Can We Solve Our Ecological Emergency?

In This Issue

• Upcoming Events

  • 9/4- 350 Speaker Series: Ecological Emergency

  • 9/7- 350 Tabling at Oak Park Farmers Market

  • 9/7- EcoShip Fundraiser at Revolution Brewery

  • 9/14- 350 at Fall Nature Fest at LaBagh Woods

  • 9/22- 350 at Buffalo Grove Green Fair

• In Brief

  • Volunteering with 350 Chicago

  • Illinois Signs Bill to Reduce Single Use Plastics

• 350 Chicago Partnering with Eco.Crews to Build a Community Around Environmental Action

• Book Review- Saving Ourselves: From Climate Shocks to Climate Action, by Dana R. Fisher

Events

Looking to stay on top of 350 Chicago’s event calendar? We list events, protests, speakers, team meetings, and more on our Meetup page here: 350 Chicago Meetup

350 SPEAKER SERIES: Our Ecological Emergency

• Wednesday, September 4th, 6:00pm

• Online Only

• Register HERE

We are living in an ecological and social emergency that combines climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, and social inequalities. In the midst of this crisis, humans have been reflecting on how to respond and what policies can secure life on earth. But what happens when we listen to the more-than-human world? In this event, we will explore ideas and collaborations designed to protect human and more-than-human life on earth, where relationships among different actors are key to solving the puzzle.

Carlos Andrés Baquero-Díaz is a practitioner, scholar, and curator. In his work, Carlos Andrés aims to build bridges among people that come from different cultural backgrounds and have different knowledge and skills in times of ecological emergencies. Carlos Andrés has worked with NGOs, social movement organizations, and research centers combining academic research, legal action, communication strategies, and the arts to develop projects that strive to secure climate justice.

350 Chicago at Oak Park Farmers Market

• Saturday, September 7, 7:00am - 1:00pm

• Oak Park Farmers Market, Pilgrim Church parking lot at 460 Lake St.

350 Chicago will be tabling at Oak Park Farmers Market for their Pie Bake Off day! After you try some pie, come top by our table and sign postcards to support the Fossil Fuel Divestment Act. We will be hand delivering them to your state representatives and senators.

EcoShip Fundraiser at Revolution Brewery

• Saturday, September 7, 5:00pm - 8:00pm

• Revolution Brewing, 3340 N Kedzie Ave, Chicago, IL

EcoShip is having their annual 2024 Fundraiser on September 7th. EcoShip is a Chicago-based nonprofit that collects shipping materials from Chicagoland communities and distributes them to businesses and individuals for reuse. 350 Chicago volunteers worked with them this summer and we had a great time helping to reduce waste in the Chicagoland area. You can learn more about their 2024 Fundraiser Event here.

350 Chicago at Fall Nature Fest

• Saturday, September 14, 12:00pm - 3:00pm

• LaBagh Woods, at Foster & Cicero

• Register HERE (encouraged but not required)

Join 350 Chicago and dozens of local environmentally-focused organizations at the 5th Annual Fall Nature Fest! Hosted by Cook County Commissioner Bridget Degnen and The Forest Preserves of Cook County, this free event in LaBagh Woods will be jam packed with fun for nature lovers. We will be writing and signing postcards to deliver to legislators, continuing our efforts to educate the public and our legislators about the fossil fuel divestment campaign.

350 Chicago at Buffalo Grove Green Fair

• Sunday, September 22, 8:00am - 12:30pm

• Mike Rylko Community Park, 1000 N Buffalo Grove Rd, Buffalo Grove, IL

350 Chicago will be at the Buffalo Grove Green Fair. Come learn about what we do and feel free to chat about ways you can help or volunteer. We will have postcards for people to sign to send to their state rep and senator to support the Illinois Fossil Fuel Divestment Act. We hand deliver these letters ourselves for maximum impact.

In Brief

Volunteer with 350 Chicago!

We are looking for volunteers as always. In particular our communications and fundraising teams are looking for more volunteers. Interested? Just email [email protected] or show up at one of our events above and we can talk about getting involved. Here is an overview of some of our primary teams:

• Fundraising: Write grants, help with fundraising campaigns

• Communications: Help promote us on social media, and write for this newsletter

• Divestment: Join the campaign to get Illinois to divest away from fossil fuels

• Outreach: Plan and attend events, recruit new members and volunteers

Illinois Signs Bill to Reduce Single Use Plastics

Governor Pritzker just signed the Small Single-Use Plastic Bottle Act (SB2960) into law, which requires hotels with 50 or more rooms to eliminate the use of small, single-use plastic bottles containing personal care products in individual rooms and public bathrooms beginning July 1, 2025, with full implementation expected across hotels in Illinois by January 1, 2026.

Congratulations to the Illinois Environmental Council for their work on passing this historic law and more details can be found from their press announcement here.

350 Chicago Partnering with Eco.Crews to Build a Community Around Environmental Action

by Whitney Richardson

350 Chicago is thrilled to be a media partner with Eco.Logic’s Eco.Crews, a program designed to build community around environmental action. If you’ve been wanting to do more for the environment, but have been unsure where to start, definitely check out this program! 

Register here and learn more below. 

What is an Eco.Crew? Eco.Crews are designed to give people space to talk about environmental issues and inspire individual and systemic action, while building community. 

Participants will join a small crew to meet weekly for 6-weeks starting September 18. Each crew has an expert facilitator to help guide group discussions and each week there is a new opportunity to take action. Topics range from money’s role in climate to environmental art. 

Who are Eco.Crews for? Anyone! Whether you are early in your climate journey or a climate expert, get connected to people in your area looking to build community and do more on climate.

Why should you join an Eco.Crew? Consider joining an Eco.Crew if you want to: 

• Learn about important environmental issues 

• Build community through mutual interests and climate concerns

• Grow your understanding of ways to take meaningful individual and systemic action

When and where are Eco.Crews? 

Eco.Crews will take place over six weeks — every Wednesday in September/October starting September 18 through October 23. Meetings are 90 minutes long. 

As part of Eco.Logic’s mission to make collective action for a livable planet more accessible, registration is offered on a sliding scale. Needs-based scholarships are also available. Register here.

Every participant will receive a Hydro Flask Water Bottle!

Book Review: Saving Ourselves: From Climate Shocks to Climate Action

Review by Hannah Langhoff 

Saving Ourselves: From Climate Shocks to Climate Action by Dana R. Fisher

Columbia University Press

224 pages

Protest has been an inescapable theme in the American news media lately. Earlier this year, college students set up encampments at their universities and demonstrated against the Israeli government’s violence in Gaza, drawing backlash from administrators and police. Along with the news stories came debates: Are protests justified? What if they’re disruptive? And does protest really have the power to change things?

These are among the questions that social scientist Dana R. Fisher tackles in her new book, Saving Ourselves: From Climate Shocks to Climate Action. Fisher, who has written two previous books on progressive activism, notes in her first sentence that this book’s project is unusual: “Social scientists are not supposed to prognosticate” (1). But given her research on climate activism–and the alarming lack of progress on mitigating climate change–she explores what it might take for governments and societies to turn away from our current destructive trajectory.

One of Fisher’s central ideas is the AnthroShift. Risk, she notes, is a social pivot that brings about multidirectional social changes. An example is the change in greenhouse gas emissions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic: they decreased at first, but then bounced back. 

But a risk pivot can only lead to an AnthroShift with lasting social change “if it surpasses a threshold in terms of its duration and intensity” (18). This usually means war, natural disasters, or economic depressions. This raises a disquieting question: What kind of shocks will it take for humanity to get serious about climate change?

Fisher begins with a helpful overview of climate policies from the Paris Agreement through the Inflation Reduction Act, highlighting what they accomplished and the many ways they fell short. She then moves on to the role of civil society in making systemic change, from “insider tactics” like electoral politics and shareholder activism to “outsider tactics” like boycotts and protests, which can range from nondisruptive to confrontational. 

As a climate activist, I found the chapter on civil society useful, since it gives a timely breakdown of what tactics are and aren’t working in the climate movement. For example, 350 cofounder Phil Aroneanu told Fisher that climate organizing faltered after the 2020 election partly because of the growth in digital organizing: the Internet makes it easy to mobilize a lot of people quickly, but these relationships tend to be shallower and less durable than those formed through in-person organizing. Aroneanu also stressed the importance of organizational infrastructure. Big events like protest marches often spark people’s interest in activism, but it takes the support of a group to turn one-off participation into long-term engagement.

Also telling is Fisher’s chapter on confrontational forms of action, aptly titled “Saving Ourselves Won’t Be Popular and It Will Be Disruptive.” In it, she traces how the election of Joe Biden to the presidency (and the loss of Donald Trump as a common enemy) has led to growing division between environmental activists who favor incremental change vs. the more radical flank. The latter group has made headlines in recent years with tactics like sit-ins, traffic blockades, and throwing soup at paintings in museums, leading some in the more moderate flank to complain that their drastic actions are alienating potential sympathizers.

Fisher’s take on confrontational protest is interesting. She reports that a 2022 Yale survey found that more than 25% of Americans supported nonviolent civil disobedience in protest of activities that worsen climate change. She also points out that extreme activism can actually increase public support for more mainstream climate activists and policy proposals, since the public sees them as a more palatable alternative to the radicals.

Ultimately, Fisher doesn’t believe that activism alone will be enough to make meaningful shifts in climate policy–it will take more (and more drastic) climate shocks than we’ve seen so far, with more people experiencing the dangers of climate change firsthand. As a self-described “apocalyptic optimist,” she has hope for a better, more climate-friendly future. But getting there will require community, solidarity, and resilience to navigate the shocks to come.