Saul Alinsky launched the Campaign Against Pollution (CAP) in 1969 with a column written by Mike Royko in the Chicago Daily News.  Included was a tear out form seeking names, addresses and phone numbers of individuals interested in combatting air pollution generated by the electric company, Commonwealth Edison.

Several hundred individuals responded.  They were contacted by representatives of Alinsky’s non-profit the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) and invited to a public meeting. That meeting happened on January 15, 1970.  It was attended by 400 (as reported in the Chicago Tribune).   Taking off from there, a full blown  IAF organizing project of a distinctly different character from past efforts emerged.  The other IAF inspired organizations had either foundered after making major impacts (Rochester; Buffalo), split away from IAF connections (CSO in California)  or lost a citizen organizing focus (The Woodlawn Organization; Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council). In the absence of live exemplars, invention was the order of the day.   Alinsky believed CAP embodied a turn towards the middle class where a wealth of opportunities for building and exercising citizen power resided.  

Something called Earth Day was in the works for April 25, 1970.  It was an idea dreamed up by Senator Gaylord Nelson to highlight environmental issues.  CAP’s plan was to capitalize on the energy provoked by those concerns.   

 Demonstrators protest during a United Auto Workers strike outside the General Motors’ Flint Assembly plant in Flint, Michigan. Photograph: Anthony Lanzilote/Bloomberg via Getty Images

​
In their first strike in over a decade, union members are prepared to settle in for the long haul: ‘If we win, everyone wins’
“This is a strike for the little guy,” D’Andre Jackson said, as he held a banner that read “UAW ON STRIKE” outside General Motors’ sprawling Flint Metal Center in Michigan.  Story.

On Friday 9/13/19, SBC, Manhattan Together IAF and METRO IAF NYleaders were joined at a Press Conference by CM Ritchie Torres. We supported the appointment of an Ombudsperson who can make New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) properly remediate mold and leaks when they fail to do so. We also demanded that they start fixing or replacing roof fans and cleaning vents now. At the 3 PM hearing, the Judge said he would not make a decision that day (and it's out clear how quickly it will go into effect throughout NYCHA) , but that the "parties should get ready." Nothing is guaranteed, but it looks positive!

Electric vehicles could make up nearly half the fleet of passenger cars and trucks by 2040. But oil and gas companies are striking back.
​
The oil industry is trying to crush the booming electric car movement.
Groups backed by industry giants like Exxon Mobil and the Koch empire are waging a state-by-state, multimillion-dollar battle to squelch utilities’ plans to build charging stations across the country. Environmentalists call the fight a reprise of the “Who Killed the Electric Car?” battles that doomed an earlier generation of battery-driven vehicles in the 1990s.  Full story by Gavin Blade in Politico.

This April, for the first time ever, renewable energy supplied more power to America’s grid than coal—the clearest sign yet that solar and wind can now go head-to-head with fossil fuels. In two-thirds of the world, they’ve become the cheapest forms of power.
​
Solar and wind will power half the globe by 2050, based on BloombergNEF forecasts. By that time, coal and nuclear will have all but disappeared in the U.S., forced out by cheaper renewables and natural gas.  Story here.

Phoenix, one of the hottest and fastest-warming cities in the US, could be hit by “a [Hurricane] Katrina of extreme heat” with temperatures peaking in the 120s and lingering for two weeks...
Southern California could see a wildfire that burns a total of 1.5 million acres. Smoke from the blazes could carry at least 100 miles west into Los Angeles and 100 miles south to San Diego, leading to hazardous air quality throughout the region and thousands of hospitalizations...
Tampa Bay is one of the areas in the US most at risk when hurricanes arrive because of its location, growing population, and the geography of the bay. If a Category 5 hurricane makes a direct hit on the bay, parts of Pinellas County — which is home to St. Petersburg — will temporarily become an island... Full story HERE (Vox)

Hurricanes, floods, superheating (Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas), fires, pipelines, risky terminals, fracking, famine, forced migration ...  do you really want to sit this this one out?

​A Major CBS News poll released as part of Covering Climate Now, a collaboration of more than 250 news outlets around the world to strengthen coverage of the climate story.
Similar to previous polls, the CBS research finds sharp ideological differences in attitudes to the climate crisis. While nearly seven in 10 Democratic voters understand that humans significantly influence the climate and 80% want immediate action, just 20% of Republicans think humans are a primary cause and barely a quarter want rapid action. Full story HERE.

Our approach is indirect, but it has proven to be effective. We propose rebuilding every inch of the South and West sides where violent crime is concentrated, where the overwhelming majority of innocent victims are harmed, and where the small minority of violent criminals roam free through more than one third of the city. The city will become less violent when the abandoned buildings and vacant lots, now numbering in the thousands, are occupied by scores of new affordable homes and decent affordable apartments. We intend to take back every square inch of the neighborhoods now dominated by benign neglect and sensational headlines about violent crime. The presence of hard-working homeowners and renters will do what no policing strategy or service program can ever do: It will create a new majority of peace-loving neighbors who will enforce different standards of behavior where chaos has held sway for so long.   More on Metro IAF proposal in Crain's Chicago Business here

“NYCHA is finally being honest about how they are falling short on mold,” said the Rev. Getulio Cruz, a top clergy leader with Metro IAF, which represents the groups that sued NYCHA over mold back in 2013. “Unfortunately, the vast majority of tenants have seen no real improvement.  NY Post article here