmond demanding our governors abandon dangerous and
dirty fracked-gas pipelines for good while streamlining the fast construction of wind and solar farms that create
sustainable jobs.

If you’re able to pitch in, please make a donation right now to help us heal our
region and our country. Make a one-time gift or, better, sign up for our Monthly
Giving Circle. COVID-19 has knocked all of us off balance. With your gift, we’ll
work even harder to rebalance our communities and global climate.
[[link removed]]

And know this: Justice and fairness will continue to be at the center of
everything we do at CCAN. This virus has further uncovered our national disgrace
of haves and have-nots, of racism and unequal access to health care and
educational resources and sustainable incomes. When 63 percent of college
graduates have the digital privilege of working from home and only 20 percent of
high school graduates can do so, we have a problem. When 40 percent of
households making $40,000 per year or less have experienced a job loss – 40
percent! – then injustice has run wild. And when black and brown residents of
this country are dying from COVID-19 at 3 times the rate
[[link removed]] of white Americans, then none of us can rest until we are all treated with
equal fairness.

And at the center of this all is the deep injustice of a crashing global
climate. Temperatures have not stopped rising just because the world has paused
to grapple with a pandemic. Indeed, climate change will make everything worse in
the future, including the rise of new infectious viruses.

So, with your financial help, CCAN will stay true to our core mission and fight
back.
[[link removed]] The writer and activist Bill McKibben has called CCAN the best regional climate
change organization in the…world! After 18 years of hard work, we are still here
and we aren’t going anywhere. Carbon emissions may have gone down abruptly
worldwide with the pandemic, but we know from the last economic downturn that we
can’t count on those climate gains. We intend to keep rising up higher and
higher as a movement to ensure our economic recovery is a just one.

With your help, the outcome will never be in doubt no matter how uncertain today
might feel.

Sincerely,



Mike Tidwell
Executive Director
Chesapeake Climate Action Network

--

[[link removed]] [[link removed]] [[link removed]]

Did you receive this email from a friend? Click to sign up for updates.
[[link removed]]

View this email in your web browser [[link removed]]

CCAN is building a people-powered movement for bold and just solutions to
climate change in the Chesapeake region of Maryland, Virginia, and Washington,
DC. We also act as "first-responders" to federal action on the climate crisis
and inspire climate action across the country.
www.chesapeakeclimate.org [[link removed]]

Update your contact information
[[link removed]] | Update your email subscriptions
[[link removed]]

You can also unsubscribe at any time
[[link removed]] .