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Schools open amidst new challenges. Margaret Buckton, president of the Urban Education Network, joins me. Between school shootings, the residual impact of pandemic lockdowns, and Republican legislatures going nut job on K-12 schools, nearly 600,000 teachers have quit or retired across the US.
Margaret Buckton
In Iowa, Senate President Jake Chapman kicked off the 2022 session by asserting that Iowa teachers had a “sinister agenda.” I guess you have to believe that to justify book bans, prevent teaching the history of racism, micromanage teachers’ work, and further degrade public education by shifting funds to private schools.
Get ready for 125°. A new report warns of an “extreme heat belt” likely to develop over the country’s midsection as global warming worsens. The report by First Street Foundation forecasts that the heat index could reach 125°F at least one day each year by 2053. That’s not just uncomfortable; it’s deadly — to humans, animals, and crops alike. So, in addition to ending our climate-spewing ways, we oughta get more serious about what’s for dinner in 2053. Which brings me to …
Five ancient crops for the New Climate Era. Amaranth, Fonio, Cowpeas, Taro, and Kernza. Never heard of ’em? They’re staple crops that might prove more resistant to the fiery conditions headed our way. Kathy did some research, and we discuss the benefits and liabilities of each crop. For our part, we’re going to try to grow at least one of these five foods next year. Wanna guess which one?
Climate org infighting immensely counter-productive. An excellent investigative piece in The Intercept earlier this summer should be mandatory reading for anyone working with or supporting a climate nonprofit. It’s long, and if you can’t drag yourself through all of it, you’ll get the drift after a minute or so of reading.
The article by Ryan Grim is titled, “Elephant in the Zoom: Meltdowns have brought progressive advocacy groups to a standstill at a critical moment in world history.” It looks at how staff at national progressive orgs “were ignoring the mission and focusing on themselves, using a moment of public awakening to smuggle through standard grievances cloaked in the language of social justice.”
Grim quotes one Black executive director, who says, “The most zealous ones at my organization when it comes to race are white.” That director asked “for anonymity so as not to provoke a response from that staff.”
Grim names Sierra Club, ACLU, Color of Change, Movement for Black Lives, Human Rights Campaign, Sunrise Movement, and “many other organizations [that] have seen wrenching and debilitating turmoil in the past couple years. … In fact, it’s hard to find a Washington-based progressive organization that hasn’t been in tumult, or isn’t currently in tumult.”
Addressing internal grievances “has become nearly all-consuming for some organizations. A former executive director said, ‘My last nine months, I was spending 90 to 95 percent of my time on internal strife.’”
Another organizational leader said, “The toxic dynamic of cancel culture is creating this really intense thing, and no one is able to acknowledge it, no one’s able to talk about it, no one’s able to say how bad it is.”
Well, I’ve got plenty to say about it, and will start simply by recommending you listen to this week’s program. The National Non-profit Industrial Complex, as I fondly call it, has become a massive, corporate black hole that drains resources away from local groups on the front lines of nearly every battle. It’s especially bad in the realm of climate activism.
Again, from the article: “The Sierra Club infighting caused so much internal churn that they stopped being engaged in any serious way at a really critical moment during the Build Back Better climate bill.”
Nice. The Extreme Right can stop beating up on us since the Extreme Left has that task covered.
It’s not just a DC problem, sorry to say. Many large, statewide orgs are similarly afflicted. One activist shared this with me: “One of the things happening is that younger organizers feel like [internal change] is one aspect of power/control they can exercise more immediately rather than the hard fought/hard won long-term gains realized over time in organizing. Associated with that is an unwillingness to meet folks (such as in rural communities) where they’re at and invest in shifting their worldview over time.”
How do we fix the problem? Stop navel gazing! Stop being so self-absorbed! Working for a cause is public service, not a financially lucrative career. Yeah, I know, easy for me to say. But really, if climate activists don’t keep their eyes focused on the big picture, well, let’s just say an already scary future just got scarier.
One more thing: Don’t throw your donations down the DC rat-hole. Support local organizing. A quick look at CEO pay for climate orgs with the National Non-profit Industrial Complex makes that clear:
— Sierra Club: $300,201
— Greenpeace: $301,000
— Natural Resources Defense Council: $534,000
— Nature Conservancy: $818,000
For comparison, I make $0 as the director of Bold Iowa. That’s not explicitly a pitch for support (but what the heck, if you’re inclined, here’s the link), rather a suggestion to support the local groups working in your city, county, and state. I guarantee you there’s no climate head-hog in Iowa earning six figures.
Thanks for reading, listening, and taking action. — Ed
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1. Schools open amidst new challenges, with Margaret Buckton, Urban Education Network
2. Climate org infighting immensely counter-productive
3. Get ready for 125°
4. Five ancient crops for the New Climate Era, with Kathy Byrnes
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Ed Fallon