OLY FOR Responds to Climate Crisis
by Glen Anderson
During 2012 the Olympia FOR started organizing vigorous action to deal with the escalating disruption of global climates We staffed information tables at public events in June and October. In August, four members of the Olympia FOR’s Steering Committee (Glen Anderson, Kerri Griffis, Bourtai Hargrove and Ted Nation) started working very hard along with Larry Kerschner and Ellen Finkelstein to organize the Western Washington FOR’s Fall Retreat (Sat. Nov. 10 in Lacey), which focused on the climate crisis and especially toward preventing a huge number of very nasty trainloads of coal from moving through our community for exporting to Asia.
Many Olympia FOR people participated in the WWFOR Fall Retreat, including some who had not attended previous years’ fall retreats. This event provided a wealth of information, enthusiastic encouragement, and practical ways for people to connect with each other, both on that day and into the future.
The Olympia FOR created a new Climate Crisis page for our website, www.olympiafor.org, and started posting information. In October, the Olympia FOR Steering Committee created a new committee to work on the climate crisis. The committee named itself “Confronting the Climate Crisis.” Our new climate committee met for the first time on November 13, with 23 participants, 22 of whom were already on the Olympia FOR mailing list. Confronting the Climate Crisis created some “working groups” to work on specific approaches (direct action, outreach–education–communication, specific organizing around the coal train proposals, divestment from fossil fuel companies, and positive alternatives [legislation, public policies, etc.]) to relieve the climate crisis.
Each working group will work outside of the main meetings and coordinate when the overall committee meets two evenings every month. We arranged for a new e-mail address (climate@olympiafor.org) to reach the committee’s coordinator, Bourtai Hargrove, or phone her at (360) 352-6327. We collaborated with another local organization (Thurston County Progressive Network www.tcpronet.org) to send a busload of people from Olympia to the EIS Scoping Hearing in Seattle on December 13. We brought people together to witness a very high tide and some local flooding near Olympia’s waterfront on Monday morning December 17. A Thurston County Commissioner, Olympia’s mayor, and a former mayor were among those who met with us and shared thoughtful conversations.
We are organizing an event on the steps of the State Capitol Building on Monday January 14, the first day of the 2013 legislative session. The climate crisis is the focal point of the 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. block of time, and other issues will be addressed after 1:30. Climate-related information and opportunities are listed at www.olympiafor.org/Climate_Crisis.html.