Category: Children

Children, Climate Action, Climate Change, National Security October 9, 2019January 7, 2020

Corporate Climate Action | Which Corps Are Keeping An Eye On Consumer Expectations

Washington (GGM) Analysis | October 9, 2019
by Noreen Wise

Many individual Americans are rushing forward with climate action, doing their best to lower personal & household carbon footprints by targeting the 5 major categories for quick action:

Home – switching to solar, managing efficiency
Transportation – Hybrid or EV autos, walk more
Food – eat minimal dairy & red meat, home composting bins to be applied to garden & forest soil
Stuff – buy less stuff in general, and buy used whenever possible
Nature – huge focus in cutting carbon; our oceans can’t hold anymore carbon, we must all become gardeners and planters: trees, flowers, shrubs, ground cover, compost, compost & more compost (nutrient rich soil from compost will enable soil to hold much more carbon)

And now, with the holiday shopping season quickly approaching, it’s time to focus on America’s large corporations with intense scrutiny as we decide where to spend our holiday shopping dollars. Let’s make Climate Action an important criteria for patronage.

For example, Target Stores, one of the huge shopping mecca’s for Black Friday deals, has assured consumers that 500 of their stores will be fitted with solar panels on roofs come November. Go, Target! Your customers appreciate your concern over the rising global temperature. But can you go one step further, and please remove all single-use plastic shopping bags from your cash registers and force shoppers to use reusable bags. Thank you!

There have been several recent headlines highlighting corporations who’ve taken bold steps into sustainability and climate action. From Marriott Bonvoy hotels eliminating single-use plastic toiletries, to Nike opening a massive distribution center that uses 100% renewable energy. And what about Apple’s commitment to lowering carbon levels… is our favorite Apple green or red?

Further, just yesterday, Act One Climate 100 released it’s Corporate Climate Action Progress Report. Act One Climate 100+ is a group of 370 investors managing $35 trillion in assets of the worlds largest carbon emitters . Their website notes that their goal is to:

Curb emissions
Improve governance and
Strengthen climate-related financial disclosures

Awareness and accountability make a significant difference, especially when billions of global citizens are then armed with facts enabling us to separate climate action focused corporations from profit-above-all-else focused corporations and spend our money accordingly.

So this holiday season, before hitting the stores or clicking online, we must first Google to see what each brand and retailer is doing to fight global warming. We only have a few years to get this right. We must act immediately. Numerous companies have created innovative solutions. There’s no time to hesitate, though. If a company isn’t onboard with climate action, then they’re off board. There’s no neutral position. We the consumers hold all the power this holiday season. It’s imperative that we let our climate action feelings be known and simply shout “NO” to inaction by using our wallets to express our feelings and priorities.

Children, Climate Action, Climate Change, National Security July 30, 2019February 2, 2020

Focusing On Small Things | Climate Action Success

Washington (Gallant Gold Media Hill Report | Analysis | July 30, 2019)
by Noreen Wise

Succeeding at substantial climate action in the shortest period of time is an absolute imperative. However, we’re never going to reach our carbon targets if we promote the required changes using intimidating long-range objectives as the key selling points for executing the Climate Action strategy.

Clearly, many of our political leaders care deeply about the intense climate crisis and want us to know about the dire consequences if we don’t act quickly. They feel passionately about this looming catastrophe. Their tireless commitment to the Climate Crisis is heroic and noble.

But, in order for the general public to make the necessary changes we must break everything down into small simple weekly steps that can be executed immediately:

Call local Solar Energy companies and ask about promotions for switching. Search online for all those with solar sharing about how low their energy bill is. (Solar is MUCH less expensive than electric or gas and oil). Deadline, Friday August 2, 2019.
Call town hall and ask about the city’s plan for switching to solar panels for street lighting, solar panels on town buildings, and electric buses. While on the phone, suggest apiary bus stops (planting flowers and greenery on the roofs of bus shelters for bees and other pollinators to visit ). Cities in general need far more green downtown. Mrs can simply invest in rooftop gardens. Others can add to sidewalks along the streets. Deadline, Friday August 2, 2019.
Stop by car dealership and ask about deals for Hybrids and EVs. It’s absolutely incredible how far the price has come down. Take a test drive. Deadline, Sunday August 4, 2019.
When grocery shopping, grab the almond milk instead of regular milk. Choose chicken or turkey rather than red meat. Deadline, Sunday August 4, 2019.
Do all errands on the same day. ONLY use re-usable bags.
At dinner each night, talk with family about trees and gardening and where to plant more trees. How to care for the trees you’ll plant. Where to buy the trees. What kind of trees. Trees are a great way to build strong family ties. Trees nurture our children when they take good care of them. Trees become part of the family. As children grow, they return home and marvel at the tree height, and the sprawling branches and subliminally identify that they have grown taller and ar branching out just like the tree.

None of these small tasks are difficult. Or time-consuming. They are not expensive. There are very few excuses for why we can’t do each this week, versus next week. The Climate Crisis DEMANDS we each, every last one of us, immediately execute all of these.

Good luck… Have fun!

Children, Guns, Legislative Branch February 6, 2019September 3, 2019

HR8 – Bipartisan Bill for Background Checks| Call To Action, Committee Hearing Wednesday February 6, 2019

Washington (Gallant Gold Media Hill Report) – The very first hearing on common sense gun laws in eight years will take place in the Judiciary Committee on Wednesday February 6, 2019. This is a monumental event, just eight days before the one year anniversary of the massacre in Parkland, Florida on February 14, 2018 when 17 innocent students were slaughtered in the middle of the day, their future positive impact in their communities now a huge, gaping void.

HR8 Explained: On January 8, 2019 Representative Mike Thompson of California’s 5th District introduced H.R. 8: Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019. This simple, common sense gun bill is summed up in one sentence: To require a background check for every firearm sale.

The bill has nine bipartisan co-sponsors, one of whom is Representative Jerry Nadler from New York’s 10th district. Representative Nadler is also the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

Once a bill is introduced, the next step is to be considered in committee, in this case the Judiciary Committee on Wednesday February 6, 2019. The issues are debated and the committee votes whether to approve or reject the bill. If approved it will be reported to the House for a full vote in the upcoming months. If passed in the House, it will it move to the Senate.

CALL to ACTION: Contact your Congressional Representative TODAY to let them know: Yes to HR8.

https://www.house.gov/representatives | Search by name or state, must click the correct box. If not sure of Representative’s name, use the search box on top right of page
Text CHECKS to 644-33

Children, Senate December 19, 2018December 21, 2018

Senators Fight to Protect Children

WASHINGTON (December 19, 2018) – Today, Senator Ed J. Markey (D-MA) announced that he and fellow Senators on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee – Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Tom Udall (D–NM) – have written a letter urging the Federal Trade Commission to initiate an investigation into the Google Play store.

In a pointed communication of concern addressed to FTC Chairman Simons, along with four key Commissioners – Chopra, Wilson, Phillips and Slaughter – the Senators outlined their key areas of grievance:

The apps for many of the toys featured in the Google Play Family section do not comply with the Children’s Online Protection Privacy Act (COPPA)
For example, apps created for toys such as Elmo and Furby share “user information in an insecure manner” as well as “share persistent identifiers with third parties in an unencrypted form”
Additionally, many contain advertisements not appropriate for children such as gambling, alcohol, and video games for adults, as well as ads that could frighten children or “result in harm if imitated by children”

The Senators make it very clear that the FTC is obligated to investigate such matters of noncompliance, and that there’s no excuse for failing to protect children and families.

Lastly, the three Senators note that they sent a previous letter to the FTC about the COPPA standards and requirements back on October 3, 2018 and appear to be very annoyed that their previous requests on these dire children safety and security matters are going unheeded. They ended their letter by urging an immediate investigation and requesting a response no later than January 8, 2019.