Elizabeth Koch, co-founder and CEO of the literary organization Catapult and daughter of Koch Industries chairman Charles Koch, has an opportunity right now to use her family’s enormous wealth and influence to help stop the climate crisis.

Please sign this petition to help make it happen. 

Elizabeth's family business, Koch Industries, is a hundred billion dollar megacorporation responsible for over a century of climate pollution and climate denial. These billions help fund Elizabeth Koch's organization, Catapult, home to great books from Noam Chomsky, Wendell Berry, and the Sierra Club, along with a recent upcoming anthology called Dispatches from a Changing Climate. 

The writers and artists Elizabeth Koch publishes -- through Soft Skull, Black Balloon, and Counterpoint -- shouldn’t be used to launder her family’s name. Unless Elizabeth Koch goes on the record to support stopping the climate crisis at its root, all the good work Catapult does risks being perceived as a greenwashing front for the family businesses fueling catastrophe. 

Elizabeth claims to be "apolitical," but unfortunately the climate crisis is anything but. She owes it to her authors and readers to take meaningful public action to help counter her family's climate-fueling destruction. And that means getting political. Here's how she can. 

First, Elizabeth Koch must demand her family stop funding the American Legislative Council, the heart of the right wing climate denial machine. 

Charles Koch helped found and continues to funnel millions of dollars to ALEC. It's the epicenter of state legislative action to protect the fossil fuel industry and a major donation channel for climate-denying politicians. ALEC’s most recent model bill is the “Energy Discrimination Elimination Act,” which would make it illegal to “unfairly discriminate against fossil fuel companies.” 

Ridiculous, yes, but it’s no joke. ALEC boasts it passes nearly 200 of its model bills every year, and they’ll only pass more if Republicans keep winning.  

By demanding her family stop funneling their fortune into climate denial, Elizabeth Koch can begin to meet her responsibility for her family’s role in the climate crisis. 

Second, Elizabeth Koch can use her family’s name and influence to persuade Joe Manchin to vote “yes” on the climate bills in the Senate. Manchin is already in the Koch family’s pocket, and their network is working overtime to convince him to vote against any and all climate protections. Elizabeth Koch can counter her family’s work by publicly calling for Manchin to vote “yes" on climate.

These two simple public acts by Elizabeth Koch would help begin to stop the effects of her family’s century of crisis and denial, but she’s clearly not going to take them without a public push.  

I know arts funding is always complicated, at best, but the artists exposing the Sacklers have shown there’s a way forward. It begins with public accountability and meaningful action. Elizabeth Koch has a responsibility to her authors and readers to be accountable for her family's role in the climate crisis. She can start by publicly taking a stance on climate. 

As Soft Skull author Eileen Myles said when they signed on, “I love these presses & I love earth & we need both. Speak up, Elizabeth!” 

Please sign here to help make it happen.