East Shore is blessed to receive and display the “E Ala E” Mural in the Sanctuary. It is the culmination of a collaborative process between Guatemalan Social Artist, Melanie Schambach, and hundreds of contributors across the country. East Shore members and friends painted parts of the Mural as it accompanied the Red Road to DC Totem Pole journey over the summer, 2021.
We invite you to view the Mural accompanied by photographs and explanatory materials in the Sanctuary. The mural will be on display at East Shore through October, 2022. Don’t miss it!
For those who would like to try their hand at coloring some of the images, please note that Melanie has generously offered a free coloring book and coloring sheets available at her website: melanieschambach.com/ealaedownloads.
According to Washington Environmental Council: “The Snake River has been named America’s #1 Most Endangered River of 2021.
Once the largest salmon producer in the Columbia River Basin, today Snake River salmon runs are at the brink of extinction. The loss of salmon is a crisis for the entire web of life, from black bears to Southern Resident killer whales. It is also an existential threat to Northwest tribes who depend on the fish for their cultures and identities.
The report from American Rivers points to the urgent need for lawmakers and communities to come together to develop a comprehensive economic revitalization plan that not only invests in salmon recovery and honors national obligations to Native American tribes while investing in clean energy, agriculture, technology, and tourism. “
Sign up for ECAM’s Action email list by emailing Amanda Strombom. [email protected]
This is a critical year. A draft report by Gov. Inslee and Sen. Murray has shown that there are reliable alternatives to current services of the dams (irrigation, transportation, and electricity). While it will be costly to replace the services, not removing the dams will have catastrophic consequences for the chinook salmon population and the orca as well as recreationists and Northwest tribes. We will also save the billions we have spent on the salmon recovery which have failed to save the Chinook.
Kristi Weir, Earth and Climate Action Ministry Team
People for Climate Action’s (PCA)mission is to help local governments develop and implement comprehensive climate action plans to reach the greenhouse gas reduction targets set by the King County-Cities Climate Collaboration(K4C), which include a 50% reduction by 2030.
People for Climate Action has created a comprehensive workbook that lists and prioritizes climate actions designed to help cities develop or strengthen their climate action plans.
Sign up as a PCA member so you can receive newsletters and invitations to events.
Join a local PCA group in your city and become an active participant.
Review the Resources page to see past recorded events or to download a free guide for ways to reduce your carbon footprint.
Our own Ann Fletcher is a leader in PCA Issaquah. Other ECAM members are active in Bellevue PCA. There are PCA’s in 14 King County cities. Join others in lobbying your city to do more to address climate change.
Below is an important upcoming event in Bellevue.
PCA Bellevue’s Urgent Call to Action: All hands-on-deck for this critical “make a difference” workshop with keynote speaker, Bellevue City Councilmember Janice Zahn
Saturday, June 4, 9:30-10:30am
Why is this event so important? Bellevue isn’t doing enough. The climate won’t wait. The next few months will make or break the commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions 50% by 2030.
THERE IS STRENGTH IN NUMBERS. PLEASE REGISTER TO ATTEND THIS WORKSHOP! Here’show:
Many people want to take small actions to help with Climate Justice, but they can’t cut through the mountains of emails, Facebook posts or other announcements to decide what is most important to do. The Earth and Climate Action Ministry team (ECAM) is here to help!
We have set up a new email list – [email protected] where members can circulate specific actions that you can take right now. These will vary from things you can do to reduce your own carbon footprint to advocacy opportunities (e.g. write or call your state or city representatives) to volunteer opportunities (e.g. help plant some trees). Each email will contain only one action that you can do, so that you won’t miss a bunch if you miss one email.
If you care about the planet, and our impact on it, and you want simple actions without long explanations, email Amanda Strombom, [email protected], and she’ll add you to the list. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Three members of the University Unitarian Climate Action Team (CAT) joined ECAM at its March monthly meeting. It was refreshing and invigorating to make a connection with another UU climate team and share our varied and similar interests and activities.
While CAT is working with tree groups in Seattle, ECAM is working on Trees on the east side. We liked CAT’s experience of tree walks to get congregants involved.
Both climate teams have been involved in GOTV and lobbying for climate and environmental legislation.
We plan to keep connected to let each other know of scheduled events or of events we might do together. It was comforting and energizing to know there are others striving to make a difference.
For two years East Shore’s Earth and Climate Action Ministry (ECAM) has supported Washington Can’t Wait (WCW) initiative to update the Growth Management Act to include planning for climate change (HB 1099), housing affordability and equity (HB 1220) , and to close a loophole that allows for “illegal” urban sprawl SB (5042).
When the short session of the legislature closed on March 10, there were two big wins! After a 20-year struggle SB 5042 passed closing the loophole that allowed developers to be granted to development rights even if the expansion area proved illegal on appeal. HB 1220 passed last year but lacked the funding for communities and cities needed to plan for affordable housing and address red lining. Happily, funding was included in this year’s budget.
Sadly, HB 1099 had a different story. This bill would have required planning for climate resiliency and environmental justice. It passed the House but ran into headwinds in the Senate and was basically gutted, removing even the word “climate” and the main metric to measure greenhouse gases which was vehicle miles traveled. It passed the Senate but had to go to Reconciliation-conference as House and Senate versions were different. Due to many phone calls and emails from supporters of the original bill, the original language was restored.!! Yeah, success it seemed was near. The Senate approved the conference-amended bill. It went to the house but was not brought up for a vote before the session ended. Lack of leadership somewhere.
ECAM appreciated the well-organized campaign of WCW and look forward to working with them again.
