One year ago yesterday, Scott Pruitt signed the first paperwork to start dismantling the Clean Power Plan while the burned out homes of 1450+ school kids in Sonoma County were still smouldering from a climate-related firestorm. Attached is a picture from that day. Kai and Lola had been invited to receive the Sonoma County Board of Supervisor's carbon tax endorsement resolution which they had lobbied for. June, 10 at the time, is holding a sign saying "Thank you BoS for taking action on climate change." Ironically, one of the "whereas'" in the resolution explaining the need for a carbon tax was an "increased risk of wildfire". The masks were not for dramatic effect. The board meeting was cancelled that day and the campus was deserted when we arrived.

This is the country we live in, where 10 year-olds in striped leggings, like June, are thanking adults speaking up to end the elders wildly reckless and dangerous behavior. Rather than teens like Kai and Lola engaging in reckless, short-sighted, irresponsible behavior, they are the ones patiently, respectfully, and thoughtfully trying to rein in their elders.

We, elders, are committing generational neglect/abuse on a massive scale and just like any dynamic of abuse/neglect silent witnesses (individuals, leaders, and institutions) are instrumental in perpetuating it. We do not have to choose this as a nation. 

Fortunately, it is quick and easy for an educational leader and any educational institution to stop being a silent witness. Thank you for signing this petition and encouraging the California State Board of Education, the California School Boards Association, and the National School Boards Association to speak up for climate action and end the 3 decades of Congressional climate neglect which creates twisted scenarios like the one in the picture. 

Engage your school board and student council to pass their own climate action resolution. Youth-adult teams with Schools for Climate Action will hand-deliver them to every member of Congress in March, 2019. 

A year after this picture, there are still 10,000s of county boards, city councils, school boards, and youth-serving organizations who are still silent witnesses to the 3 decades of Congressional climate neglect. They can all speak in non-partisan ways to build will for national climate action. Without the social norm of climate justice silence (which is at it's root partisan and a trauma reaction), stating that "Congress should act quickly on climate change to protect our students" would seem as mundane, self-evident, and non-controversial as the the statement "Congress should protect children," or "Congress should treat people fairly." Any governing body or board that serves youth is likely out of line with their core values and mission if they're standing silently on the sidelines on this one. The recent UN-IPCC report makes it so clear---we don't have time to waste and we need national action and leadership along with smaller scale action and leadership. 

June will still be grateful when currently silent organizations do speak up, but it's hard to explain to her and her entire generation, why so many caring, patriotic adults are still silent witnesses to our national climate neglect or have to be asked so many times to state the self-evident and obvious. Congress should act quickly on climate change. We should accept nothing less, Americans. If we all articulate it, especially if the sector most focussed on children articulates it together, assertively, Congress will likely act. What is the downside of trying? That you'll be stating publicly what the majority of Americans already believe privately? It costs nothing to pass a resolution calling for national climate action and it could help save the planet.

Thank you.

Park Guthrie