by Trathen Heckman, Executive Director
Dear Daily Actors,
As I write this blog, fire ash is gently raining down with an eerie PTSD-inducing familiarity and the Bay Area has some of the worst air quality in the world. In the last week, we’ve had fire tornadoes, rolling blackouts, and global temperature records highs with Death Valley reaching a scorching 130 degrees. A week before, Canada’s largest ice shelf collapsed creating a Manhattan-sized iceberg. This and much more is occurring with only 1-degree Celsius of climate change, with hotter weather on the way.
Face climate truth. Embrace your fear, hurt and grief; and support others to do the same. Take heart-centered action.
This is how we transform ourselves and our communities. It’s how we connect to a deeper power, joy and the purpose of rising to this moment. It’s what led to 1,700 + climate emergency declarations in jurisdictions around the planet, mostly in the last year.
Embracing the truth and feeling the grief is what led Daily Acts to co-found Climate Action Petaluma and work with agencies, organizations, businesses and everyday folks to help our cities and county declare a climate emergency. Because of the power of community voice, the Regional Climate Protection Authority has drafted a 10-year climate mobilization strategy and Petaluma has a new Climate Commission that worked with dozens of volunteers, including Daily Acts, to draft a Climate Emergency Framework. These plans are critical for us to mitigate, draw down carbon, and build resilience as well as align our policies and leadership with the science of survival.
Together, we are leading on what a community-powered response can look like. Together, we can create a tipping point in Sonoma County and nourish wider efforts to move our entire country and world into collective action.
This means rapid emissions reductions, centering on equity, regenerative land practices and getting resilient to the hotter, stormier changes already locked in. It’s more bikes, gardens, walkable streets, affordable housing, and organic waste turned into compost for local farms, using regenerative practices to grow local food. It means climate victory gardens in front yards, parks and apartments, sequestering carbon and feeding our families, neighbors and food insecure community members.
In 1943, three-fifth’s of the U.S. population were growing victory gardens: producing 42% of the fresh veggies consumed that year. Like in World War II, we need to move into emergency mode, where addressing the climate crisis through equitable action is our collective project, infusing people and communities with the power of shared purpose. Even in the devastation of the Tubbs fire, many in our community felt the helper’s high of being engaged in common purpose. It’s in our DNA to want to contribute in this way, to nourish and take part in community.
So talk, act and engage. Embrace and share climate truth. VOTE EARLY. Connect to the power of this moment and to the fierce love of acting each day to protect our families and neighbors and reclaim our future.
Join your neighbors and friends rallying to the Be the Change Campaign. Get educated. Share these truths with others. Show up at climate commission and city council zoom meetings. VOTE for and support the strongest local climate candidates, which become the foundation and grassroots momentum needed to change our national and presidential politics. Support generously the organizations that matter to you, doing the work of community.
Above all, just keep taking heart, taking part and taking action.
In Hope and the Power of Shared Purpose, I do reside,
Trathen Heckman
Executive Director
“Without Daily Acts generous partnership, we could never have reached the level of participation and greenhouse gas reductions that we achieved with the Sonoma Climate Challenge – outpacing the 17 other US jurisdictions using the same platform in 2019.”
– Brant Arthur, Regional Climate Protection Authority