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December 17, 2020 ACCo Monthly What we’ve been up to this month and other things you don’t want to miss! (This is our first newsletter and it is longer than future ones will be) OVERVIEW
About ACCo Maybe you've seen us on Instagram, or maybe at our climate strike in September of 2019. But what is ACCo, and where in the world did we come from? The Austin Climate Coalition began as an idea sprouted in the minds of just a few teenagers. After helping to organize a city-wide climate strike in conjunction with other activist groups, we realized that there was an abundance of young Austinites eager to fight for climate action, but with no community base to unite them. We, a group of around 20 high schoolers from all across the area, decided to form a coalition that would be student-lead and would work to combat climate change within our local community. We started meeting during the weekends to discuss what was detrimental and unsustainable in our city, and how we could make a difference. We quickly realized that our voices needed to be heard, and that we had the power to make drastic change for the better. Since then, we have operated as a free form (without any designated president or other positions), youth-led organization, and have hosted a variety of events advocating for movement in our generation to fight with us. We are the young voices of Austin, of Texas, of America, and of the world, and we refuse to watch our futures disappear. We are taking matters into our own hands, and we hope you'll join the fight right alongside us! Launching Our Next Project We are so excited to announce that we have launched ACCo’s first holiday project! The goal of Project Wildflower, as we are calling it, is to beautify our local spaces by providing free wildflower seed packets to community members. For this initiative, we are partnering with a few local organizations, including the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, to collect these wildflower seeds. But during this month we will also be highlighting other Austin and Texas environmental groups who could use some love, so if you receive seeds from us please consider making a small donation to one of these (if you can!). You can sign up here to get your own seeds, and here is a blog post by ACCo member Serafina to give you some ideas on where to plant the seeds you get! *Update* Order seeds now if you haven’t already because we are packaging them this weekend! Climate Change Blog Highlight We are highlighting the Cynefin Project, a student-run blog that focuses on environmentalism and climate change. Cynefin is Welsh for “a place to stand,” which can also be interpreted as one’s habitat. ACCo member Matthew interviewed contributor Sophie on the ‘One World, Our Coalition’ podcast which you can listen to to learn more about what the Cynefin Project is and how it was born. You can also learn more about the project in this post on our Instagram. And if you’re interested in contributing to the Cynefin Project you can find more info on their website https://cynefin-project.org. Updates To Our Website Our team at ACCo has been working on updating our website for a while now, and we have some new things to share with everyone! First of all, you can get to know our current members on the Meet The Team page. You can also watch the KUTX video from our climate strike in 2019 and read our Pledge of Allyship to BIPOC Organizations on the About Us page. And don’t go before checking out our News page where we will post climate action petitions, exciting climate news, and articles written by our members and other students! We will also post the contents of each newsletter as it comes out so if you miss one you can always catch up on our website! Our Newest Blog Posts In addition to brief updates and longer articles, we have a blog that our members will be adding to weekly! To start our blog off, ACCo team member Nora wrote about local restaurants that offer some delicious vegetarian options for everyone to enjoy! With the growing awareness around the meat industry’s harmful impact on the environment, it’s important to try and cut down on meat consumption. Though vegetarianism has been considered difficult to maintain in the past, it’s thankfully become a lot easier to handle in recent times. Head to our blog and read Nora’s post, which includes some of her favorite restaurants in the Austin area that offer vegetarian options. Additionally, ACCo team member Abby wrote her first blog post about four of her most recent hikes around the Austin area. Check out her post to get some outdoor inspiration and find a trail to hike in this amazing fall weather! New Podcast Episodes Our podcast team has been working hard over the past few months and we have three new ‘One World, Our Coalition’ episodes for y’all! In the first of these, “Part 1: Guys, Speak Up!,” Matthew and Ale talk about the role of guys in activism and guys may be more shut off to climate activism in particular. In our next episode, “Reactions of Presidential and VP Debates,” Matthew, Isla, Carolina, and Veronica talk about the presidential and vice presidential candidates’ views on climate change and the related discussion in the debates. Lastly, in “Climate Denier Tier List” Ale, Matthew, Lenon, and Carolina have fun making a tier list of the top climate change deniers, with a couple twists to keep it fun. Check these (and more!) out on Spotify or Anchor! How To Get In Touch With Us Did this leave you with questions, concerns, or ideas? We want to hear from you! You can send us a DM on our Instagram (and start following us if you don’t already!) @austinclimatecoalition Or send an email [email protected] Thanks so much for reading this month’s newsletter, and don’t hesitate to reach out if you are interested in joining the coalition or writing for us (article, blog or otherwise), or if your organization wants to work with us! (We also appreciate any feedback on this newsletter or our website!)
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