Take Action Tuesday

The Climate Movement is Growing (Post by Jewel Tomasula)

Led by young people across the world, climate activism reached an all time high on Friday September 20th with the global #ClimateStrike. The movement will keep growing.

This week, we are continuing to act on climate across the globe. Protests, marches, strikes, peaceful civil disobedience, and other organized actions are important tactics for changing what is politically possible and creating, then sustaining, pressure to enact bold climate policies and solutions.

We hope you to engage in climate activism this week, in whatever way empowers you and makes you feel courageous. 

Here are some ways that women in STEM can help keep the momentum going in the climate movement:

• Anyone can volunteer to organize an action on Earth Day 2020

• Private industry workers can hold companies accountable for climate impacts, like Amazon Employees for Climate Justice

• Those of us in academic institutions should hold universities accountable for fossil fuel investments.

Photo by Axi Aimee on Unsplash

Take Action Tuesday

Canadian Elections 2019

September 17 (post by Ashley Shaw and Heather Slinn)

Canadian Federal Elections 2019 are on October 21st! For the next five weeks, parties will be discussing their platforms to potential voters in the hopes of winning the election. Media focus has been primarily based upon the power struggle between the Conservatives and the Liberals, headed by Andrew Scheer and Justin Trudeau, respectively. However, the New Democratic Party (NDP) lead by Jagmeet Singh and the Green Party lead by Elizabeth May, have gained significant traction in the dominant narrative. At this point in the race, voters have many resources to be informed of the development of policies and decisions that may heavily impact their lives. 

If you are eligible to vote, there are a few key steps that you can take to prepare for the 2019 elections:

1. Register to vote: https://www.elections.ca/content2.aspx?section=reg&document=index&lang=e

2. Read through the initial platforms and policies provided by each party:

   1. https://2019.liberal.ca/

   2. https://www.ndp.ca/

   3. https://www.greenparty.ca/en

   4. https://www.conservative.ca/

3. Check out this vote compass provided by the CBC to determine which party your values align with: https://votecompass.cbc.ca/canada/

4. Follow the debates on television to witness what is being discussed and what commitments are being made

5. Attend town hall meetings to speak with representatives and take part in politically charged discussions

6. If you will be outside the country during the election, make sure to either pre-vote: https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=vot&dir=vote&document=index&lang=e#advance or send vote by mail https://travel.gc.ca/travelling/living-abroad/elections-faq.

7. Encourage your friends, colleagues, family to vote.

8. Sign petitions and contribute to one of the campaigns around this election organized by LeadNow (https://www.leadnow.ca/), The Council of Canadians (https://canadians.org/), David Suzuki Foundation (https://davidsuzuki.org/) and Fair Vote Canada (https://www.fairvote.ca/).  There are many more non-profit and non-governmental organizations that you can get involved with.

9. Need more information about voting in the Canadian elections? Check out this CBC article: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-voter-guide-2019-federal-election-1.5260336

10. As we come closer to the election near the end of October, we will learn more about what decisions each party plans to implement should they win. While the election itself is very important, it is also imperative to practice self-care when delving into the world of politics. The decisions each party plans to make do have significant impacts on our population. However, it is easy to get caught up in the seemingly never-ending source of issues our society has grown to face including climate change, gender inequality, and the struggle towards effective reconciliation with Indigenous communities.

Stay tuned for additional posts regarding the Canadian Elections in the coming weeks.

Photo by Silvestri Matteo on Unsplash

Take Action Tuesday

Today’s Take Action Tuesday post is brought to you by Jenna Jablonski, member of the DC Pod of 500 Women Scientists and founder of Sister.

How does your STEM identity connect with your political identity?

For National Voter Registration Day in September, Sister is partnering with Science Rising to publish a series of articles showing how individuals in STEM can be political — and that our STEM work can even shape our advocacy work.

We want to share your perspective. How does your STEM identity connect with your political identity (your advocacy work, issues you care about, etc.)? How does this tie in with your personal identity and/or journey in STEM?

If you’re interested in writing, send a pitch by this Friday (8/16) to hello@sisterstem.org. Pitches can be short descriptions of what you plan to write about, or a sample/excerpt from the proposed article. Full articles (about 700-1,000 words) will be due at the end of August. Sister happily provides editorial support along the way.

You can also spread the word by retweeting this tweet or sending anyone who may be interested to sisterstem.org/write.

Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash

Take Action Tuesday

Join the #SciMomJourney Team in celebrating Breastfeeding!

August is breastfeeding month, and August 1-7 is World Breastfeeding week. This year’s theme is “Empower Parents. Enable Breastfeeding.” Black Breastfeeding Week starts August 25th and the theme is “The World is Yours.” 

Social and institutional support is key to enabling breastfeeding for scientist moms. No matter who you are, you can help! Advocate for parent-friendly policies, plan for accommodations at events, ask a breastfeeding coworker how she’s doing. These actions matter! 

We welcome everyone to:

• Celebrate World Breastfeeding week!

• Sign the Pledge to empower parents and enable breastfeeding, now and for the future! You can create an event locally to support breastfeeding. 

• Follow Black Breastfeeding Week on Twitter and Facebook for the latest updates and events.

• Sign up for WABA’s (World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action) email list to find out about all their events that you can participate in during the month of August. 

• Read our op-ed in Scientific American about how to improve scientist-moms’ breastfeeding experiences- Do Science, Pump, Repeat

• Share your SciMomJourney Story. Our survey is on-going! We would love to crunch this data and share our thoughts. We will never share your name, institution or any other information without your permission.  

If you are in a 500WS Pod, you can this sign to show your support for Breastfeeding mothers.

Take Action Tuesday

Today, we call on the science community to reach out to their elected US Senators to oppose the nomination of Barry Myers as head of NOAA.

Barry Myers has a track record of disregarding widespread sexual harassment allegations in his company AccuWeather. He has no science background. And he has spent decades attacking NOAA, the very agency he would be tasked with overseeing. He is unfit, he is morally corrupt, and he should not be confirmed.

All senators should be contacted but there are a handful of senators who should be especially targeted to oppose Barry Myers’ nomination, If you live in Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Arizona, or Maine, tell your Senators to not confirm Barry Myers.

Alaska: Senator Lisa Murkowski - list of local offices and phone numbers.

Arizona: Martha McSally

Colorado: Senator Cory Gardner - list of local offices and phone numbers.

Maine: Senator Susan Collins - list of local offices and phone numbers.

Photo by Gemma Evans on Unsplash

Today’s post by Jane Zelikova