2018 EarthAction Report
A Brief Overview of EarthAction’s Projects & Campaigns
EarthAction’s Spotlight Project Wins Global Award: Best Climate Solutions, a global collaborative, awarded its 2018 Best Climate Solutions Award to EarthAction’s Spotlight Project. Best Climate Solutions is an international crowdsourcing platform that collects and showcases innovative projects and actionable ideas that provide solutions to targeted climate change challenges. It’s 2018 Award focuses on the challenge of “Communicating Climate Change Threats and Opportunities”.
Since 2015 EarthAction has collaborated with The Global Citizens’ Initiative (TGCI) on projects aimed at stabilizing our global climate. In 2018, together with TGCI, we created the Spotlight Project. Every month we invite our 20 Country Managers, one each from the top twenty greenhouse gas emitting countries, to research and write an Action Alert focused on one important climate change issue in their country. Each Action Alert provides brief background information on the selected issue, suggests an action for the reader to take—to contact a policymaker with a specific request—and provides the policymaker’s contact information. We compile these country reports into Global Spotlight Reports that we post online and circulate to our network of over 5,000 environmental organizations, policymakers, journalists, and concerned citizens. In 2018, we produced 10 Global Spotlight Reports, each specifying climate solutions for the top twenty greenhouse gas emitting countries. For more info visit: climatescorecard.org
2020 Action: Every month, 2020 Action and the 2020 Action Education Fund educate and mobilize thousands of US citizens engaging them in communication with US policymakers on important peace and environmental issues. Each month, 2020 produces a timely Action Alert with meaningful actions for citizens to take to protect our environment and security—usually to contact a policymaker facing a critical decision. For details, read 2020’s 2018 Action Report at 2020Action.org.
The Elders Project: The Elders Project (TEP) continued with its mission to work with and provide assistance to the traditional authorities (Mamos) of the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta (SNSM) in Colombia. Rick Harlow, the Project Director, made several trips to Colombia to work directly with the traditional authorities to help strengthen their spiritual and traditional practices. The Elders Project has been supported by grants from the Save Our Spirits (SOS) Fund, and others.
Support for Indigenous Peoples—Save Our Spirits: Over the last few years, with funds provided by the Save Our Spirits (SOS) Fund, EarthAction has awarded grants to organizations that work directly with indigenous peoples to help them preserve, strengthen, and pass on the spiritual practices of their elders. In 2018, EarthAction focused on one indigenous group in the Philippines, the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA).
In March 2018 we gave CPA a $5,000 grant to support their campaign against the Philippine government’s attacks against CPA leaders and indigenous human rights defenders in the Cordillera region. A month earlier, the President of the Philippines issued a decree ‘tagging’ many indigenous peoples from the Cordillera region and elsewhere as ‘terrorists’ which put their lives in danger. With support from EarthAction and others, CPA was successful in pressing the government to remove many indigenous people from this list.
In September 2018, Super Typhoon Ompong hit the Cordillera region causing widespread destruction. EarthAction responded to a call for help with a $10,000 grant that CPA used to help set up a disaster response network that provided emergency relief and assistance to thousands whose lives were devastated. We look forward to ongoing support and collaboration with this vibrant group.
Building Understanding and Consensus on U.S. Immigration Policies: Since 2015, EarthAction has sponsored a project on U.S. immigration reform that Rick Swartz initiated and directed. Swartz’ team works to build non-partisan support among policymakers and immigration advocates for sound and reasoned policies that will yield benefits to millions while avoiding the acrimony that has poisoned past efforts. This timely and challenging effort has made steady progress. Working through the mainstream and social media, millions of individuals have been exposed to the project’s principles and goals. Our immigration project, most recently supported by a September 2017 $275,000 grant from the Gilder Foundation, ran through June, 2018.
Thank You
EarthAction thanks all our Partner Organizations, individual members, staff, donors and Board members for their ongoing participation and support. Special thanks to the Thomas D. Hormel Trust, the Stewart R. Mott Foundation, the Gilder Foundation, and the Save Our Spirits Fund.
2018: Featured Campaigns & Topics on EathAction's Website
- Call on the UN Security Council to Support Nuclear Disarmament at January 18 Special Session (1/3/2018)
- The 99 Best Things That Happened in 2017 (1/8/2018)
- Doomsday Clock Moves Closer to Midnight UN High-Level Conference Becomes More Important (1/26/2018)
- Handcarts vs. Drudgery (2/1/2018)
- Protect WIld Salmon (3/7/2018)
- 7 Days in the Life of Avaaz (3/12/2018)
- Philippine President seeks to have 600 Indigenous leaders "tagged" as terrorists! Emergency Response Needed! (3/14/2018)
- Takoma Park Becomes First US City to Declare Its COmpliance with Nuclear Ban Treaty (3/21/2018)
- Top 3 Shocking Facts About Plastic Pollution (4/2/2018)
- Nuclear Abolition Campaigners Announce New Initiatives at UN Press Conference (4/6/2018)
- IPHRDs Are Not Terrorists (4/7/2018)
- Join Us to Count the Nuclear Weapons Money (4/16/2018)
- UN Secretary-General to release new disarmament initiative on Women's Day for Peace and Disarmament (5/24/2018)
- Strengthen local forests rights for best climate solutions (6/24/2018)
- The Bruges Whale (7/9/2018)
- Partnership Campaign to Save the Paris Agreement (7/30/2018)
- Retiring One Trident Missile Could Ensure UN Does Not Run Out of Cash (8/5/2018)
- What are you doing for Nuclear Abolition Day September 26, 2018? (9/1/2018)
- Children's Peace Prize Winner Selected to Address UN High-Level Meeting on Nuclear Disarmament (9/16/2018)
- The Status of Climate Finance in Leading Greenhouse Gas Emitting Countries (10/29/2018)
- Will We See the Trial of the Century? (11/1/2018)
- A Divided UN General Assembly Votes on Nuclear Disarmament Resolutions (11/7/2018)
- Mapping the Connections Between Oil, Power, and War (11/12/2018)
2018: 2020 Action Monthly Action Alerts
- North Korea - YES to Dialogue, the Only Alternatives to War (Jan-1)
- Achieving Security and Nuclear Stability with North Korea (Feb-1)
- The Astonishingly Good News on Renewable Energy (Mar-1)
- Help the North Korea Summit Succeed (Apr-1)
- Keep the Iran Deal Alive (May-1)
- Stop Hurting Innocents as a Policy Tool: Protect Palestinian and Refugee Children (Jun-1)
- Stop the Bailout of Coal and Nuclear (Jul-1)
- Extend the New START Treaty: A Possible Good to Come from the Trump-Putin Summit (Aug-1)
- Tell EPA to Block Proposed Trump Regulations That Will Lower MPG & Reverse Clean Air Regulations (Sep-1)
- How to Elect Peace & Environment Candidates Nov. 6 (Oct-1)
- Call to Action! Dire Predictions on Climate Change! (Nov-1)
- Stop Supporting the Saudi War in Yemen & Killing of Civilians (Dec-1)