February Newsletter

In today’s newsletter:

  • February Chapter Meeting

  • January Recap

  • Take Action

  • Upcoming Elections

  • Committee News

  • Share Your Climate Story

  • Linktree

February Chapter Meeting

Join us on February 17th from 7pm-8:15pm on ZOOM

The Climate Education Committee presents:  Building Resilience through climate solutions education:

Pathways 2050, Modeling resilient / sustainable communities and schools

What might a carbon neutral Portland neighborhood look like?  In 2024 a scale model of an east Portland neighborhood was constructed as a traveling exhibit depicting what such a neighborhood could look like in 2050 if it were to be redesigned with climate resilience and environmental sustainability in mind.  Over the past two years the exhibit has been shown at several school climate fairs organized by SAGE Vision 2030, as well as at other community events.  As a spin off of this project Frank is in conversation with middle school teachers about having students build or revamp models of their own schools to visualize what those schools could look like in a climate resilient community.

Our Legislative committee and coalition allies will give an update on getting climate bills passed and how you can help. 

We'll have lots of time for Q&A and discussion.

Join the meeting here 

A note from our Chapter Chair:  

My reason for being a climate activist is so that human beings, and our non-human living relatives, can live healthy lives and share creativity and joy with their communities. Federal injustice is tearing that from us. 

On Saturday federal agents tear-gassed thousands of us for marching peacefully past the ICE building in Portland. The gas spread all the way up to OHSU’s outpatient clinic, poisoning not only marchers but people seeking medical care and the whole community who lives on those blocks. 

And we are largely the fortunate ones. My heart breaks for all the children and families in detention and all the families torn apart. RIP Geraldo Lunas Campos, Luis Gustavo Nuñez Caceres, Victor Manuel Díaz, Parady La, Renee Nicole Good, Heber Sánchez Domínguez, Keith Porter Jr. and Alex Pretti… 

The tragedy can feel paralyzing. But the only way through is forward. If I can be one drop in a wave of water moving in a positive direction, that’s part of the solution… 

As Climate Reality Founder and Vice President Al Gore says, “We have to deal with the democracy crisis in order to solve the climate crisis.”  

Thank you to all of you who are taking a piece of protecting democracy and protecting our communities in all the ways that you do. Let’s build momentum for good on the local level while resisting authoritarianism with the whole country and beyond. 

–Helena

Jan. Recap / News / What we’ve been up to

We had a great kick-off Chapter Meeting focusing on the Make Polluters Pay bill coming up in Oregon. Missed the meeting? Watch the video here

Climate education committee members are into their season of lessons in schools. Legislative committee members have been busy finalizing our priority document, connecting with our state legislators at town halls and constituent meetings in advance of the lightning fast– only 5 weeks!-- 2026 legislative session that runs from Feb. 2 - March 9. We hope you’ll join us in submitting comments in support of the Make Polluters Pay Climate Superfund bill and other important topics (see the Take Action section below!)

Take action

Make Polluters Pay!

Any and all of these actions help support creating a Climate Superfund by collecting money from the largest fossil fuel companies based on past greenhouse gas emissions. 30% of the funds would go directly to the State Fire Marshall for wildfire mitigation activities with the rest used for other climate resilience and climate justice programs. 

Move Oregon Forward on Transportation!

  • 10 minutes: Submit testimony by 3 pm Feb. 11 to support a pair of bills –Guardrails for Good Governance (SB 1542) and Measure what we Drive (SB 1543)--  which will help make our transportation sector more safe, affordable, climate forward, and accountable. We are part of the Move Oregon Forward Coalition, which has created this form to submit testimony. 

  • 1 extra minute: Copy your testimony in an email to your state legislators! 

    Climate Changemakers Hour of Action

    Mondays at 5 pm online. Gather with a group to take action together on a Climate Reality nation-wide priority. 

    No previous experience needed.

    Climate Changemakers is part of Climate Reality Project.

Upcoming Chapter elections– postponed 

New leaders wanted! Please look at the variety of roles and join our leadership team! 

If you are interested but can only commit to a portion of a role, still apply and we’ll work it out! 

I know there are a hundred new things a day that demand our action, and life is more complicated than ever. But if you are reading this, you care about Climate Reality. An hour a week (or even less) can make a huge difference. 

Open positions include: Chair and co-chair, Events, Outreach, Communications. 

More on how to Join our leadership team! 

Contact Helena at [email protected] with questions or to nominate yourself! We will have elections once we have nominations!

Committee News

The Legislative Committee 

The Climate Friendly Foods Committee 

The Education Committee

Join the Climate Friendly Foods Committee: Email Lynne at [email protected] 

Join the Legislative Committee:   Email Amanda and Helena at [email protected]

Join the Education Committee:   Email Lynn at [email protected]

So many of us are working with multiple groups in different neighborhoods! If you’d like to share what you’re doing for climate action and climate justice, we’d love to highlight it in an upcoming newsletter! Email to [email protected] for inclusion.

Our Linktree!

Have limited time but want to keep up with quick actions and events in between newsletters? Bookmark our Linktree page: https://linktr.ee/climaterealitypdx