Citizens' Climate Lobby

Most members of Congress do not go to Washington with the intention of being a champion for climate change solutions. So, how then do we turn them into one? RESULTS founder Sam Daley-Harris and CCL Senior Congressional Liaison Jay Butera join our December call to walk us through the process of moving members of Congress up the ladder of leadership on climate change.

Sam is currently the CEO and Founder of the Center for Citizen Empowerment and Transformation and author of “Reclaiming Our Democracy.”

Jay was instrumental in the founding of the bipartisan House Climate Solutions Caucus and is featured in Season Two of National Geographic’s documentary series on climate change, “Years of Living Dangerously.”

This CCU lesson will offer tips and suggestions, and invite you to share your experience, ask questions and consider new strategies for engaging new people so that they acquire the necessary knowledge, skills, and behaviors to become effective CCL volunteers.

NOTE: This CCU lesson is largely in response to the influx of new volunteers CCL experienced in November of 2016. However, the content and strategies are applicable today. 

On a rapidly changing planet we are already seeing risks to public health. Dr. Natasha DeJarnett from the American Public Health Association sits down with Peterson Toscano to outline some of these risks, but also the community building opportunity. We will also hear from Dr. Jalonne White-Newsome, senior program officer from the Kresge Foundation who provides a new framework for looking at resiliency. 

 

As a special feature we will also hear voices from the 2016 Citizens’ Climate Congressional Education Days including Marshal Saunders, Mark Reynolds, and some very hopeful high school and college students.  

 

Art House

Joining us in the Art House is Dr. David R. Bowne, Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at Elizabethtown College. Using his scientific expertise and tapping into his creative side, David created a short story, Henry Ford Hated Glaciers, and shares an excerpt with us. You can read the complete story here.

 

Puzzler

Sabrina Fu, the Mid-Atlantic Coordinator for CCL answers last month’s puzzler: What happens when we put a price on carbon, won’t it negatively affect lower income people and the working class?

 

Here is our new puzzler:

You are at an community event and people are talking about the historic upset as they speculate on what a Trump Presidency will look like. You pipe up, ‘Well, as you know I am concerned about climate change, so I am going to work that much harder to raise awareness and get the government to change energy policy.” People laugh. They snort. One says, “Oh, nothing is going to happen for the next four years. We are back to coal and other fossil fuels. Might as well take up new hobby.” So what do you say? How do you respond? How can you share what’s in your heart as well as what’s in your head. 

 

Send Peterson your answers. Leave your name, contact info, and where you are from.

Get back to him by December  15th 2016. You can email your answers to radio @ citizensclimate.org that’s radio @ citizensclimate.org You can also text or leave a voicemail of 3 minutes or less at 570.483.8194. (+1 if calling from outside the USA.) That number again is 570.483.8194

 

Dig Deeper

The Zika virus: one more symptom of a sick climate by Flannery Keck 

American Public Health Association: Climate Change and Health resources  

The principles of environmental justice

You can hear Citizens’ Climate Radio on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, and Podbean. Also, feel free to connect with other listeners, suggest program ideas, and respond to programs in the Citizens’ Climate Radio Facebook group.

Citizens' Climate Lobby (CCL) Director of Operations Amy Bennett and Regional Coordinator Brett Cease welcome you to CCL. In this two-part series, you'll learn the basics of becoming an effective climate advocate.

In Lesson Two, Amy and Brett discuss finding common ground and shared values, understanding CCL's methodology and how it led to breakthroughs in Congress, preparing for and participating in a lobby meeting and explaining our proposal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions: Carbon Fee and Dividend.

Citizens' Climate Lobby (CCL) Director of Operations Amy Bennett and Regional Coordinator Brett Cease welcome you to CCL. In this two-part series, you'll learn the basics of becoming an effective climate advocate.

In lesson one, Amy and Brett will not only review the structure of CCL but also how to build constructive relationships with elected representatives, how to create political will, how to appeal to the best in others and how practice is the key to success.

Following a very stressful election season, we thought it would be good to hear the calm and reassuring voice of our favorite climate change communicator, Dr. Katharine Hayhoe. Dr. Hayhoe recently gave CCL a big shoutout at the South by South Lawn climate change discussion at the White House with President Obama and actor Leonardo DiCaprio. In addition, she just launched a series of short videos on climate change, “Global Weirding.”

It seems to happen all the time. A volunteer advocate from any organization will say, “My member of Congress is so good I don’t need to meet with her,” or “My member of Congress is so bad, meeting with him is a waste of time.”

Say what???

In this interactive webinar, Sam Daley-Harris will begin by interviewing CCL Senior Congressional Liaison Jay Butera on how he enrolled a Republican and Democrat to create the House Climate Solutions Caucus. Then Sam will help participants determine where their members of Congress are on the champion scale and on how to move opponents to neutral, those who are neutral to supporter, supporters to advocates, advocates to leaders and spokespersons, and leaders and spokespersons to being champions. Join us to find out where your members of Congress are on the champion scale and how to move them to the next level.

Like lobbying, securing endorsements and/or Leader's Letters for Carbon Fee and Dividend or climate action from community leaders starts with building relationships. In this lesson, we’ll not only review how to initiate and cultivate those relationships but also hear from CCL volunteers who will share best practices and key learnings as well as how to coordinate your actions locally.

Climate change influences nearly every element of the geopolitical landscape, including human sustenance, international resource flows, and the viability of the civil state. The Paris Agreement brings all 195 nations that are parties to the 1992 UN Climate Convention into an active role in combatting climate change. It adds new principles to international law—like adherence to intergenerational equity and coherence of policy direction in decarbonization.

Ultimately, solving the climate challenge will mean building much more inclusive and participatory societies the world over and standardizing climate-smart business practices to the point where the entire global financial sector is actively driving solutions through the everyday economy. We are now beginning to see concrete pathways to that smarter, more secure, and prosperous human future, because we are designing them. Learn how carbon pricing collaboration, innovative global governance strategies, and new modes of citizen engagement are bringing us closer to a genuinely ambitious global climate response.

In this podcast, CCL’s Global Outreach Coordinator Joe Robertson will cover the scope and status of climate geopolitics, in relation to the Paris Agreement, the Sustainable Development Goals, and related procedural and peace and security issues.

 Register for the Webinar

Ah, Climate Denial, a constant companion. Climate advocates have sought for the silver bullet, that one talking point that will extinguish all climate doubts and dismissals. In this episode host, Peterson Toscano, brings in climate advocates from around the world and climate communication experts to explore what might be behind the denial and how to respond. 

Main Section

Climate denial has distracted climate advocates and slowed down the public discussion and political action. As a result, climate activists and comics have gotten downright snarky and angry at people, particularly politicians, who are skeptical of climate science. Sharing insights about what they have discovered about climate denial, we hear from professional skier, Angel Collinson, and Chilean climate advocate, Andres Forno. We also get some good news from Bessie Schwarz at the Yale Program on Climate Communications. 

Peterson then raises some questions including, What if starting 10 years ago there were no more climate skeptics in the world? What would we be talking and writing about today? And how do we engage the 29 million Americans who say they are alarmed by climate change?  As always your input and responses are welcome. 

Art House

In the Art House you will meet Marvin Bloom, a comic creation who takes a serious look at climate denial. Through his playful meditation on the issue, Marvin humanizes the denial experience and considers various types of climate denial. He also reveals a weird issue that keeps him stuck in denial. 

Puzzler

We received many excellent and downright inspiring answers to last month's puzzler. As an added bonus, Cathy Orlando, from Citizens Climate Lobby Canada (featured in Episode Two) talks about the recent success in Canada. After years of lobbying, the Canadian government has agreed to place a fee on carbon starting in 2018. Cathy shares some of the many ways she and her fellow Canadian Citizens' Climate volunteers engaged lawmakers and the public. 

Here is our new puzzler submitted by Chris Wiegard from Citizens’ Climate chapter in Richmond, Virginia. 

When I blog on climate change or go to public hearings on it, I often hear or read fossil fuel defenders say that "shifting to renewable energy is unrealistic because low income people are dependent on low energy prices. The cheapness of fossil fuel is all that keeps certain people alive." And Chris is right, poor and working class people cannot easily afford buying expensive energy hybrid cars and installing solar panels and the other alternatives currently on offer. So how might you respond to argument that shifting to renewable energy is unrealistic because low income people are dependent on low energy prices. 

Send Peterson your answers. Leave your name, contact info, and where you are from.

Get back to him by November 15th 2016. You can email your answers to radio @ citizensclimate.org that’s radio @ citizensclimate.org You can also text Peterson or leave a voice memo of 3 minutes or less at 570.483.8194. (+1 if calling from outside the USA.) That number again is 570.483.8194

Dig Deeper

Global Warming's Six Americas, Yale Program on Climate Communication

Protect Our Winters, professional athletes, including Angel Collinson,