As Environmental Activists and Organizers, we're #TeamTeresa - Here's Why

Below is a letter sent by Environmental Activists and Organizers explaining why they support #Hashtag Recommended candidate Teresa Mosqueda for Seattle City Council, Pos. 8. We're running the letter in full. 

As organizers, activists, and leaders working to expand environmental justice, we are proud to stand with Teresa Mosqueda for Seattle City Council. We all agree – there is no candidate in this race who matches Teresa in competence or ability to get things done. Our environment and the future for our children and grandchildren don’t need platitudes or slogans – they need actions, and we know that Teresa will bring environmentalists to the table to ensure Seattle takes action to protect our natural resources.

Teresa brings a background in public health, and will be that voice on City Council, looking at policy through a social equity and social health lens. By ensuring we are funding parks and programming equitably, we improve health outcomes for families, and bring communities together. At a time with radical inequality nationally, and threats to our environment and our immigrant neighbors, now is the time to ensure we have leaders committed to these positive outcomes.

We don’t need to tell you what’s going on – climate change is contributing to drier summers, reduced rainfall and snowpack, declining forest health and more catastrophic wildfires across the West. Here in Seattle, we experience the effects with reduced air quality and increased smoke-filled summers, increasing asthma rates and making it difficult for people to engage in outdoor activities. Worsening hurricanes are causing massive devastation in the Caribbean and along the Atlantic Coast. Toxic run-off is polluting our rivers, streams and Puget Sound threatening the survival of our iconic salmon and orcas, along with lower stream flows and increased stream temperatures.

Seattle is a leader, and as a leader combating climate change, we can provide the guidebook for other cities and regions of the world. To do this, we need leaders who will be bold in enacting policies for green infrastructure to reduce toxic pollution into our waterways, increasing access to parks and natural areas to improve air quality, reduce heat islands, and ensure everyone has access to natural areas, providing incentives for developing and manufacturing new technologies, and ensuring we do not push low-income people to the suburbs causing increased poverty and isolation, more suburban and exurban sprawl, and long, expensive commutes. Teresa Mosqueda is the only candidate for City Council, Position 8, who will be that leader, and who we trust to bring activists and organizers to the table to get things done. We know this because she is an organizer, and has a long and successful track record of making positive change happen.

But this is about more than just protecting the environment – this is about ensuring a quality of life that is equitable for all families in our region. At the local level, we have seen the impacts of poor air quality, with life expectancy rates in South Park a full ten years lower than in Laurelhurst. The impacts of polluting diesel drayage trucks at the Port, combined with poor investment in community programs through our parks department, leads to poor local air quality and disastrous health outcomes. We can do better.

This also extends to jobs. None of us want to ever see an oil rig in Puget Sound again. At the same time, we want to grow and expand job opportunities for blue collar workers. In Teresa, we know we will have that advocate at the table, working with Labor and Environmentalists on a local action plan to ensure good paying jobs resulting from expansion of green infrastructure and green technologies are our city and our economy continues to grow.

We have an obligation to future generations to do the right thing and protect our environment. We have an obligation to current generations to do so equitably. By partnering with established organizations, and empowering community groups, we know Teresa will continue to be an organizer as a council member, and do so in an effective way that gets things done. These are just a few of the reasons why she is supported by so many activist groups, including sole endorsements from the Sierra Club, Washington Conservation Voters, Washington Bikes, and Transportation for Washington. We hope we can count on your support, and your vote for Teresa Mosqueda for Seattle City Council, Pos. 8, by November 7, 2017.

Joe Fitzgibbon, State Representative (D-34, West Seattle)

Jesse Piedfort, Director, Sierra Club of Washington

Barbara Wright, Healthy Communities Advocate

David Perez, Board Member, Washington Conservation Voters

Rebecca Monteleone, Chair, Sierra Club Seattle Group

Sameer Ranade, Environmental Activist/Organizer

Brittney Bush Bollay, Sierra Club, 36th District Democrats