Currently in the Twin Cities — September 26, 2023: Rain continues on Tuesday

The weather, currently.

Rainfall totals are now closing in on anywhere from 2 to 5+ inches across the Twin Cities area since Friday. Areas in Duluth to Two Harbors are over 6 inches. Tuesday will still see some lingering showers and clouds. We should see more sun Wednesday and especially Thursday before heat builds in for the weekend.

It may be October 1 on Sunday but we’re likely to be in the low 80s. This could be a string of 80s into the first days of October, an unusual feat this late in the season. The normal high is just 66-67 degrees this weekend.

— Sven Sundgaard

What you need to know, currently.

There’s a new Green New Deal in town — this time, it’s for schools.

Over the past five years or so, the Sunrise Movement has led the push for a Green New Deal in the US — and has redefined what intersectional climate campaigns can look like. Now, the youth-led org has decided to focus on their peers — in an attempt to strengthen climate justice efforts in school districts across the country.

“We are prepared to do whatever it takes,” Portland, Oregon-based Sunrise Movement organizer Adah Crandall, 17, told the Guardian.

The new campaign focuses on electrifying school buses, providing sustainable and healthy food — for free — to all students, and providing pathways to climate-focused jobs after graduation, among other demands.

Earlier this summer, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child specified the obligation that countries have to protect children’s right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment — explicitly affirming the urgency to act amid the climate emergency, the collapse of biodiversity and pervasive pollution. In the US, a group of kids in the state of Montana won the first-ever state level constitutional lawsuit on climate change earlier this year.

The Green New Deal for Schools campaign needs help signing up new high schools, so if you’re connected to one, sign up here to help support the effort.

— Eric Holthaus

What you can do, currently.

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One of my favorite organizations, Mutual Aid Disaster Relief, serves as a hub of mutual aid efforts focused on climate action in emergencies — like hurricane season. Find mutual aid network near you and join, or donate to support existing networks: