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Official podcast for climate heroes from Citizens' Climate Lobby. We're creating the political will for a livable world.
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Friday Jun 26, 2020
Friday Jun 26, 2020
“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions.” -Albert Einstein.
As climate change advocates, our ability to imagine a better future sometimes requires supernatural skills. Still engaging our imagination is essential to stirring up the kind of hope and excitement that inspires others to action. We need to articulate what it is we are fighting for? What is the world we want to create? Through a mind-expanding thought experiment, three guests join us to help unleash our imagination potential. Imagine a world without fossil fuels. What does it look like? What does it sound like? What does it smell like?
Hannah Pickard at Boston’s New England Aquarium shares proven insider tips about effective communication strategies. Hannah Pickard is the Program Manager for the National Network of Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation (NNOCCI) where she leads a national effort to change public discourse on climate change to be positive, civic-minded and solutions-focused. For the last 10 years, she’s grown a network of over 184 institutions who are committed to using their public platforms to invite their communities into climate action and support each other to improve their practice. She is a climate communications specialist and trainer of evidence-based communications methods that empower hope & civic action on climate. She has abackground in informal education, social impact strategy, conservation psychology, community engagement and evaluation.
Dr. Natasha DeJarnett has been a leader in environmental health research for over 10 years. Her positions in national environmental and public health associations as well as academia has advanced research agendas for the environmental health workforce, established successful national climate change and health initiatives, and inspired the next generation of environmental health professionals. In addition, she serves on the Boards of Citizens’ Climate Education and Physicians for Social Responsibility.
Sean Dague is software engineer by day, and the group leader for the Mid Hudson South chapter of Citizens Climate Lobby He came to climate action after seeing the impacts of Hurricane Irene and Sandy in the north east. In addition to his work with Citizens Climate Lobby, he's also an En-ROADS Climate Simulation tool ambassador. He's a huge fan of trains, heat pumps, and electric vehicles.
The Art House
Jennie Carlisle and Laura England are both part of the Climate Stories Collaborative at Appalachian State University in North Carolina.
“The Climate Stories Collaborative is our response to the growing call for more trans-disciplinary and creative approaches to climate change communication,” they explain. “Our mission is to grow the capacity of our faculty and students to be more creative and compelling climate storytellers.”
While many of the students finish with completed pieces of art, Jennie stresses that the process required to produce the art is their primary goal. Of course, they also want to reach out to the wider world whenever possible.
At the end of the school year, the Climate Stories Collaborative hosts a showcase for the student artists. This provides them with an opportunity to engage with the wider public in a large gallery space. Laura explains that in the past, students, faculty, and community members would mingle in the gallery to view the art and see performances.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the school closed and the showcase had to be canceled. But like so many others, they adapted and took the showcase online. As a curator, Jennie initially worried about creating a virtual showcase but quickly saw multiple benefits, including seeing viewers become deeply engaged with the art and the artists through their comments. The Climate Stories Collaborative now reaches many more people all over the world through this Instagram online showcase.
- Video of Sean Dague’s Thought Exercise: Imagine a World without Fossil Fuels
- Hannah Pickard CCL International Call March 2020
- Peterson Toscano’s Citizens Climate Virtual Conference Breakout Session: Telling a New Kind of Climate Story
- Citizens Climate Radio Ep 39 Envisioning and Communicating Climate Success
- Climate Change and the Imagination by Kathryn Yusoff and Jennifer Garbrys (PDF)
You can hear Citizens’ Climate Radio on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, SoundCloud, Podbean, Northern Spirit Radio, Google Play, PlayerFM, and TuneIn Radio. 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.
Friday May 22, 2020
Friday May 22, 2020
For a long time climate advocates faced skepticism and resistance coming from Republican lawmakers. That is changing. In February Citizens Climate Radio host Peterson Toscano traveled to Washington DC for the first ever Conservative Climate Training and Lobby Days. Nearly 100 people showed up from all over the country, young and older. They met with Republican staff and members of congress to talk about climate change and a path forward.
In this episode you will hear excerpts from interviews with volunteer lobbyists Carlos Simms, Mary Lawing, Katie Zakrzewski, Isuru Seneviratne, and Cindy Burbank. On a panel of Republican climate leader Alex Flint, the Executive Director at Alliance for Market Solutions spoke during the February event. Mr. Flint previously served as staff director of the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. He was the senior vice president of governmental affairs at the Nuclear Energy Institute, and he was a member of President Trump’s transition team. He outlines for us the dramatic shifts he has witnessed while speaking with lawmakers.
Jim Tolbert, Citizens Climate Education Conservative Director and Jacob Abel, a Citizens Climate Conservative fellow, provide insider glimpses to the conversations about climate change they have with fellow Conservatives.
You will learn what has changed in the Republican party, and the new landscape climate advocates lobbying Conservative members of Congress now face. Guests will share what Republicans bring to the climate conversation and the Conservative values that compel them to pursue effective ways to transform our energy economy. You will also receive advice and learn the ways these conservatives are speaking with their family, friends, and elected leaders about climate change.
Dig Deeper
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RepublicEN, conservatives, libertarians, and pragmatists of diverse political opinion standing together because climate change is real, and it's our duty and opportunity to reduce the risks.
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Margaret Thatcher - UN General Assembly Climate Change Speech (1989)
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The End of Republican Climate Change Denial by Alex FlintPuzzler Question
Puzzler Question
We updated last month’s puzzler question and made it more personal.
He is the question slightly restated:
In a Zoom call you share your renewed commitment to promote climate solutions and ask your friend, Gretchen, to join your group. Gretchen slowly shakes her head and says, “I am concerned about the planet too, but with so many people affected by Covid-19, I think we are just going to have to deal with that first. Climate action is very important but for so many people right now, there are more pressing issues to address.”
The dilemma so many of us face right now is that climate action has been eclipsed by an immediate threat to humanity. How are you dealing with this? How are you navigating this new landscape? How are you adapting? What is a resource you have found helpful?
Share your answers with Peterson by June, 17, 2020.
Leave a voice mail at 518.595.9414. (+1 if calling from outside the USA.)
You can email your answers to radio @ citizensclimate.org
You can hear Citizens’ Climate Radio on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, SoundCloud, Podbean, Northern Spirit Radio, Google Play, PlayerFM, and TuneIn Radio. 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.
Friday Apr 24, 2020
Friday Apr 24, 2020
- Dr. Nathasha DeJarnett, Interim Associate Director Program & Partnership Development National Environmental Health Association
- Dr. Lise VanSusteren, an American psychiatrist in private practice in Washington, DC with a special interest in the psychological effects of climate change.
- Elizabeth Rush, author of Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore
- Solemi Hernandez, Citizens Climate Lobby Southeast Regional Coordinator
- Edie Lush, co-host of Global GoalsCast podcast
- LaUra Schmidt and Aimee Lewis-Reau, co-founders of the Good Grief Network
- Anna Jane Joyner, co-host of No Place Like Home podcast
- Four ways Coronavirus is Turning the Natural World Upside Down, The Atlantic
- Experts See a Worrisome Link Between Pollution and Coronavirus, The Hill
- Climate Change and Health Equity, American Public Health Association
- Coronavirus: Why Has the Virus Hit African-Americans So Hard? BBC
- Climate Change Increases the Risk of Violence Against Women, United Nations
- Climate Change Leads to More Violence Against Women, Girls, Deutsche Welle
- As Cities Around the World Go on Lockdown, Victims of Domestic Violence Look for a Way Out, Time Magazine
- How Millions of Women Became the Most Essential Workers in America, New York Times
- How the Pandemic Will End: Generation C, The Atlantic
- We Need Courage, Not Hope, to Face Climate Change, by Dr. Kate Marvel, On-Being
- Olio Food Sharing App
- Dutch Baby Recipe, New York Times
Friday Mar 27, 2020
Friday Mar 27, 2020
The resilience and adaption we see happening all over the world, in our governments, and in our homes, have gotten some climate advocates reflecting on the preparations & rapid responses needed to address extreme weather events and other impacts from global warming. How is Coronavirus similar to climate change? How is it different?
Host, Peterson Toscano convenes a panel of experts to consider these questions.
- Dr. Natasha DeJarnett, the interim Associate Director of Program & Partnership Development at the National Environmental Health Association. In previous episodes she has helped us better understand public health issues and climate change. Whether she is discussing environmental racism and pollution, the illnesses afflicting coal miners in Appalachia, or promoting mental health in a time of Climate Change, Dr. DeJarnett provides well sourced and grounded information.
- Leonardo Martinez-Diaz, the director of the Sustainable Finance Center at the World Resources Institute. He leads the Center’s work to help drive finance into activities that promote sustainability and combat climate change. He served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy and Environment at the US Department of the Treasury.
- Alice. C Hill, a senior fellow for Climate Change Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. Over 10 years ago she joined the Obama administration as senior legal counsel to Homeland Security director, Janet Politano. As a climate change resilience expert, She believes we possess the tools to respond to the impacts of climate change. She and Martinez-Diaz co-authored the book, Building a Resilient Tomorrow: How to Prepare fo the Coming Climate Disruption.
In discussing the connections they see regarding our preparations for and responses to protecting the public from Covid-19 and the impacts of climate change, they point out that governments do not properly plan for unexpected future events because of a collective failure of imagination. Martinez-Diaz explains the idea of availability bias, “the difficulty that we all have to imagine things we have never seen before. Therefore, we have a lot trouble planning and getting ready for things for which we have no living memory.” This was true of Coronavirus and is also true for climate change.
In responding to crisis and suffering, they each point out the importance of having empathy towards those who are at risk, particularly the most vulnerable in society. This thoughtful and insightful conservation will help climate advocates better understand the work we seek to do in effectively communicating the urgency of climate change. Being able to tell stories to government officials and other stakeholders is a necessary skill to develop and hone.
The Art House
Hear the story of Yuri Ivanovich Petrov. As a boy he survived the infamous 900 Days Siege of Leningrad during World War II. Though he experienced the unimaginable hardships, he also developed inventive ways to survive. The lessons he learned during the greatest crisis of his generation, can help give us hope and guidance for our own.
Puzzler Question
You are talking to your. friend, Charles. Charles is concerned about climate change but doesn’t know what we could do about it. You explain carbon pricing is a powerful tool to help us decrease fossil fuel emissions. Before you could say more your Charles interrupts, “Are you out of your mind? Did you see what happened in France when they tried that. Those Yellow Vest Protest! It was a political disaster! You really expect that to work here?”
How would you respond to Charles?
Send your answers to Peterson by April, 15, 2020. You can email your responses to radio @ citizensclimate.org r leave a voicemail of 3 minutes or less at 518.595.9414. (+1 if calling from outside the USA.)
Dig Deeper
- What would happen if the world reacted to climate change lit it’s reacting to coronavirus? What would a fast, coordinated, collective response to climate change look like? by Adele Peters for Fast Company
- Coronavirus Shows Up Rapid Global Response to Climate Change Is Possible by Jamie Margolin for Teen Vogue
- America Adapts Podcast: The Climate Change Podcast
- That Discomfort You’re Feeling is Grief by Scott Berinato for the Harvard Business Review
- The Siege of Leningrad from Eyewitness to History
Wednesday Feb 26, 2020
Wednesday Feb 26, 2020
Concerned about climate change, Princeton University student, Jonathan Lu, and his friends became excited about a particular solution: Carbon Fee and Dividend. Through Citizens Climate Lobby they learned about a proposed national policy to price carbon and give the revenue back to households. That inspired them to ask, Could this be done in New Jersey?
Having a good idea is one thing, but doing all the hard work to make it a reality is quite another. Jonathan and his friends realized they needed help researching New Jersey state law. They also needed to speak with over 100 stake-holders all over the state. They wanted to make sure idea for legislation would appeal to as many different groups as possible.
Luckily they found a group of hard-working, intelligent, and creative people who enthusiastically joined the cause. People like Ahan Raina and Aurora Yuan. At the time they were both 15 years old.
Our host, Peterson Toscano, chats with Jonathan, Ahan, and Aurora, members of New Jersey Student Climate Adadvocates (NJSCA.) They and scores of high school and college students are working on the New Jersey Climate Investment and Carbon Cashback policy. In addition to applying what they are learning in school about climate change, economics, and civics, they are discovering just how challenging it is to devise a bill that appeals to as many people as possible. They are committed to seeing households benefit once carbon pricing begins in the state.
After hearing from over 100 stakeholders though, they realized they needed to make adjustments to their original policy proposal. In a state with many businesses and industries, they heard how their idea might impact New Jersey businesses. They came up with a compromise that has made the bill better for more people in New Jersey.
While they worked on the policy though, Student Climate Strikes broke out in North America and beyond. Why do policy work instead of strike? Both Ahan and Aurora share insightful responses.
“People are definitely talking more about climate change because of the work of these climate strikers,” says Ahan. He adds, “You can build as much public interest as you want, but then someone has to do the work of building the policy.”
Aurora believes policy is the best way to address climate change, but not the only way. “I do participate in the climate strikes...I think policy though is the real concrete solution because we can’t get any tangible change without creating policy and systematic change.”
She understands why many of her peers are furious about the world they will inherit. For Aurora though, that anger can get in the way of the conversation. “The more angry you are and the more angry words you say to other people, the less they are willing to listen to you and the less they are willing to work with you...I think having a tone of calmness and willingness to speak with others and listen to where others are coming from, and then cooperating with others is really, really important right now."
Jonathan, experienced great success working with high school students on climate policy. In this episode he offers excellent advice to climate groups who want to work with young people.
If you inspired anew by this rising generation and learn some practical strategies for developing effective policy while for working with youth, hear the full interviews in this latest episode.
To learn more, follow them on Instagram.
The Art House
Irish author, Shirley McMillan wanted nothing to do with climate change. A busy mom with a young child, she recoiled when Peterson Toscano first initiated a conversation with her about climate change six years ago. She did not deny the reality or seriousness of climate change, but it all felt too much. She was also uninspired by the many suggestions for how women can do all the hard work to lower the family’s carbon footprint.
Then something changed; Shirley began to see climate change as something more than just an environmental issue; she realized how it is also a human rights issue.
Hear a lively conversation between Shirley and Peterson as she shares why it took her awhile to warm up to climate action. Learning about her reasons may help you better understand why your own friends and loved ones switch off when you start talking about climate change. Discover how over time you can influence your friends to embrace climate change on their own terms.
Puzzler Question
Like Shirley, your friend, Heather, told you she wanted nothing to do with your climate work. She also had a limited view of what that work looks like: “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t have time for climate work. I feel bad saying that but I work full time and I have two children still in school. I don’t have time for protesting right now”
Hear what listeners had to say to Heather.
New Puzzler Question
You are talking to your friend, Charles. Charles is concerned about climate change but doesn’t know what we can do about it. You explain how carbon pricing is a powerful tool to help us decrease fossil fuel emissions. Before you could say more Charles interrupts, “Are you out of your mind? Did you see what happened in France when they tried that. Those Yellow Vest Protest! It was a political disaster! You really expect that to work here?”How would you respond to Charles?
Send Peterson your answers. Leave your name, contact info, and where you are from. Get back to him by March, 15, 2020. You can leave a voice mail of 3 minutes or less at 518.595.9414. (+1 if calling from outside the USA.) or email your answers to radio @ citizensclimate.org
Dig Deeper
- Economists’ Statement on Carbon Pricing The Climate Leadership Council
- Pricing Carbon The World Bank
- A Brief Look at Carbon Pricing by Canadian Province The North Shore News
- Ten Carbon Pricing Bills before the US Congress, Eco-Justice Journey, The Presbyterian Mission
- Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (HR 763)
You can hear Citizens’ Climate Radio on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, SoundCloud, Podbean, Northern Spirit Radio, Google Play, PlayerFM, and TuneIn Radio. 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.
Friday Jan 24, 2020
Friday Jan 24, 2020
On October 20th 2007, after having a revelation about the severity of climate change, Marshall Saunders launched Citizens Climate Lobby. He then inspired over one hundred thousand everyday citizens to appeal directly to members of congress. He helped empower them to offer a bold and straight forward solution to address climate change. Everyone who met Marshall, heard him speak, and worked beside him walked way with determination and a deeper belief in their own ability to change in the world. On December 27th, 2019 at the age of 80, Marshall Saunders passed away at his home in Coronado, California.
As host of Citizens Climate Radio, Peterson Toscano had the pleasure of sitting down to record interviews with Marshall multiple times. In these lively conversations, Marshall's voice is filled with kindness, wisdom, tenderness, insights, and mirth. Whenever Marshall spoke about CCL, he expressed an unshakable faith in individuals to do far more than they ever imagined possible. As a leader, he influenced hundreds of thousands of volunteers to believe something outrageous—that cooperation in the US congress leading to bipartisan climate legislation was not only possible, but inevitable.
For our main section we return to the beginning and bring you an intimate, moving, and at times hilarious conversation with Marshall Saunders, founder of Citizens Climate Lobby, and Mark Reynolds, the executive director. They reveal their origin stories. Highly ambitions and successful businessmen, they seemed unlikely candidates to head up an organization that puts relationship-building and climate advocacy at its heart.
We may say of a man that he is more often kind than cruel, more often wise than stupid, more often energetic than apathetic or vice versa; but it could never be true to say of one man that he is kind or wise, and of another that he is wicked or stupid. Yet we are always classifying mankind in this way. And it is wrong. Human beings are like rivers; the water is one and the same in all of them but every river is narrow in some places, flows swifter in others; here it is broad, there still, or clear, or cold, or muddy or warm. It is the same with men. Every man bears within him the germs of every human quality, and now manifests one, now another, and frequently is quite unlike himself, while still remaining the same man.”
It sounds like Heather as a limited view of what climate work looks like. How would you respond to Heather?
Send Peterson your answer by February 15, 2020, along with your name, contact info, and where you are from. You can email your answers to radio @ citizensclimate.org or leave a voicemail of 3 minutes or less at 518.595.9414. (+1 if calling from outside the USA.)
- A history of Bipartisanship : BipartisanPolicy.org
- Cooperation: Congress Simply Has to Bring it Back : Brookings Institute
- Five myths about bipartisanship : The Washington Post
- Marshall Saunders Obituary : Coronado Times
- Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy : Good Reads
You can hear Citizens’ Climate Radio on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, SoundCloud, Podbean, Northern Spirit Radio, Google Play, PlayerFM, and TuneIn Radio. 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.
If you listen on iTunes, please consider rating and reviewing us!
Friday Dec 20, 2019
Friday Dec 20, 2019
In this episode you will meet a fellow climate action figure. Solemi Hernandez finds great joy and fulfillment in the climate work she does. In hearing some of her own story, we hope it inspires you in your own. Originally from Venezuela, Solemi has lived in the US state of Florida for the past 17 years. She seeks to improve conditions for immigrant farm workers. She is also raising her two sons, and Solemi has taken on a very big mission. She wants to save the world starting in her own community.
Like her father and grandfather before her, Solemi worked for the oil industry in Venezuela. In fact, she grew up in an oil town and saw firsthand the environmental and health hazards that came with the well-paid oil jobs. Once the oil industry became nationalized, Solemi moved to the USA and started on a very different path—as a social justice minded environmentalist. She began to volunteer with various groups including the Water Keepers Alliance and the Sierra Club. She helped create a local chapter of The Pachamama alliance, an umbrella organization that connects environmental and social justice organizations to work in the community. She also volunteered for Citizens Climate Lobby.
Her concerns for her community and her passion to address climate change deepened in 2017 when she and her family endured a category 5 storm, Hurricane Irma. For three days the family lived in an emergency shelter in a public school that eventually also flooded. They returned to a devastated neighborhood. Their house survived the storm the region was without electricity for three weeks. With sweltering temperatures and limited supplies and resources, she and her community worked together to take care of each other. Solemi speaks about the added risks marginalized people face who do not have the income and mobility necessary to escape the storms and then to rebuild.
Solemi admits that climate work is challenging, but she has found purpose and meaning in the climate work she is doing. Her enthusiasm is contagious, and her story is inspiring.
Solemi Hernandez is Citizens Climate Lobby's Southeast Regional Coordinator covering Florida, Alabama, and Georgia. She first learned about CCL in 2017 and she immediately signed up as a volunteer because she was inspired by CCL’s mission to create the political will for climate solutions. She is currently enrolled as a Political Science student at Florida Gulf Coast University. She has been a grassroots activist and community organizer for many years in Florida.
Prior to CCL, she worked as the co-host of a Spanish language TV talk show based in Southwest Florida. While at this position she had the opportunity to research and conduct in-depth personal interviews with political candidates and politicians. She has been volunteering with a number of organizations advocating in Tallahassee for the environment and the Everglades restoration.
Solemi is the mother of two wonderful young boys who are her motivation to continue her work for a better quality of life for all. She enjoys reading, watching documentaries, spending time with family and friends, going to the beach and exploring nature in all its diversity.
The Art House
Playwright Chantal Bilodeau returns to the Art House. Every two years to coincide with the UN COP meetings, Chantal and her team organizes an international event, Climate Change Theatre Action. They select 50 short climate change themed plays from 50 playwrights around the world. This fall over 200 communities organized events in 30 countries where they read some of these plays. Chantal shares highlights along with good news about how the movement is growing both in and outside of the theatre community. A book with all 50 of the 2019 plays will be published in 2020. The collection of 50 plays from 2017 is available now.
Puzzler Question
We hear your answers to a question about what household might do with a carbon dividend. Your friend Darren thinks given out a dividend is a bad idea. He says, "People will just use the dividend they get to continue paying for fossil fuels. Giving them money enables them to stay in their fossil fuel lifestyles. Hear what listeners had to say.
New Puzzler Question
You are at a political rally chatting with a new friend. Let’s call her Heather. When you ask her if she wants to join your climate group, she says, “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t have time for climate work. I feel bad saying that but I work full time and two children still in school, I don’t have time for protesting right now.
How would you respond to Heather?
Send Peterson your answer by January 15, 2020, along with your name, contact info, and where you are from. You can email your answers to radio @ citizensclimate.org or leave a voicemail of 3 minutes or less at 518.595.9414. (+1 if calling from outside the USA.)
Dig Deeper
- The Elderly and the Disabled were Left Behind in Hurricane Irma. What Will Happen Next Time? (American Magazine)
- Post Katrina and New Orleans homelessness (Real Truth)
- The 17 Principles of Environmental Justice (Reimagine)
- American Meteorological Society Explaining Extreme Events from a Climate Perspective This BAMS special report presents assessments of how human-caused climate change may have affected the strength and likelihood of individual extreme events. (American Meteorological Society)
- The 5 biggest environmental and climate change stories over the last decade and what’s changed (ABC News)
You can hear Citizens’ Climate Radio on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, SoundCloud, Podbean, Northern Spirit Radio, Google Play, PlayerFM, and TuneIn Radio. 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.
If you listen on iTunes, please consider rating and reviewing us!
Saturday Nov 23, 2019
Saturday Nov 23, 2019
Adam Rosenbalm and Austin Ramsey study at East Tennessee State University (ETSU.) Both raised in Conservative families in the South, they arrived on campus at a time when American citizens were more politically polarized than ever. After the 2016 election it seemed the country was more polarized than ever. Conversations quickly became debates that led to arguments. Both Adam and Austin wanted to do something about the partisan divide between Conservative and Liberal Americans. Fortunately they learned about a new group called Better Angels.
According to the Better Angels’ website, "Better Angels is a national citizens’ movement to reduce political polarization in the United States by bringing liberals and conservatives together to understand each other beyond stereotypes, forming red/blue community alliances, teaching practical skills for communicating across political differences, and making a strong public argument for depolarization.” They do this through their Red and Blue Workshops. With the help of a skilled facilitator, Better Angels hosts parliamentary styles debates.
After attending a Better Angels’ event, Adam and Austin decided to bring the Better Angels’ style of debate to the ETSU campus. They hosted the first-ever Better Angel’s debate on a college campus. They chose a hot button topic that drew a large audience. Adam explains, “East Tennessee State University is in rural Tennessee…and firearms are a part of most people’s lives, and so we set forth the resolution that said, ‘Resolved: Students should be allowed to carry guns on campus.’ The whole premise of the event after that was people were asked to either speak in the affirmative or the negative on the topic.” Throughout the debate students were given space to share their feelings about the topic and raise questions.
What often becomes a heated debate where people walk away angry and further divided instead became a space of deeper understanding and friendship. Because of skillful facilitation and clear guardrails that kept the conversation moving forward, the ETSU Better Angels gun debate was a huge success. Austin says, “It really won over the campus. Students really connected with the style. We had students on both side of the issues that at the end worked together to say, hey, we need to meet to talk about this issue. We need to work together, because now we see this issue is deeper than a gun…it’s about how we’ve been raised, how we perceive this issue, where we were born, and how some of the milestones in our lives affect how we think about this. And that’s important when we talk about these difficult issues.”
After that initial success, Adam and Austin organized debates on other topics. They share with Citizens Climate Radio host, Peterson Toscano, some of the insights they have learned that help them to foster civil discourse that results in genuine understanding and appreciation of people on the other side of an issue. They also talk about climate change and the challenges that must be overcome when organizing an effective dialogue between Conservatives and Liberals.
The Art House
Being a climate advocate can be very difficult. How do you maintain hope in the face of bad news and apathy from those around you? Where do you find encouragement and inspiration? What role can faith play in our climate work? These are the questions Rev. Dr. Leah D. Schade and Rev. Dr. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas the editors of a new anthology of essays by climate change faith leaders, wanted to answer. They bring together 21 climate leaders in the book, Rooted & Rising: Voices of Courage in a Time of Climate Crisis.
Contributors include Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, Rev Fred Small, Cristina Leaño, and Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman. In his introduction to the book, Bill McKibben argues for the need for a faith-based book about climate action, “…love, I would suggest, is what finally roots this volume: a love for the world around us, in all its improbable glory, and for the people who alone can bear witness to that glory and rise to its defense. If they are indeed summoned to that calling, it may be in part by fear—by the proper functioning of the survival instinct. But I suspect it will be more by love, the ever-great mystery. This volume opens some windows on that mystery, because the people whose words are collected in it have been powered by that force.”
In the Art House the editors speak briefly about the book, and then contributors, Dr. Nathasha DeJarnett, a research coordinator at the National Environmental Health Assocation reads a portion of her essay, “The View from My Window. Corina Newsome, from Young Evangelicals for Climate Action shares how her hope was rekindled through the process of writing her piece, “The Thing with Feathers.” Once she received her copy of the book and read the other essays, she found even more hope.
Puzzler
We hear answers to last month’s puzzler: System Change, Not Climate Change. What does that even mean?
New Puzzler Question
You are talking to your neighbor, Darren. You explain the many possible ways of we can address climate change. One proposal is to charge energy companies a fee when they extract fossil fuels. The money collected then goes to households. You say this carbon fee and dividend plan will serve as an incentive to switch over to cleaner sources of energy. Darren replies, “Well that’s stupid. People will just use the dividend they get to continue paying for fossil fuels. Giving them money enables them to stay in their fossil fuel lifestyles?”
What do you have to say to Darren?
Send Peterson your answer by December 15, 2019, along with your name, contact info, and where you are from. You can email your answers to radio @ citizensclimate.org or leave a voicemail of 3 minutes or less at 518.595.9414. (+1 if calling from outside the USA.)
Dig Deeper
- Conservative Climate Lobby Day
- What Does the Bible Say about Climate Change? Ep 30 Citizens Climate Radio
- Parliamentary Procedure, Britannica
- The Case for Climate Hope by Conor Dwyer Reynolds, The New Republic
You can hear Citizens’ Climate Radio on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, SoundCloud, Podbean, Northern Spirit Radio, Google Play, PlayerFM, and TuneIn Radio. 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.
If you listen on iTunes, please consider rating and reviewing us!
Saturday Oct 26, 2019
Saturday Oct 26, 2019
Tuskegee University is a historically Black University in Alabama founded in 1881. From the early work of George Washington Carver, Tuskegee has trained generations of researchers who are unraveling mysteries from the natural world. Dr. Carver wrote, “I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.”
Two researchers have been tuning in and made a series of extraordinary discoveries all from agricultural waste. Out of the muck Dr. Michael L Curry, Dr. Donald White, and a team of other researchers found a natural alternative to plastics, one that will biodegrade in less than 100 days. This will keep us from adding even more pollution to a very polluted world. Further researched revealed this material also has other extraordinary properties.
Dr. Curry and Dr. White continue in the tradition of George Washington Carver and the many curious, well trained, and highly skilled researchers at Tuskegee University.
The Art House
Puzzler Question
We will extend the puzzler question from last month.
After attending the recent climate strikes, imagine you run into your cousin, Kristan. She saw news reports about events around the world. She says, “I love the sign ‘system change not climate change,’ but it seems like a total fantasy. They expect everyone to go vegan or something? What systems can we change that will make any difference with climate change?"
Kristan needs some help envisioning the kind of change that you are pursuing. How would you answer her?
Send Peterson your answer by November 15, 2019, along with your name, contact info, and where you are from. You can email your answers to radio @ citizensclimate.org or leave a voicemail of 3 minutes or less at 518.595.9414. (+1 if calling from outside the USA.)
Dig Deeper
- George Washington Carver, Tuskegee University
- 7 Incredible Uses for Nanocellulose, Gizmodo
- Bioplastics, Encyclopedia Britannica
- MIT engineers devise new way to remove carbon dioxide from the air, Cnet.com
- Acting for Climate Facebook page
- Artists for Climate Change
You can hear Citizens’ Climate Radio on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, SoundCloud, Podbean, Northern Spirit Radio, Google Play, PlayerFM, and TuneIn Radio. 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.
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Saturday Sep 28, 2019
Saturday Sep 28, 2019
Tatiana Schlossberg is the author of the new book, Inconspicuous Consumption. In it she highlights just how good we are at being bad when it comes to fossil fuel pollution. She exposes the pollution generated by four major industries--Fuel, Food, Internet, and Fashion. About the book, Bill McKibben writes, “[Schlossberg] deserves real credit for coming through her journey into the guts of the consumer machine with a clarifying insight: We aren’t going to solve our problems one consumer at a time. We’re going to need to do it as societies and civilizations, or not at all.”
In her conversation with host, Peterson Toscano, Schlossberg dives into the the vast world of fashion and the extreme pollution the industry produces, and how this pollution contributes to global warming. She focuses on specific sectors including denim and the production of jeans.
In writing about cotton, Schlossberg points out, “It’s grown in more than sixty-five countries around the world, makes up about one-third of all the fibers used in textiles, takes up about 3 percent of global agricultural land, and has a big carbon footprint: producing the world’s cotton supply for the use in textiles results in 107.5 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions every year.”
In addition to creating pollution, growing cotton and manufacturing cotton textiles demand a massive amount of water. “Producing one kilogram of cotton requires somewhere between 1,800 and 7,660 gallons of water, depending on where its grown,” according to Schlossberg. Once harvested, the cotton is then transformed into fabrics like denim, a process that is also water intensive. Schlossberg states, “as much as 2,900 gallons can be used to produce a single pair of pants (using conventional methods), mostly because of the dyeing and finishing.”
When it comes to the alternatives to cotton, like synthetics, Schlossberg reveals the tremendous greenhouse gas emissions and micro-fiber pollution created every year as a result of the manufacture, use, washing, and disposing of synthetic fabrics. The company that pioneered synthetic fabric, Patagonia, is now hard at work looking for solutions and alternatives. Schlossberg warns pollution from fashion is increasing because of the growing industry of fast fashion, where cheap quick production comes with a hidden ecological price tag.
In her book and this podcast episode, Schlossberg does a great job of pointing out the many sources of pollution that come from the world of fashion. She readily admits she does not provide many solutions. Her job is to help us understand the scale of the problem. She recognizes the response needs to be in relation to the size of the problem. Individual efforts are not nearly enough. The role of politicians and the political process is vital to bringing about the changes in policy we need. In addition, the role of citizens speaking out about climate change is more important than ever.
Schlossberg helps us consume this heavy topic with plenty of spoonfuls of sugar; her humor, warmth, and hope shine through.
The Art House
What does it take to create a poetic masterpiece that is also able to express the complex emotions we feel around climate change? Poet Catherine Pierce describes her process crafting her moving poem, Anthropocene Pastoral Host, Peterson Toscano produces an Art House segment heavily influenced by the podcast Song Exploder. They invite a musician to unpack a song and talk about almost every aspect of it and their creative process. In the Art House, Pierce does something similar for us with Anthropocene Pastoral. The poem first appeared in the American Poetry Review.
Inspired by the California Super Bloom of 2017, Pierce captures the strangeness of living in a world that is rapidly and dangerously changing but at the same time can be unseasonably pleasant and beautiful. (Tatiana Schlossberg wrote about a Super Bloom for the New York Times.)
Pierce opens the poem with the line, "In the beginning the ending was beautiful.”
In the conversation she reveals the many choices she made as a poet to create the haunting mood of the poem and the lush landscape in it filled with a riot of images, animals, and life. She explains some of the techniques and devices she uses to construct the poem. Then she reads the poem for us.
You can read more of Catherine Pierce's climate change themed poetry online including High Dangerous and Planet. Pierce’s last book of poetry, The Tornado is the World is about an EF-4 tornado/extreme weather. The filmmaker Isaac Ravishankara produced a beautiful short film out of one of the poems in the collection, "The Mother Warns the Tornado.”
Catherine Pierce is the co-director of the Writing Program at Mississippi State University, and the author of the award winning collection of poetry, Famous Last Words. She is working on a new book of poetry, Danger Days, which continues her exploration of climate change. It will be available in autumn 2020.
Puzzler
Students from Susquehanna University answer last month's puzzler question. Victor, a middle school student is freaking out because of climate change. “What could I even do about?” What does he need to hear?
We also get inspiration from elementary students at the River Valley Nature School who gave a presentation at the Climate Strike event held in Lewisburg, PA.
New Puzzler Question:
After attending the recent climate strikes you ran into your cousin, Kristan. She saw news reports about events around the world. She says, “I love the sign—system change not climate change, but it seems like a total fantasy. They expect everyone to go vegan or something? What systems can we change that will make any difference with climate change? ”
Kristan needs some help envisioning the kind of change that you are pursuing. How would you answer Kristan?
Leave your name, contact info, and where you are from. Get your answer in by October, 15, 2019. You can email your answers to radio @ citizensclimate.org or leave a voicemail of 3 minutes or less at 518.595.9414. (+1 if calling from outside the USA.)
Dig Deeper
- The Price of Fast Fashion (Nature)
- Making Climate Change Fashionable—The Garment Industry Takes on Global Warming (Forbes)
- We Have No Idea How Bad Fashion Actually Is for the Environment—But it’s definitely not good. (Racked)
- Synthetic Microfiber Pollution (Patagonia)
- Waste Not, If You want to Help Secure the Future of the Planet. (NY Times article by Tatiana Schlossberg)
You can hear Citizens’ Climate Radio on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, SoundCloud, Podbean, Northern Spirit Radio, Google Play, PlayerFM, and TuneIn Radio. 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.