Climate Champ–Atossa Soltani, World Vegan Day, Climate Change Affects 15 U.S. Attorneys General Races!

CLIMATE CHAMPION, ATOSSA SOLTANI

Climate Champion, Atossa Soltani is the Founder and President of Amazon Watch, a nonprofit organization founded in 1996 to protect the rainforest and advance the rights of indigenous peoples of the Amazon Basin. Soltani served as Amazon Watch’s first Executive Director for 18 years and continues to support the organization’s mission. Currently Soltani is leading the development of an Amazon Watch and Pachamama Alliance joint-initiative to secure permanent protection for the most biodiverse rainforest in the world, a vast region on the Ecuador-Peru border in the headwaters of the Amazon River. 

Prior to founding Amazon Watch, Soltani directed campaigns at the Rainforest Action Network (1991-1996) aimed at ending clear-cut logging in old growth rainforests. She began her environmental career in the late 1980’s as the Conservation Director for the City of Santa Monica where she designed and directed an award winning water conservation program. Soltani is a skilled strategist in media and / policy advocacy and movement building, and a firm believer in the power of storytelling to create change. She has been instrumental in the production of numerous advocacy videos and short documentaries about the people and the places Amazon Watch works to protect.

Atossa Soltani, founder and executive director of Amazon Watch, and 2013 global Hillary Leadership Laureate, matters to us because of her influence over the past two decades supporting indigenous people’s rights to self- determination, natural resources, culture and way of life.

DEEPER DIVE: Stuff, Hillary Institute,

WORLD VEGAN DAY

World Vegan Day is an annual event celebrated by vegans around the world every 1st of November. The benefits of veganism for humans and the natural environment are celebrated through activities such as setting up stalls, hosting potlucks, and planting memorial trees. The event was established in 1994 by Louise Wallis, then Chair of The Vegan Society in the United Kingdom, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the organisation and the coining of the terms “vegan” and “veganism”. 

Speaking in 2011, Louise Wallis said: “We knew the Society had been founded in November 1944 but didn’t know the exact date, so I decided to go for 1 November, partly because I liked the idea of this date coinciding with Samhain/Halloween and the Day of the Dead – traditional times for feasting and celebration, both apt and auspicious.

World Vegan Day, a.k.a. International Vegan Day, is celebrated in continuity with Vegetarian Awareness Month (all of October, which begins with World Vegetarian Day on October 1, and includes other commemorative dates involving food security, reverence for life in all species, faith-based vegetarianism and animal advocacy, and more. World Vegan Day follows Vegetarian Awareness Month (October) and initiates World Vegan Month (all of November). November 2, commemorated as Dynamic Harmlessness Day, is the birthday of the late H. Jay Dinshah, founder of the American Vegan Society.

DEEPER DIVE: World Vegan Day, AVS , H. Jay Dishah, U.K. Vegan Society

CLIMATE CHANGE COULD AFFECT 15 U.S. STATE ATTORNEYS GENERAL RACES!

According to E&E News, the midterm elections could bring a new class of environmentally focused state attorneys general. State attorneys have a wide range of tools to address pollution and climate change. They are the chief enforcers of state environmental laws. They can file comments and amicus briefs critiquing federal rules they don’t like. They can also sue — as several states and the District of Columbia have — companies in the oil and gas business and other industries that they believe are harming the planet.

This year 30 states and Washington, D.C., are holding elections for their chief legal officers, out of 43 states and the district that hold elections for the position. In 10 of the 31 races, the seats are open. Republican attorneys general currently hold 14 of the seats up for election, while Democrats occupy 16.

All of those races will have an impact on climate and energy policy in those contested states — and at the federal level. Those states include AZ, CA, CO, GA, IA, MA, MD, MI, MN, NM, NY, TX, WI, VT and Washington, DC.. For more information, check out the link in the Deeper Dive section of this story at TheClimate.org/episodes.

DEEPER DIVE: Greenwire