50TH ANNIVERSARY EARTH DAY - PLEASE JOIN US! Earth Mother Speaks: A Call for Change We Can't Ignore
This Earth Day we are amplifying the voice of our Earth Mother and the voices from the frontlines as we explore the relationship between resistance, resilience, and revolution in the age of COVID-19 & the climate crisis. Together we will lift up the amazing solidarity work taking place in communities across NM and the action we must take to address capitalism’s failures and entirely redesign our economy from the ground up. Collaborators for this event include mutual aid leaders from throughout the region, young people leading climate justice work to save our futures, artists who speak truth to power and lift up the voices of the people -- capturing the revolutionary spirit of our time, and grassroots organizers leading efforts to create institutional change for democracy, economic, social, and climate justice, during this critical moment. **We'll be streaming live on Facebook BUT you don't need a FB account to watch! Just visit our page at 5:25 PM at www.facebook.com/earthcarenm**
MUTUAL AID WEBSITE LAUNCH
Santa Fe Mutual Aid just launched a website for our efforts! On this page, our work will be centralized and community can find our updated resource page, join the network and request and offer aid, or donate online! Please share this page with your networks! We are still using the Google Form to manage requests and offers!
Alongside our partners in Santa Fe Mutual Aid, Santa Fe Dreamers Project, Communities in School - NM, Interfaith Leadership Alliance, Santa Fe Faith Network for Immigrant Justice we have just launched the #ShareMyCheck campaign to encourage as many people as possible to redistribute all of, or part of, their stimulus check to a fund set up to redistribute these checks directly to those who won't be receiving a check.
We are asking folks to pledge right now & commit to asking 3 other friends to pledge all or part of their stimulus check. After you pledge, we will be following up with you with information about how to engage with Santa Fe Mutual Aid, share with you how to transfer your donation, and to answer any questions you might have about this process.
Joining this effort means being part of a commitment to wealth redistribution. While millions of people will soon receive their stimulus checks from the federal government, many will remain unemployed, uninsured, and unsheltered while COVID-19 continues to spread. Those who aren't receiving a check are many of the hardest hit by this crisis.
Pledge to #ShareMyCheckSantaFe and join the campaign to ensure that we all have enough to make it through this crisis.
Millions of immigrants pay taxes but won’t get coronavirus stimulus checks
BY ASTRID GALVÁN, PHILIP MARCELO AND CLAUDIA TORRENS
The Resource Directory is growing and updated daily. Check it out if you are wondering about where to get assistance right now and how to direct friends and families. This week the City/County launched a resource website as did Opportunity Santa Fe - find links to all these resources and more on our resources page.
Phone Tree Kick Off!
This week we will be kicking off the Santa Fe Mutual Aid Phone Tree!
A phone tree is a prearranged system for activating a group of people by telephone. Our phone tree is built out in a way so that community members have an opportunity to check in on neighbors weekly by phone.
A phone tree is also super helpful in notifying folks about urgent news quickly.
The phone tree branches are based on general area of town. Folks who are close to each other in geography will be in a phone tree group together (anywhere from 10-30 people).
HELP US CANVASS THE COMMUNITY!
We are super excited to launch our neighborhood organizing campaign this week.
If you haven't signed up to help flyer your neighborhood and get the key resource list out there for folks who aren't online - please be in touch!
As this important article in YES MAGAZINE by Amanda Abrams states:
The deep digital divide means organizers must step away from their screens
to reach low-income residents.
"For every person who has lost a job and is now worried about how to make ends meet, who can’t go to the grocery store because they’re immunocompromised, or who is simply desperate for a little one-on-one contact, there’s likely someone else who’s been relatively unscathed by the crisis and can help—wants to help, in fact. It’s a beautiful impulse, and one that makes immediate sense. Ultimately, we’re neighbors; we should lean on one another. But that enthusiasm and goodwill masks an unpleasant reality.
With much of our interactions confined to online spaces during this novel coronavirus/COVID-19 outbreak, only some people are gaining access to that assistance—and it’s generally not the folks who need it the most. Although there have been some tech gains toward closing the digital divide, most lower-income people, especially those who are elderly, don’t have regular access to WiFi or familiarity with a range of relevant websites. Forums for assistance advertised on social media, in emails or texts may never make it to people living in generational poverty, and segregated by income.
Other Earth Day Events
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22
7:00-8:30 PM
(right after YUCCA Earth Day Livestream - featuring YUCCA)
On April 22, the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, millions of people around the world are going online for a three-day mobilization to address the climate emergency. The Albuquerque Climate Coalition will present a live Webinar with a panel of speakers and Q&A period.
Speakers will speak to the effects of the COVID-19 on their community and how it has exposed disproportionate vulnerabilities of poor, marginalized and rural communities. What will the pandemic can teach us about the societal shifts needed to prepare for the Climate Crisis, locally and globally?
Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller
Ahtza Dawn Chavez - NAVA Education Project
Nathalie Eddy - Earthworks
Rebecca Sobel - Wild Earth Guardians
Mark LeClaire - farmer
Dr. Anne Epstein
Allegra Love - Santa Fe Dreamers Project
Linda Starr - Great Old Broads for Wilderness
YUCCA (Youth United for Climate Crisis Action)
FFOL (Fight for Our Lives) & Mutual Aid ABQ
Mario Atencio, Navajo Community Leader/Dine Care
Wednesday, April 22 | 10-11 AM MST
Protect Greater Chaco Livestream & Discussion
Following the 20 minute national livestream, stay tuned for a presentation and panel discussion with members of the Greater Chaco Coalition on collective efforts to protect the Greater Chaco landscape and beyond. Reps from Navajo Nation Council, Navajo chapter houses, Pueblo groups, and environmental groups will discuss the fight to protect Greater Chaco, as well as respond to questions.
Wednesday, April 23 | 5-6:30 PM
Fracking's False Promise - Just Transition for N.M. Livetream
We are in a Climate Emergency, but in New Mexico our Permian basin fracking boom is making the crisis much worse. For our survival, we must stop fracking and replace the oil and gas industry with sustainable jobs - but how? This webinar by 350NM’s Tom Solomon will cover the basics of the climate emergency, the Oil Resource Curse and how both affect New Mexico’s finances, health and the balance of political power. Fracking companies are going bankrupt now and won’t recover, even after the pandemic. We’ll show that we CAN build jobs in new industries for a sustainable future.
Care of the Whole is Self-Care: Understanding Environmental Justice and Community Health in light of Covid and Climate
Saturday, April 25th, 2020
1-2 pm CST / 2-3 pm EST
Speakers are Catherine Coleman Flowers, Lyla June Johnston and Seneca Johnson, with YUCCA
moderated by Karenna Gore.
WEEKLY LIVESTREAMS W/ RUBY FROM YUCCA
Every Tuesday & Friday Ruby from YUCCA will be live streaming on Instagram. An educator at heart, Ruby brings the freshest upcycling ideas, knowledge on how to grow your own food at home and more!
Schedule:
Tuesday 3pm - Live from @EarthCare_NM
Friday 3pm - Live from @YUCCA.NM
Foro Informativo Sobre Derechos de Los Trabajadores y el Censo
La contingencia derivada del Coronavirus ha causado estragos en nuestra comunidad inmigrante, es por ello que Somos Un Pueblo Unido y otros grupos comunitarios llevaran a cabo un foro virtual en Facebook Live con la participación de varios representantes de agencias estatales incluyendo la oficina del vice-gobernador. Dichas autoridades nos darán información actualizada en español sobre las restricciones sanitarias, acceso a servicios médicos, detección del COVID-19, el desempleo y otras ayudas económicas, escuela en línea para nuestros hijos y mucho mas. haga clic aquí
The pandemic has wreaked havoc on our immigrant community, which is why Somos Un Pueblo Unido and other groups held a virtual forum on Facebook Live with the participation of representatives like the Lt Gov's office. The authorities will give us updated information in Spanish about health restrictions, access to medical services, COVID-19 detection, unemployment and other financial aid, online school for our children and much more.
WE GOTTA VOTE!
2020 Elections are coming up! The New Mexico Primary is on June 2. Prepare now, by requesting an absentee ballot today! GO HERE!
NOTE: You can't vote in the primaries if you are registered as Independent or Declined to State. BUT you can update your voter registration with this link so you can vote in the primary!
(We will be having 3 folks speak about democracy at this moment in time during our Earth Day Livestream - details above)
FILL OUT THE CENSUS 2020
April 1st was Census Day! Did you know that billions of federal dollars are distributed to states based on the Census? Our communities receive about $3,700 for every New Mexican that is accounted for in the Census. An undercount of just 1% could cost us $780 million dollars which provides money for schools, food programs, programs for the elderly & more!
IMPORTANT READING
Historic Injustices Against Native People Put Them at Greater Risk of COVID-19. By Jen Deerinwater, Truthout
As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads across the U.S., Indigenous people are particularly vulnerable to this virus. On March 24, Indian Country Today reported there were 40 confirmed cases, 29 of which were on the Navajo Nation reservation....The dire living conditions of many Native people and the lack of resources allocated to tribal nations is creating a higher likelihood of COVID-19 contraction rates and deaths.
For Greater Chaco communities, air pollution compounds COVID-19 threat By Kendra Chamberlain, NM Political Report
Communities in the Greater Chaco region of northwestern New Mexico have been subjected to worsening air quality caused by oil and gas development in the region. That exposure has possibly increased the risk COVID-19 poses to Navajo families living amidst oil and gas development, according to a Harvard study.
Megadrought Conditions Not Seen for 400+ Years Have Returned to the West, Scientists Say By Kevin Stark KQED
The conclusion of the study published Thursday in the journal Science corroborates what scientists have long feared and warned policymakers: Extreme warming will exacerbate any dry spell making it longer, severer and more widespread, and this will bake states in the Western U.S. and areas of Mexico with a punishingly long drought....Global warming has driven temperatures in the West up by 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit, he says, and hotter air holds more moisture, absorbing it like a sponge from shrubs, trees and the ground.
Think This Pandemic Is Bad? We Have Another Crisis Coming By By Rhiana Gunn-Wright New York Times
Covid-19 and the economic collapse it has caused have laid bare how connected our problems are. Of the nearly $2 trillion in aid proposed in that first version of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, known as the CARES Act, $500 billion went toward a business-relief fund with little to no oversight. We need to design the stimulus not only to help the U.S. economy recover but to also become more resilient to the climate crisis, the next multitrillion-dollar crisis headed our way.