It may be hard to believe, but here we are again on the cusp of the holiday season. It’s a time when families and friends will come together for gatherings and meals. We know that holiday celebrations will still be different this year because of COVID-19. Some may stay virtual, others may finally be in person. We encourage everyone to listen to public health officials on what’s best for travel and in-person gatherings.
That said, while many families and friends try not to discuss politics or values during a holiday gathering (virtual or not), sometimes hot-button issues come up anyway.
The Sierra Club’s Holiday Discussion Guide is here to help. Below are some topics that may come up during your holiday chats. This list isn’t exhaustive, but we hope it’s at least a good start. Above all, we encourage you to approach conversations with openness, empathy, and patience to listen and to continue to educate yourself (and your family and friends) on these important issues.
For more advice on how to have compassionate conversations about climate and racial justice, check out this video from Hop Hopkins, the Sierra Club's Director of Organizational Transformation.
RACISM, SEXISM, XENOPHOBIA, HOMOPHOBIA, AND TRANSPHOBIA
These are important conversations to have with friends and family. As the Sierra Club has stated before, and will continue to emphasize: “We believe that all people deserve a healthy planet with clean air and water, a stable climate, and safe communities. That means all people deserve equal protection under the law. We all have the right to a life free of discrimination, hatred, and violence.”No one should have to tolerate racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, or transphobia.
These are absolutely environmental issues, and environmentalists absolutely must speak out when they see injustices. For more information about environmental work and anti-racism, please see this brief slide series entitlted “Why Environmentalists Should Be Anti-Racist.”
We also encourage you to seek out resources from The Task Force and Showing Up For Racial Justice to help with these important topics if they come up during your holiday discussions.
CLIMATE CRISIS
While it’s refreshing to have a president who believes in climate disruption and climate action again, there's still a ton of work to do. Earlier this year, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its scientific findings that will inform its next major climate report, currently expected in 2022. The alarming findings confirm that the climate crisis has continued to accelerate since the last IPCC report in 2018, and the extreme weather events we’re already experiencing -- including historic droughts and floods, superstorms, record-breaking wildfires, and unprecedented coastal flooding -- will continue to rapidly worsen unless the world takes significant action.
Yet even after the world moves to a 100 percent clean energy economy, the report confirms that we are already locked into the climate crisis for at least the next three decades; the full severity of the crisis is yet to be determined. During the UN Council of Parties (COP) climate meeting in early November, leaders made some progress on moving away from fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas, but the world is still far off track towards the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and helping frontline communities.
Sitting across the table from a climate denier? Check out this FAQ from The Climate Reality Project.
BUILD BACK BETTER ACT AND THE BIPARTISAN INFRASTRUCTURE BILL
It's been hard to keep track of the back-and-forth over the Build Back Better Act and the bipartisan infrastructure bill, and as the most important pieces of Biden's legislative agenda thus far, everyone seems to have an opinion on how the bills are shaping up. Let's start with the state of play: The House passed the bipartisan infrastructure bill in early November, and will pass the Build Back Better Act this week. Build Back Better will provide historic levels of investment to communities across the country dealing with the interlocking crises of climate change; public health; economic inequity; and racial, gender, and environmental injustice. If passed and implemented, it will transform the way we power our homes, buildings, and vehicles while reducing electricity costs; protect our communities from flooding, replace lead pipes poisoning our water, and create good-paying jobs. As the ultra-wealthy get richer, and more and more Americans are facing economic insecurity without a basic social safety net, Build Back Better will invest in child care, pre-K and higher education, support home care for older Americans and people with disabilities, expand Medicare and Medicaid, and more.
It's crucial that Build Back Better accompanies the infrastructure bill, because the infrastructure bill is not the climate bill we need. Analysis from Princeton University shows the bipartisan bill alone would mean a mere 1 percent reduction in climate pollution by 2030—essentially a continuation of the race toward catastrophic climate change. Both bills are necessary in order to meet President Biden’s goal of cutting climate pollution in half by 2030 while meaningfully addressing racial, economic, gender, and environmental injustice.
But the fate of Build Back Better rests with a few moderates, who are hemming and hawing about the cost of Building Back Better in a country that, just last year, endured 22 disasters that each caused at least a billion dollars of damage—a figure that's only expected to rise in the coming years as the climate crisis grows more severe. We already have all the data we need to show that yes, the bill is paid for, so try not to get sucked into a conversation about financial technicalities. Instead, focus on what the investments contained in the bill could mean for your family, your hometown, or your state. Forget dollars and cents: Talk about the shared values the Build Back Better Act embodies, like care for one another, reduction of inequality, and ensuring a livable planet for generations to come.
DEMOCRACY UNDER ATTACK
We’ve seen time and time again that the right to vote is critical to creating healthy and safe communities. Our civil rights, our health, our jobs and our environment depend on a healthy and well-functioning democracy. But in 2021 alone, over 425 anti-voter bills have been introduced in 49 states, all with the intent of adding more barriers to accessing our fundamental right to vote—especially for voters of color and low-income voters. If we want to protect our democracy, we’ll need to fight back against attempts to erode our voting rights, and demand accountability for those who are working to erode its foundations, including the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol on January 6.
While Republican elected officials have been leading the charge to restrict the freedom to vote as part of their political strategy, polls show that large majorities of voters across the political spectrum support federal action to protect voting rights—so try talking to your family members about the bedrock values you share, and why we need Congress to take action now to ensure everyone can make their voice heard in our democracy.
COAL
Coal power continues to be on its way out of existence. A total of 26,082 megawatts were proposed for retirement in 2020 -- the largest one-year total in US (and the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign) history and more than double the amount proposed for retirement in 2019. Local grassroots community action has helped retire more than 60 percent of the remaining coal plants in the United States. The decline of coal has resulted in healthier communities, fewer cases of deadly asthma, and less mercury poisoning in our food.
Meanwhile, clean energy use is growing rapidly because, in almost 75 percent of the country, it costs more to operate existing coal plants than to build new wind and solar facilities. The big new clean energy commitments utilities are making to replace coal power for tens of millions of homes promises to create thousands of new jobs and lots of exciting economic opportunities for communities.
DRILLING, FRACKING, AND PIPELINES
The fossil fuel industry’s insatiable drive for bigger profits is threatening our communities, coasts, waters, and public lands. They continue to push for more drilling, more fracking, and more pipelines -- even as climate disasters unfold from coast to coast.
We the people want clean energy, not more fossil fuel drilling, fracking, and pipeline construction that virtually guarantees more spills, more poisoned waterways, more air pollution, and accelerated climate change. What our country needs is to reduce our dependence on dirty fuels and lead the transition to 100 percent clean, renewable energy. Tell your cousins: There are so many reasons to oppose the Line 3 tar sands pipeline in Minnesota, fracked gas export terminals on the Gulf Coast, and whatever new fossil fuel project is being proposed in your area.
PARKS AND PUBLIC LAND
For many families and friends, the holidays will include some type of outdoor activity -- especially this year. We hope you’ll get outdoors at a local park or green space, and as you're soaking up some Vitamin D, remember that you’re actually walking through one of our most powerful climate solutions. Conserving public lands can help draw down carbon already emitted into the atmosphere and decarbonize our economy (by keeping all fossil fuels on public lands in the ground). By working with federal agencies on smart land conservation and management practices, we could offset 21 percent of our country’s greenhouse gas emissions.
CLIMATE MIGRATION
Catastrophic storms, heatwaves, flooding, drought, desertification, wildfires, sea level rise, and other climate-change-induced extreme weather events are increasingly forcing people to leave their homes. Because the number of extreme weather events is increasing exponentially, this number is likely to increase commensurately.
There’s a lot of fear and anxiety over climate migration, with some of it being expressed with barely disguised racial dog whistles. But climate migrants should not be objects of fear or criminalization. They are simply doing what human beings have done for thousands of years: migrating in search of a place where they can survive and build better lives. The people most likely to become climate refugees are usually from the communities that bear the least responsibility for climate change. If we want to solve the climate crisis crisis, we must hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for its central role in perpetuating it -- not demonize those who have already lost a home to climate chaos.
People migrate for complex reasons. In many cases, climate disruption is just one part of the story, along with poverty and violence. As we celebrate the mythologized founding of our country, it’s important to remember that many climate refugees come from countries, like Guatemala and Honduras, that have been made poorer and more conflict-ridden because of US intervention.
NO POLITICS, JUST ACTION
When your cousin says they’re “just not really into politics,” you can steer them toward individual actions they can take to go green and make a difference. Sierra magazine’s lifestyle section features tips, advice on sustainable food and drink, and green crafts. They also have a great column, Ask Ms. Green, where people can submit tough questions about green living. If they like to cycle, run, dance, or hike, they can put their passions to use in fundraising: Check out Team Sierra to see some awesome ways they can raise money for the Sierra Club!
I AGREE, BUT WHAT CAN WE DO?
So, you’ve convinced your family that coal isn’t coming back, climate justice is racial justice, and all forms of oppression are interconnected. Great job on that meaningful discussion! But now that they know about all the problems in the world, what are they supposed to do about them? It’s pretty easy to start by taking online actions. They could also attend some virtual local environmental group meetings. They’ll meet other like-minded people who will inspire them to keep working for positive change!