In our 2021 End of the Year Report for 350 Tacoma: About Us, Our Mission, Land Acknowledgement, Our Strategy, Tacoma Light Trail, Black History Month, Banner Actions, New Rules for Fossil Fuels, Flags for the Future, Interim Regulations, Climate Spectacle, Book Club, Little Marsh, 311 Puyallup Avenue, Gratitude. 350 Tacoma is a local independent group of 350.org, an international grassroots movement to solve the climate crisis. We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit. (Click here for our 2020 End of the Year Report).
2021-Year-End-ReportSummary
Here’s a quick summary of what’s in our 2021 End of the Year Report.
Front Matter
- About Us
- Our Mission
- Land Acknowledgement
- Our Strategy
Tacoma Light Trail
We were delighted to take part in the first annual Light Trail organized by Rosemary from Oceanfest with luminaries and banners.
Black History Month
We teamed up with The New Generation 2.0, The Conversation, Lawyers Against Systemic Racism, South Sound Antiracist Project, and BAD to honor the pioneering Black climate scientist, Warren Washington. Together we commissioned Olympia artist Aisha Harrison to create a beautiful sculpture of him and debuted it at Evergreen College in February 2022.
Banner Actions
Following the lead of 350.org, we did some banner actions to call on President Joe Biden to #BuildBackFossilFree, not just “better.” Unfortunately, the fossil fuel interests’ puppet and profiteer Joe Manchin threw a wrench in the works.
New Rules for Fossil Fuels
We were gearing up to support a statewide coalition to support the New Rules for Fossil Fuels campaign. Unfortunately, a cap and trade bill passed by the Washington State legislature derailed this project.
Flags for the Future
This year the Puyallup Tribe and Earthjustice appealed the air pollution permit issues to PSE’s LNG project. To help keep this issue in the public conversation, we went down to the LNG construction site and solicited the community for messages to write on strings of colorful flags.
Interim Regulations
Tacoma has been pushing the Tacoma City Council to ban fossil fuel expansion via interim regulations since we first became a group.
Climate Spectacle
As a final push to influence the Tacoma City Council on the interim regulations votes, we built a giant pair of glasses, dressed as optometrists, and walked them to Tollefson Plaza. The goal: To correct the council’s shortsightedness for not banning fossil fuel expansion despite declaring a climate emergency.
Book Club
We started the 350 Tacoma Book Club again, with nichole leading virtual meetings for “All We Can Save” and “Braiding Sweetgrass.” We’re looking forward to discussing many more important books in 2022.
Little Marsh
Our goal is to love this little two-acre open space and salt marsh back to health. In consultation with the Puyallup Tribal Language program, we have officially changed the name from Rhone Poulenc to the native Twulshootseed place name, qʷiqʷəlut (“little marsh”).
Community Space (311 Puyallup Avenue)
As the pandemic stretched on, we began to question paying rent for a space we could hardly use. With that in mind, we sought input and heard loud and clear that this space is an integral part of how we provide support to allies and other grassroots groups, and that we should keep the space. In March, 2022, we held our first in-person meeting since COVID.
Gratitude
Our power is in collective action, and each one of you has been an indispensable part of that People Power. Together we are strong. Onward! Aside from generous donations from our community, we also received sizable grants from Stand Up to Oil (Communities Fueling Change) and Power Past Fracked Gas.