Columbus Climate Action Plan Released
GreenSpot will play a critical role in section 1.1 of the Plan: “Empowering a Community of Climate Leaders.” Over the next several months and years GreenSpot will work with residents, business leaders, academia, government, and nonprofits to increase climate change awareness, solutions, and making sure all neighborhoods benefit.
Big Picture Activism!
Learn and discuss its emergence in Columbus
Tuesday, December 14 at 7 pm on Zoom
This is the last class in our discussion course based on the award-winning film, Economics of Happiness , developed by Helena Norberg-Hodge and her team at the International Society for an Ecological Culture (LocalFutures.org). If this is your first class, or the last, be sure to explore the Local Futures website.
As time permits, please read the section on Big Picture Activism here.
Big Picture Activism recognizes that neoliberal economic policies drive everything from job insecurity and poverty to climate chaos and political extremism. Understanding this Big Picture framework, we can get beyond single-issue campaigns and build powerful coalitions that are big and resilient enough to recapture democratic power from global monopolies.
Chuck Lynd will facilitate a discussion about how Big Picture Activism is emerging in Columbus and together we will brainstorm strategies to apply this framework in central Ohio. The session is free to members or consider a free will donation. The zoom link will be sent to you after registering here.
Co-Creating the Eco Future:
Presentation & Discussion on Zoom
Watch the recording on the
Simply Living YouTube site
Introduction to Solar PV – This is an online course.
Residential Solar Installation and Design – Online.
Questions about Solar? Jay Warmke is available online on Tuesdays at Noon!
HIGHLIGHTS FROM SIMPLY LIVING’S
BE THE CHANGE COMMUNITY CALENDAR
Fri Dec 10th 3:00pm (EST)
We’ll be LIVE on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, reporting on our work, sharing plans for 2022, and taking your questions and comments! More info on how to Make a contribution in someone’s name to Move to Amend.
GrassRoot Ohio Radio-Gerrymandered OH & the Fight for Fair Districts/Maps w/ Mia Lewis
Mia has spent a great deal of time and energy organizing to end Ohio’s “In Your Face” Gerrymandering. Is there an Answer, a Silver bullet, the Fix to end this Discrimination? More info: https://www.commoncause.org/ohio/
https://www.fairdistrictsohio.org
Conversations with every-day people, working on important issues here in Columbus and all around Ohio.
Every Friday 5 pm, ET on 94.1FM & streaming @ WGRN.org, Sundays at 2 pm EST on 92.7/98.3 FM and streams @ WCRSFM.org, and Sundays at 4:00pm EST, at 107.1 FM Listen to archived shows.
Click here to view the market map and full list of producers attending. See the full newsletter here
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83906590837 or Facebook Event
Featuring:
David Swanson of World Beyond War and RootsAction, winner of the US Peace Prize, talking on “What Would Have Been Better Than a Democracy Summit and Why There Should Not Be Any More Pearl Harbor Days”
and more! Q & A included.
Sunday, Dec12 at 10 am
We are celebrating a Buddhist Christian Christmas, as well as celebrating our beautiful connection to Mother Earth. If you’d like to view recordings, check out our Sacred Ground Facebook Videos Page. To attend any – or all – of the next three services, you may preregister on Zoom. Our Sacred Ground services can also be watched live on Sunday mornings at 10:00 on Facebook. Explore the Sacred Ground website.
“Tomorrow and plans for tomorrow can have no significance at all unless you are in full contact with the reality of the present…. even if one were to live for endless ages, to live for the future would be to miss the point everlastingly.” ~ Alan Watts
The Poetry Forum offers a featured reader and open mic on the second Monday of the month at 7 PM. The featured poet in December is Aaron Alsop. a Columbus poet, featured at Writer’s Block, the King Arts Complex, and of course at The Poetry Forum. Aaron delivers powerful but understated, thoughtful, reflective, and touching work that, as he notes, “leaves you thinking.” And, we must note, feeling. Count on it. More here.
Email Steve Abbott at abbott4949@gmail.com for log in info.
Check out the group’s FB page.
Events http://www.columbuspoetryforum.com/schedule.html
Resurgence Earth Festival – Winter Solstice
Before the festivities are truly under way, let us gather to attune to the energies of the season of slow stillness and honour this great turning in the seasonal cycle. Details and instructions for preparing are all on our Simply Living calendar
Compassion in Meetings: Sociocracy and Nonviolent Communication
Tue Dec 14th 12:00pm – 1:00pm (EST)
Join Ted Rau and Jerry Koch-Gonzalez of Sociocracy for All for a 1-hour introduction to how using nonviolent communication and sociocracy TOGETHER provides us with a container for becoming the type of community members we know we can be.
Most of us are interested in community in part because we care about connection, belonging, and integrity. Applying the basics of nonviolent communication in meetings is a skill that can make sociocratic decision-making easier and community meetings more connecting. Get all the details and registration information on the Simply Living calendar.
Tue Dec 14th 3:00pm (EST)
What does it mean to pass adaptation and resilience policy? What does decarbonizing the transportation sector entail? And where can I see where the strongest climate policies have been implemented across the country?
The new State Climate Policy Dashboard (The Dashboard) answers these questions and more, serving as a one-stop shop for all things state climate policy. The Dashboard has two main components: 1) the State Climate Policy Tracker, which tracks 51 climate policies across all 50 states, and 2) the State Climate Policy Resource Hub, which serves as an educational counterpart to the tracker, providing explanations, resource links, and model state examples for each policy area. This information hub tracks 51 policies across seven different topic areas, across all 50 states.
In this webinar, Climate XChange staff will explain how to use the system.
Register here.
Wed Dec 15th 1:00pm – 2:00pm (EST)
Join Laird Schaub for a FREE introductory webinar geared toward people new to consensus so they can make an informed decision about diving deeper. This interactive session will focus on the skills needed for the relationship side of the consensus equation. Find out more
In addition to a better understanding of consensus, you’ll leave this webinar with a practical list of communication skills that enhance the ability of the group to function well, especially when there is disagreement about things that matter. More info about future courses on the Simply Living calendar.
NEWS + RESOURCES
FOR LIVING LOCAL
A great crowd showed up at the Statehouse Thursday to tell Ohio legislators to end coal bailouts by passing HB 351 and SB 117. Santas including our own Chuck Lynd delivered coal to naughty politicians who supported the bailouts and candy canes to nice legislators who didn’t. Everyone sang coal Christmas carols, and a good time was had by all! 
by Paul Becker See the photos Paul posted on the Simply Living FB page here.
FOOD X – Newsletter of the Center for Biological Diversity
Get a free issue of Food X delivered right to your inbox each month by signing up here:
No. 7, December 2021 – How a Wild Kinship Can Reshape Our Food
No. 6, November 2021 – ‘Bluewashing’: The New Greenwashing
No. 5, October 2021 – The Future of Food Is Agroecology
No. 4, September 2021 – Food, Justice and a Thriving Planet
No. 3, August 2021 – Reforming Our Vision of Food and Farming
No. 2, July 2021 – Our Food Traditions
No. 1, June 2021 – Food X: The Center’s New Food and Sustainability Newsletter
Healing Through the Deep Unconscious with Stan Grof
Domains of the Unconscious with Stan Grof
Greener Alternatives to Rare Minerals for EV Batteries
View the full blog post from the RMI Spark newsletter here.
Phone: +1 614 400 5779
The global, industrialized food system faces increasing scrutiny for its environmental impact, given its voracious appetite for land is linked to mass deforestation, water pollution and a sizable chunk of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.
The implied trade-off has been that advances in agriculture have greatly reduced hunger and driven societies out of poverty due to improved productivity and efficiencies. But Mark Bittman, the American food author and journalist, argues in his new book Animal, Vegetable, Junk that these supposed benefits are largely illusionary.
In a sweeping deconstruction of the history of food, spanning the past 10,000 years of organized agriculture, Bittman takes in everything from Mesopotamian irrigation to the Irish famine to the growth of McDonald’s to posit the rise of uniformity and convenience in food has mostly benefited large companies, fueled societal inequities and ravaged human health and the environment. Al Gore, the former US vice president, has called the book a “must-read for policymakers, activists and concerned citizens looking to better understand our food system and how to fix it”. Read the Full Article
In Ecuador, a Forest Has Legal Rights
That will help safeguard this beautiful, biodiverse place from mining concessions granted to two thirds of the Los Cedros reserve. It will also spur the court to develop more legal structure upholding the rights of nature, the right to a healthy environment, the right to water, and other forms of environmental protection.
“This progressive and innovative ruling recognizes that nature can and does have rights,” said Alejandro Olivera, the Center’s Mexico representative.
A Guide to Climate Reparations
After COP26, renewed focus has been placed on campaigners across the globe calling for “climate reparations” to be given to the Global South by the Global North—but what does this mean?
How can climate reparations play a role in fighting for climate justice and potentially addressing historic injustices committed against the most marginalized members of our societies?
Read on to cut through the noise and hear from five climate activists from across the Global South. Read the full story
What Are Watersheds?
Discover Yours & Help Keep It Clean
Top Environmentally Responsible Toy Brands
for the Holidays
Time for Restaurants to Shift to
Sustainable Takeout Packaging
Did you learn something new today?
Please Support Earth911 database updates so we can help others recycle!
Sign the Declaration here
I support the creation of publicly-owned banks that are dedicated to serving the public interest. ~ Friendsofpublicbanking.org
Listen on your radio or online anytime!
CALENDARS!
LIVE LOCAL, BUILD COMMUNITY #SIMPLYLIVING
Good, Cheap, Fun
- 2022 Hocking Hills Comfort Food Tour
- Sending Letters to Santa in Columbus and where to find Santa’s Mailbox
- Free winter fun at Preservation Parks in Delaware
- Columbus City Adventures Holiday Lights Tours
- Over 280 free or cheap events this weekend in Columbus!
- Upcoming free and cheap events for kids
- “Light Up Camp” Drive-Through Light Display at Flying Horse Farms
- Shadowbox Live Holiday Shows
- Wonderlight’s Christmas in Ohio at Hartford Fairgrounds
- Festivus Holiday Market at 400 Square
- Holiday Classics at Drexel: The Polar Express
- Winter Reading Challenge with Columbus Metropolitan Library
- Winterfests with Santa and other KidsLinked.com events
- “Michelangelo: A Different View” at Columbus Convention Center
- Experience a Victorian Christmas with Ohio Village Dickens of a Christmas
- Indoor and Outdoor Ice Skating in Columbus
- State Auto Christmas Corner and Life-Sized Nativity
- Santa Pictures around Columbus
- Celebrate with the Critters at Ohio Wildlife Center
- Huge list of Christmas Stocking Stuffers
- Holiday gift card bonus offers
- 12 Days of Bridge Park, and more district fun
- Breakfast with Santa around Columbus
- Winter and Holiday Fun at the Columbus Metro Parks
- Christmas in Ash Cave in Hocking Hills
- Metro Parks Annual Winter Hike Series
- Columbus Gift Guide for the Holiday season
- Holiday events and Weekly fun at Grange Insurance Audubon Center
Check out Wes Williams and the landscaping services he offers:
https://www.plantconnections.net/
COLUMBUS UNDERGROUND
Mega Weekend
Krampus, Holiday Hop, Craftin’ Outlaws & More!
Here’s a rundown of fun things to do this weekend. Have you picked up any Timbiebs yet? Belong Gaming Arena opens on Friday. Japanese Oriental Restaurant announced plans to close by year’s end if you want to head in for a last meal. We’ve featured 45 gift ideas so far! Enjoy your weekend!
Nightlife
There’s a Christmas Tap Takeover happening at Edison Brewing Company.
COSI has their adults night, COSI After Dark tonight.
Natalie’s has you covered for live music with: Monaco/McClung Trio, Popgun, and Paisha Thomas. Whitney Cummings brings her comedy tour to Columbus tonight. Can you drink and spell?
Hear The Queers w/Suzi Moon and the Raging Nathans at Rumba. Borgore performs at Dahlia.
Holiday Events
The 12 Days of Audubon has begun.
BalletMet is back with The Nutcracker.
Glass Axis begins their Holiday Sale.
Festivus returns to 400 Square.
Pick up your Christmas Tree at Secret Studio.
Happy Scrawlidays for every art lover!
Columbus Commons has another Festive Fridays.
Shop the Holiday Farmers Market special edition at St. Mary’s.
Enjoy A Magical Cirque Christmas.
Shop the super fun Moonlight Madness event at Wild Cat Gift & Party.
Jackie O’s downtown has a holiday popup.
Zora’s House has a WoCO Holiday Market.
Glaze your own ceramic Christmas Tree with A Gal Named Cinda Lou.
Make a gingerbread house at Nosh on High.
Shop Not Your Mama’s at BrewDog.
Pick up some holiday florals.
ENJOY EXPLORING ART
Or watch The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.
Sister Act is being performed at The Garden Theater.
PBJ & Jazz gets you ready for the Songs of the Season.
Enjoy the ZOOM Family Film Festival at the Wexner Center.
Enjoy a performance of Bach by ProMusica on Sunday.
See Shadowbox Live’s new show, Not So Silent Night.
WHAT ELSE CAN YOU DO
THIS WEEDKEND?
The Bliss Home Market is this weekend featuring dining sets and more.
Attend a Sip & Stretch Yoga event on Saturday then stroll the Short North.
Dickens of a Christmas continues at Ohio Village.
Thanks for reading and enjoy your weekend! A great community is an informed community. Want to help keep our news free for all and support our small, local company?
Your support helps Columbus Underground further our mission.
edited by Connie Hammond (pictured above).
Email cmhammond11@att.net to subscribe to her Community Calendar or share meeting info.
Friday, December 10, 2021, 1:00 PM. Human Rights Day Webinar. Join the National Religious Campaign Against Torture for a webinar featuring members of our newly launched U.S. Prisons Program Advisory Council. Come learn how these Council members are leading efforts to uphold human rights in their respective advocacy spaces and learn more about NRCAT’s work for the preservation of human rights in the coming year. The conversation will be led by the Director of NRCAT’s U.S. Prisons Program, and solitary survivor himself, Johnny Perez, and will include: Ceyenne Doroshow, Founder and Executive Director, Gays and Lesbians Living in a Transgender Society (G.L.I.T.S.) (New York), Steven Mangual, Justice Advocate Coordinator, Latino Justice PRLDEF Southeast Region (Florida), Kimberly Jenkins-Snodgrass, Vice Chairperson, Interfaith Action for Human Rights (Virginia), and Jack Morris, Lead Community Health Worker/Coordinator, St. John’s Well Child & Family Center (California). Join us as we commemorate Human Rights Day on December 10. This year marks the 73rd anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations General Assembly, which declares that “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and human rights.” Register here.
Friday, December 10, 2021, 5:00 – 5:30 PM. GrassRoot Ohio With Carolyn Harding. Our mission is to profile every-day people working on important issues and to connect them with other folks who want to help. Conversations with every-day people, working on important issues here in Columbus and all around Ohio Justice: environmental, social, racial, economic, w/ folks on the front lines. LISTEN TO 94.1 FM and stream US online at WGRN.com. You can find all GrassRoot Ohio podcasts/shows on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-42674753. Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/grassroot-ohio/id1522559085 and YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAX2t1Z7_qae803BzDF4PtQ.
Friday, December 10, 2021, 4:45 PM. Boycott Military Industrial Complex. We invite you to join us on Friday, December 10th, International Human Rights Day, for a teach in focusing on strategies for successful boycott campaigns that advance Palestinian freedom. We’ll be looking at local campaign to Boycott the Military Industrial Complex at the city council level and thinking about budgets, from local to federal, developing strategies to hold elected officials accountable from local politicians to Members of Congress. This is the second teach-in in a three part local series on BDS organizing, organized by Demilitarize Durham2Palestine, with support from the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR). Register here.
Saturday, December 11, 2021, 7:00 – 8:30 PM. The Dismantling White Supremacy Film Series presents Hype Man. This film is based upon Idris Goodwin’s acclaimed play which was originally produced by Company One and filmed in collaboration with the American Repertory Theater. Watch the film during the week of December 6-12, and join us December 11th, 7:00-8:30pm for a panel discussion with the artists and a local activist in the racial justice space including: Idris Goodwin, playwright, and Paige Curtis, Culture & Communications Director, Boston Ujima Project, Shawn LaCount (Moderator) – Executive Director, Company One Theatre. Actors from the film have been invited. About the film: Hype Man follows a hip-hop group on the precipice of making it big in the industry—until an instance of police violence divides the group. The white rapper, Pinnacle, can’t understand the perspectives of the group’s hype man, Verb, and beatmaker, Peep One, both people of color. Pinnacle resists addressing the police violence in music because he has not personally experienced it, and yet he operates in an industry and an art form created by Black musicians. What ensues is an investigation of responsibility in the face of social injustice, through the lens of the hip-hop world. A trailer can be seen by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdEL2jaFXoE. REGISTER HERE: https://tithe.ly/event-registration/#/4480052. Please Note: You only need to register one time. You will receive a ‘ticket’ at time of registration, but the links to see the film online and to attend the zoom panel discussion will be sent separately in early December. You will receive a link to the film via email a week before the panel, on December 11th. You will have access to the film for the week preceding the panel discussion.
Sunday, December 12, 2021, 3:00 PM. How Sanctions Adversely Affect Ethiopia and Eritrea, a webinar co-sponsored by EACC and the Sanctions Kill! Coalition. The Ethiopian American Civic Council, Ethiopian and Eritrean Americans, and the Sanctions Kill Coalition present a webinar on the damage that US sanctions will inflict on Ethiopia and Eritrea. The Biden administration is fully aware that harsh sanctions will primarily hurt the poor, but it has already sanctioned Eritrea and will all but certainly sanction Ethiopia in January. We will dig deep into the context of this aggression and discuss how we can resist with advocacy and action. Join us! Register here.
Sunday, December 12, 2021, 2:00 PM. GrassRoot Ohio With Carolyn Harding. Our mission is to profile every-day people working on important issues and to connect them with other folks who want to help. Conversations with every-day people, working on important issues here in Columbus and all around Ohio. Justice: environmental, social, racial, economic, w/ folks on the front lnes. LISTEN TO 94.1 FM and stream US online at WGRN.com. You can find all GrassRoot Ohio podcasts/shows on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-42674753. Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/grassroot-ohio/id1522559085 and YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAX2t1Z7_qae803BzDF4PtQ.
Monday, December 13, 2021, 08:00 PM. Ohio Poor People’s Movement Central Regional Meeting. Register here.
Tuesday, December 14, 2021, 5:00 PM. The Border and Surveillance Industries: Divest for Immigrant Justice. Join the American Friends Service Committee webinar to learn about the first-ever divestment list designed to promote immigrant justice. AFSC’s Investigate Project, with the help of researchers from our Economic Activism Summer School and Empower LLC, has identified more than 60 companies with significant involvement in the militarization of the U.S.- Mexico border and in the surveillance and criminalization of immigrant communities. Hear directly from our staff and learn how you can call on your city, college, faith organization, endowment, union, pension fund, and bank to divest for immigrant justice. Speakers: Dov Baum, AFSC’s Director of Economic Activism, and Azani Creeks, AFSC’s Investigative Research Intern, and other guest speakers. More information and registration here.
Sunday, December 19, 2021, 5:00 – 7:00 PM. Redbird Books to Prisoners. We collect, pack, and send books to Ohio prisoners every 1st and 3rd Sunday. Location: Thirdhand Bike Coop, 979 East 5th Ave, Columbus. Please wear a mask, and please don’t park in front of the building.
Tuesday, December 21, 2021, 6:00 – 7:00 PM. Memorial Service 2021. Remembering friends and family who passed away while homeless this year. Sponsored by Columbus Coalition for the Homeless With support from the ADAMH Board of Franklin County This year’s theme: Preventing overdose deaths For more information, please contact the Coalition at 614-228-1342. Location: Trinity Episcopal Church 125 E. Broad Street, Columbus, Ohio 43215. Also streaming live on Facebook during the event at https://www.facebook.com/columbuscoalitionforthehomeless.
MORE LOCAL CALENDARS
Columbus Free Press Activists Calendar Editor Bob Roehm
Fri, Dec 10
- “Lunching at Loving Hut Vegan Cuisine!,” hosted by Columbus Vegan Meetup at Loving Hut Reynoldsburg12PM
Sat, Dec 11
- “UUJO [Unitarian Universalist Justice Ohio] Assembly 2021: We Who Believe in Freedom Cannot Rest” at this on-line event requires advance registration10AM
WCBE Arts & Life Calendar
“My reality needs imagination like a bulb needs a socket. My imagination needs reality like a blind man needs a cane.”
– Tom Waits
BE THE CHANGE: BROWSE OUR COMMUNITY CALENDAR
