Esparanza: A Daily Outsider Public Service Initiative

  Heather Cox Richardson Early in the morning on June 17, 1972, Frank Wills, a 24-year-old security guard at the Watergate Office Building in Washington, D.C., noticed that a door lock had been taped open. He ripped off the tape and closed the door, but when he went on the next round, he found the door taped open again. He called the police, who found five burglars in the Democratic National Committee headquarters located in the building. And so it began. The U.S. president, Richard M. Nixon, was obsessed with the idea that opponents were trying to sink his campaign for reelection. The previous year, in June 1971, the  New York Times  had begun to publish what became known as the Pentagon Papers, a secret government study that detailed U.S. involvement in Vietnam from presidents Harry Truman to Lyndon Johnson. While the study ended before the Nixon administration, it showed that presidents had lied to the American people, and Nixon worried that the story would hurt his ad...

 We present the following courtesy the Team at Global Citizen especially as we deal with the ever profound challenges of climate change: especially on World Environment Day as we note in the strongest possible term:  #OnlyOneEarth: How Coldplay & Global Citizens From Around The World Teamed Up To Defend The Planet Credit: Leo Correa/AP Dear Mike,   For the first time in history, climate change is causing the Amazon Rainforest to emit more greenhouse gases than it’s able to absorb. Today, a combination of manmade and natural disasters has displaced millions of people who call this region home, and devastated over 8,000 square miles of precious forest.    That’s why in 2021, ahead of the Global Citizen Live broadcast and festival event, Coldplay and thousands of Global Citizens,  Re:wild , and the  Center for Environmental Peacebuilding  teamed up to call on world leaders to urgently  defend the planet .  LEARN MORE This meant demandin...

Registration is now open  for the 2022 Great California ShakeOut Earthquake Drill! International ShakeOut Day is October 20 this year, however, you can hold your drill on any day of the year. Be registering now as a household, school, or organization, you will help inspire millions more people worldwide to practice  Drop, Cover, and Hold On  or other protective actions (see image below), and to become better  prepared to survive and recover !   Community groups can also participate in ShakeOut, and work together year-round to improve their resilience. See the announcement below for a   webinar  May 17 @ 3pm  for a great example from the Coachella Valley! Register Join the Earthquake Country Alliance tomorrow, from 3 to 4pm PT, for the fifth Community Engagement Webinar. This time we feature the Coachella Valley Disaster Preparedness Network, (CVDPN), an NGO non-profit aimed to train, educate a...

  Key learnings from the new State of the Earth report Between Earth Day last Friday and Arbor Day on April 29, the last full week of April has many opportunities for Americans to reflect on the environment. The  third-annual State of the Earth report is here  to aid in that. This new report features data from government agencies responsible for safeguarding and measuring the nation's air, land, and water conservation, and energy production. What do the numbers say? Here's a preview:   Last year, Mississippi and Massachusetts had 10+ inches of precipitation above their 20th century averages. Meanwhile, Montana and Oregon had the largest drops in average annual precipitation.   The federal government owned 28% of American land as of 2018, down 5% since 1990. Transportation has been the largest source of emissions since 2017. Electricity generation and transportation create more than half of all US emissions, almost entirely through carbon dioxide-producing fossil...

    Week of April 19, 2022 View as Webpage  |  Subscribe   In this Edition: FEMA Announces Equity Action Plan FEMA Updates State and Local Mitigation Planning Policy Guides FEMA Provides Over $400M to Emergency Managers Upcoming Deadlines and Reminders Important Deadlines & Reminders Webinar on the Emergency Management Guide for Senior Officials  at 1 p.m. ET. Nonprofit Security Grant Program webinar  at 9 a.m. ET.  FEMA Announces Equity Action Plan   FEMA is pleased to announce the publication of its  first agency-wide equity plan.  The plan was initiated by the Biden-Harris administration’s whole-of-government equity agenda. FEMA’s plan outlines how our agency has, and will continue to, integrate equity into our programs.   “We’re turning a page at FEMA and infusing equity throughout our agency, programs and policies to better serve people who face unique barriers before, during and after disasters,” said FEMA Administrat...