Climate Justice Toolkit
Flyers & resources for educators, unions
FLYERS
Distribute this topnotch suite of five flyers at your union meetings and use them in your classroom too. Help spread the word about the CFT Climate Justice campaign.
CFT Climate Justice Agenda
The name says it all. Simple and straight forward, the core
tenets of our climate justice campaign.
Ten Reasons CFT Members Should Care About Climate Justice
Solid reasons why we should all care about climate justice,
with a bit of humor too.
Climate Justice Myths & Realities
Debunking the myths put forward by climate deniers with solid
science.
Why Teach About Climate Change?
What’s at stake for present and future generations? Our
students’ future is in peril.
Green Jobs Can Be Union Jobs
How we can create good union jobs while building a more
sustainable economy.
TEACHING RESOURCES
NEW CFT RESOURCE!
The Climate File
This booklet is designed to introduce students to the climate
crisis that is engulfing the Earth and its inhabitants —
animal, plant, and human. Actually, it’s a series of starting
points for further reading and research, for organizing and for
effective action on climate justice. The sooner all of us,
especially young people become informed and active, the better
future for all of us.
NEW CFT RESOURCE!
The Climate Crisis: A Brief Primer for Educators
This primer from the Labor and Climate Justice Education
Committee provides a big picture overview of the climate change
crisis and encourages educators and others to take positive
steps that will build resiliency for our students and labor.
Developing ways to adapt are part of an essential paradigm
shift that will provide students, labor, and to a larger
extent, humanity, the greatest opportunity to have a healthy,
productive, and sustainable future.
"The Pollin Report" — A Program for Economic Recovery and Clean Energy Transition in California
The CFT and a broad range of labor unions sponsored the Pollin
Report, which concludes that a clean energy transition in
California is a realistic goal and workers do not have to be
left behind to accomplish it. The groundbreaking Pollin Report
was released in June 2021 by the Political Economy Research
Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. (178
pp)
Read our article about the Pollin Report.
The Pollin Report Fact Sheet — California's Climate Goals Will Create One Million New Jobs
This two-page fact sheet provides a quick and visual summary of
the Pollin Report.
AFT American
Educator
This special issue features numerous inspired articles
including how to teach climate change in a
polarized environment and how to teach using short
stories.
Also from American Educator: Combining Games
and Critical Thinking to Fight Misinformation
AFT Share My
Lesson
Climate change lessons and resources from AFT’s premiere
website Share My Lesson. The collection includes the science of
climate change, endangered species, resource depletion,
and stories of human activism.
RESOLUTIONS
The following resolutions crafted by the Labor and Climate Justice Education Committee have been passed by delegates to CFT Convention and State Council.
-
Divest from fossil fuels and reinvest in workers and communities
March 19, 2022 -
In support of putting green schools at the heart of California’s just transition
March 27, 2021 -
In support of a Green New Deal
March 24, 2019 -
Teaching climate literacy in the schools
March 25, 2018 -
Committing CFT to a climate justice agenda
March 13, 2016
NEWSROOM
In the CFT Newsroom
The stories below describe CFT’s groundbreaking positions on climate justice. Find all of our stories related to climate justice in the CFT Newsroom.
-
The Pollin Report: A bold clean energy transition in California
is possible
CFT joins labor groups in support of newly released report
July 1, 2021 -
CFT becomes first U.S. union to
adopt Climate Justice
Agenda
Read about the work of the CFT Climate Justice Task Force
October 1, 2017 -
Climate justice: CFT becomes first statewide union committed to
climate justice
CFT Convention delegates pass Resolution 29
March 1, 2016
From the general media
-
Why a California oil workers union is getting behind clean
energy (The Pollin Report)
Los Angeles Times, June 10, 2021 -
Teachers Unions Could Move the Climate Strikes Into Phase
2
In These Times, November 4, 2019
PARTNERS
The CFT partners with these advocacy organizations to work for climate justice.
California
Labor for Climate Jobs
Nineteen unions, including the CFT, have endorsed Dr. Robert
Pollin’s report: A Program For Economic Recovery and Clean
Energy Transition in California.
Labor Network for
Sustainability
The organized voice within the labor movement for policies that
are ecologically sustainable and advance the movement for
good jobs and a just transition for workers and communities hurt
by the effects of climate change and the transition to renewable
energy.
Last Chance
Alliance
CFT is a member of this alliance whose vision for California’s
future replaces exploitive and polluting fossil fuels with clean
energy, healthy communities, and good jobs.
In San Diego County
San Diego
and Imperial Counties Environmental Caucus
The first labor organization in the nation to adopt a climate
justice agenda. Find the group’s mission statement and other
resources here.
San Diego Green New
Deal Alliance
A coalition of 60-plus local businesses, environmental,
labor, social justice, public health, faith, and community-based
organizations dedicated to the fight for climate, jobs, and
justice.
SanDiego350
Building a movement to prevent the worst impacts of climate
change and climate injustice through education, outreach,
mobilization and public policy advocacy.
TAKE ACTION
- Invite a member of the CFT Climate Justice Task Force to present to your local at a membership meeting or other local union function.
- Email inquiries about the Climate Justice Campaign to committee chair Jim Miller, AFT Guild, San Diego and Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community Colleges, Local 1931.