TONIGHT Get to Know the Candidates for New York State Assembly Districts 68 & 72
Get to know the candidates seeking to represent you in New York State Assembly Districts 68 & 72 at our Candidates Forum on Thursday, April 21 at 6:30 PM. Confirmed candidates from District 68 include Daby Carreras, Eddie Gibbs, Wilfredo Lopez, & Tamika Mapp. Confirmed candidates from District 72 include Manny De Los Santos, though we do hope to have another candidate join us. Learn more about these candidates here, and RSVP for the forum here.
EARTH DAY Celebrate Earth Day by Taking Action
We are having two Earth Day advocacy days. The first will be on Earth Day, Friday, April 22. We will be taking a free bus up to Albany to meet with elected officials and rally in support of climate justice legislation. The second will be a virtual advocacy day on Tuesday, April 26, during which we will meet with elected officials online to advocate for legislation to reduce air pollution, lead, and other toxic substances in our community. Sign up for whichever one best suits you - or both!
RSVP here for the April 22nd In-Person Advocacy Day on Climate Justice
RSVP here for the April 26th Virtual Advocacy Day on Toxics
EARTH DAY Join Our Earth Day 5K Fun Run
Register today and come celebrate Earth Day, help raise funds for WE ACT, and run or walk for a healthier, greener community at our annual Earth Day 5K fundraiser. Like much of our lives right now, it will be both virtual and in-person. Participants can run or walk five kilometers (3.1 miles) at a time and place of their choosing beginning on Earth Day, Friday, April 22. And on Sunday, May 1, we will have an in-person run and/or walk on Randall’s Island for those who want to participate in-person. You can register here as an individual or as a team. If you choose to start a team, you can share your team fundraising page with family, friends, and colleagues interested in joining your team or donating to support it. We hope you can join us!
And many thanks to our sponsors: Vestar, our Gold sponsor, and ARO and Langan, our Supporter sponsors.
EARTH DAY Peggy Shepard Talks Climate Solutions on the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce's Earth Day Panel at Columbia
On Friday, April 22, Peggy Shepard will talk about Harlem-led climate solutions on a panel moderated by Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine (at 10:45 AM) as part of the Earth Day New York City Climate and Environmental Justice in Harlem event presented by the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce in conjunction with Columbia University and the City College of New York, and hosted by NYC & Company’s Sustainable Tourism Committee. The full event will run from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM at Columbia’s Low Memorial Library (535 West 116th Street). Register here.
EARTH DAY Join Us at CB11’s Earth Day Conference
Our staff will be attending Manhattan Community Board 11’s East Harlem Earth Day conference on Friday, April 22 at the Museum of the City of New York (1220 Fifth Avenue, between 103rd & 104th Streets). It begins at 10:00 AM, but we’ll be joining the Community Partners portion from 12:00 to 2:00 PM. Register here.
EARTH DAY Join Us for the Center for Earth Ethics’ Earth Day Celebration
Our staff will also join the Center for Earth Ethics, along with the Climate Museum and DJ Spooky, for Earth Day 2022: Life Force, an Earth Day celebration at the Union Theological Seminary (Broadway & 121st Street) from 4:00 to 7:00 PM on Friday, April 22. Register and learn about the livestream here.
EARTH DAY Join CCCEH’s Earth Day Activities for Youth
We are also supporting the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health for a number of the Earth Day events they have organized for their youth coalition, including a Highbridge Park Clean Up from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM on Friday, April 22 (register here), Community Gardening from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM on Monday, April 25 (register here), and a Plastics Action from 4:30 to 6:00 PM on Tuesday, April 26 (register here).
TAKE ACTION Support the Safer Beauty Bill Package
Do you know that cosmetics and other personal care products are largely unregulated and often contain toxic chemicals such as lead and mercury? Our Federal Policy Office down in DC has been working to advance a legislative package that will help address this. You can show your support by filling out this online letter urging your congressional representative to support the federal Safer Beauty Bill legislative package to get toxic chemicals out of our personal care and beauty products. Click here to access the automated letter, and click here to learn more about our Beauty Inside Out campaign. And in case you missed Yuwa Vosper discussing the Safer Beauty Bill package earlier this week, you can watch the video replay here.
WE ACT Responds to White House CEQ’s Phase 1 NEPA Rulemaking
WE ACT issued a statement in response to the White House Council on Environmental Quality’s Phase I rulemaking on the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). As Dana Johnson states, “The output of the Phase I process is a start in undoing the Trump administration’s effort to undermine basic protections such as the public’s right to participate in decision-making and the federal government’s obligation to consider the cumulative impact of health and environmental hazards in overburdened communities.” Read the full statement here.
New Member Orientation Get to Know WE ACT & the Work We Do
Are you new to WE ACT and want to learn about our history, what we are currently working on, and how you can get more involved? Sign up for WE ACT’s New Member Orientation, which will be held via Zoom at 6:30 PM on Wednesday, April 27. RSVP here.
VIDEO REPLAY Sonal Jessel Talks Carceral & Climate Justice
In case you missed Sonal Jessel discussing the intersection of carceral justice and climate justice at Beyond the Bars: Movement Building in a World on Fire at the Riverside Church, you can watch the video replays here. Sonal is on the third panel, but they are all worth a watching!
Peggy Shepard and Sonal Jessel were named to City & State New York’s Energy & Environment Power 100, a list of key players who are reshaping the energy industry and rescuing our environment in New York State. See the full list here.
Peggy also spoke to E&E News about the need to adequately staff the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality, noting that the office has fewer staff than WE ACT to oversee the administration’s work on NEPA, climate change, Justice40, & environmental justice. Read the article here.
WE ACT's Membership Planning Committee Take a Leadership Role
Our Membership Planning Committee serves a leadership role in our membership and does a lot of the work planning and preparing for our Membership Meetings and other events. The committee also works toward more effective communication between the membership body and staff and helps set goals for membership participation. We are holding elections for this volunteer committee and encourage any member interested in becoming a candidate to please complete this form by Friday, May 6. Questions? Reach out to Bailey at [email protected].
New York City has a lot of work to do to meet its climate goals. And the city’s Comptroller Brad Lander launched a NYC Climate Dashboard to track the city’s progress – or lack thereof – on reducing carbon emissions, improving energy efficiency, and understanding impacts such as extreme heat and flooding. Read about it here.
NJEJA Battling Fracked Gas Plant
Our colleagues at the New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance are looking for support at the first and only public environmental justice hearing for the State’s PVSC fracked gas power plant. Join them at 6:00 PM on Tuesday, April 26. RSVP here. And click here to learn more about how you can support this fight.
