I saw a tweet the other day that went something like this:
My therapist: Your OCD is irrational
The Government: Wash your hands 19 times or else your dad will die
I couldn’t help but laugh at the grim reality of this tweet. I’ve had OCD my whole life, but was only formally diagnosed in the past couple years. I think it took so long because there’s a general misunderstanding of what OCD actually is. Although I relate to the above-mentioned tweet, I don’t have hand-washing compulsions. I also don’t compulsively straighten picture frames or clean (although sometimes I wish, since I have to deal with OCD anyway, I could at least get a clean room out of it).
OCD is actually a cycle of obsessive thoughts, anxiety, compulsions, and temporary relief. I’ll have an upsetting thought that I just can’t let go of, which results in almost unbearable anxiety. To relieve it, I’ll do something that my brain has decided makes me feel better – that could be turning my lamp off and on ten times, checking that the oven is off over and over before I go to sleep, or tapping my foot in a specific way on a crack in the sidewalk. I’ll feel better then, but just for a little while. Usually, giving in to the compulsions just makes the cycle more vicious, and soon enough, the compulsive behaviors are more upsetting than the obsessive thoughts.
All this to say, coronavirus has made OCD much more difficult to manage. It’s a time of extreme uncertainty, I have absolutely no control over it, and I’m stuck inside all day without many outlets for my energy. Everyone with OCD is different, but for me, it’s really the perfect storm.
That means prioritizing my mental health has been more important than ever. But that’s not true just for me. We are in stressful, unprecedented times, and many of our coping mechanisms, such as spending time with friends and family or going to the gym, aren’t available to us in the same way. It’s more important than ever for folks to learn about their own mental health, and figure out the best ways to take care of it.
For me, taking care of my mental health in quarantine has looked like this:
Therapy. I’m lucky enough to have a therapist that specializes in OCD and is also there to talk about pretty much anything I want. It took me a really long time to go to therapy – I procrastinated for about two years. But it’s one of the best moves I’ve made for my mental health. I’m lucky enough to have health insurance that covers my visits, a workplace that lets me adjust my hours so I can make my appointments, and a therapist who has transitioned to tele-appointments during coronavirus. Not everyone has the same access to therapy, but it’s worth doing the research – you may be surprised at the affordable options out there! If you’ve been on the fence about therapy, take this as your sign. DO IT!
Being kind to myself. This one takes constant work, but is more important than ever during coronavirus. I tend to get down on myself for not doing enough or being enough, whether that’s because I ate chips and salsa for dinner three nights in a row, or because with all this free time, I’m still opting for netflix over the books on my bedside table. Once I became aware of this thinking pattern, it became easier to recognize the moments where I am unnecessarily hard on myself. And in those moments, I gently remind myself that we are in a global pandemic, and that I am doing enough. Another trick that’s been particularly helpful has been writing down all the things I get done at the end of the day – that way, I can remember all that I’m doing, and not fixate exclusively on the unchecked items on my to-do list.
Exercise. Whatever that means for you! I’ve never been a big walker, but suddenly I have a lot of free time – and I’ve discovered I actually love going on walks. However, not everyone lives in an area where it’s super safe to be outside right now. So listen to your body, and do whatever feels good to you. But, truly, getting a little bit of exercise every day has been critical for me and my mental health. (The photo at the top is one of the many photos I’ve taken on my daily walk. This is one of my favorite views near my mom’s house.)
I know I said I would never show anyone my embroidery, but I guess I’ll make an exception. It’s a small, simple design, but the process is so therapeutic!Creative outlets. I will never let anyone see my watercoloring or embroidery, and absolutely NO ONE will ever be hearing me play the guitar, which I started learning a couple months ago. But that’s because these creative outlets aren’t for other people, they’re for me. Coronavirus means a lot of staring at screens and redundancy in everyday life. Spending time being creative feels like a breath of fresh air for my brain, and I’ve found it really helps reduce my anxiety.
Doing what’s in my control – like fighting climate change. I think mental health can be so tricky to manage right now because it truly feels like nothing is in our control. When things first started to pick up in the US, I was one of those people who was frantically googling coronavirus numbers at three in the morning, and checking every single news alert that came onto my phone. But this just left me feeling anxious and hopeless. I’m so grateful that I’m not in that place anymore. Instead, I’ve directed my energy into what is in my control – Which is where climate action comes in.
Climate Action: Necessary for the planet, equally necessary for my mental health.
I always knew that climate action was important to me for the obvious reasons. Our lives and the lives of future generations are at stake, and the most vulnerable communities will be hit hardest by our changing climate. Taking action on climate isn’t just an environmental necessity, it is a human rights necessity. However, during the coronavirus, taking action on climate has been equally necessary to maintaining my mental health. Because, even though climate change is a complex, global issue, I still have control over my impact. I feel better knowing that I am taking action, and that my small impact is still a real impact.
Of course, climate action looks a little different during a stay-at-home order. Strategy meetings are now on zoom, protests are on twitter, and educational events are on Facebook Live. And although I am eagerly awaiting the day we can all operate in-person again, I’m also feeling better and better about virtual activism. There is a huge, passionate community of people that are doing everything possible to avoid future catastrophe – and a stay-at-home order hasn’t stopped them. Folks are posting more about climate on social media, contacting their legislators over the phone or email, and are attending educational webinars hosted by organizations across the country. I am confident that this momentary pause in physical activism is only fueling the passion and drive that climate activists have always possessed. When this is all over, we’re going to fight harder than ever.
There are a lot of organizations doing a ton of great work right now, but here are a couple things that CCAN has lined up to help you get involved in climate action during coronavirus.
Learning about the next big clean energy campaign in Virginia. We’re not just going to build a movement for the sake of building a movement. We’re going to put our new skills and communities into action! The next big clean energy fight in Virginia will be on transportation. Learn about what opportunities we have, like fare-free public transit, and how you can help us win! Click HERE to RSVP for the transportation info sesh with experts on May 26 at 7:00pm.
I hope that, sometime soon, you can take a moment to really consider your mental health. Sometimes, it can feel easier to ignore the question of how you’re doing than to really take a moment and check in with yourself. But, at least for me, prioritizing my mental health has been critical to staying afloat during coronavirus. It’s not always easy, but it’s definitely worth it.
An example of virtual activism! I participate in weekly virtual climate strikes. Email me at hannah@chesapeakeclimate.org to join me!
Transcribed interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Maddie Graham: My name is Maddie Graham. I’m 17 years old and I’m a junior in high school.
CCAN Organizer Anthony Field: You were recently featured in a Washington Post story called “The Foot Soldiers of the New Environmental Movement.” I read through it and saw the pictures and it was really incredible. How did you feel about it?
MG: It was really cool to see myself in the Post. It made me seem a lot cooler than I am. But it could’ve been any of my organizer friends in that story. The movement as a whole, the youth, all of us are so incredibly brave and strong, so I think that story could’ve been about any of us. But it is pretty cool.
AF: How did you get started in climate advocacy?
MG: I’d always been into the environment. I was in the environmental club in middle school, I always had a garden, I liked to climb trees and be outside. But it was in my sophomore year of high school, during the mid-term elections, when my chemistry teacher told us that if we wanted to make a video — I’m in a communications climate program at school, so I film — she told us if we wanted to make a video encouraging people to vote green she would let us out of class. So that’s what we did, and it got 300,000 views and Bill McKibben retweeted it which was wild. At first people wanted to talk to me about that video, and through that I got connected to other people in the environmental movement. I really enjoyed making that video and wanted to do more. So then I found Sunrise really quickly after that, and then Fridays for Future really started to pick up steam in the USA after that. From there I’ve been organizing every way I can.
AF: How has organizing changed in this time period?
MG: On the one hand, it seemed the physical act of organizing hasn’t changed. We were always using Zoom. Most of our organizing happened not in person. On the other hand, everything has changed. Earth Day was online, something we’ve been planning for half a year, we had to pack up and move online. I still think the Earth Day actions were a success and we did a good job with what was given to us, but it was still kind of sad to be sitting inside on Earth Day.
AF: You can’t necessarily be with friends and family in person, but is there something you can point to that’s been helping you through this situation?
MG: Harry Potter. Definitely. Rereading. Not so much watching the films. This has gotta be my 150th time rereading them. I love Harry Potter.
AF: Any final thoughts?
MG: Just want to make sure everyone knows if you do want to digital strike, you can find instructions for doing so at @fff_digital on twitter and @fff.digital on Instagram. It’s easy! Take a picture of yourself with a sign of that week’s theme, tag FFF Digital and DM them if you want to be included in the collage.
“I shouldn’t even be out and about. My demographic is the most at risk, but I couldn’t miss the chance to see everyone,” said a good friend and fellow climate activist at a happy hour in Annapolis. A good friend whose words echoed in my mind whenever I began lightly coughing on my drive home.
“See you tomorrow,” Mike Tidwell, CCAN’s Executive Director, said as we bumped fists goodbye. A gesture that I thought about as I lay in bed hoping to escape the chest pains by sleeping.
“We’re here for you,” rang a cacophony of voices from friends, family, and co-workers as I read the word across my screen: POSITIVE.
How it started
The first symptom manifested as a slightly annoying dry cough the evening of March 9th as I left a happy hour in Annapolis. This cough was quickly followed up by a fever and sore throat. “Is this it,” I thought to myself as I googled COVID 19 symptoms for the 5th time the next day.
The next week was a whirlwind of google searches, news articles, and sweating through every article of clothing I had as the fever worsened and my breathing became harder. The symptoms kept building up to the point that simply walking to the bathroom in my small 1 bedroom D.C. apartment felt like an Olympic feat.
Eventually, after a virtual visit with my primary care doctor, I was able to secure an appointment to get tested. I was terrified of the very real possibility that I have the Novel Coronavirus. Terrified that I would join the rapidly increasing number of positive cases in D.C., the United States, and around the world.
Being Negative About The Positive
POSITIVE
Reading the word made it real – and it freaking sucked.
I immediately notified my co-workers of the results. They had already begun taking precautions around the workplace. Limiting face-to-face meetings, disinfecting workplaces, allowing staff to work from home. But this news required additional precautions: Notification of building management that someone was exhibiting symptoms and an order for all staff to work from home for the duration of this crisis.
CCAN couldn’t risk the possible transmission of the virus within the office. But, with all those precautions, all they could do was hold their breath and wait to see if they too began exhibiting symptoms. This was the case for dozens of my friends and colleagues who I had met within the previous weeks. Who knows when and where I contracted the virus and who I may have exposed.
This positive diagnosis did not weigh on me for my own sake, but because of the fear that I put dozens in danger. I was like a barrel of toxic radiation and for all I knew I had been harming people for days before I noticed the symptoms.
Corrosive Thoughts
By now I am sure everyone knows about the physical symptoms of the Novel Coronavirus:
Cough
Shortness of breath
Chest pain
Fever
Chills
Muscle pain
Headache
Sore throat
However, dealing with being COVID positive while also living in this crazy new world of social distancing and cosplaying as your favorite Mad Max character just to go to the store, there was a lot of mental weight as well:
Guilt. The guilt of possibly infecting others was ever-present. There was the guilt of knowing that in spite of how bad I felt, there were thousands dealing with this crisis while not having access to health care, a stable income, or a means of feeding themselves and their families.
Despair. Then there were the thoughts of uselessness. The crippling feeling of being worthless in your everyday life, unable to leave to go to the store or check the mail. Feeling useless while your co-workers continue on to fight the good fight while I struggle to sit up without coughing out a lung.
I know I am not alone in feeling this way. Many have even reported feeling “Survivor’s Guilt” after recovering. I can certainly understand that too.
But we are not forever bound by these corrosive thoughts. This crisis, this virus, cannot last forever.
Taking a Deep Breath
About a month after COVID-19 decided to pay me a visit, I finally started feeling better. I could YAWN without it being interrupted by a two-minute coughing fit. I wasn’t afraid of switching positions while I was asleep and waking up choking and gasping for air. I could go a day (don’t shame me) without showering because I was no longer sweating profusely throughout the day due to a high fever. I even moved into a new house in Takoma Park!
I was finally starting to feel like myself.
Though, I would be lying if I said I was excited to get back to work.
My Second First Day
So that last sentence was more so for dramatic effect, but for real, I was extremely nervous. Getting back to work felt like my first day all over again. The CCAN staff had been weathering this storm and steering the ship through this crisis for a month without me. Would I even remember how to work? How would the others react to me having been gone for so long and would they think of me as that guy that got away without working for a few weeks? What even is a “climate”?
CCAN is a special place. I was lucky enough to have the full support of the CCAN staff, even getting a care package of toilet paper delivered to me from our General Counsel, Anne Havemann.
As cheesy as it sounds, we are a family. More importantly, we are passionate about protecting the climate. We have a job to do. And unfortunately, the climate crisis isn’t on pause.
Even through the worst of times.
That is not to say individuals cannot take their time. There is nothing more important than ensuring your own stability. It just means that, no matter what, when you’re ready to rock n’ roll again, a spot is always open.
Continuing the Fight
The fight never stops.
We find ourselves in a moment in time where millions are income insecure, our food supply chains are failing, and Maryland is in desperate need of a plan to deal with both the fallout from the covid-19 pandemic and the ever-present climate crisis. One part of that plan needs to be providing well paying and stable jobs for Marylanders,now and into the future.
With over 300,000 thousand Marylanders now having filed for unemployment benefits, we will soon need to create many new jobs for a sustainable new economy. And we have the opportunity to rebuild a new, CLEAN AND HEALTHY economy with renewable energy. Yet our clean energy industry has taken a hit. There are more than 40 utility-scale solar projects and two major offshore wind projects in danger of being held up in Maryland in part by the slow pace and misguided regulatory focus of the state’s Public Service Commission.
One thing you can do right now is sign this petition calling on the PSC to not delay clean energy in Maryland any longer. But that’s not the end, far from it. We’re going to keep fighting for clean energy. Because our health depends on it.
Some of our oil and gas reserves “will never see the light of day.”
Dominic Emery, British Petroleum’s (BP) Head of Strategy, July, 2019
In fact, a LOT of BP’s oil and gas reserves will never see the light of day! Neither will ExxonMobil’s, Chevron’s or Total’s. BP was one of the first of the Big Oil companies to admit that the immense reserves they have carried on their accounting books as “assets” for years may turn out to be “liabilities” instead. They are called “stranded assets,” meaning they were once assets to the company that are never going to be needed or used.
Why?
The demand for fossil fuels is drying up. The Paris Agreement calls for every country in the world to limit their carbon dioxide emissions and prevent the atmosphere from warming more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees F). Burning fossil fuels for electricity, heat and transportation is the most carbon intensive and damaging environmental act there is.
Source: EPA.gov
Each country around the globe signed it. When have you ever known all the leaders of the world to agree on anything? Then, in 2019, the US announced plans to withdraw from it. These plans are effective one day after the next Presidential election, on November 4, 2020. Luckily for the U.S., cities and states in America are taking matters into their own hands. Fed up with methane leaks, oil spills and water polluted by coal ash, communities across the nation have been embracing “clean” energy through solar, wind and thermal sources. It is better for our health and for the planet. Not to mention that the price of renewable energy has fallen dramatically, especially in the last 10 years. The green movement has caused investors to demand that colleges, pension funds, and IRA’s be “divested” of fossil fuel companies or those that rely on dirty energy. The rallying cry to “leave it in the ground” has gotten louder while Big Oil has been asleep at the wheel.
Enter the coronavirus in January, 2020.
Talk about grinding the gears of the economy to a halt! Airplanes were grounded. Shipping cargo was set adrift. Cars and buses all but disappeared from streets and highways. People stayed home. In just 3 months, energy stocks crashed by 50%. What that looks like in dollars is staggering: the top 25 oil and gas companies lost an eye-popping $811 billion by the end of March. Close to one million fossil fuel workers have been laid off, and bankruptcies could number over 150 companies in the oil and gas sector. Shale-drilling companies will be among the first to go since they are already debt-heavy and unable to borrow any more money.
Much like the “tech bubble” of the 2000’s and the “housing bubble” of 2008, a looming “carbon bubble” has developed. Big Oil needs to earn about $40/barrel to be profitable. Today, it is going for $15.35, and it has been much worse. For Big Oil, stranded assets are not just their oil and gas reserves; its’ also the 2.6 million miles of pipelines and the fossil fuel power plants that they connect. Here are the numbers:
Over $120 billion of oil and gas assets will be stranded in the next 15 years in the U.S. ($90 billion in fossil fuel power plants plus $30 billion in pipelines).
Globally, there are $22 trillion worth of stranded oil and gas reserves. The U.S. fossil fuel industry can claim at least $5 trillion of this.
Stranded assets are not a new concept. They are part of a technology evolution called “creative destruction”, which is essential for innovation and growth. The idea is that every new technology replaces or destroys the one before it. For example, handwritten manuscripts were replaced by printing presses which were replaced by word processing software. Railways replaced canals and were in turn replaced by automobiles. Whole societies have fallen victim to it as well. Remember the Ottoman Empire? By refusing to adopt the printing press, the Ottoman’s had no mass communication in place to warn their population when invading armies attacked. Over half of the Fortune 500 companies from the year 2000 do not exist today. How can Big Oil prevent becoming the next Kodak or Blockbuster?
The companies that embrace and morph into the next technology the soonest are the ones that will survive. Companies such as Orsted are successfully evolving. Formerly the Danish Oil and Natural Gas Company (DONG), it changed its name in 2017 after divesting of upstream oil and gas businesses and switching to renewables.
It’s named for the man who discovered electromagnetism, Hans Christian Orsted, and it built the largest offshore wind farm on the planet, the Hornsea Project in the U.K. It also built the first offshore wind farm to the U.S., off the coast of Block Island, Rhode Island. There, the turbine bases serve as artificial reefs, attracting marine life and fisherman (so much so that it figures prominently in the Block Island Tourism Guide). The Madrid-based company, Repsol, is also adapting to the “new normal.” A self-proclaimed “leader in the clean energy transition” it has committed to having net-zero emissions by 2050 by developing wind and solar renewable energy projects each year. Repsol is transparent about impairment caused by stranded assets, lowering the value of its reserves and taking a $5.17 billion dollar loss on production assets in 2019. Repsol considers it part of the price tag for their environmental ambitions. It may be a small price to pay for survival. Other fossil fuel companies would do well to follow their lead, writing off stranded assets and transitioning to renewable energy projects. That may be the only way to guarantee a place in the Fortune 500 in 2050.
Last week, Governor Ralph Northam signed the Virginia Clean Economy Act into law, making Virginia the first Southern state with a goal of going carbon-free by 2045. Thanks to the bill, Virginia’s energy future looks a lot cleaner.
The future for gas, on the other hand, is a lot less rosy.
The VCEA floors it on clean energy, taking Virginia from nearly zero to 100 in a matter of years. It mandates that the state’s biggest utility, Dominion Energy, switch entirely to renewable energy by 2045. Appalachian Power, which serves far southwest Virginia, must go carbon-free by 2050. It requires Dominion to build 16,100 megawatts of onshore wind and solar energy, and it proclaims up to 5,200 MW of offshore wind by 2034 to be in the public interest.
The General Assembly also passed a bill this year allowing Virginia to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a regional carbon-trading program now in place from Maine to Virginia. With Virginia joining RGGI, all fossil fuel generating plants will be required to pay for the right to spew carbon pollution.
What might all of this mean for gas?
We got an early sign earlier this month when Dominion asked its regulator, the State Corporation Commission, to relieve it of a requirement to model new gas plants. In December 2018, the utility was planning for eight to 13 new gas combustion turbines (a plan the SCC rejected because the company inflated electricity demand).
Today “significant build-out of natural gas generation facilities is not currently viable, with the passage by the General Assembly of the Virginia Clean Economy Act of 2020,” the company wrote in its filing.
You read that right. Their previous plans are no longer viable.
If additional gas plants aren’t viable in Virginia, then what’s the purpose of the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley pipelines?
Dominion’s primary argument for the ACP has been that “Virginia needs new pipeline infrastructure” for home heating, manufacturing, and electricity. “Demand for natural gas is growing,” Dominio CEO Tom Farrell continued in an October 2018 op-ed in the Richmond Times Dispatch. Likewise, MVP claims its gas is desperately needed.
Yet even before passage of the VCEA, the need for these pipelines was in question. Only about 13 percent of Mountain Valley’s gas was spoken for, with the destination for the remaining 87 percent “unknown.” And, in a brief before the U.S. Supreme Court, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring argued that Virginia already had no demonstrated need for the expansion of fracked-gas infrastructure, with demand only projected to decrease in the foreseeable future.
Is Dominion on its way to walking away from the project?
One sign that Dominion might be on the way to abandoning the ACP is the fact that the company did not oppose HB167 (sponsored by Delegate Lee Ware), which is now law. This bill requires an electric utility that wants to charge customers for the cost of using a new gas pipeline to prove it can’t meet its needs otherwise, and that the new pipeline provides the lowest-cost option available to it. This bill makes cost recovery for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline–and the Mountain Valley Pipeline–much more difficult. Dominion’s acquiescence to the bill could be an indication that the company is preparing to fold up shop on this project.
With Virginia now on a path away from fossil fuels, the ACP and MVP are not needed to supply electricity to Virginians, if they ever were. Dominion and EQT should cancel their plans and move on.
Two other projects may also be on their way out under Virginia’s new commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Developers are proposing two huge new gas plants only a mile away from one another in Charles City County. Neither the 1,600 MW Chickahominy Power Station nor the 1,050 C4GT plant plan to sell power to Virginia utilities; their target is the regional wholesale market. So, while the VCEA won’t force them to go green, they will have to pay to pollute under RGGI. This added cost, plus the permitting issues the plants are encountering, could persuade them to abandon their plans.
And, if the C4GT plant goes away, so too should Virginia Natural Gas’s plans for a gas pipeline and compressor stations to supply the plant, what we’re calling the Header Injustice Project.
All in all, gas is on its way out in Virginia. We only wish the companies had seen the writing on the wall before they started seizing land, cutting down precious trees, and clogging rivers and streams with sediment.
I used to be a globe-hopping environmental activist. I went to climate change conferences in Montreal and Copenhagen. I travelled regionally, too, to Richmond and Annapolis, to harangue legislators. The travel made me part of the pollution problem, of course. But I bought “carbon offsets” to compensate, saving Amazon rainforests.
Now, like you, I’m quarantined. On the 50th anniversary of Earth Month, I occupy a roughly 10-square-block universe around my house. Yet I’ve discovered four new activities that give me the power to act locally – and I mean inside my house and neighborhood – while keeping global climate change at the center of my activist life.
So cue the drum roll. Here’s a summary of four cool activities I’m taking this Earth Month, followed by more details below. 1) I’m saving hundreds of local trees with my bare hands; 2) I’m writing hundreds of letters to out-of-state swing voters; 3) I’m riding a bike to protest Big Oil companies; and 4) – perhaps most important – I’m laughing a lot. I seek out laughter more than ever. My comedian friend Robert Mac reminds me that jokes can go viral too and that laughter is contagious. So we’re organizing the first-ever zoom comedy show to celebrate Earth Month and support a local food bank. Buy tickets here.
Now, in more depth, here are the four things that keep me sane and busy – and that might help you too:
EARTH MONTH ACTION #1: Saving hundreds of trees in my neighborhood – Every day I keep at least one tree, and sometimes as many as ten, from falling to the ground, decomposing, and making global warming worse.
It began with the biggest tree in my neighborhood, about 10 blocks from my house. That tree is at least 150 years old, a tulip poplar. I first noticed it from atop a high-rise office building where I live in Takoma Park, MD. The tree hovered in the distance, twice as tall as the rest of the urban canopy in my neighborhood, which overlaps Maryland and Washington, DC. It’s a magical tree, a giant at least 90 feet tall.
I set off one recent morning to see the tree up close. I take more walks in this world of social distancing. When I arrived at the corner of 6th and Butternut Streets, NW, I was both amazed and horrified. The tree’s trunk – 14 feet in circumference – was supporting a vast network of titanic branches shading much of the block.
But then I noticed the tragedy. The tree was being strangled to death. Half of its massive, godlike body was covered in, and choking from, English Ivy.
Multiple studies show that rising CO2 levels worldwide act as a “super fertilizer” to noxious weeds and vines like English Ivy and wisteria. But it took a viral pandemic to get me walking more and seeing the mass death these vines are bringing to my own neighborhood – and yours.
A few days later, my son Sasha and I needed only about 20 minutes to save the 150-year-old tree. With the permission of the homeowner (friendly but ivy “blind”) we used garden clippers and a simple pruning saw to remove a thick matt of ivy vines at the base of the tree, thus dooming the climbing vines above us. Twenty minutes to save a tree that’s been growing for one and a half centuries!!
Now I’m obsessed with saving trees from ivy. I hand out this educational flier at every house I see on my morning walks where trees are being choked. I estimate there are at least one thousand – one THOUSAND – trees dying from noxious weeds within ten blocks for my house, each of which can be rescued within a few minutes. My goal, this Earth Month, is to personally save 100 of them and to recruit my neighbors to save the rest.
That’s a total of 1000 tons of carbon dioxide sequestered over the lifetime of those trees, by the way – a ton per tree. My 100 trees alone offset my personal carbon footprint for about 10 years! I know we need to plant trees by the billions worldwide to help fight climate change. But we’ve got to save what we already have too. Won’t you join me during your own pandemic morning walks? Learn more here and here.
EARTH MONTH ACTION #2: Writing letters to potential voters in swing-state Pennsylvania – So this one’s a no-brainer. A nonprofit called Vote Forward allows you to personally write voters in several key states and encourage them to vote. Vote Forward targets folks in Democrat-leaning districts who historically have not voted. The process is super simple. You sign up. They send you as many letters as you want to write, with the voter’s name and address already displayed. You hand write your encouraging letter. Then you sit on the letters until October and mail them in. I’m in the process of writing 100 letters now to residents of Pennsylvania. Will you join me? You can also pick other target swing states like North Carolina and Texas.
EARTH MONTH ACTION #3: Riding a bike to draw attention to oily banks and dirty companies – Okay, for this one I’ve got to leave my neighborhood to get political. On April 30th, my friends at #ShutdownDC are planning a safe and creative bicycle action as part of their “Earth Day to May Day” series of activities. We’ll be keeping our distance, riding in pairs or solo, as we swing by the offices of some of the world’s worst climate criminals in Washington, DC. Sign up for more information on the bike ride here. If you just want to take in the activities by zoom, sign up here.
EARTH MONTH ACTION #4: Laughing and laughing. The first-ever CCAN comedy show to raise money for a local food bank — Now, more than ever, we need the medicine of laughter as we save Mother Earth. Every day, I find myself going out of my way to try to find humor in the world and share it with others. That’s why the Chesapeake Climate Action Network is so excited to sponsor DC-area comic Robert Mac and his hilarious show “Comedy Night for Earth Day.” It’s a one-hour Zoom comedy special that will premiere on Thursday, April 30th, 8 pm. Tickets are just $10. Proceeds go to the Capital Area Food Bank.
Robert Mac has a skill for bringing humor even to the topic of climate change, with laugh-out-loud results. Did you know, for example, that by switching to the metric system we can reduce future global warming in the U.S. from 7 degrees to 2 degrees? Overnight! Mac has been a grand prize winner of Comedy Central’s Laugh Riots and has been featured at the prestigious Just for Laughs festival in Montreal — among other honors. He is one of the best “environmental comics” in the nation. You can check out some of his “50 Ways” tips here. For every $10 ticket sale we donate, the Capital Area Food Bank will be able to feed 25 people in this time of need. So RSVP now and tell all your friends. CCAN is proud to host this first-ever online comic show devoted to climate humor and virus justice.
EARTH MONTH WRAP UP: So there you have it. Four ways to keep you busy fighting climate change super close to home during a global pandemic. And here’s a PS: On April 24th at noon ET, CCAN is also hosting a cool hour-long program of music, yoga, and activism via zoom as part of the Earth Day Live event streaming worldwide. Sign up for our program here. Learn more about Earth Day Live here.
In the meantime, stay safe, stay sane, stay active, and laugh whenever you can.
Cross-posted from CCAN Action Fund with permission and recompense.
As the Hampton Roads Organizer for CCAN, this works in my favor. I never met a stranger I didn’t like to chat with and I roll through my speed dial list without advanced notice just to talk (my friends like it, I swear). So cold-calling people to ask them to sign a CCAN petition to resist pipelines to or attend a rally to pass the Virginia Clean Economy Act? Gotcha covered.
This trait makes me an expert on today’s topic.
Podcasts: All day, every day
When I’ve run out of people to talk to, I turn to my library of podcasts; because even during my “quiet” time, I need some sort of conversation running in the background to keep me from feeling antsy or lonely. Although I’m working full-time from home, plus full-time 4 year old duty, my daily opportunities for fitting in a podcast are plenty. I prep for the day with a news brief (rec: The Daily) as I brush my teeth and swap my night pajamas for my day pajamas. A self-care show (rec: Forever35) keeps me positive during email time for me & nap time for Coulson. And a pop culture or investigative series (rec: Armchair Expert or Ear Hustle) staves off sleep during project time on the couch once the house is quiet.
But today is not about those other podcasts — stop trying to distract me, people. Today is about the meat sweet potatoes of my podcast diet (vegetarians hollaaaa).
Let’s get down to business
(to defeat the Huns….anyone?)
It’s 6pm. Michael arrives home from work. I give him the parent highlights (yes, Coulson had dinner; no, he didn’t nap; yes, he’s still wearing his pajamas), pass the baton, and I am GONE. The local, deserted college campus is 5 minutes from our house and I have one hour to get my steps, get some air, and listen to…..my climate podcast for the day!!!
Abandoned campuses: great places to listen to podcasts!
Now, you might be thinking, “Lauren, you spend all day thinking about climate change which is not the most relaxing topic anyway….you want to spend your free time listening to it, too??” An excellent question, thank you for asking. And the answer is a simple, “yep.”
I began to work for CCAN precisely because climate change was what I spent my free time learning and thinking about. Organizing for CCAN allows me to focus professionally on an issue that I was previously fitting in where I could. If anything, being a full-time climate activist means I have to step up my game even more to be conversant on the latest news, science, and community stories.
Before COVID-19, I had way more time to devote to this audio learning; my work covers all of Hampton Roads so I spent hours weekly in the car binging through episodes. Now, I squeeze in listening time during my nightly walk and anywhere else I can. However, my shortage of time has not equated to a shortage of options. There are so many great climate podcasts & episodes and it’s time I share my carefully curated list with the world (jk, they’re all great and I download everything).
There are lots of great lists of climate podcasts out there and you will likely find some overlap between my list & those. But who doesn’t need another list, right? So here are my favorite podcasts that are centered on climate change.
If you want a super personal recommendation from the list above, I have a special place in my heart for Mothers of Invention. This show focuses on women-led climate solutions and is hosted by Mary Robinson (former President of Ireland, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and global climate activist) and Irish comedian, Maeve Higgins. Mary Robinson’s book, Climate Justice, inspired me to be an organizer!
Next, let’s talk about a less-covered area: individual climate episodes within non-climate specific podcasts. I think this is the most important part of the list. For many people, subscribing & listening routinely to a podcast is a bit of a commitment, never mind catching up on the entire back catalog. If that sounds daunting, the individual climate episodes below are a perfect starting place! Dip your toe in the water with an episode or two and you may find your new favorite show.
Climate Episodes (podcast name followed by episode name in italics)
I assume I don’t need to convince you to listen to anything with Bill Nye the Science Guy so I’ll save my muscle to encourage you towards the There Goes the Neighborhood episodes. They focus on climate-caused gentrification in Miami and were the starting point of my current sea-level rise research project. Did you know that Hampton Roads is outranked only by New Orleans in terms of sea level rise risk? If you didn’t know, these episodes are for you. If you did know, these episodes are still for you, trust.
Technicalities
Let’s check in on some technical details before I send you off on a date with your chosen episode.
First, if you’re new to podcasts and you’re not sure how to find or listen to anything I’ve recommended above, you’re not alone. There are many “how to” articles that are easy to follow so rather than recreate the wheel, I would recommend “How to listen to podcasts: everything you need to know” by The Guardian or “The Beginner’s Guide to Podcasts” by The Wired. Alternatively, email me and we’ll set up a time to hop on the phone and walk through it together!
Second, many podcasts can be listened to on a web browser so a smart phone is not a requirement (this is addressed in the how-to guides above).
Third & finally, a lot of podcasts are creating transcripts to make sure their content is accessible to all. I make note of my favorite podcasts that are prioritizing this and I would love to hear any of your favorites that are doing the same.
It’s Go Time
You subscribe to CCAN’s emails, sign our petitions, follow us on Facebook, and read our blog (obviously). What can you do next to connect with CCAN and support climate action? The answer is this!! Fill your ears with one of our climate podcast recommendations and connect with climate activism in a new, easy way. Share what you learn over dinner, text an episode to a friend, or find a listener group online. Podcasts can be your constant companion throughout these tumultuous times and what subject integrates more importantly with all aspects of life than climate change? Send me an email or connect with us on social media to share your own podcast favorites or give a review of one of the recommendations above.
A couple of weeks into the worldwide observance of social distancing practices and pandemic-preempting government lock-downs, miraculous tales of a rejuvenated planet in typically smog-choked, polluted corners of the world began to populate our social media news feeds. Dolphins were frolicking in Venice’s canals again! From India, video footage emerged of a species of civet cat long thought to be extinct, strolling the empty streets of Calcutta like it owned the place. Over Chinese cities, clouds of toxic gas around industrial centers have dissipated, with emissions down at least 25% in February due to efforts to control the coronavirus, and residents can breathe freely for the first time in recent memory.
These are beautiful images, for all that they play into self-flagellating human narratives. Look how bad we are for the planet, the story goes, but isn’t it amazing how quickly Mother Nature rebounds to a state of pristine, Edenic glory when we leave her alone for a few days! The truly unfortunate thing about each of these stories, though, is that they aren’t true—or at best, they are heavily qualified. Each of the first two links in the previous paragraph leads to an article debunking the associated claim. There were no dolphins in the canals of Venice; the person who took that video of a civet cat in India had mistaken it for an endangered cousin. The third link, a CNN report about lower CO2 emissions and air pollution in China, verifies that these levels are down in Hubei and other areas under quarantine, but with the caveat that, as soon as the economies of these regions start back up, pollution levels will quickly rebound to previous levels, and may even exceed these levels, as the country tries to make up for many weeks’ worth of halted production.
reduction in NO2 pollution in China resulting from Covid lock-downs
Although the day may seem far off now, there will come a time in the not-too-distant future when COVID-19 is no longer a meaningful threat. Treatments are likely to emerge that reduce the severity of symptoms and the mortality rate, and potential vaccines have already entered human trials, although it will take many months to sufficiently vet and produce these. When that moment comes, surely we will collectively breathe a sigh of relief. Yet we will still be facing record-high annual temperatures, rising sea levels and historically catastrophic weather. There can be no palliative treatment, no vaccine for these. Just as governments worldwide mobilized rapidly to counter the spread of the coronavirus, modern society must reorganize and restructure itself radically if it hopes to withstand the systemic shocks that the effects of climate change are all but certain to augur.
Some argue that the current pandemic is an opportunity to model effective long-term responses to climate change. As with a fire drill, or a dress rehearsal, we are learning first-hand how well we respond to a threat that majorly disrupts the functioning of society, but does not in itself threaten to destroy it. “COVID-19 is climate on warp speed,” says climate economist Gernot Wagner. “Everything with climate is decades; here it’s days. Climate is centuries; here it’s weeks.” Hence, the damage that climate change threatens to wreak will not occur in the span of a few weeks or months. Rather, following the progression of over a century of scaled industrial activity on this planet, these effects will continue to show themselves gradually—yet their impact will be orders of magnitude more profound.
COVID-19 is a global emergency, to be sure, and we are right to focus the majority of our efforts and energies on preventing its spread and minimizing the loss of life that it causes. Nevertheless, we owe it to ourselves and to future generations to look further ahead than the end of the quarantine.
Text by Joseph Pickert. See his original blog post here.
A friend in my internship program in DC texted me on March 10. Amid the first appearance of coronavirus infections on the West Coast, our program at the University of California Washington Center–through which I was an intern at CCAN–decided to immediately pull hundreds of students out of the DC center and to end the program a month early. Counterintuitively, they were sending us back to California, which at the time was the second largest epicenter of the outbreak.
At first I was frustrated with their reasoning: why such a dramatic move? At the time DC had only a handful of cases, and it was unclear why sending students back home would provide any more safety or security than keeping us housed at the center. Students had to scramble to find housing and transportation. Some needed aid just to afford to leave DC.
But within a few days it became clear that they had made the proper decision: the sooner everything shut down, the better the outcome would be.
The University gave us until the following week to vacate, but I was already wondering if there would be travel lockdowns: the President had already floated the topic. I did not want to be stuck in DC without housing during a pandemic. I departed on Wednesday, March 18.
California to Chicago
Meanwhile, my family worried about my father.
He had just buried two brothers in one month’s time (unrelated to the virus). An 81-year-old with coronary heart disease, he had been cleaning out my uncle’s house in San Diego when the virus arrived. We wanted him to fly immediately back to his home in Chicago, but he had unfinished family business in California and insisted on completing his work. He decided it was safest to drive a car back to Chicago by himself.
He declined my offer to accompany him due to the increased risk of exposure.
Two days after he left, I learned that CCAN’s Anthony Field, with whom I shared a room in our office, tested positive for the virus. It started getting much closer to home.
California
By the time I arrived home in Oakland, California, the entire state was in lockdown.
I couldn’t see my friends who I had been away from for months. I learned that my friend Qilo was in isolation with coronavirus symptoms. They are a manual therapist who has many older and immune-compromised clients, and those clients were anxiously awaiting Qilo’s test results. Qilo had to try for days, however, to get access to a coronavirus test. Over a week later, their test came back negative, but they did not trust the results due to the widely reported inaccuracy of the tests. They also received widely-varying advice to self-quarantine for anywhere from three days to two weeks after symptoms have subsided.
It is also unclear whether one is immune after carrying the virus–information which will be crucial in the coming months for healthcare workers and manual therapists such as myself and Qilo, who depend on personal contact for our livelihoods. Since I can no longer see massage clients, I myself will have to file for unemployment, which luckily has been extended to gig workers, contract workers, and the self-employed during the crisis. Some service workers are using their vulnerable yet powerful position at this moment to demand better working conditions, benefits, and protections.
There is a clear parallel here with the climate crisis, where vulnerable communities who are the least responsible for climate change often suffer the worst impacts, yet receive the least support.
Nesting in North Oakland
Working from home in Oakland, California
Now I am sharing the strange collective experience of watching the virus spread throughout the world while sheltering in my apartment.
The increasingly tense and traumatic scenes inside hospitals and nursing homes elude me. Having spent most of my life as a physical laborer, the inability to take physical action to help those in need is unsettling and alienating.
Luckily, California acted earlier (as they have done with climate policy) than all other states with the shelter in place order–a wise move that has allowed California to dramatically lower the spread of the virus. Most people I know are taking the order seriously. While my fiance and I have still had an occasional friend over to our apartment while practicing social distancing, we have kept it to a bare minimum. My classes and internships are now online and most human contact is through Zoom or video chat. I spend over half my waking hours in front of a screen.
Working from home has proven difficult for the three members of my household, as I’m sure many of us have experienced. Every few moments I cannot resist the urge to look at data, read articles, and generally obsess about the pandemic. Luckily my supervisors and teachers have been forgiving.
Zain meets waffle
My fiance, Zain, has taken the opportunity of this crisis to advance one of his favorite hobbies: eating.
I’ve noticed lots of new treats making their way into our house–perhaps a reward for the half hour wait in line to enter the grocery store and a wait half as long to check out. A week ago, Trader Joe’s was rationing food: customers could take at most two of any given item. Our neighborhood grocery store, Berkeley Bowl, is limiting the number of people allowed in the store at once. Tape demarcates six-foot social distances for the line outside the store, which snakes around the block.
I’ve been taking the opportunity, amidst the toilet paper hoarding, to remind folks that wiping with water will save countless acres of forests. I’ve offered moral and instructional support for those transitioning to water wiping, and there are a few entertaining videos out there as well that I have discovered. People are panic-buying not just TP, but bidet toilet attachments! Luckily there are some still in stock, or one can use a simple plastic pitcher, as do most Muslims around the world, including Zain’s family.
Personally, I have valued the domestic time to concentrate on home projects, personal wellness, and valuable bonding time with my household. Other unemployed friends of mine have used the time to do creative projects, to clean and organize, to meditate, and to read and watch movies. Yesterday Zain and I revisited the 2011 Hollywood film Contagion about a much more virulent (and deadly) global pandemic.
Maybe I am an optimist, and I certainly have privileges that buffer me from the worst economic effects of this crisis–which will undoubtedly throw thousands more into poverty–but I see some silver linings.
Zain is a biologist who studies HIV (and now coronavirus), and confirmed that the science in that movie was sound, more or less, which made me actually feel relieved that the Covid-19 pandemic is not nearly as bad as the one in the film. This is a test run, said my friend Alisa, who works in new antibiotic development. Her whole industry has been frustrated by the lack of public investment and lack of concern for growing antibiotic resistance and the threat of new pathogens. Another friend of mine, who works for the State Department combating the illegal wildlife trade, said this had the perverse benefit of finally bringing attention to the issue. While many have pointed out the failure of the US to contain the spread, Covid-19 will likely ensure that we are not caught unawares when the next virulent pandemic arrives.
This pandemic has also enabled policies that progressives have only dreamed of: direct checks to support those in need, the extension of unemployment to gig and contract workers, paid sick leave and extensions of publicly-funded healthcare, and the release of non-violent offenders from incarceration, among others.
While most are temporary measures, it will be difficult and unpopular for the federal government to claw those away when so many workers have been suffering under wage and healthcare insecurity. These measures, however, will obviously not be sufficient to stem the dramatic economic nosedive that we are undergoing, which could likely rival The Great Depression. This is why it is more important than ever that we continue to organize, build power, and fight for policies that will help us arise stronger from this crisis.
Panino
In addition to greater support for social safety nets, I have observed increasing mindfulness and intentionality around me.
While in normal circumstances people move about their daily lives on auto-pilot, social interaction and space have moved to the foreground. When walking my dog, Panino, I have to engage everyone I pass to acknowledge our distance, with a glance of social solidarity. When social distancing with friends, the desire for contact and greater closeness is palpable. In my online classes and meetings on Zoom, it is harder for me to turn away or tune out, as my face is intimately visible to all of my peers. In some ways on Zoom, it even feels more intimate than meeting in person, and there is a stronger sense of empathy and shared purpose.
I believe that this reinforcement of the social ethic will have a more profound impact on our society moving forward than we can currently comprehend.
The Future
Coronavirus seems to magnify everything and to put it under the spotlight.
It is inflaming domestic abuse. It is exposing the weaknesses in our economy, our public health system, and our social support system. It is testing the bounds of fiscal and monetary policy. A friend of mine is considering dropping out of school because he has been unable to cope with his ADHD without a proper place to study outside of his home. Other friends of mine with anxiety disorders and depression are struggling to cope. Anxiety and isolation can fuel addictions, and sheltering in place has certainly not helped me reduce screen time. I have found it helpful to video chat with family and friends, to reach out to those in need, and to connect with the various mutual aid networks that are arising everywhere to help myself and my community members cope. I have also found it important to remember that the outside world is immense, and it is safe to go outside: to hike in the forest, to garden, to support my local farmers market, and generally to not be confined indoors.
It’s true that public health experts and others have been warning us about a pandemic for decades. While we were largely unprepared, we can now only control how we move forward. As the old saying goes, “never let a crisis go to waste.” There’s no turning back now. I look forward to organizing through this, and coming out the other end with strengthened social bonds, newfound courage, and a fighting spirit.
Let’s use this health crisis as a template for tackling the climate crisis, and let’s never forget what’s at stake.
As the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continues to unfold, we at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network and CCAN Action Fund are working hard to adjust our plans to continue fighting global warming. We know now, more than ever, how important it is to prevent a massive crisis before it arrives.
So here’s what we’re doing to take care of ourselves and the planet:
First, the health of our staff and surrounding communities is our main priority. We all have the responsibility to carry out “social distancing” as much as possible to reduce the spread of COVID-19. To that end, we are requiring staff to work from home if possible for the next several weeks at least, and we are suspending all CCAN planned in-person events during this time.
Second, we are shifting our focus to digital campaigns. How can we make large-scale systemic change happen in a world of “social distancing”? Here’s how: by getting “closer” on social media. Deepening our investments in social media will be a key part of our near-term organizing even as we continue to reach out to legislators through the conventional means of email and phone calls. We’ll be in touch soon with more on all that. But here are some things you can do right now:
Follow our main organization, CCAN, on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram for your daily dose of inspiration, reliable information, and activism. For regular updates on our legislative campaigns, please follow our sister organization, CCAN Action Fund, on Facebook and Twitter.
Third, we want to make sure YOU are taking care of yourself in these trying times. We’ve included a list of resources at the bottom of this email with advice about social distancing, mental health resources, and more.
And finally, let’s remember why we fight: We love and care about our neighbors and we want to ensure a basic quality of life for all. Climate change will not only impact the way disease spreads, it will impact every sector of society. So rest assured that we will not stop fighting the fossil fuel polluters. We will not back down. We will keep pushing to bring smart and clean energy policies to our region and nationwide.
We know that navigating COVID-19 together will be challenging, but we also strongly believe in the power of the people. The need for progressive movements is apparent now more than ever. We are proud to be a part of this movement.
Below are additional resources that might help you navigate COVID-19:
Resources for COVID-19 – A list of crowd sourced links covering a variety of COVID-19 preparedness materials, including information, tips for handwashing and social distancing, tips for how to help yourself and others, prioritize your mental health as well as physical, and how to organize in this environment.
Resources from adrienne maree brown– Links to the author’s books and podcasts that are relevant: “here are some resources that might help you think about where to be, how to be, and how to see the possibilities even in this moment, how to move towards life.”
