CO₂nsequences: ECCC April 2025 Newsletter

Posted by Dana Freling
May 27, 2025

Chair - Global Environment and Climate Crisis; Vice Chair - DA Finland; Steering Committee - Global Womens Caucus; Member-Reproductive Justice Task Force

Happy Earth Month! Join us in rising up for people and planet, against the looters and polluters putting profit for the wealthy over the welfare of the many. This week we mourn the loss of a great global advocate for nature in Pope Francis. Initially a chemist, he produced the first ecological encyclical before the 2015 Paris climate talks and accused the “structurally perverse” profit driven economy of the global north of ravaging the Earth and turning it into a “pile of filth”. The Argentinian Pope inspired a global faith-based coalition which has impacted millions.

In U.S. climate news, White House officials are preparing executive orders that:

Would strip environmental nonprofits of their tax-exempt status, seen as deterring this adminstration’s push for more domestic oil, gas and coal production;
Fire thousands of FEMA personnel, impairing our disaster response;
Cull scientists from federal agencies like NOAA, NASA, the NIH, NSF, and the EPA and direct the EPA to repeal 31 cornerstone environmental protections designed to keep pollution out of our air, water, and land, fight climate change, and protect precious ecosystems.

Despite the alarming news, we do have tools to resist: To learn more, subscribe to DA’s Take Action Newsletter and lend support. Also, spend time outdoors! Caring for nature is about caring for ourselves…nature gives back generously! You can also participate in local protests and clean-up projects, recycle, cut down on meat, and grow a garden. Every effort, big and small, has impact.

Please join the ECCC on May 8th for our May Climate Café, Grow Your Garden: First Stop Climate Action, where we will explore the intricacies of growing a garden, no matter your space boundaries. Details below.

The struggle for climate action CANNOT pause; it is tied to our freedom and health. Our resistance must grow from the ground up. Thank you for speaking out and showing up, for volunteering, and living a greener life at this critical time!

Dana Freling

Chair, DA Environment & Climate Crisis Council

The Democrats Abroad Environment & Climate Crisis Council, together with the Global Women’s Caucus and the Global Black Caucus, invite you to join us for our next Books Abroad Feminist reading group on Sunday, May 4, 2025 at 10 AM EDT / 4pm CET to discuss Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler (1947-2006).

Written in 1993, the book explores global warming, Black injustice, women’s rights, and political disparity. Beginning in 2024 and ending in 2027, fires rage in California and a president named Donner rules over a dysfunctional America, as chaos and violence reign and only the rich and powerful can survive. Sound familiar?

RSVP HERE

Welcome to our May Climate Café, Grown your Garden: First Stop Climate, Action on Thursday, 8 May at 10:00 am ET/ 4:00 pm CET, where we will explore the intricacies of growing a garden, no matter your space boundaries. Gardens not only provide solace to the soul and nourish our stomachs and eyes, they are also important ecosystems for our pollinators. Special DA guest, Angela Fobbs, will join us to share her gardening passion and provide guidance in the magic of gardening in small pot based, medium, and grander scale gardens.

RSVP HERE

Now is a critical time to step up for climate action and our democracy. Fighting climate change is also fighting poverty and equalities of all kind. We start by educating ourselves and understanding the role of government and enterprise play in effecting change. We can help guide each other, joining activist groups both within Democrats Abroad and adjacent. We can write and call our representatives, local, state, and federal and both Republican and Democratic. These actions, however small, add up. Following is a valuable organizing blueprint put out by Democrats Abroad on tools of resistance: Resistance Roundtables. Subscribe to DA’s Take Action Newsletter or join our Defending Democracy Advocacy efforts today!

Volunteer with the ECCC – Contact us at eccc@democratsabroad if you’d like to get more involved. Join our Legislative Tracking Group or help out with a variety of tasks including social media and communications.

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