SSCAN members advocates for public policy that reduces greenhouse gas emissions in Washington State and prepares our communities, especially the most vulnerable, for anticipated climate change effects. We urge our legislators to be leaders for climate justice.
During the Washington State legislative session we identify and monitor the priority bills that concern climate change. Working with the Environmental Priorities Coalition and other climate action groups, we meet with senators and representatives of south Seattle, and ask them to support our legislative priorities.
As the session progresses, we keep our members informed of when important town halls, hearings and votes are being held so they may ask their legislators to support climate justice action. We draft letters to the editor and Op-Ed pieces for local newspapers and do outreach with south Seattle community organizations on climate change policy.
To learn more about our efforts, to volunteer, or to share a message, please contact admin@southseattleclimate.org.
37th District Town Hall, March 23, 2019 Make Time for Climate Solutions!
Thank you to all our members and allies who attended the 37th District Town Hall on Saturday, March 23rd to question our Senator Saldana and Representatives Pettigrew and Santos. Although many of us submitted questions about climate solutions and environmental bills, time ran out before any of us were called on to ask the questions. There were more than 20 who wanted to ask questions. To continue the conversation, we plan to work with others to create another climate-focused Town Hall before the next legislative session.
Here are some statements & questions from members at the event. Please send us yours if you’d like to share.
- Merv’s question: Will you refuse Fossil Fuel campaign donations?
I recently became an enthusiastic American citizen and I attended my first town hall meeting ever today, hoping to ask you a question about climate change. There were at least a dozen other people in the room who were there because of climate change and I know they submitted several written questions. I was the last person to be called and at that point no climate change question had been asked. I was disappointed to find that I was not allowed to put my question even though I was called and was sitting in the appointed seats with 2 questioners still ahead of me.
I don’t know what process you use to select questions but it is very odd that not a single climate change question got to be asked. If I were a more suspicious person, I would think that this was a deliberate ploy. In fact if this had been a Republican town hall meeting, you couldn’t have done a better job of burying climate change!
With the other Washington in full denial that climate change even exists, you guys are our only hope for progress on this issue! For a sizeable group of citizens present not to get to even ask one question is perverse. Surely the whole point of a town hall is for people to be able to express their views and not to feel the agenda may somehow be rigged.
Maybe you need to review how you take questions to get more balance. The way it worked out may have been entirely accidental but it certainly doesn’t give that impression. Sorry to be a little negative. I do very much appreciate the fact that you hold a town hall at all!
For the record, my question would have been:
Given the latest terrible forecasts for the effects of climate change on our children and grandchildren, will you commit to being a climate champion by 1. refusing any campaign finance from fossil fuel donors and 2. supporting all bills which help in any way to reduce Washington state’s emissions?
2. Anne: How will you promote a Healthy Environment for All?
South Seattle Climate Action Network joins Front and Centered and other HEAL Act supporters to endorse the Healthy Environment for All legislation (SB 5489). HEAL Act endorsers representing doctors, faith leaders, environmental justice advocates, labor unions, farmworkers, scientists, family, immigrant and civil rights leaders and anti-poverty groups believe that everyone deserves clean air and healthy water. State data in the Washington Environmental Health Disparity Map shows areas in South Seattle where our frontline communities face the most significant environmental health disparity. How will you lead the effort for legislation to protect our air, water, resources and climate?
3. Greg: How will you electrify Washington?
The energy transition, as communicated in the Green New Deal, provides ample opportunities for employment. As the nation moves to electrify everything, many new devices like solar panels, heat pumps and electric vehicle charging station need to be wired. While solar incentive programs have proven to be wildly successful job creators, Washington state still lingers as one of the slowest adopters of solar in the country. There are many opportunities to better harness the energy of the sun. Washington enjoys a special position with our abundance of natural hydroelectric power. We should be leading the country in adopting electric technologies like heat pumps to heat our houses and inductive stoves for cooking our food. What legislation will you support to accelerate the transition to clean electricity?
4. Beth: Will you get the lead out of our schools?
A story in a recent Seattle Times found that lead contamination of school’s drinking water is widespread in the Seattle school district. Based on district data, the story revealed that “water sources at more than half the city’s South End schools, which
serve many students of color and children living in poverty, exceeded the Seattle Public Schools’ limit for lead,” and that even in North Seattle’s more affluent neighborhoods “elevated lead levels appeared in tests at 36 percent of schools
Lead is a dangerous neurotoxin and especially damaging to our kids. During the next session will you support HB 1860 and any other bills to get the lead out of our schools?
5. Mona: Will you support resolutions against use of Nuclear Weapons?
My name is Mona Lee. I live on over on Othello Street just a few blocks from here. I want to thank Senator Rebecca Soldana for supporting Senate Joint Memorial 8006 which reflects a full consciousness of the threat of nuclear war and what needs to be done to prevent that unthinkable catastrophe. I am proud of your committee for passing this, but I am sorry it did not pass the full Senate.
I used to live over on Hood Canal right next door to the Trident Base. My kids grew up know that they were living so close to the nation’s largest stockpiles of nuclear weapons. However, I have lived here in Seattle for more than twenty years now and have been amazed at how many people don’t know that only 20 miles from here is one of the world’s principle targets in case of a nuclear war. Seattle would be wiped out if there were a nuclear war.
Will all of you who represent us will bring up this resolution in the next legislative session and will pursue adopting it in the future?