Thirteen kids are suing the state of Washington and its governor to protect their generation from climate change.
The plaintiffs range in age from 7 to 17. Please read the article on Seattle’s KUOW.
Category: Kid Activism
Youth Leaders Demand Bold Climate Action
On Presidents Day, February 19th, 2018, Plant for the Planet Climate Justice Ambassadors and families from around the state of Washington came together for the Youth Lead the Way Climate Lobby Day.
Here is a report from The San Juan Islander.
Seattle Arbor Day at Sam Smith Park
Plant for the Planet will be planting trees for Seattle Arbor Day at Sam Smith Park on Saturday October 14, 2017 – Please join us from 8:30am to Noon.
Our Primary Sponsor is City of Seattle’s Jana Dilley from the “Trees for Seattle” Program. Please contact Anne Miller (or 2068497456) for more information.
Directions: Go towards Sam Smith Park at 1400 Martin Luther King Way S, Seattle, WA 98144.
Once you are at the south side of the park, find the intersection of S Massachusetts Street and 28th Ave.
Then go north on 28th nearly to the end. (28th is a dead end road). Tree planting will occur near the north end of 28th. We will meet and plant trees across the street from the “Our Lady of Mount Virgin” Church. See map below:
Ambassadors pushing Seattle Council to support Paris Agreement
The Seattle City Council Monday resolved to maintain and develop the environmental standards of the Paris Agreement. Before the vote on Monday, 12th of June 2017 two Plant for the Planet Climate Justice Ambassadors spoke in support of this resolution.
15 year old CJA Jamie Margolin spoke out for labeling Gas Pumps with Warming Labels about the effect fossil fuels have on the Climate.
11 year old CJA Azure Faloona urged the Council to support the resolution and discussed the scientific basis to keep warming below 1.5 degrees and CO2 levels below 350 ppm.
Check out their testimonies in this YouTube video:
You can find the full hearing at seattlechannel.org. And you can also read a summary at the Seattle Times.
To stay in touch:
- Email Rusty West to learn more or sign up and get our newsletter.
- Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram to keep up-to-date with news and events.
- Donate to our good cause to save the world for kids and kids to come!
We will continue to take action! Climate Kids react to Paris
The Climate Justice Ambassadors at Plant for the Planet are taking action against Climate Change. With our Three Step Plan (Planting 1 trillion trees, Stopping Carbon Emissions, and fighting poverty with Climate Justice) we can bring the Climate back under control, but we need everyone to act now! We do not have time for the White House’s terrible policies. Watch Climate Justice Ambassadors Athena Fain and Adonis Piper react to the news of Donald Trump announcing to pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement on Komo News.
Keep your eyes open for further wins in our State and Federal lawsuits. Here is what you can do by joining Plant for the Planet:
- If you are (or know) a kid age 8 and up who wants to join PftP take one of our Academies to become a Climate Justice Ambassador (dates will be announced here).
- Even without that you can join our Seattle monthly meetings in Wallingford (1st Friday) and West Seattle (3rd Friday) – these are open to the whole family.
- At these meetings we will go through the calendar of actions coming up, for example: We have a low tide beach hike coming up, Public Speaker training (to give good interviews and talks), and many of us will join Al Gore’s Climate Reality Leadership training.
- In Fall we are getting ready for the next tree planting season. We’ll also continue to support our favorite local tree project Moving the Giants to Puget Sound.
To stay in touch:
- Email Rusty West to learn more or sign up for any of these events and get our newsletter.
- Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram to keep up-to-date with news and events.
- Donate to our good cause to save the world for kids and kids to come!
Youth Activist Speaking at Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal’s “Rooting our Resistance” Rally
My name is Jamie Margolin, and I’m a 15-year-old climate justice ambassador with Plant for the Planet, a member of the Seattle People’s Climate Movement, and co-founder of Future Voters for 350 parts per million, a budding Teen environmental action network linked to Plant for the Planet.
Watch the video or read Jamie’s full speech below
My name is Jamie Margolin, and I’m a 15-year-old climate justice ambassador with Plant for the Planet, a member of the Seattle People’s Climate Movement, and co-founder of Future Voters for 350 parts per million, a budding Teen environmental action network linked to Plant for the Planet. I’ve spent the majority of 2017 lobbying legislators in Olympia, speaking up at congressional town halls, including Congresswoman Jayapal’s very first town hall as a congresswoman, and organizing, planning, marching, and resisting my heart out.
Like many of you, Election night left me brokenhearted, confused, grief stricken and terrified.
I knew pretty much everything I cared about would now be under attack with a Trump presidency, but I decided to focus my resistance on what I believe is the most important and defining issue of our time: Environmental destruction and climate change.
Because honestly, what will anything else matter when we don’t have clean air to breath or potable water to drink?
So I joined Plant 4 the Planet, an international youth environmental nonprofit, and I got right to work, running around Olympia lobbying and meeting with representatives, testifying at 2 bill hearings before the environmental committee, and giving presentations on climate change.
It was with plant for the planet that I learned how climate change is not this far-off issue that can keep being put off, rather, something that is right here, right now, and is the biggest threat humanity has ever faced and the defining issue of our time.
And later, during my work with the People’s Climate Movement , I learned about the intersectionality of the climate crisis, and how climate change effects other issues and causes we care about. For example, if you care about civil rights and the Black Lives Matter movement, here’s a connection climate change has to systematic racism. Nationally 68% of the Black population lives within 30 miles of a coal plant, are generally more likely to live in polluted areas and have shorter life spans than Caucasians.
Every issue, whether it’s poverty, public health, racism, or gender inequality, is worsened by climate change. Environmental issues are not separate from human rights issues at all. Having carbon levels in the air that increase childhood asthma and cancer levels is a violation of human rights.
In fact, I think it’s fair to say that if there is one message that echoes forth from this rally, let it be that Environmental rights are human rights, and human rights are environmental rights, once and for all!
Failing to address the issue properly is a crime against all young people (my generation) and future generations.
We young people didn’t ask for any of this. We didn’t ask for or have any say in climate change, we didn’t ask for Trump –we have no vote– and yet we will pay the biggest price for his environmental recklessness, like his proposed budget. Trump’s proposed budget will slash the EPA’s budget in the Puget Sound by 93 percent and cut 3,000 jobs, many of which, are focused on restoring the Puget Sound, our home.
But we are not just going to stand by and let this happen, are we?
Actually, young people have already been on the front lines of environmental resistance. Youth plaintiffs all over the country have been suing their governments over this crime, slashing the myth that you have to be an adult to contribute to society, and participate in the resistance.
Now why do I keep saying, crime? Well, it’s right in the constitution, that everyone has the inalienable right to life. It’s the most basic right we could ask for. But Climate change and environmental destruction are threatening those basic inalienable rights.
The government has known for decades that climate change would threaten the lives of young generation, but they allowed companies to pollute and the problem to worsen anyway.
So 21 youth plaintiffs from all over the country are suing the federal government over this denial of constitutional rights.
And there are state cases all over the country as well, including here in Washington, where plant for the planet kids are suing the state over refusing to pass science-based climate laws. (By the way, the organization behind all these historic youth vs government lawsuits is Our Children’s Trust, so I’d google them after this event.)
Now here are a few quick numbers.
Pre-industrial, natural levels of carbon in the air were 280 parts per million. Today, we’re at 405 parts per million. The level scientists say we need to get down to if we want to preserve life as we know it- and this level is a maximum- is 350 parts per million.
But most bills in the Washington state legislature, like House Bill 1646, a carbon tax, which 350 Seattle and Plant 4 the planet is lobbying to amend, and we hope you will join our efforts, aims to allow carbon levels to rise to 450 parts per million. That’s not a solution! At 450 parts per million, the city of Seattle would be under water.
Solving the climate crisis is not something we should maybe get around to sometime in the future, it is your constitutional obligation NOW, to ensure my generation has our most basic right to live.
And starting right now, you can defend our rights. Because no matter what Trump does, here at home, we still treasure our natural resources and value our water and air. Everyone here should pledge to talk to our neighbors about the importance of investing in our environment – not slashing it! And that should only be the beginning!
Get involved with organizations if you have the time, (Future Voters and Plant for the Planet is always in need of help), or get involved making sure public officials who are climate champions get and stay elected, like our beloved congresswoman, Pramila Jayapal! Plant trees, call your state and federal representatives about how much you care about the environment and your kids futures, they need to hear from you! A call only takes a few minutes, but it can really make a difference.
Because everything we love is on the line right now, and we will need every bit of help from people of all walks of life joining in this effort.
Finally, I think the most important part of environmental advocacy, is to remember that we’re not just trying to prevent catastrophe, but build and create a more peaceful and better world.
So let’s root our resistance, and start building that better world right here at home!
Thank you!
New West Seattle monthly Meeting
With the growth of Plant for the Planet (a youth-lead climate organization) in Seattle and enough Climate Justice Ambassadors in the South, we have officially kicked off our monthly West Seattle Meetings. Every 3rd Friday we’ll meet at 7PM at the Puget Ridge Co-housing Common House. The meetings in Wallingford will continue on the 1st Friday of the month.
So the next West Seattle Plant for the Planet meeting will be on Friday, April 21st at 7PM. Children who would like to be active to get our planet back to a stable climate and their parents are always welcome to join. Please RSVP by email. Every child who wants to join officially can attend a one day, free academy: One is coming up on April, 8th in Marysville.
To give you a better idea of what we are up to, here’s a quick report from our last meeting:
Most importantly, we elected our two West Seattle Co-chairs Azure (11) and Tim (11), who will take turns planing and running the monthly meetings for the rest of the year.
Congratulations, to both of you!
We also had two special visitors from the Better Cup Campaign, working to persuade Starbucks to improve their cups to be recyclable and made from post-consumer materials. Our Plant for the Planet Ambassadors decided to join this campaign after a presentation from Jim Ace and his Super Mermaid partner. Here is a quick animation, so you can see how much fun we had:
We also discussed our past actions (The Giant Redwood Planting, Lobbying for House Bill 1646 in Olympia, and a presentation we gave at the the Orca K-8 School) and looked at the calendar to see what’s coming up. Of course, we always plan time for snacks and games 🙂
We’d love to see you there and please forward this to any kids who might be interested in Plant for the Planet! You can contact us for any questions:
Kristen Walsh and Marco Deppe
West Seattle PftP Parent Coordinators
2 climate bills, important differences
“I’m 15-years-old and scared about what rising carbon levels mean for my generation. Currently, there are two bills in Washington’s Legislature that propose targets for reducing carbon levels — but they have critical differences.”
Parents & Grandparents Fasting for The WA Climate Kids: Fighting for their Future
July 14th, 2016
24 people have fasted for 3 days in advance of today’s public hearing on Washington’s Department of Ecology Inadequate Draft Clean Air Rule! Please come and speak out! Current information is available from this Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/WAClimateKids/
Here are various news media articles about the fasting and today’s events:
- KUOW: http://kuow.org/post/inslee-carbon-cap-critics-protest-fast-capitol-steps
- Cascadia Planet: http://cascadiaplanet.blogspot.com/2016/07/hungry-for-climate-justice-fasting-at.html
- The Stranger: http://www.thestranger.com/slog/2016/07/12/24334414/sixteen-people-are-fasting-on-the-capitol-steps-to-protest-the-governors-draft-clean-air-rule
- Common Dreams: http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2016/07/13/hunger-fast-grows-outside-governors-office
On Twitter look for:
You can also get some updates and pictures from:
WA Kids on the Clean Air Rule Draft of June 2016
Published on Jun 5, 2016
Watch and share this video on YouTube.
Watch to find out what Washington kids think about the ‘Clean Air Rule’ Draft the WA State Department of Ecology has released, after a King County Superior Court Judge ordered them to do so by the end of 2016.
Sign the MoveOn Petition!
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/demand-the-best-climate/
More information on the lawsuit
http://ourchildrenstrust.org/state/Washington
More information on the Clean Air Rule
http://www.ecy.wa.gov/climatechange/carbonlimit.htm
Climate Change for Families 