Why you need to get involved & bring your family to the People’s Climate March on Sunday, September 21st
Parents, Grand-Parents, Teachers, and Families-- Please join us for this historic moment. by Kate Finneran
Without action, climate change will affect our families in some pretty extreme ways.
1. Health: The overall health effects of a changing climate are likely to be overwhelmingly negative. Climate change affects the basic needs for good health- clean air, safe drinking water, sufficient food and secure shelter. A few of the already known impacts may enhance the spread of some diseases. Insect-borne illnesses are spreading, and asthma and allergy season are getting longer. Also children’s lungs are more vulnerable to the smog that is caused by higher temperatures.
2. Food: Agriculture and fisheries are highly dependent on specific climate conditions. Climate change is already affecting the global food supply and could threaten global food security. The rate of increase in crop yields is slowing -- especially in wheat -- raising doubts as to whether food production will keep up with the demand of a growing population. And ocean acidification affects seafood populations.
3. Places we love to play and the animals we love: Climate changes and its impacts affect nature in a variety of ways. A changing climate is likely to worsen many of the threats to forests, such as pest outbreaks, fires, and drought. Coasts are sensitive to sea level rise, changes in frequency and intensity of storms, increases in precipitation, and warmer ocean temperatures. The oceans absorb CO2 leading to acidification. Rising acidity means an inhabitable ocean for the creatures that live in it.
4. Immediately after the the People’s Climate March on September 21st, world leaders are coming to New York City for a special summit on the climate crisis. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is urging governments to support an ambitious global agreement to dramatically reduce global warming pollution-- and we need to support that call with our voices, our feet, and our presence on September 21st.
We are inviting fellow parents and families to stand up for the health and well being of our kids and communities. We’ll join together in an historic march to call on world leaders to take bold, global action on climate and clean energy.
Our goal is to organize tens of thousands of kids, parents, and families to join this peaceful call for global climate solutions. Parents and Grandparents-- Grab the stroller or scooter, and bring your kids! Kids-- bring your parents! Help push our global leaders to build the world our kids to build the world our kids deserve-- one that is powered by energy that is kid safe and climate safe, where our air and water is clean, and where our communities are healthy.
Here’s how you can get more involved:
Teachers! Download our Teachers Toolkit, complete with curriculum based upon Next Generation Science Standards, with a goal of increased climate literacy leading up to the march. Download yours today, or send to an educator you know! www.PeoplesClimate.org/Schools
Parents! Sign up to be the School Captain and enter to win $5,000 for your school.
Sign up at PeoplesClimate.org/Schools
Logistics:
The People’s Climate March is on Sunday, September 21st.
11:30 am at Columbus Circle, there will be a designated Parents, Kids, and Families block.
Kids-- want to save the world? Dress like superheroes and animals!
Question:
Feel free to contact Kate Finneran, March Organizer at Kate@avaaz.org
Sources
http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/story/Ocean+Acidification
video: Washington state parents demand RESPECT from Arne Duncan
Education Secretary Arne Duncan has denied NCLB waivers to many states and taken away the waivers from others including Washington,Vermont, and now Oklahoma -- on the basis of their refusing to adopt junk science value-added teacher evaluation systems or the unpiloted, rigid Common Core. According to Michelle McNeil of EdWeek, nine states now lack NCLB waivers.
This means that every school district in these states must send a letter to parents, saying their child's school is failing.
NCLB was probably the dumbest law in the history of the United States because it mandated that every public school student be at grade level in every school by 2014 -- or else states would face penalties. NCLB waivers that depend on states adopting the particular evidence-free predilections of Arne Duncan and Bill Gates are even dumber.
Even the usual supporters of corporate reform, like Michael Petrilli of the Fordham Institute, has urged these states sue the US Department of Education, as Duncan has "no constitutional right to do is dream up new mandates out of thin air and make flexibility contingent upon their embrace by supplicant states."
Watch below is the message sent by the parents, students and teachers of S. Kitsap school district in Washington state to Arne Duncan.
This means that every school district in these states must send a letter to parents, saying their child's school is failing.
NCLB was probably the dumbest law in the history of the United States because it mandated that every public school student be at grade level in every school by 2014 -- or else states would face penalties. NCLB waivers that depend on states adopting the particular evidence-free predilections of Arne Duncan and Bill Gates are even dumber.
Even the usual supporters of corporate reform, like Michael Petrilli of the Fordham Institute, has urged these states sue the US Department of Education, as Duncan has "no constitutional right to do is dream up new mandates out of thin air and make flexibility contingent upon their embrace by supplicant states."
Watch below is the message sent by the parents, students and teachers of S. Kitsap school district in Washington state to Arne Duncan.