 Sarah, do you want to start us off or should I? Yes, I'm going to start. So thank you everybody for joining us this evening. Again, my name is Sarah Layton. I am chapter director for Sierra Club Maine. Just a couple of logistical things. We ask that you remain muted while you're on the call. We recommend that you watch this in a gallery view so that you can see all of our panelists. This is being recorded and is live on Facebook. So if you don't want to be seen, we recommend turning off your video. If you need help with that, just put that in the chat and we are happy to help you. And we thank our sponsors or lead sponsors for this evening, which is New England Aquaventus and Revision Energy. And I'm going to pass it along to our chapter chair, Sue Levine. That's me. Hello, everybody. I just want to thank you all for coming, that it's nice to see all these faces and all these people. It gets pretty lonely during COVID. I hope that you're all well and healthy and coping as best as you can. That this is a nice way for us to at least get together virtually. I miss our annual dinner while we're in person, but there's a silver lining and we didn't have to drive anywhere, so that's kind of nice too. I just want to take a moment and for all of us to just be grateful for the election wins that we did have, both our local representatives and senators and our federal races that we won. I want to thank the people. I know there's a bunch of people on this call who have done yeoman's work in sending out letters and making phone calls and organizing people and going out and voting and doing all the stuff that made that happen. And without all of us, these wins wouldn't have been as likely. So thank you for that. And then I also want to thank our events team that has put this great program together. I hope that you enjoyed the film. If you weren't able to watch the film yet, it's not a problem. You can do that after this, that there is no deadline on the film. So if you didn't get to watch it or only watch some of it or want to watch it again, you can just put that password back in the link and that will work for you. I guess as we listen to the panel and ask questions that I think that I would like everyone to think about all the work that there is still to do and how we can do that together. That one person trying to do all the work, nothing happens, but when we all work together we can be a powerful force for advocating for climate justice and social justice and the environment. And I hope that we here at Sierra Club, Maine, we want to do our best to be a welcome to community for all those who are doing this work. So thank you for being here. And with that, we have a few awards we'd like to give out. I'm going to pass it over to Becky who is a longtime club leader and just an all round awesome person. Go ahead, Becky. Uh-oh, oh yeah. I have one meeting. Great, I couldn't unmute, thank you. Hi everyone. We annually do give out awards to a number of people. Let me have a series of awards to give tonight. But I want to just say thank you so, I also thank you so much for coming. I want to start with the journalism award, which is, we don't give the journalism award all that often but we want to recognize Jim Frick who is somewhere here. I wish you would wave your hand but I can't even see you. Jim Frick has always been a member of the team since I joined years ago and has been the editor of the main Sierra since 2000. He has done stellar writing research and has been an incredible editor of that of our paper news. And it's really, it is a phenomenal amount of work that he has done and we just cannot thank him and not enough for that work. And in addition, he has also taken on our e-news. Jim has a number of times tried to step down and we haven't let him do it this time. He has graciously requested that he could do some other work for the chapter and is doing some other work in the main woods area. But we really want to thank you, Jim. Every month you work tirelessly to not only spread news about Sierra Club Maine on our work to our communities but also to help educate and inform the over 20,000 members and supporters we have. Your leadership and commitment to journalism is phenomenal and will definitely be missed. Thank you so much for the work that you've done and your award is coming. Next, I would like to honor the members of the Maine Youth Climate Justice Group who have, there are at least these number of people on the call and I may be missing someone, but Josh Wood, can you wave your wave? Nina Lehman, Grace Bernaches, Luke Zekera, wherever and wherever he is. And I don't think Anna Siegel is on the call. Josh is an organizer for Black Lives Matter, Maine and has worked with us on climate justice training. Nina is a climate justice intern and Grace is a Maine Youth Climate Justice intern as well. Luke Zekera not only works with the Maine Youth Climate Justice but also has served on our political team this year as a volunteer and a political team when doing endorsements. It's our honor to present you with the Sierra Club's 2020 Grassroots Leadership Award for the work you've done in climate justice and action. Our executive committee along with the entire membership congratulates you on your outstanding leadership and commitment to protecting our planet for generations to come. As a youth coalition composed of individuals from across the state of Maine, your critical work demanding climate and social justice epitomizes how grassroots groups, grassroots groups can be leaders for change. And this is exactly how the Sierra Club operates and we just salute you for doing the work that you've done. You've worked tirelessly to influence the Maine Climate Council, endorse progressive climate forward candidates and support Black Lives Matter movement as well as uplifting new voices that need to be heard here in Maine. We applaud your ambition and willingness to push organizations including ours to be bolder and to focus on climate justice solutions. We would like to thank you for your important leadership in tackling climate justice and climate change is an issue. Economic justice, racial justice and political justice in order to truly address the climate crisis, we know that we must get to the root of the problem. Thank you for your efforts to shed light on how systemic issues play out in the state of Maine. We look forward to continuing to support your work and uplifting each other on the long road ahead. On behalf of our members and all the people in Maine, congratulations and thank you for leading the way for change. You can also do this. And last but certainly not least, our legislative leadership award is another award we don't always give out and it's two legislative leaders, Nicole Grohowski and Seth Berry. We, it's our honor to present you with the Sierra Club 2020 legislative award for your work in the 129th Maine legislature. Sierra Club Maine is executive committee along with our entire membership. Congratulations for your outstanding leadership and commitment to our mission to explore, enjoy and protect the planet. Sierra Club Maine chapter is pleased to recognize your dedication to transform Maine's monopoly investor-owned utilities to consumer ownership. This transition promises to open the door to rapid decarbonization of the economy by facilitating beneficial electrification through an entity that is responsive to Mainers rather than financial investors. Your pioneering work on this and other energy sector issues before the Joint Standing Committee of Energy Utilities and Technology, EUT has propelled them to the forefront of policymaking in an area of central importance to achieving Maine's climate goals and building a clean energy economy for the 21st century. We also congratulate both of you on your recent reelection to the 130th Maine legislature and look forward to working with you both in the coming years. On behalf of our members and all the people in Maine, congratulations and thank you for your service and for leading the way for change. Thank you very much. I really appreciate your coming and I hope you will enjoy the program. Thanks, everyone. I'm gonna hop in. My name is Kelsey Johnson. I'm on the XCOM for Sierra Club, Maine and the executive director of space in Portland. We also, congratulations to everybody we just gave awards to. They've been fabulous. And also all the people that you just heard from are also fabulous leaders, Becky, Sue, Sarah. It's been a really exciting year here at the chapter and we're really excited to tell you all a little bit more about it. This has been a huge year. We came on with the new director, Sarah. We also have three staff, Matt Cannon who joined us previously and has stepped up into some really exciting advocacy and legislative roles and just had a nice big win for Jared Golden in district two, Marina Bach and also Anya Wright. And the chapter is really expanding. We're super proud and excited about this work and I hope you've been joining us for some of our other community conversations. There's a lot of other XCOM members on here that have been leading them. And we hope to share a little bit of that kind of programming tone tonight with this amazing panel discussion. The film tomorrow was really beautiful. And as Sarah said, she was looking for the charge to find a film that was optimistic about all the great work that we're doing and not just an environmental documentary that was painful. Again, if you haven't watched it, we're gonna just talk about the themes and these kind of amazing community leaders are on the call with us to discuss the themes in the work. But all of you who are here can watch it for free. I really recommend it. It's a good bomb to all the chaos of the past couple of weeks and moving forward into a new era. So I'm really proud to introduce our exciting panelists and they can unmute themselves. We're gonna ask everybody to turn off your video just so since we will have quite a few people on the call for now, I'm hoping at the end of the panel we can all turn our videos back on and give them a little round of applause. And also if you have questions for our panelists, please put them into the chat. Matt Cannon from our staff is gonna be looking at them and he'll ask them follow-up questions as well. So we have Amara Efveji, the grassroots development coordinator of Maine Environmental Education Association, Isabel Estevez, the senior policy advisor of a living economy for Sierra Club, Johanna Bosua, the climate and energy program co-manager of the Democracy Collective, John Brodigan, the attorney and the former state representative from 2004 to 2008 and also a fellow XCOM member of Sierra Club Maine and then Kate Wallace, the program director of Resilience Hub. And they are going to be here talking about different themes including education, economy, renewable energy, democracy and urban agriculture which are all themes in the film. Each is gonna present for five minutes and then we'll have a panel discussion with all of them following up. We're really excited to have them on this call and the film and what each of them represents is that we truly need an intersectional grassroots coalition to move forward. So we're gonna kick it off with Amara and some thoughts about education here in Maine. Awesome. Well, thank you so much Kelsey. So as Kelsey said, my name is Amara and I'm the grassroots development coordinator with Maine Environmental Education Association. And so of course that is my role but first and foremost, I'm a student. I go to Northeastern and I'm studying philosophy, politics and economics. I don't tell people that because it's kind of a mouthful but I would say first starting with education I think of my education experience in Maine learning about climate change or rather in my case a lack thereof. Every single climate change, climate justice oriented, everything that I saw was self-sought in that I didn't really learn anything in school. I mean, I would not count recess as environmental education or as climate education but that's pretty much all that I had. And although I would have just so loved to have to have had that kind of education I am very grateful that I self sought those opportunities because I got to learn about climate change not grew a scientific context of, this is a graph of CO2 trends over the past 100 years or something but instead about how climate justice is really a movement for the people and that it's impacting people's lives and that is the urgency around it, not numbers but what those numbers are doing to individuals and the disparity within this crisis. And so in self-seeking these learning opportunities I think I was 16 when I first attended the Maine Environmental Education Association's Fall Gathering and so there I really was made aware of the disparities between climate justice and the racial justice crisis as well as so many other intersectional social justice issues that are linked with climate change. And I became so impassioned by the issue for environmental learning for climate justice and advocating for it. And so actually when I attended the gathering I didn't know that three years later I would be actually working for Mia but that's actually how it came to be full circle. And so now in this role we're really advocating for policy level change. Mia is extremely collaborative in nature and so it collaborates with another environmental entity the Nature-Based Education Consortium and together they really just have a common goal of environmental and climate justice education for all Maine youth. And so because of this the Nature-Based Education Consortium and a task force that I am part of the Climate Change Education Task Force it submitted recommendations to the Maine Climate Council around climate change education for K through 12 youth. And it was definitely a feat that we did not think we could even accomplish at the beginning of our task force in the production of it but we not only were these recommendations submitted but they were very much so positively received by the members of the Maine Climate Council which we were so grateful for. Alongside this Mia also has other grassroots level environmental education initiatives such as this mini-grant that we just launched on Teacher Appreciation or Educator Appreciation Day. And so it was very eye-opening to see how much funding and how much need there is. Educators were writing reports on this is what the school needs in order to implement these practices in order to have their kids be able to connect with the environment. And so today we had our final meeting just narrowing down who gets the funding. And according to metrics it looks like we're hitting about 1 7th of all Maine public schools who are receiving this funding which just makes my heart so warm. And so this is the work that I am doing at the Maine Environmental Education Association and there's just so much need for education really because if young folks, if students have a connection to place with the environment then they're going to be prompted and compelled to act on it to make sure that Mother Nature is being treated that the way that she is supposed to be treated being preserved the way she's supposed to be preserved. And so I guess that's my little spiel and I will pass it off to Kelsey to introduce the next speaker. Thank you so much, Amara. It takes all different kinds of educational initiatives on every different age group demographic. It's really tremendously important work and part of kind of the advocacy awareness building and we're going to talk about that more in the Q&A. So this will be a little... I'm going to hand it over to Isabel next who is joining us to talk about the economy and her work as a policy advisor. Thank you so much, Kelsey. And thank you so much for having me and especially also for sharing this film with us because it really, it brought me a much needed dose of optimism by reminding me of all the concrete experiences around the world that show that economic transformation is not only possible that it's already happening and that it's well underway. So what I wanted to do with my five minutes is talk a little bit about the interface between local experiences like the ones that were showcased in the film and the federal policies for economic transformation that we're pushing for in our campaign for economic renewal at the Living Economy Program where I'm a senior policy advisor. And I'd say first of all that the way that we've been approaching policy design and an advocacy in our program is by thinking and trying to envision federal policies that are both ambitious and that solving national and global challenges like climate change and at the same time are designed to support and to scale up locally rooted initiatives like the ones we saw in the film instead of imposing top-down policies that don't really lend themselves to being tailored to the needs of particular community which is solved in the case. So that's the broad policy challenge that we're constantly trying to solve for. And it's also what we've tried to reflect in the vision for economic transformation that we've laid out in the Thrive Agenda which I want to talk about a little bit. And for those of you that are not familiar with it the Thrive Agenda is a comprehensive vision for economic renewal that's accompanied by an investment plan to put 16 million people back to work over the next 10 years building an economy that prioritizes racial, economic and climate justice. And to build cross-movement unity and momentum for an economic renewal package that can make Thrive real, earlier this year we co-led the development of a Thrive Congressional Resolution which has gained support from over 100 members of Congress and over 250 of the largest union, racial justice, climate and other grassroots groups around the country. Chuck Schumer even pledged that Thrive would be a Thrive Relyne legislation would be a top priority for 2021 so we'll be working hard to keep leadership accountable on that. In terms of what Thrive would mean in terms of economic transformation I do want to share some numbers hopefully meaningful numbers. First, economists have estimated that an investment plan based on Thrive would create nearly 16 million jobs and sustain them for the next decade. That means that Thrive would create enough jobs for all of the 14 million people that are currently unemployed in the US and would essentially eliminate the unemployment crisis. Second, those jobs would cover all sectors of the economy. We'd have 5 million jobs going to rebuild our broken infrastructure over 4 million jobs to expand clean renewable energy and energy efficiency over 4 million jobs investing in land restoration and regenerative agriculture and over 2 million jobs supporting the care economy and vital public services. And of those about 1.5 million are going to manufacturing to help revitalize our high-skill manufacturing base. And it's also worth highlighting that Thrive isn't just calling for jobs by calling for high-quality jobs that would offer safe workplaces, family sustaining wages and benefits and access to unions. And it also calls for equitable access to those jobs, prioritizing communities in greatest need and incorporating standards for equitable hiring, community benefit agreements and community governance and control of investment. So that's the economic renewal that Thrive is calling for. And to make it real in the next few months we'll be working to get four policies across the finish line. The first would be a Thrive-esque economic recovery package with five to 10 trillion dollars going to job creating investments that prioritize climate, racial and economic justice. Second, a bill to create a new investment institution that we need to mobilize capital strategically and at the scale that we need for economic renewal. And that's where we're working really hard to design an institution that can ensure that money is going directly to communities to replicate and scale up good local initiatives that are already happening. Third, we're working on a by clean bill, a bill for government procurement that requires companies to disclose and to limit their industrial pollution in order to sell goods to the US government. The US government spends about two trillion dollars every year on goods and services. So we want to make sure that those are sustainable goods and services that create quality jobs and benefit workers and communities more than corporations. And finally, to make sure that we're being consistent with this vision for economic transformation and our economic relationships with the rest of the world, we're also working to establish a bill, on a bill to establish a new climate friendly trade model that raises environmental standards and labor standards both at home and around the world and reverses bad trade deals that have only made it worse and easier to poison communities. So that in a nutshell is our agenda for economic transformation. Super happy to delve into any of that in the Q&A and thanks again so much for having me. Back to you Kelsey. Thank you so much Isabel and thanks for joining us from across the country. And it's a really inspiring vision that I think has taken on some extra urgency with the financial recession when I'm seeing with COVID and I hope that we can continue to gain some popular traction with what that economic and environmental vision look like. Thank you so much. And next up, we have Johanna from the Democracy Collaborative. I'm excited to turn it over to her to talk about the role of renewable energy in this movement. Yeah, thank you so much Kelsey and thank you to Isabel and Amara. Also, I'm sure that like these pieces will intersect as we're speaking and yeah, thank you so much for having me on this call. So yes, I'm Johanna and I work for a think tank organization called the Democracy Collaborative which is really about addressing systemic crises through bold thinking that's like grounded in economic justice. So the pieces that Isabel brings around the economy and connecting that in my case at the Democracy Collaborative to the new energy system that we're creating. And I think as both Amara and Isabel pointed out, like right now we are operating within an extractive energy economy where not only are we extracting from the ground we are communities that are the least off and largely black, brown and indigenous communities are those who are holding the burden of our infrastructure, of our pollution and also the ultimate impacts of climate change that are already starting to occur. And so how, as Isabel has already mentioned as well it's clear that like this issue of renewable energy is like not one of solely CO2. It's about how our political economy created a context for this. And so I think that's actually like super grounding and important in terms of how we think about how we're re-envisioning our renewable energy system. Things that I know are already on the ground starting to happen in Maine. And we have so much to do when it comes to this renewable energy transition and transformation we have to, you know deploy a huge amount of, you know community renewable energy, you know solar on rooftops we need to overhaul our buildings. I know Portland, Maine just passed a very cool Green New Deal focused on housing. We need to think about how we're going to rewire and electrify our landscape and how we build something that's resilient to the realities of climate change. And that is all like huge technological pieces that we have to do. And in order to do those things we are confronted with like structural pieces that stop that from happening. And so we have to consider like those structural issues of the political economy in order to tackle the new renewable energy transition. And in particular, make sure that transition to renewable energy is one that is more just and more sustainable on the long-term. And a concept that I use often and is emerging across the United States and globally is this concept of energy democracy. And this, what renewable or what energy democracy is is both about resisting fossil fuels and transitioning to renewable energy but doing that in a way that puts community in control in the driver's seat and distributes that wealth and distributes that opportunity. And that means that we actually have to confront the systems of power that we have now so that we can put something that's better in place. And I know Maine, we've already mentioned the consumer-owned utility that John, I will not steal John's thunder. He will like go into that in much detail but it's really cool to see Maine taking that on in a really clear way. Because I think that community and public ownership are ways for us to confront the corporate control of the energy system that we currently have and build something in which we can actually expand renewable energy. We can make sure that the benefits are going to folks that have been most affected by our current system and like intersecting systems of oppression that Amara also mentioned in her notes. And I think that that's like an extremely powerful thing. So in rewiring our energy system and our renewable energy system, we have a really powerful opportunity to ensure that it is going to be grounded in justice and climate justice and ensure that it has building blocks of democracy so that we have transparency, so we have participation so that we aren't seeing a renewable system that potentially continues systems of extraction in which only wealthy far away executives are reaping those benefits. It's something that is like in our community we see folks who have good unionized jobs that Isabel talked about. We see that we are lowering and limiting pollution. We're seeing that the energy burden that people feel right now in their buildings and in like when they get their utility bills is no longer there. So I think that there are already a good examples of this happening on the ground as tomorrow really showed us too. That this is not something that is theoretical, it's happening right now. And just a really good example of that is the work that's happening in Maine and also ones across the country. For instance, in Minneapolis, Minnesota there's a group called Cooperative Energy Futures which works to put community solar on community centers like churches. And in doing so, they are focused on providing 75% of that renewable energy to low income community members and also are enabling a jobs program of apprenticeships that brings folks who historically may not be in the energy sector in the renewable energy sector into the fold which builds a huge amount of community wealth. And so that is just one of many examples. Yeah, I think I'll like ended at that. I think this is our chance to really build a new more resilient energy system that reflects justice and reflects equity. And also in order for us to win, I actually think this is super important because I think what can happen if we don't confront those systems of power is that we will continue to see dragging a feat and how we build movement support and movement power is by showing that we're in this together and there's community behind it. So I think that ownership in renewable energy, is a powerful tool for us to win as well as grounded in those beneficial components of equity and justice. So I will stop there. Thank you so much, Johanna, like how it all maps over. Also your introduction of John perhaps should just stand on its own. So excited to welcome John to take some time here on our amazing call. John is a fellow XCOM member, an attorney, a former state rep, has been involved in clean elections, all different kinds of work about that kind of transparency, how we build better systems that really is also part of this fight that then will make for better legislative and political action. So John, take it away. Well, thank you so much, Kelsey. And what an honor to be here on this panel with Kate Namara and Isabelle and Johanna. Terrific, terrific presentations. And it's a real pleasure. I will not talk at any length about the consumer own utility, but I would love to come back to that at a future time and do an entire webinar on that issue to anybody who's interested because we are really all in on that. I'm gonna talk a little bit about democracy and it's kind of a snapshot of where we are from my point of view. Our democracy obviously is coming through one of the most intensive stress tests in our history and like what a ride it was. And some states are actually still counting every vote as we speak. We had a lot of challenges allowing voters to register and cast a ballot safely, fighting back against obstacles to voter participation, the record smashing early voting mostly by mail, all the pressure put on the people who run the elections and the systems and the resources that they rely on. And not to mention, of course, the widespread disruption of many democratic norms that we've seen from some of the leaders of this country over the recent years that's the blood right into our democratic processes. But it really was remarkable year and election and especially since COVID hit, right as the primaries in the candidate campaigns were gearing up in April and March of this year. But our democracy did well. Although we have work to do to break down barriers and to expand inclusion and to fight off voter suppression efforts, the fears of an election catastrophe, logistical or intentional interference in the election did not come to pass for the most part. We were ready for it. But democracy, as you all know, doesn't just happen. It's not like the weather or the sun rising in the morning. It requires our involvement and our engagement. This election cycle, unprecedented numbers of us got involved. And we took care of our democracy as we should. And we had a reminder through this process of how vitally important it is not just to get good policy enacted and to address the challenges around us, but simply to survive as a nation and as a planet. This was a real stress test. So congratulations to us all for the successes of this year. We also have just concluded the most expensive election cycle in history, not by a little bit, but by a lot. Double the fundraising and spending above wealthy special interests in the last election cycle since 2016. Doubled it. The two major presidential campaigns will have spent over $1 billion each in this cycle. The Democrats actually dominated $6.9 billion to $3.8 billion. Democrats are raising more money in part because women are increasing their giving up by 37% since 2016 for a total of giving by women of $2.5 billion in 2020. Over 40% of this is large individual donations. 22% is small donations. Independent expenditures also exploded up from $1.3 billion in 2016 to $2.6 billion. And large individual contributors like Michael Bloomberg and Sheldon Naleson gave $642 million to federal super PACs this year. Financial interest gave more to Republicans in the last cycle and put more to Democrats this cycle. A similar pattern occurred in Maine. Anyone who has not been on another planet for the last 12 months certainly knows that the Susan Collins Gideon race was absolutely off the charts in terms of spending. I was told by one political consultant that they termed down work because they knew that it wouldn't make a difference. There must be a better way for people to spend their money. Local races in Maine, although we have clean elections, there's still a lot of money. And there's concerns of those things that we could do to improve the democratic process and that this money is having an effect. We are examining the need to rein in leadership PACs and caucus PACs. And a big priority for 2021 will be looking at corporate contributions. The federal government banned these over 100 years ago and 22 states have banned corporate contributions, but in Maine they are still allowed. And we will be working on that as a priority in the coming year. Major industries that are contributing in our pharmaceuticals, financial interests, insurance, real estate and construction. And on the federal level, HR1, for the People Act, campaign finance, ethics and voting rights at the federal level, that is gonna be a priority for the next Congress. So let me just say finally, there's some big challenges ahead in our democracy, but my final word is don't give up. Grassroots organizing, it's a good antidote to the role of big money in politics. The Sierra Club continues working with groups like League of Women Voters and Maine Citizens for Clean Elections. And your civic participation is really the best way to fight back against this tsunami of big money. The good news, we passed the stress test, but there are challenges ahead and we will need to continue to fight against measures to suppress the vote. We will need to continue to strive to become a more perfect democracy of buying for the people. So that's it, thank you. You're here. Thank you so much, John, and a great rallying cry for our post-election lives. So we're making this kind of interesting venn diagram of all these different issues that are happening at the same time. And we're gonna take it from that big political overview to something super granular and held, which is agriculture, food justice. And at the cornerstone of that, I love the resilience hub so much. And so it's such a pleasure to introduce Kate Wallace, the program director of resilience hub to tell us about her work. Thanks, Kelsey, and thank you, everybody else who spoke before me. So part of my role at the resilience hub is to teach people about permaculture. And the most important thing to understand about permaculture is that it is a design system and it weaves together many different disciplines, including ecology and agriculture, regional planning, architecture, just to name a few. And so when we're talking about designing, using permaculture, we're talking about mimicking natural patterns to create ecosystems that are beneficial for humans as well as all of the other beings with whom we share this planet. And so permaculture essentially shows us that with conscious design, humans can have a positive impact on our environments, which is something that I feel like I never learned until I was an adult. I always was sort of, it was drilled into my head that the less impact humans have on our environments, the better, yeah, but to actually think that humans could have a positive impact on our environments was like mind blowing to me. And so for those of you who watched the movie, you saw the abundance of the farm Bec-Heloin, which is the farm in Normandy, France. And the farmers in that movie shared stories about their productivity. And what they credit is good design as the driving force behind their farm. And at one point, one of those farmers references a UN study that covered 68 countries. And he said, if everyone practiced permaculture, productivity could multiply by three or four times what you're seeing on a conventional farm. Since 70% of our food is already being produced by small farmers, we could feed 10 to 12 billion people in the next 20 years by creating millions of small urban farms. This would create millions of jobs, regenerate ecosystems by storing CO2 in the soil, allow farmers to earn more money and produce healthy food for the community. And so how would this work, these small urban farms? An urban permaculture micro-farm would not look like a conventional farm as we might envision it with straight rows of annual vegetables, growing in bare soil. And if you watched the film, that segment on the farm, you caught a glimpse of their edible forest garden. And so one of the things that we do at the resilience hub is we help install these kinds of gardens, these forest, edible forest gardens. We've installed many in the greater Portland area and around the state over the past 15 years. And so what we're talking about is like layered plants, like vertical growing. So fruit and nut trees as an overstory shrubs in a sort of an underlayer edible shrubs like blueberries or elderberry and then perennial herbs and annual vegetables in a sort of lower story and then a ground cover like say clover, for example, to fix nitrogen in the soil. And so all of these plants are serving different functions and we're essentially creating these ecosystems. Like I said at the beginning that are useful to both humans and also support the other creatures that we're sharing the planet with. So habitat for pollinators, food for wildlife and birds at the same time improving the soil and feeding the critters that are living underground, which are far more numerous than any of us that are above ground. And then also providing food and medicine and a myriad other benefits for the humans who are engaging with these ecosystems. So converting abandoned lots to food production is a great idea and it works really well in a city like Detroit, where there is a lot of vacant land. I was asked to speak about urban agriculture tonight. I want to acknowledge that obviously the bulk of the state of Maine is not urban and a lot of these techniques can be scaled to different acreages and also different communities. But so thinking about Portland, Maine, Portland, Maine is different, right? Land is a commodity that's harder to come by, especially on the peninsula. The city, however, owns different parcels of land and over the years dedicated volunteers have worked hard to populate different areas with these kinds of edible plantings that I'm talking about. One example of this is Mount Joy Orchard, which is a free to pick public food forest in the east end of Portland. It's managed by a core group of volunteers in conjunction with the city. And it was started seven years ago and now is home to over a hundred different fruit trees that are intercropped in the ways that I described with the various understories. So this is a real amazing accomplishment and it's all sort of spearheaded by this group of volunteers. Much of the work that was done in Mount Joy was accomplished through these community work parties that we call permablitzes at the Resilience Hub. This is a conjugation of the word permaculture and blitz and for like a five hour work day, anywhere from 15 to 70, we've had over 70 participants show up, people gather on a site and work together to install elements of a permaculture design. And so it's truly like a barn raising blitz. I mean, by the end of the day, you might not even recognize what the site looked like in the morning. And at a permablitz during normal times, not during pandemic times, we share food together, we meet our neighbors, we learn skills from one another and gain hands-on experience with these permaculture practices. And so the Resilience Hub has hosted these permablitzes both on residential sites and also in public spaces like community gardens and schools and city parks. And at these permablitzes, we built new gardens, we built herb spirals, grape arbors, chicken tractors, cob ovens, cold frames, vertical growing structures and lots more. So permablitzes really provide this sort of intensive energy and transformation that wouldn't be possible without all of these hands working together. So I think that all of these pieces, trying to paint sort of a picture of what is possible in both of our urban communities, but also in rural communities, we've held permablitzes as well. One more example of a possibility for urban agriculture, cooperative growing endeavors. So in 2004, there was a project started in Portland called the Winter Cash Project where folks got together who wanted to grow a winter food supply but didn't have access to land on which to do it. And so they partnered with a farmer just outside of the city and on an acre of land, they grew winter crops and stored them in one of the members' root cellar. So it became this sort of community root cellar. And then everybody who participated in the project over the course of the summer took food from that root cellar and was able to feed themselves over the winter. So again, what is possible when people come together and take control of their food supply and take their food security into their own hands, there's a lot of possibility there. So I'll stop there, but I could keep talking about this stuff all day. So thank you for having me. We'll keep talking, Kate. Thank you so much. I'm so inspired. Sign me up for permablitz and just a reminder that Sierra Club, a lot of these organizations or movements that we talk about are activist or volunteer led or fueled by volunteer labor. And I know that's a little bit hard during the pandemic, but we hope that everybody on this call, when things are safer, we'll consider how they can get involved, whether that's in your own home or in your community volunteering. I love the idea of the permablitz bar and riser. So I think that's a perfect segue into our first question for panelists. Just so much about the heart of this film was about dismantling this doomsday scenario because of the power of the re-imagination of humans. And at the beginning of the film, Rob Hopkins spoke about how perhaps saying that we're bad at imagining prosperity compared to imagining despair, but yet the film features all these amazing folks who are really re-imagining things from the roots up. So each of you as people involved in this, and maybe we can just, I would love to do just kind of a round robin for this first question. So maybe we can go in the order that we did the presentations. What do you think is the role of visioning in our work and what is your vision for the future? I'm gonna hand that to you, Amara, unless you'd like to pass them and let somebody else jump in. Yeah, I can start with that. I think the vision that I have for this work, it's, I think about it a lot because when I'm engaged in this work, I am typically younger than the folks I am working with. And when talking about the climate crisis and addressing these issues, it is addressing these issues for our sons and daughters for people who are going to be born and for students and for youth. And then I think this is addressing the issue, frankly, for myself because I'm actually gonna be alive when this issue comes to be in a way that we can't go back from it. So my vision for the future and what that looks like just, I would throw it back to education and making sure everyone is aware of these issues because in being aware of these issues, in knowing what is going on, then folks are more likely to want to spark change, to want to change their actions so that they are not contributing to the issue itself. And I think that is what I would envision my future as a collective act by all citizens in addressing this issue. Isabel, do you wanna jump in? Yes, I would love to. I really love that question actually because it's such an important topic and it's one that at least in my world and in policy we don't think about it enough. And I think it's because we tend to be a bit backward looking in our analysis and we don't really appreciate that policy is about problem solving and problem solving is about using imagination and creativity to really think outside the box and find solutions to the very tough problems that we face. But I wanted to actually talk about a couple of experiences that I think can be inspirational in that regard. I was learning recently about how in Singapore their policy design process involves hiring fiction writers to help develop a vision of the future that is then used to guide their policy planning which I think is amazing. And when I was working in Ecuador a while back we would also start, we had plans, development plans that were about five years long but before drafting the policy we would start with drafting a vision for what the country should look like in 30 years and then work backwards and think about the policies and the targets that we need to hit on the way there. And that was also really clarifying it helps you really build alignment and clarity about what you want and your priorities. And it also gives you motivation to really work toward realizing that vision. In terms of what that vision actually looks like I think we have a lot more visioning to do as a movement and the first thing that came to mind is actually this message from the future video that AOC and Naomi Klein put out with the Intercept last year which was really cool because it paints a really clear picture. It shows bullet trains from New York to DC, a very diverse Congress, clean energy, universal healthcare and childcare and federal work programs for ecosystem restoration and the like. So I think we need a lot more of these kinds of essentially cultural products out there that are a big part of the narrative element of the political strategy that we should be advancing as a movement. So all for more visioning we need a lot more work there. Ms. Kelsey. Thank you. I put the link in the chat. I love that film very much. It was also a very short inspiring thing. Johanna, you wanna jump in? Yeah, wow, everything that has been said already is so spot on and I completely agree. And I think like another thing when it comes to this visioning that I think is powerful is the fact that like climate is such an entity, like the issue of climate and climate justice does intersect in so many different ways like throughout our society, throughout our economy. And so it means that we can't just tinker at the edges. It really does force us to pull ourselves out of that framework and like design and like do that visioning and like think of new systems and not get stuck in like just what we've done before but to learn from our histories and like build something that's like, that's going to work for our current context. So I mean, I think a lot of my vision for climate is like to build it beyond a frame of like carbon emissions that has been talked about. I think basically everyone on this call has hit on that already but the fact that we can like think about healthcare within the context of climate that we can talk like talk about racial justice within the context of climate and like how that actually unlocks a lot of potential to vision. So maybe not a perfect answer to your question but like when I'm thinking of that visioning like what could be unlocked? Funds to vision. John, you wanna talk about something besides the government or what's your vision for the future? I would just say briefly that visioning in my mind happens parallel with listening and with storytelling and propagation of stories and that's important part of our work to be doing is to be listening to the stories of other people and incorporating that into our visioning. And I also say that at a time of great disruption which I think we have been in the flip side of that is the opportunity to make those visions a reality. And for me, my personal vision is a greater sense of community at all levels from neighborhood all the way to the globe itself a greater sense of connection and community and mutual responsibility for each other. Thank you. That was really beautiful. Kate, you wanna close us out with your vision? Yeah, John, that was really well said and I think one thing maybe I would just add to that is more, I guess my vision for the future would be a more place-based sort of localized ecological literacy and understanding of where we are and how we are in relationship to the different forces that we interact with as humans that we're not just alone and on our own and superior on this planet. And yeah, hopefully we'll get there. We were there at one time in our history. So I hope it's possible to get back there. I hope so too. We're gonna jump into some questions for individual panelists and then I'm gonna ask for another turn around Robin question. We're gonna start with, let's see here, perhaps with Johanna we're gonna kind of get into looking at Maine and then looking at external models with each of the speakers. What do you think is limiting renewable energy here in Maine in comparison to places like Iceland or these other re-imagining sites that we've seen and what can we do to change this rhetoric and reimagine things here? Yeah, I think it's a great, super great question. And I think one of the biggest issues is one that John was also hitting on a little bit when it came to our democracy and how we have it in the United States have a particularly huge amount of influence of corporate actors upon our democracy. And I think that that has historically been a major hindrance in us being able to get the things that we want and achieve the goals that we want, particularly on climate. And I think that's why the fight for a consumer owned utility in Maine is a really powerful example where you all are charting new territory and like how we actually tackle this problem. So there are historical examples of like public ownership but you all and like community ownership in the energy sector, but this is like a whole state like taking this type of action so that it is reflective of folks who live in Maine, I think is going to be very inspiring and something that could by you all following that or like taking that path chart futures for other people as well in other places that take out that corporate interest in basic services and like in this transition that we like desperately need. So I think that that would be like a major kind of hindrance that I see that in Maine, you all are actively working to find solutions too. Yeah, and I'd love to talk about one of the disruptions to non-solutions. John, can you chime in here a little bit with what Sierra Club has been doing with some other community partners and what the news is on the fight to stop the CMP transmission line? Well, sure, just briefly, the transmission line is still one of the top issues and top priorities going forward and the Sierra Club has jumped in to work on a legal challenge to that. And I don't know whether it's possible to tag Becky to unmute her to say a few things here, but the legal challenge is, are you able to be unmuted? Because Becky's the real- Yeah, I can, sure, yeah. Thanks, John. It's not news that we are opposing or working to try to get the Army Corps of Engineers to treat us just like all the other states that have had an application from Massachusetts to get Hydro-Quebeck power down to Massachusetts. We are fighting to get an environmental impact statement done because there are just too many unknowns about the impact of the state of Maine. It's the most environmentally impactful of the three states in New England. And actually just today, we filed or actually it was yesterday in the end of the day, we filed a preliminary injunction against CMP to prevent them from starting construction until our lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers goes forward in the courts. So the preliminary injunction was filed yesterday and we are hoping to stop that construction until we can see some environmental analysis that's really viable. It's been a very opaque process. The Army Corps of Engineers summarily removed the requirement that the Department of Energy presidential permit would be required before there could be forward movement. And that happened sometime between July and August. And that has been required. And they also, the Department of Energy will require a 30 day comment period. And suddenly the Army Corps permit does no longer requires them to have the presidential permit. CMP was hoping to start construction on December 4th and we're gonna try to stop that. So that's where we are right now. Thank you so much. And it's really exciting work. I hope that everybody will kind of keep their eyes on the news as this hopefully doesn't move forward and all of these legal actions really make some more assessment. So thank you. And I just say one thing, we are working with the Appalachian Mountain Club and the Natural Resources Council of Maine on this particular lawsuit. Our Department of Energy lawsuit is independent of them. So. Yeah, at Coalition Building, it's really important. Thanks for giving credit where it's due. I'm gonna ask a question of Isabel and thinking about like, we can do legal actions. We can talk about these grassroots movements. But a big part of this is also about changing the economy to solve climate change. And so what are some important things for us to consider in our own lives or here in Maine about circular economies and how we move forward with a new economy based on renewable energy and different policies? Sure, thanks Kelsey. And I'll preface this by saying that by my best efforts, I am not knowledgeable enough about Maine specifically, I think to give very tailored recommendations, but I'll do what I can. And when, yeah, when you mentioned circular economy, I think the main thing that came to mind is this example from the film that we all watched where they talk about this very simple thing of recycling in California. And I think the reason that it struck me is because it just reminded me of how much there still is to do in terms of industrial transformation. That's been on the agenda for a very long time and it's pretty straightforward as a means for realizing a lot of these objectives. In this case, the objective of minimizing waste or reducing waste to zero. Before I moved back to the U.S. last year, I actually lived in Berlin for a while and I was really jealous of the recycling system because I never experienced anything like it in the States. They actually put a bin in your house to recycle and compost pretty much everything. They haven't been for glass, they've been for plastics, they've been for carbon paper, they've been for compost. And if you wanna make money, you can even just go to your local grocery store and put your plastic and glass bottles in a machine and it pays you. So I'd say that in addition to all the really lofty policies that we have to build renewable energy, industry and infrastructure, et cetera, to make our buildings cleaner and more efficient. I think we also had to think about investing in the creation of these less sexy industries like recycling and composting that can actually make a huge contribution to stopping ecosystem degradation and even in the case of composting to ecosystem restoration. I think Bernie Sanders even had a proposal for National Zero Waste Initiative of that sort, including a national recycling company. I know that there are plenty of other examples of that sort out there. So that's what I wanna do highlight that I think when we're thinking about industrial investment and investments in economic transformation, there are a lot of very simple accessible things that we can do tomorrow. It would just prioritize them to make a huge difference that would move us quickly to something like circular waste. But just to add to that, I would recommend that if folks have time, the jobs report that goes along with the thrive agenda also has a line by line description of the kinds of investments that we would need to realize our climate, EJ objectives and more. So that gives you lots of examples of investments that are much needed and can be easily done. Thank you so much. And the flip side of composting is also good agriculture practices, just end to end circular good food system. So let's flip it back to Kate if we can. And the film explored many solutions to food shortages, food deserts, food insecurity. What solutions to these issues do you think are the most important and pressing for us to put our energy behind? Do we lose Kate? Well, I'm gonna hop off that, unless one of you wanna jump in and answer to on the panel, I'm gonna then ask my question for Amara, which is how do we include climate change in our education system, especially with young people without making them fearful? Yeah, thanks so much, Kelsey, for that question. That is a great question. It's really hard, I mean, for adults even to learn about this existential crisis that being climate change, let alone kids, let alone high school students and middle schoolers. And I think that one thing in my educational endeavors when learning about this issue that I focused on that really helped to kind of cope with that unknowing, with that uncertainty, with that anxiousness that I felt around this issue is not looking, I guess, at the issue itself, but looking at the climate justice movement, looking at how youth have really just mobilized around these efforts, millions of youth across the country and empowering students and saying, this is what is being done now, and this is how you can contribute to the change. This is how you can make sure that these issues, they are not exacerbated. So I think that climate change education is just so needed in our education system. And one way not only to teach about climate change, but to make sure that youth feel empowered to take action is by highlighting the youth climate justice movement. Thank you so much. And there is, yeah, as our awards were given out to, there's amazing youth organizers here in Maine and it's really exciting to see the age of our panel reflect a really diverse range with youth leaders. So I'm going to, if it's all right with everybody, I'm going to introduce Shana Bellows, who's here to give us a little bit of a talk in spirit of keeping on the timeline, but I would hope that people could stand and look all out. I saw a bunch of comments and questions in the chat, but I'd love to stay on track and then maybe we can close. And if there's still some good conversation, I could stay and chat with you all and listen to you all for a while. So let's bring Shana into this. I'm so excited to welcome Shana to the conversation. I met her very briefly a couple of years ago at the Camden International Film Festival. We were both clamoring to speak to the directors of American Factory, where I learned about Shana's kind of passionate and amazing work about labor in Maine and reimagining labor in the 21st century in the wake of environmentalism and with equity at the heart of it. She is the executive director of the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine. She was the longtime executive director of ACLU of Maine for eight years and is the state senator for Senate District 14. And so I welcome her to share her story and join us in this conversation. Thank you so much, Kelsey. And since we're all on Zoom and we're not in a room, I want everyone to do a big stretch and sort of a cheer like, yay Sierra Club. This is the best group ever. And I'm gonna start with a couple of thank yous and I'm gonna invite you at home to be like, yeah. As I'm just thanking and congratulating a couple of people to start before I get into what Sarah Layton asked me to speak about. So first, this is just an incredibly uplifting and innovative annual meeting. I'm so great, Flynn inspired. So your first EA to the award winners and the Maine Youth Climate Justice to Jim Fritt, to representatives Nicole Grohowski and Seth Berry, you are amazing, strong, smart, principle leaders making change. Yay, let's give everybody a great big, big round of applause or you can do reactions on your Zoom thumbs up or hand clapping. You know, last night my husband and I watched tomorrow and when it started, he said, uh-oh. He said, I thought you said this was an uplifting movie and I said, I promise it is. And what really stayed with me was what Kelsey described about visioning possibility. That's what the film does. So earlier this year, I happened to share what a profound impact all of you at Sierra Club Maine chapter had on me from my first moment in electoral politics and how that shaped the work I do today gave me the strength to carry on. And so I shared that just in a personal sharing and your wonderful chapter director Sierra Leigh asked me to share that with you tonight. So I do wanna say that my first partnership with Sierra Club Maine was back in 2011. As the film demonstrated, voting rights and democracy reform are fundamental to everything else that we do. And when in 2011, then Governor Paula Page signed into law repeal of Maine's longstanding same day voter registration law, the grassroots, it was the people that sprung into action. I co-chaired a People's Veto campaign in 2011. 22 progressive groups joined the fight. Sierra Club Maine chapter was there from the beginning recognizing that democracy is fundamental to everything else that we do and we won. So that was my first taste of partnership with Sierra Club Maine and all of you who are so active knocking on doors, canvassing for signatures, canvassing for votes, talking to friends and neighbors and making positive change. So then I took on Sierra Susan Collins. I launched my campaign in 2013. Sierra Club was the first and only Maine-based environmental group to back me. I can't tell you how much that meant to me personally, but more importantly, to the activists I was working with, we were desperate at the time to stop the Keystone Pipeline, something I opposed and Susan supported. We saw ourselves as representing this grassroots movement so alarmed by the acceleration of climate change and ready to stand up and fight. So losing to Collins wasn't unexpected, but it was hard. It was really hard and seeing LaPage re-elected that year as well, just so dispiriting. I might have been discouraged. I might have given up. Electoral politics can be brutal. And then Sierra Club did something remarkable. Your leadership at the time invited me to come to your 2014 annual meeting at Bowdoin College to be a keynote speaker. And that was an incredible gift to someone who had just lost so publicly and dramatically. But not because you asked me to speak, but because of that day in workshops on concrete actions that we could take to make a difference on community solar projects, community gardens, passenger rail. I came to speak, but I left inspired to act. I had just started my own small business consulting to nonprofits. Sierra Club was my first client. The challenge to convince Republicans in the legislature to back a feasibility study to explore passenger rail from Portland to Lewiston, a study sponsored by then Representative Jared Golden. What was so cool about that work was I got to see all of you in action. Sierra Club members do a lobby day that is phenomenal. Sierra Club members were determined and eager to talk to everyone, even though we were talking about a half a million dollar feasibility study for a big dream, passenger rail in Maine, something that we continue to work toward. The study passed out of transportation committee, and then it got included in the budget. But we thought we were done for because Paula Page, he had a Christmas tree, and he put these little pigs on the Christmas tree identifying specific, in his mind, pork projects. And he identified the passenger rail study as something that he was going to block. Well, Sierra Club members flooded the phones, flooded the members of the legislature that year with calls, and we were able to get it passed with one big caveat. The study passed. The state agreed to put up $400,000 for the study, but it had to be matched by a combined $100,000 from Lewiston and Auburn. Again, Sierra Club members stepped up, contacting city counselors, working, doing power mapping and community organizing to convince the city counselors and the two Republican mayors of the Twin Cities to envision a better future and invest in that study. And you, Sierra Club, yet again, won under very difficult conditions. Fast forward to 2016, there was an opportunity to run for a state senate, my state senate district, and Sierra Club was there to back me. In a year that Trump won my state senate district, I also won my state senate district because of volunteers. Sierra Club members in my district who drove me door to door, and together we knocked on 10,000 doors. I served in the minority in the state senate in 2016. I got my heart broken, as all of us did, with the defeats of some critical bills, like the solar bill that year. But you didn't give up. Sierra Club activists never gave up. Sierra Club was an incredibly important presence in Augusta that year, holding the legislature and holding the governor accountable, and then working to win a pro-environment majority in 2018. And that's yet another time that I saw Sierra Club shine. Because there's a real question in advocacy, right? In activism, what's your approach? Do you settle or compromise your ideals for what people perceive as possible in the interest of winning? Or do you stand up on principle? Do you envision what is possible? Do you have big ideas and then fight hard to realize them? You know, the right wing describes something that they call the overton window, which is to move the center of public discussion by standing up on pure principle. And maybe you don't get what you want, but you move that window toward the center. And I saw, time and time again, Sierra Club's adherence to principle, imagining the change we'd like to see in this world in a big way. Representative Chloe Maximum won a Republican district that year in 2018. This time she defeated Maine's assistant majority leader and won, she'll be serving in the Senate. But she had the courage to introduce a Green New Deal for Maine and Sierra Club activists backed her every step of the way. And here, a first year legislator with a big idea got it passed because of people like you. So as we look to the future, what's next? In my day job, I run the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine, founded by Holocaust survivors in 1985. We have a mission to inspire people to really confront prejudice and discrimination. And I think what Sierra Club is recognizing, what we're all beginning to recognize is that systemic racism, that white supremacy and oppression are blocking positive change, big change on the environment, on every front really. My nephew, he's two years old. He's named Kelvin John Muir Bellows. That's right, John Muir, like the founder or one of the founders of Sierra Club. My brother and his wife bonded over their love of the West Coast Mountains. And to this day, they're always finding the highest, most challenging peaks they can climb. So I paid attention. When Sierra Club did something incredibly hard and incredibly important, challenging a beloved figure in your movement, John Muir, for his racist words and actions that harmed black, indigenous and people of color. It takes an extraordinary organization to reexamine and confront its own mythology, to confront its founding story, its founder, and to confront white supremacy and make no mistake. Sierra Club is an extraordinary organization because that work, we can't just confront those with whom we disagree. We can't just confront the other, the enemy. We have to confront ourselves and systemic racism and oppression in ourselves. So now I have a question for you. I asked Sarah if it was okay and the executive committee authorized me to ask this question a few times in a few different ways. It's a really important question and I want you to think about it seriously. I've shared with you how Sierra Club has been a partner and a supporter and really inspired me to be better, to do more, to try harder, even when at first we don't succeed. So here's my question. What is your vision for the future? The panel tonight was incredible. What is your vision for the future? Is it what Amara said, a collective act by all citizens in addressing these issues? Will you be alive when climate change reaches a point we can't go back? Or will your children or your grandchildren? Can you commit a gift of time or money to Sierra Club tonight? Some of you have already made your end of year donation to Sierra Club. Can you go online tonight and make yet another gift? What is your vision for the future? Here's the link. Great job, Sarah. It's right there in the chat. You can just click it. What is your vision for the future? Isabel asked, what will the country look like in 30 years? Have you taken the time to imagine what will your home, what will your property, what will our state, what will our country look like in 30 years? What could it look like? Could it be a vibrant, amazing garden like what we saw in the film and the work that Kate is doing? Well, to make that happen, can you give a gift tonight to Sierra Club of $1 or $10 or $100 to contribute to that vision? What's your vision of the future? Do you believe, as Johanna said, that the issues of climate change and climate justice intersect in so many different ways throughout our society and our democracy? Can you give a gift tonight to Sierra Club to support climate justice? Seriously, what is your vision for the future? Do you believe, as John said tonight, that it's a greater sense of connection and community and mutual responsibility for each other? Can you make a gift tonight to support Sierra Club, to create community, to create connection, to make change? And finally, I ask, what is your vision for the future? Is it a concrete action, like what Kate is leading, to grow food locally, to create communities that can feed ourselves and our people and end hunger? You know, I grew up poor, that electricity were running water until I was in the fifth grade. I was a free lunch kid. So I think a lot about how we feed our communities and how we end hunger. And you make a gift tonight to support Sierra Club's work for true sustainability. There's a $12,000 challenge for Sierra Club tonight going on right now for every dollar, even if it's just $1 or $5, really grassroots power, or $100 or more, even $1,000 if you could, if you have that means. That gift will be matched tonight up to $12,000 and over the next few days. For justice, for equity, for our future, I encourage you to give. And from the very bottom of my heart, I just want to say, Sierra Club has changed my life for the better and Sierra Club has helped to build lasting and positive change in our state. Thank you. Thank you so much. I hope everybody can turn their video on and maybe we can give a round of applause for Shanna and all of our panelists. Just tremendous. And I hope you go to gallery view and see everybody clapping. It's a beautiful group of people we have here. Thank you so much for all being on this call. I'm gonna ask one last question of our panel. And I just want to remind everybody, you know, November 4th, we officially exited the Paris Climate Agreement. There is tons of work still to be done. We can do it in our daily lives. We can do it whether that's us as individuals in an equity centered coalition with energy democracy or with community agriculture. There are so many steps we can take. And so I'm gonna hand it off to our panel about what they want your takeaway. For one step you can take to help build a better future and vision a world or realize a vision for our world. So whoever wants to jump in, we don't have to go in a specific order. I can jump in first, I guess. And I would just say, I mean, it's hard to follow after Shana gave that incredible speech. Oh my gosh. And I completely agree. I think one of the things I heard Shana say is to like get organizing and like plug in. And this seems like such an incredible group of people to do that plugging in with. So I think that's like definitely a key takeaway is plug in so you can make that vision a reality. Yeah, I was thinking something very similar. Find your nearest climate action team and get involved, sign up, volunteer. And if there isn't one where you are, then start one. Yeah, and just thinking back on that, I think also something I've been thinking about lately is how we bring more people to the movement. So maybe one challenge that we can set for ourselves is just talking to someone that's not plugged in and has no interest in plugging in. But it is because maybe they're discouraged and they just don't know what there is out there that they could be plugging into. So maybe that's something we can all do. I haven't done it. So I'll set the challenge for myself. Yeah, and just tying into everything that's been said, I think that there is no definition of who is supposed to be, supposed to be involved in this work. Everyone is supposed to be involved in this work because together that's how we can make the systems change. So from the youngest little kiddos to some older folks, I think that just one thing that should be known is that we're all in this together and that's how we can make this change. Awesome. Shana, do you wanna chime in? I love what Amar just said that everyone can be involved. And I guess I would just say don't give up, right? We're in this really time of disruption and sometimes despair and people we love are getting sick and people we care about are dying. Like that is very dark and everyone on this call recognizes the threat that climate change poses but despair and fear are not good motivators for action. So don't give up, keep working. You know, I remember in 2014, sorry, I'm going on for a minute, but in 2014 in that solar panel, somebody mentioned that there's a cap on who could participate in the community solar farm and I was like, that is so crazy. And you know, they're like, yeah, well, unfortunately it doesn't look like it's gonna change but we're gonna try. Well, last year we signed into law, huge solar energy bill, we got rid of that cap. So it's, you know, you just can't give up just cause you lose the first time. True story. Thank you all so much. Please find the link again to the donate if you are digitally averse our address is P.O. Box 1374 Yarmouth Main and 04096. I will stick that in the chat as well. We wanna thank all of our sponsors and I've been told that we've been collecting a resource guide that's going to be distributed with some further answers, local resources and national resources to look at on all these different issues that the film brought up. Thank you to all of our speakers and making time tonight to join our coalition. This work is so important now more than ever and hopefully we're on to a whole new front here in 2021. Thank you all and good night. That was really great Sarah. Thank you so much.