Posted on June 13, 2022
Why funding for transgender rights organizations like the Transgender Law Center is so important right now
Note from the CREDO team: This June, the Transgender Law Center is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO community will will help TLC promote its visionary national Trans Agenda for Liberation; develop movement leaders and build power for change; and create and advance the legal and policy frameworks that respect and support transgender equality.
Read this important blog post from TLC’s Executive Director Kris Hayashi, then click here to visit CREDODonations.com to cast your vote to help determine how we distribute our monthly grant to this organization and our other amazing grantees this June.
Recent data shows that only four cents of every $100 dollars of foundation funding goes to trans organizations and causes. Only four cents. What does this historic disinvestment in our communities mean for how we envision our future? And what can we do about it?
During Trans Rights Week, I am reflecting on the importance of joining together to shape our future. In the face of escalating attacks against so many of our communities, this week is about all of it: it is about showing up for trans youth, defending Black lives, fighting for reproductive justice, and demanding an end to the detention of trans immigrants.
A well-worn playbook – from bathroom bills to sports bans
At the end of February 2022, the Texas Attorney General and Governor declared that families who support their transgender children and access transition related health care are committing child abuse. Soon after investigations by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services of the families of transgender children and youth began (there is currently a statewide injunction under appeal). This situation is part of a marked escalation of anti-trans policies specifically seeking to utilize the child welfare system to target transgender youth and their families. And of course, this system has long been used to enact violence against BIPOC, disabled, trans, queer, poor, and migrant families.
Trans organizations in Texas and nationally, along with allied organizations, sprang into action and did all they could to support terrified trans children and their families and fight back against this attack. Transgender Law Center organizers and our Board Chair Imara Jones went down to support our partners on the ground, Transgender Education Network of Texas, rallying, speaking out, and just spending time with trans youth, their families, and local trans leaders.
Unfortunately, what happened in Texas was not an isolated incident. While we are under a friendlier federal administration, the attacks on trans people have just moved down to the state level. In 2015 there were fifteen anti-trans bills enacted into law. This year, at last count, there were 140 anti-trans bills introduced in thirty-four states. 140. What we are seeing now in the US is an unprecedented level of attack.
These bills seek to keep transgender children and youth from living their full, authentic lives – whether it is playing sports, accessing life-saving health care, or simply naming they exist in schools. Organizations like the ACLU and others are fighting it out in courts across the country. Local organizations like The Knights and Orchid Society and TAKE Resource Center in Alabama are doing all they can to fight these bills and keep communities safe. But we know that even if these bills do not pass, they have a chilling effect on our communities. Trans communities, particularly trans youth and their families are terrified.
Why is this happening? These anti-trans laws and policies have long been a strategy of the conservative right to motivate their base constituents during election cycles, especially in states with governors and other state legislators who are aspiring candidates for national office–and they are deeply investing in this strategy. Trans organizations have been fighting these attacks for over a decade–from the “bathroom bills” of 2015 to a myriad of attacks during the four years of the Trump administration. These efforts are part of a well-worn playbook used by political conservatives that include attacks on voting rights, racial justice, and reproductive rights.
An urgent call to invest in trans futures
The long-standing lack of investment in trans leaders and organizations severely limits what we can do to defeat these attacks. Meanwhile, the eleven nonprofit organizations behind the majority of this most recent round of anti-LGBTQ bills received over $110 million from right-wing funders in 2020 alone.
So what can we do?
On the national level, I am part of The Trans Futures Funding Campaign, an urgent and immediate call for $10 million in new funding to invest boldly and deeply in local trans organizations.
This new funding will send a clear and unequivocal statement of support for trans communities at a time of escalated attacks on the rights and lives of trans people, their loved ones, and their allies. We are particularly interested in partnering with grantmakers who have never funded trans communities before.
Trans-led grantmakers have joined together to make this call for support. Experts in funding transgender communities are involved in this effort, including from the Fund for Trans Generations at Borealis Philanthropy, Grantmakers United for Trans Communities and the Out in the South Initiative at Funders for LGBT Issues, the Third Wave Fund, the Transgender Strategy Center, the Black Trans Fund, and the Trans Justice Funding Project, among others.
This funding will strengthen local, grassroots trans organizations in states facing these attacks–both to respond now, and to build for the long haul. Priority beneficiaries will include groups who do not have access to traditional funding streams, and are led by, or working with, some of the most vulnerable communities within the trans communities and their families–BIPOC communities, trans women and femmes, migrants, youth and elders, people with disabilities, people living with HIV, and poor and rural communities. We are grateful to The California Endowment and The Ford Foundation which have already made commitments.
And as individuals and allies I urge you to take the time to research and learn more about trans issues and trans-led groups in your local community and support their efforts. You can also sign on to demand that the Biden administration implement the Trans Agenda for Liberation, a community-led guide towards the world we deserve.
Why? Because our future depends on it.
Kris Hayashi is Executive Director at the Transgender Law Center, the largest trans-led organization in the country working to keep transgender and gender nonconforming people alive, thriving, and fighting for liberation. For more information or to join the Trans Futures Funding Campaign please contact Alexander Lee, at Funders for LGBT Issues, alex@lgbtfunders.org.
Posted on June 9, 2022
Thanks to CREDO members, Inside Climate News is the leader of independent climate journalism
As the leading voice of independent climate journalism in the country, the groundbreaking work of Inside Climate News is helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, hold polluters accountable, empower voters, and protect communities suffering from environmental injustice.
In September 2021, CREDO members voted to distribute $46,950 to ICN to significantly expand its environmental justice coverage, undertake new in-depth climate investigations, expose climate misinformation, and support its work in local markets to strengthen environmental journalism nationwide.
Here are a few of the organization’s accomplishments thanks to CREDO’s financial support:
Inside Climate News accomplishments
Thanks in part to support from CREDO members, the team at ICN has had the resources to produce the hard-hitting, in-depth environmental journalism that they’re known for. Some of the stories they’ve published since receiving the grant in September include:
- A look at Canada’s massive tar sands that have replaced Indigenous people’s traditional lands and threaten their future, and whether the destruction they’ve caused constitutes Ecocide
- How the northernmost city in the world, Norilsk, in the Russian Arctic, became one of the most polluted places on earth (hint: one smelting company)
- A Superfund site poisoning air, soil, and groundwater with a carcinogen known as TCE in the predominantly Latino community of Grand Prairie, Texas, and the EPA’s failure to inform residents of the danger
- Deforestation in the Amazon that has risen so severely under President Jair Bolsonaro that advocacy groups, Indigenous tribes and some of the world’s most prominent human rights lawyers are calling for him to be prosecuted
- The oil wastewater that has been used to irrigate crops in Kern County, CA for more than 30 years, and the numerous possible conflicts of interest between the oil industry and the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board, who insists that eating crops grown with oil field wastewater “creates no identifiable increased health risks,” despite scant evidence to support those claims
ICN’s Environmental Justice Reporting Initiative entered its 18th month last December and has grown from an initial team of three reporters to a team of five, including a new leader in managing editor Sonya Ross. Its Local Reporting Network continued to punch above its weight in 2021 and has made a number of important hires to help support the anticipated growth of the network in the coming year.
ICN saw an unprecedented growth of interest in its work over the last year, with thousands of new subscribers every week, growing partnerships with large national outlets and local media outlets, and expansion onto the Apple News platform. Readers are proving that people everywhere are hungry for fact-based, in-depth coverage of the biggest crisis facing our planet.
If you’d like to learn more and read some incredible climate journalism, please visit ICN’s website, or follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Posted on June 9, 2022
8 easy ways to boost a weak cell phone signal
You know that you can count on incredible nationwide coverage on America’s best network with CREDO Mobile.
However, there may be times that your cell signal isn’t perfect, data speeds feel slow, or you simply drop a call.
We have you covered! In this week’s tip, we’ll show you 8 tried and true ways to troubleshoot that occasional weak signal to ensure you have the best coverage as often as possible.
Toggle Airplane Mode
Airplane Mode isn’t just for takeoffs and landings; it’s a great way to quickly refresh your network connection, too. It’s the first thing we always recommend, and it works almost every time. Here’s how:
- On an iPhone, the easiest way to toggle Airplane Mode on and off is from the Control Center. On newer devices, swipe down from the top right corner, then tap the Airplane Mode button. Wait one minute, then tap the button again to turn off Airplane Mode. Alternatively, you can access an Airplane Mode toggle switch through Settings > Airplane Mode.
- On Android, access the Quick Settings panel by swiping down from the top of your screen and tap the Airplane Mode button. Wait a minute, then tap the button again to restart your network connections.
Restart your device
Rebooting is the time-tested way to fix many problems with your computer. The same goes for that little computer in your pocket.
- On an iPhone X or newer, press and hold a volume button along with the right-side button to bring up the power slider. Drag the slider and wait for the phone to turn off. To turn your device back on, press and hold the side button until you see the Apple logo.
- On an older iPhone, press and hold the side button to bring up the power slider. Drag the slider and wait for the phone to turn off. To turn your device back on, press and hold the side button until you see the Apple logo.
- If your phone is unresponsive, you may need to force restart.
- On Android, hold the power button or the power button and the volume button (depending on your device) until you see a menu with either an option to Restart or Power Off. You can turn your device back on with the power button.
Charge your phone
If your phone is running low on battery power, it may automatically enter a low power mode, which could reduce power priority for your cellular radio. Plug in your phone and fully charge it up.
Reset your network settings
If you find you’re having connection trouble repeatedly, you may want to reset your network. Resetting your networking settings won’t cause you to lose any files or information on your phone. However, you will need to re-enter Wi-Fi passwords that you may have previously saved.
- On an iPhone, Go to Settings > General > Reset > Press Reset network settings
- On an Android, Go to Settings > Backup & Reset > Tap Reset settings
Update your phone’s system software
An old operating system on your phone can cause a whole host of issues, so it’s always a great idea to manually update to the latest version, especially if you don’t have automatic updates turned on.
- On an iPhone, Go to Settings > General > Software Update. If an update is available, you will see information about the new iOS version and a link to Install Now.
- On an Android, open your phone’s Settings app. Near the bottom, tap System > System update. You’ll see your update status. Follow any steps on the screen.
Switch to Wi-Fi Calling
If you’re trying to make a call in an area with weaker-than-normal service, but have access to a Wi-Fi network, you may be able to utilize Wi-Fi calling on your device, which will complete your voice call over your Wi-Fi connection.
If you haven’t yet set up Wi-Fi calling on your phone, check out our recent tip to learn how to enable this feature.
You may need to fix your phone or purchase a new one
If your phone is very old, it’s possible that the device is no longer compatible with current cellular networks. We recently alerted customers that 3G networks are shutting down this year, so devices that can not connect to 4G networks or higher will no longer have cellular capability.
It’s also possible that your device is malfunctioning. If you purchased your device from CREDO, please call us at 1-866-306-2900 so we can try to help. If not, please contact the manufacturer of your device.
If you’d like to upgrade your device, we have amazing deals on the latest Apple and Android models.
If all else fails, give us a call
Maybe your SIM card is damaged or a cell tower is down — and we can help troubleshoot some of these issues. So if you need additional help with your cellular connection, don’t hesitate to call one of our extraordinary customer service agents who can help with your problem at 1-866-306-2900.
Posted on June 8, 2022
The Economic Policy Institute: A Voice for Working People
The economy does not work for the majority of people in this country. The traditional American dream of having a stable job with decent pay, a comfortable home, quality health care, a secure retirement, and being able to pay for your children’s college is out of reach for millions of workers. The U.S. has gotten wealthier and wealthier but the standard of living for the vast majority has not kept pace. This is no accident; it is the result of 40 years of policies that favor the wealthy and corporate interests.
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) was founded in 1986 to be an effective voice for workers and their families. EPI’s founders saw a real need for a research institute to advocate for economic justice for working people and ensure that the bread-and-butter issues affecting workers and their families were not left out of the public policy debate. EPI focuses its attention on fighting for economic justice for working people and for racial and gender justice at the federal, state, and local levels.
EPI plays a vital role in the progressive movement by providing economic research, analysis, and policy prescriptions that progressive policymakers and advocates for social and economic justice rely on to shape policy debates. We collaborate with our allies in government, the media, unions, and grassroots advocacy groups to make a strong research-backed case for the interests of working people and their families.
On the federal level EPI’s crucial research and analyses have been instrumental in promoting:
- A strong minimum wage. EPI has fought to raise the federal minimum wage so that every worker earns a decent wage and no one who works full time has to live in poverty;
- Collective bargaining rights. EPI supports the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act and other measures to safeguard the rights of workers to form a union and collectively bargain for decent pay and benefits;
- Dignified and safe working conditions. During the COVID-19 pandemic EPI consistently shined a light on the plight of workers in health, service, or production who were often forced to work in unsafe conditions, without proper protective gear, and denied hazard pay. EPI has also strongly supported paid sick family leave for workers; and
- The right response to inflation. There is an enormous amount of misinformation about inflation right now, and EPI has been tireless in providing rigorous, data driven pushback to the most damaging myths, such as the myth that inflation is primarily being driven by federal relief and recovery measures.
EPI also works to build worker power on the state and local levels. EPI founded our Economic Research and Analysis Network (EARN) more than twenty years ago as a national network of state think tanks and policy advocacy organizations that are focused on economic policy issues affecting workers in their states and localities. Fifty-five state groups in forty-three states and the District of Columbia comprise the network. EARN gives EPI a grassroots focus by addressing the different ways that economic issues impact people in different regions and localities across the country. EPI’s EARN team has provided data and policy guidance to our EARN partners in over one hundred state minimum wage campaigns with more than thirty victories in the last five years alone.
EPI’s Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy (PREE) addresses the intersection of race and the economy. PREE’s frequently cited research, policy analysis, and thought leadership shine a light on the large racial and ethnic disparities in unemployment, wages, income, poverty, hours of work, and wealth, which have persisted over generations and are rooted in structural racism and policy choices. This work also looks at the intersection of race and gender, examining how women overall and women of color in particular fare in the economy, with a specific focus on wage disparities.
EPI’s research is widely respected and is recognized as highly credible. Journalists turn to EPI to give them the true facts on the economy. We are consistently cited in national media outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. EPI experts and research are also featured on MSNBC, C-SPAN and NPR. In a typical year, EPI is cited in the media more than 20,000 times and our staff are seen or heard by millions on television and radio.
Corporate elites have well-funded think tanks which advocate for policies that benefit the one percent. We have seen the devastating results of those policies for decades. EPI makes a compelling case for policies that help working people, reduce inequality, and eliminate the effects of racial and gender discrimination.
Your vote for EPI is a vote to realize the vision of an economy that works for everyone and leaves no one behind. Click here to cast your vote today.
Posted on June 3, 2022
Vote for Economic Policy Institute, Transgender Law Center and Win Without War this June
Every month, CREDO members vote to distribute our monthly grant to three incredible progressive causes – and every vote makes a difference. This June, you can support economic justice, LGBTQ rights and peace by voting to fund Economic Policy Institute, Transgender Law Center and Win Without War.
Economic Policy Institute
The Economic Policy Institute believes every worker deserves a quality job with fair pay, good benefits, and a voice at work. EPI’s research and advancement of pro-worker policies fuels the movement for economic justice and for racial and gender justice at the federal and state level.
EPI will use the grant from CREDO to support its research, data analysis, and policy work to fight for and advance economic justice for working people and racial and gender justice at the federal, state, and local level.
Transgender Law Center
TLC is the largest national trans-led organization advocating for a world in which all people are free to define themselves and their futures. Grounded in legal expertise and committed to racial justice, TLC employs community-driven strategies to keep transgender and gender nonconforming people alive, thriving, and fighting for our rights.
Your donations will help TLC promote its visionary national Trans Agenda for Liberation; develop movement leaders and build power for change; and create and advance the legal and policy frameworks that respect and support transgender equality.
Win Without War
We can create lasting change that will allow the world to thrive. Win Without War is at the forefront of a national movement to build a more progressive and just U.S. foreign policy that values people and the planet over war and profit.
It’s a critical year for U.S. foreign policy. Funding from CREDO members will help Win Without War push back on the war hawks and weapons contractors and grow our power to ensure true safety and security — for everyone, everywhere.
Your vote this month will determine how we divide our monthly donations among these three progressive groups. Be sure to cast your vote to support one, two or all three by June 30.
CREDO members who use our products and services everyday are the reason we are able to make these donations each month. Learn more about CREDO Mobile and join our movement.
Posted on June 2, 2022
We Can Build the World We Want with a More Peaceful U.S. Foreign Policy
Note from the CREDO team: This June, Win Without War is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO community will help Win Without War build a more progressive and just U.S. foreign policy that values people and the planet over war and profit.
Read this important blog post from Annika London, Senior Digital Associate, Win Without War below, then click here to visit CREDODonations.com to cast your vote to help determine how we distribute our monthly grant to this organization and our other amazing grantees this June.
At this point, it is clear that current U.S. foreign policy is not only astoundingly inadequate in addressing the real security threats we face — pandemics, climate change, social inequality and more — but also certainly causes and exacerbates these threats as well.
Over and over, the U.S. government has prioritized the Pentagon’s bloated budget and weapons contractors’ profits over the needs of communities at home and abroad. It has centered violence and war profiteering over building true security and honoring human rights, especially for people most impacted by U.S. actions abroad who live in fear of drone strikes in Iraq, Syria, and Somalia, or see their chance at a decent quality of life chipped away by blanket sanctions in Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela.
But that’s where a group like Win Without War comes in. For almost two decades, our team has worked to democratize U.S. foreign policy and provide progressive alternatives, so that we can achieve more peaceful, just, and common sense policies that ensure that all people can find and take advantage of opportunity equally and feel secure.
The end of the Trump administration was an opportunity to double down on our commitment to this mission, but the reality is that our work is critical no matter who is in the White House. This year, we’ve organized to prevent direct U.S./Russia military confrontation resulting from war in Ukraine while protecting communities at risk, including LGBTQ+ people and, African and Middle Eastern diasporas. We also continue to work to avoid war with Iran and support a return to diplomacy with Iran, by defending the Iran nuclear deal in Congress and pushing back against Trump’s failed “maximum pressure” sanctions strategy that has resulted in the unnecessary suffering of millions of Iranians.
Looking ahead, we will continue to push back on the misguided notion touted by weapons manufacturers and the gun lobby that a near-trillion dollar budget for weapons and war along with weak checks around human rights and safety will ultimately make people in the United States or across the globe safer. And we will not stop challenging the hypocrisy of U.S. policy as it picks and chooses which human rights it will value and which human lives are deserving of dignity and security solely based on whether it can turn a profit or gain more power from such actions.
Transforming U.S. foreign policy is a monumental task, but it is how we will finally end our endless wars, get accountability and justice for those impacted by U.S. militarism and violence, and truly achieve peace and security. This is a mission that takes more than one person, organization, or even generation — we look forward to making this transformation happen alongside a collective of other organizations, activists, and community leaders, and we hope you’ll join us too!
Please don’t forget to vote on this month’s CREDO grantees, and learn more about our work and take action with us at www.winwithoutwar.org.
Posted on June 1, 2022
Our May grantees thank you for your support
Our May grantees thank you for your support
Each month, CREDO members vote on how we distribute funding to three incredible nonprofits. Those small actions add up – with one click, you can help fund groups working for climate justice, civil rights and LGBTQ rights. In May, CREDO members voted to distribute our monthly donation to 350.org, Center for Constitutional Rights and National LGBTQ Task Force. These donations are made possible by CREDO customers and the revenue they generate by using our services. The distribution depends entirely on the votes of CREDO members like you. And for that, our May grant recipients thank you.
350.org
“Thank you CREDO Members! While our vision is ambitious, with your support we can achieve it. Your efforts will help to build a powerful climate movement and engage the generations that will lead us tomorrow toward a better future.” – May Boeve, Executive Director, 350.org
To learn more, visit www.350.org.
Center for Constitutional Rights
“Thank you for standing with the Center for Constitutional Rights! Every vote from CREDO members like you amplifies our ability to challenge oppressive systems of power and strengthen progressive social movements striving for justice and liberation.” – Vince Warren, Executive Director, Center for Constitutional Rights
To learn more, visit ccrjustice.org.
National LGBTQ Task Force
“Thank you for supporting our work! The Task Force has been at it for almost 50 years and we won’t stop until we are all free. We are organizing for our rights, demanding that our full humanity is honored and affirmed, and fighting for our democracy.” – Kierra Johnson, Executive Director, National LGBTQ Task Force
To learn more, visit https://www.thetaskforce.org/.
Now check out the three groups we are funding in June, and cast your vote to help distribute our donations.
CREDO members who use our products are the reason why we are able to make these donations each month. Learn more about CREDO Mobile, the carrier with a conscience.
Posted on May 31, 2022
At CREDO, Pride Month is every month
You see it every June: corporations rainbow-stripe their logos for a month-long marketing campaign targeting the LGBTQ community — in an effort to co-opt a movement, gesture support and make profits.
Here at CREDO, we don’t change our logo — because we don’t need to.
Our brand has embodied equality and LGBTQ rights since our founding more than 35 years ago, all year-round, long before companies saw Pride as a once-a-year party they could crash.
In fact, since 1985, our members have helped us donate $15 million to progressive organizations fighting for equality and civil rights — groups like the National LGBTQ Task Force, the ACLU, Freedom For All Americans and the Transgender Law Center, who are on our donations ballot this month.
With unprecedented, discriminatory attacks on LGTBQ people sweeping state legislatures across the country, it’s more important than ever that companies embrace and fight for LGBTQ rights forcefully and authentically.
If they truly support LGBTQ rights, corporations should ditch the fake logos, press releases, marketing campaigns — and donations to anti-LGBTQ politicians — and take time to understand that Pride Month was founded on resistance — the kind of resistance and allyship the LGBTQ community desperately needs from all corners of our country, including from corporate America — all year long, not just in June.
If you’d like to vote for the Transgender Law Center and our other amazing grantees this month, please visit CREDODonations.com and take a minute to cast your ballot!
Posted on May 19, 2022
How to add your personal pronouns to your next Zoom call
Many of us here at CREDO include our preferred pronouns on our social media profiles and email signatures as a sign of respect and to ensure we refer to each other correctly.
But did you know you can include your pronouns on Zoom calls, too?
Including your pronouns on your video calls is not only an easy way to prevent others from misgendering you, but it also lets others know that you don’t want to misgender them, while creating a more welcoming space for your colleagues and friends who are trans, nonbinary or gender-nonconforming.
In this week’s tip, we’ll show you a few quick steps on how you can include your preferred pronouns on your Zoom calls.
There are two ways to add your pronouns to Zoom — either permanently, so they appear every time you enter a call; or just during certain meetings that you choose.
Before you start, make sure you are running the most recent version of Zoom on your computer or device (here’s how to upgrade).
Adding your pronouns permanently to your Zoom account
- Sign into the Zoom web portal.
- In the navigation, click Profile, then choose Edit.
- In the Pronouns field, add your pronouns.
- In the dropdown field directly below, choose how you would like to share your pronouns:
- Always share in meetings and webinars
- Ask me every time after joining meetings and webinar
- Do not share in meetings and webinars
- Click Save.
Add your pronouns on Zoom during a specific meeting
- Enter your meeting and click Participants.
- Hover over your name and click More >> Rename
- Your name will then appear in a popup box. You can add your pronouns after your name in parentheses — for example, Jane Doe (they/them)
Posted on May 17, 2022
Five things 350.org learned from the IPCC climate impacts report
This latest climate impacts report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is important. This is potentially the last report on impacts we’re going to get while we have the chance to avoid the worst impacts of global heating.
And the report is bad, but it also offers a way forward and shows us what we need to do. This is the decade that we can and need to change things.
Here are 350’s five takeaways from the report and ways you can fight for a safe and livable future.
1. Impacts are already here
Some of the climate impacts the fossil fuel industry has inflicted upon us are here to stay. Some of these aren’t reversible – at least not in a timeframe that’s meaningful for people and life on earth.
The level of warming we’re at is already having dire impacts on people across the world: half of the entire population of the planet faces water scarcity for an entire month every year. Droughts, fires, floods and diseases are already happening more often, and they are more severe.
2. 1.5°c of warming would have deadly, irreversible consequences
The more we go over 1.5°c, and the longer we stay there, the more we will end up in a vicious cycle of climate impacts. Existing impacts will be made worse, happen faster and release even more greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, which will lead to even more, and likely permanent, impacts.
Every fraction of warming means more suffering for most life on our planet. More fossil fuels and more emissions will mean that impacts will be harder to manage.
The report is clear, every fraction of a degree of warming we can stop is worth fighting for
3. Adaptation is necessary, but there is a limit to what it can do
Around three and half billion people, 40% of the world’s population, live in places extremely vulnerable to the risks of the climate crisis. In these places, the impacts of global heating could destroy the fragile ecosystems that support human life, as well as many other species.
We might be able to adapt to some of these impacts. But not all of them, and not all of us.
Where adaptation is even possible, countries on the frontline need resources. And many are faced with the prospect of not being able to fund a fair transition to clean, renewable energy because they are spending their money dealing with climate impacts caused by countries that produce the most fossil fuels.
We have to make sure the cost of damages caused by fossil fuel companies, and fossil fuel producing countries, are met by those who caused those damages in the first place.
4. There is still time to act – that action must start with ending the era of fossil fuels
“The world’s biggest polluters are guilty of arson in our only home.” That is a direct quote from the UN Secretary General launching the IPCC climate impacts report.
We’ve known that all along – fossil fuel companies are responsible. And the clearest way to take action to secure a safe and livable planet is to stop our dependency on them and fairly transition to renewable energy.
195 countries signed off the report. This means 195 governments acknowledge that we need to act now. If they’re not doing what it takes, we can make them with people power – just like we have before.
Our movement stopped a huge, open-pit coal mine from going ahead in Brazil. We pressured the French Government into pulling funding from a gas pipeline in the Arctic. Activists in our movement stopped the Keystone XL pipeline in North America. New coal plants are becoming harder and harder to build.
Every battle won is another step towards a safe, livable planet. And they’re worth fighting because every fraction of a degree matters.
Every fraction of a degree we prevent could save or improve the lives of thousands, maybe even millions of people.
5. Every voice can make a difference.
UN Secretary General António Guterres said this, exactly – “Every voice can make a difference.”
Your voice matters. And to keep winning, we need to build this movement.
One of the most powerful things you can do in the fight for a safe and livable future is to have a voice – simply talking to your friends and loved ones can have a huge impact. Every conversation could inspire another person to join our fight against the fossil fuel industry. And the more of us who join the fight, the more powerful we become.
Want to learn more about how to have these conversations with friends and loved ones? Check out our handy resource here.
