Oregon Legislative Districts

Project Leader – Alan Journet

Project Description

One of the most effective ways of communicating the importance of acting to address climate change is to show individuals what is happening in people’s own backyards.  This project follows that principle by providing Oregonians with a brief summary of what the trends and projections are for their locality – using the Senate Districts as the geographic regional boundaries.

Goals

The Goal was to produce summaries for each House District. We now plan to produce one parallel summary for each of Oregon’s Federal Congressional House Districts.

Connection to SOCAN Mission

This project addresses the SOCAN mission statements of promoting awareness and understanding about the consequences of climate change AND motivating concerned citizens to take action.

Accomplishments

The project has produced one climate change projection summary (with a one page of bullet list) for each of Oregon’s 30 Senate Districts. These Oregon (60 House, 30 Senate) that identify likely climate trends and projections with their local consequences and implications.  These summaries have been used by environmental groups across the state to develop regional Guest Opinion (op – ed) columns for local newspapers and to submit to representatives during advocacy visits.

How to Join

Please contact Alan Journet at alan@socan.info.

Background Information

Shortly after SOCAN was inaugurated, it occurred to us that a brief summary of climate trends and projections for each region in Oregon could be helpful in communicating the problem to local residents and representatives.   Given this premise, a reasonable way to divide the state seemed to be on the basis of Legislative Districts – a format that could have real meaning for representatives.  After offering this suggestion to statewide environmental / climate organizations and receiving positive responses but no interest in assuming responsibility for organizing the project, SOCAN thus engaged student interns from SOU to work with us on developing the summaries and bullet lists.

Resources