Citizens' Climate Lobby

Join Research Coordinator Dana Nuccitelli in an exploration of the permitting reforms proposed by progressives, centrists, and conservatives to learn what the important components are and where there is potential for bipartisan compromise.

Skip ahead to the following section(s):

Presentation Slides: https://cclusa.org/comparing-permitting-slides 

Tune in for a training that will provide a high level overview of the basics behind the five year cycle behind the Farm Bill, including the roles the House and Senate Committee play in the process and the climate provisions within this year's discussion.

Skip ahead to the following section(s):

Presentation Slides: https://cclusa.org/farm-bill-basics  

Join CCL Research staff for a two-part training that will provide an overview of what kinds of energy and infrastructure will be needed for a stable, clean energy electric grid and the main technologies that are most likely to get us there. Part two focuses on geothermal, hydro, nuclear and CCUS.

Skip ahead to the following section(s):

Presentation Slides: https://cclusa.org/clean-stable-grid-2 

In this month’s episode of Citizens’ Climate Radio, Eric Dean Wilson fills us in on the not-so-cool history of air conditioning and its complicated relationship to climate change. He is the author of After Cooling: On Freon, Global Warming, and the Terrible Cost of Comfort. Lila Powell and Ruth Abraham join Peterson Toscano in hosting this deep dive into air conditioning’s past, present, and future. 

(For complete show notes and transcript visit our show page)

Eric walks us through the creation and history of AC. Despite what all of us at CCR thought, AC was not first used for human comfort or health. Eric says, it was about money. From movie theaters to segregation to a mad scientist, the history of AC covers it all. Join us to learn about how AC got its start in the world of finance and how racism keeps exposing some people in American cities to more heat than others. 

Air conditioning contributes directly to the warming of the planet, and its impact is nothing if not ironic. AC typically runs on electricity that’s generated by fossil fuels and the more AC units run, the more greenhouse gas emissions increase! Despite these climate effects, the US tends to hold AC up as the only option for staying cool, which Eric Dean Wilson refers to as the “cost of comfort”. 

Eric says, “The United States is in the habit of criticizing those nations who were asking for the same comforts that we have, even though we're not doing hardly anything” 

So, what can we do? Eric helps us see a future that does not rely on air conditioning for our comfort. Much like Sean Dague did in Episode 80: Unleashing Our Imaginations for Climate Change Solutions! Tune in and you will hear Peterson and Ruth’s suggestions for some Meaningful Next Steps. 

“One of the things I call for in the book is rather than focusing on individual comfort and individual survival, to really try to rethink our notion of comfort, and think about collective comfort and collective survival, community survival.” - Eric Dean Wilson

Eric Dean Wilson’s essays, poems, and criticism have appeared in Time, Esquire, the Baffler, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and Tin House, among other publications. A graduate of The New School’s MFA program in creative writing, Wilson has just defended his doctoral dissertation in the English program at The Graduate Center, CUNY, which focuses on the tension between the personal and the planetal in ecological essays. In the fall, he'll join the faculty at Wagner College on Staten Island as Assistant Professor of Creative Writing and American Literature. Originally from Memphis, Tennessee, he now lives in Flatbush, Brooklyn.

Take a Meaningful Next Step

Each month we will suggest meaningful, achievable, and measurable next steps for you to consider. We recognize that action is an antidote to despair. If you are struggling with what you can do, consider one of the following next steps. 

Ruth Abraham’s suggestion:

Shade helps cool the air without having to use air conditioning. Manifest the power of shade by making your space green! You can get houseplants that release extra moisture into your rooms. Some species include spider plants, jade, Boston ferns, and peace lilies. The plants help clean the air as well as cool things down. To take things a step further: If you have a yard or green space on the sidewalk, see about planting a tree that provides cooling shade, you may need to connect with your municipality, if that green space is part of a sidewalk. Get your neighborhood involved if need be. It's these collective small steps that bring us closer to climate solutions! 

Peterson Toscano’s suggestion:

Consider a large building where you spend lots of time. It might be your school or where you work, shop or workout. In the summer these spaces can have the air conditioning pumping so high it feels good when you come in from the heat, but after 20 minutes, people start freezing. This uses a lot of unnecessary energy. How about you begin a campaign to have the building operators increase the temperature by one or two degrees? In other words, lower the intensity of the air conditioning. Do a little research about who makes these decisions. Find out who else shares your concern, maybe even figure out a cost analysis of how the building operators will save money by decreasing the amount of AC in the summer. Then use your volunteer lobbying skills to advocate for this change.

• Eric Dean Wilson finds the work of US environmental historian William Cronon inspiring—and a much needed warning against romanticizing "nature." His 1995 essay "The Trouble with Wilderness" has only grown more relevant since its publication. His website is a generous collection of notes and resources from courses he's taught. 

Nerd Corner

In this episode, we premiere a new section in our podcast- The Nerd Corner! Citizen Climates Research Coordinator, Dana Nuccitelli, fills us in on the environmental impacts of renewable energy. Dana highlights climate research (and makes it understandable) for fellow nerds and the nerd curious! Check out Dana’s recent post about The little-known physical and mental health benefits of urban trees. 

Good News 

CCR’s very own intern, Ruth Abraham, shares her experience attending the CCL Southeast Regional Conference. The conference took place at the Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design on Georgia Tech’s campus. It was the 28th building to receive a Living Building Certification. She heard from various climate continuous figures such as Georgia Senator, Raphael Warnock, and Atlanta’s Chief Sustainability Officer, Candra Farley. Ruth even joined a book club! 

If you couldn't make it to CCL’s Southeast Regional Conference, don’t worry! The Citizens Climate International Conference and Lobby Day will be held June 10-13 in Washington, DC.

Podbean Photo by Dziana Hasanbekava

The work to preserve a livable world requires buy-in and participation from all sectors — civil society, government, business, science, academia. Finding common ground among these various sectors is essential to meet our climate goals, and so we talk this month with Kajsa Hendrickson, Director at Future 500, to learn more about stakeholder engagement and collaboration, particularly with the business community. Kajsa works directly to build bridges between groups at odds, or even in conflict, something she honed as a volunteer at CCL in San Diego. She currently collaborates with CCL coordinators, NGOs, and community representatives in the Southeast on a utility-stakeholder information exchange. Before joining Future 500, Kajsa worked on stakeholder engagement with the largest solar incentive program in the country, closing the gap between who has access to and who benefits from sustainable energy.

Skip ahead to the following section(s):

Helpful links:

Join CCL Research staff for a two-part training that will provide an overview of what kinds of energy and infrastructure will be needed for a stable, clean energy electric grid and the main technologies that are most likely to get us there.

CCL Community: https://community.citizensclimate.org/topics/clean-electric-grid 

Join CCL Program Manager Elizabeth Dell, Mid-Atlantic Co-Coordinator Thaddeus Waterman, and CCL TX Austin volunteer Arjun Adapalli for a training that will overview CCL's new tabling materials, where to find them, and how to best incorporate them into your spring grassroots outreach plans! 

Skip ahead to the following section(s):

Tabling Handouts: https://community.citizensclimate.org/resources#tabling-materials 

In this month’s episode of Citizens’ Climate Radio, Peterson Toscano and Ruth Abraham feature four high school students who reveal the secret world of teenage lobbying. Brionna Dulay, Saachi Sharma, Cole Cochrane, and Anna Xies all volunteer for Citizens’ Climate Lobby. We asked them, Are lobbyists evil? 

Brionna Dulay is a high school senior in Washington State, who discovered a passion for climate advocacy after she was an eyewitness to severe flooding in her community. As a Punjabi-American, Brionna recognized the lack of her community’s representation in climate advocacy and climate change's disproportionate effects on minority communities. This has pushed Brionna to speak to US senators and representatives along with local, regional, and state members of congress. 

Saachi Sharma, also from Washington State, has been involved with Citizens’ Climate Lobby since middle school, and she is now a high school junior. She believes that the work done by today's youth helps make the world a better place, and says, “There's really no age to when you can start being more climate-conscious”. 

Cole Cochrane started his advocacy at age 11 as a volunteer on campaigns for local candidates. Cole is now a senior in high school and has co-founded a nonprofit organization called Maine Youth Action. He serves as the Policy Director. Maine Youth Action aims to empower youth in politics and have their voice heard in critical areas like climate action.

Anna Xies lived in China till she was 11 and is now a senior in high school in Washington State. Anna is the statewide leader of Citizens’ Climate Lobby Youth and previously worked on team recruitment. Anna was struck by the positive feedback from new team members, who told her that CCL has changed their lives and given them more confidence in their public speaking and in the future of our plant. 

So are lobbyists evil? Anna says, “I don't think lobbying is inherently evil. I think when you get a lot of money involved with it, it gets a little bit corrupt at times”.  Cole looks at lobbying as hands-on advocacy, he says protesting is “the mobilization of the masses and that's how you get the attention of the legislators, but who's going to carry that attention when the rallies and those protests start fading away?”.

Ben Pendergrass has worked in Washington for over 14 years as a Congressional staff and a government relations professional. He is CCL’s Vice President of Government Affairs and works to advance the policy goals of CCL in Congress. Ben gave us the inside scoop on professional lobbying and had some advice for youth lobbyists. Ben suggests that “being informed, being polite, and really connecting the issues back to the state or district is always very important.” 

Dig Deeper

• Get involved with Citizens Climate Lobby Youth 

Good News Story

CCR’s very own intern, Lila Powell, tells us about two young climate advocates' successes in sustainability. Franziska Trautmann and Max Steitz were students at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. While sipping wine in their backyard, Franziska and Max pondered the future of the glass bottle it came in, since NOLA doesn’t have a government-funded glass recycling program. Tune in to hear how they turned that into a happy ending for their whole community!

NEW! Listener Survey

We want to hear your feedback about this episode. After you listen, feel free to fill in this short survey. Your feedback will help us as we make new decisions about the content, guests, and style of the show. You can fill it out anonymously and answer whichever questions you like. 

You can hear Citizens’ Climate Radio on:

• iTunes

Also, feel free to connect with other listeners, suggest program ideas, and respond to programs in the Citizens’ Climate Radio Facebook group or on Twitter at @CitizensCRadio.

Check out the transcript over on our show page cclusa.org/radio  

In the quest to find common ground between Republicans and Democrats on climate solutions, communities of faith play an important role in bridging the partisan divide. The Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN), whose members are focused on caring for creation, is one of the organizations working in this advocacy space. This month, we hear from Rev. Mitch Hescox, President of EEN, about their efforts to educate and mobilize evangelical Christians to manifest a stable climate and a healthy, pollution-free world. Rev. Hescox, co-author of Caring for Creation: The Evangelical Guide To Climate Change and a Healthy Environment, serves as a member of the National Association of Evangelicals’ Board of Directors and EPA’s Clean Air Act Advisory Committee.

Skip ahead to the following section(s):

Pre-meeting video: https://vimeo.com/807084626 

Join CCL Research Coordinator Dana Nuccitelli for a training that reviews the technologies and incentives available to make our homes more electric and efficient, and the resources available from CCL to educate your friends and families and communities about these opportunities. 

Skip ahead to the following section(s):

Presentation Slides: https://cclusa.org/ira-homeowner-slides