March 31st, 2014
Dear
Fellow Sierran
Here's what's in this week's edition of CoolCATs Weekly:
1) Resilient RI Act Petition and Hearing
2) Renewable Energy Tax Credit Hearing
3) New Report from the IPCC
4) Food and Water Watch Event
5) Annual Woodcock Outing, tonight
6) More Money in Politics?
1) Resilient RI Act Petition and Hearing
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On Thursday, the House Environment and Natural Resources Committee will be considering this year's innovative climate bill, the Resilient RI Act. This is the chapter's number one priority this session, so I hope you can SIGN THE PETITION I started to support it and then COME TO THE HEARING AND INVITE YOUR FRIENDS. The hearing is in room 205 of the Statehouse, and you should show up at 4:30pm if you want to get your name at the top of the speaker's list.
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3) New Report from the IPCC
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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's newest report, released just hours ago, underlines the need for local action like the Resilient RI Act and the Renewable Tax Credit. The report has stark warnings about what we are in store for and calls for global action to address carbon emissions. Read more about it here.
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4) Food and Water Watch Event
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If there's time after the Resilient RI Act Hearing on Thursday, I hope you will join me in heading over to the First Unitarian Church in Providence for an event being put on by Food and Water Watch that the Chapter is co-sponsoring. The subject of the evening is how antibiotics are infiltrating our food system and affecting our health. It's at 7-8:30pm at 1 Benevolent St. You can RSVP here.
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5) Annual Woodcock Outing, tonight
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Spring is here! And one of our annual rites of passage into the new season is our Woodcock Outing, which we will be conducting tonight. Can you make it? We'll again be walking the fields by the swamp in back of my house where we successfully found several pairs of displaying woodcocks last year. You can RSVP here, or send me an email if you're not on Facebook.
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6) More Money in Politics?
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Switching gears, we are about to hear some really big news regarding campaign finance laws. The Supreme Court will be releasing its decision in McCutcheon v FEC any day, and it may very well do away with limits on donations that go directly to candidates and parties. I talked with Noam Chomsky about the idea of money as speech in our video interview last year. You can see the clip and read what I have to say about it on the Huffington Post. You can help address this issue locally by signing the petition to amend the RI Constitution to say that corporations aren't people and political campaign spending isn't free speech.
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Thank you for signing up for Cool CATs Weekly. You can make your community "Cool" by advocating for renewable power, green buildings and transportation choices. Visit the Cool Cities website for resources and toolkits.
Sincerely,
Abel Collins
The Sierra Club Rhode Island Chapter
42 Rice St.
Providence, RI 02907
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Check Out Our
RI Primer on
Climate Change
Tell Lawmakers to Support the Resilient RI Act
Tell Lawmakers to Expand Distributed Generation
SIGN the Fossil Free RI Petition to Governor Chafee and Treasurer Raimondo
Sign the Corporations Aren't People Petition
Sign the Fossil Free RI Petition to Divest URI, RIC, and CCRI
Tell Lawmakers to Restore the Renewable Energy Tax Credit
Click on the Calendar tab above to learn when and where our next executive, outings, development, communications, conservation, and political committee meetings will be held.
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