Citizens' Climate Lobby

Learn about constituent advocacy, the advantages we hold as constituents in transforming our government and the policies we adopt, and hear stories from CCL volunteers around the country who demonstrate how citizens can build meaningful, long-term relationships with their congressional office. Joined by CCL leaders that share their stories of empowerment, Brett Cease, CCL's Education & Engagement Senior Director will be hosting Part I in the “Working With Congress” training series, designed to empower you - an important member of our volunteer network - to be ready for our annual June lobby meetings.

Skip ahead to the following section(s):

(0:00) Intro & Agenda
(2:08) Marshall Saunders's Vision & Reclaiming Our Democracy
(8:07) The Role of Citizen Lobbying 
(18:43) Expanding Our Comfort Zones
(23:45) Building Relationships
(31:34) Sharing Our Stories

Presentation Slides: http://cclusa.org/transformative-power

CCL Training on Lobbying 101: https://community.citizensclimate.org/topics/working-with-congress/lobbying-101 

Our June Lobby Day Training Schedule: https://community.citizensclimate.org/resources/item/19/272

CCL strives to provide a welcoming space for people from all backgrounds and cultures. Join Karina Ramirez, CCL's Diversity and Inclusion Director, for an introduction to CCL's anti-racism and allyship guide. This resource guide has been written by staff and volunteers to provide resources for those driven to dive more deeply into understanding the importance of anti-racism work including highlighting portions of our ongoing work regarding Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) and why it is integral to our work as climate advocates. 

Skip ahead to the following section(s):

• (0:00) Intro & Agenda
• (2:16) Disclaimer & Community Agreements
• (3:52) About the Guide
• (7:53) Four Types of Racism
• (12:52) On Being An Ally & Understanding White Privilege
• (25:13) Reflection & After Work

Presentation Slides: https://cclusa.org/antiracism-ally-slides

Anti-Racism & Allyship Guide: https://community.citizensclimate.org/resources/item/19/488 

 

Find out more about what the Environmental Voter Project is up to this year for the midterms and how CCL volunteers can plug in! Our April Big Tent Climate Talks episode features a conversation with Brett Cease, CCL's Education & Engagement Senior Director and Shannon Seigal, Organizing Director with Environmental Voter Project! Join us for a new, engaging, quarterly conversation that spotlights leaders in the climate community outside of CCL doing important work in building coalitions around effective climate solutions. At CCL, we know solving climate change requires a variety of policies and perspectives. That's why we do this work under a big tent that includes folks from the right, the left, and every spot in between. In our Big Tent Climate Talks, we'll talk to a wide variety of climate leaders outside of CCL to learn more about how we can all work better together.

Skip ahead to the following section(s):

(0:00) Introductions

(2:55) EVP's background and focus
(5:19) EVP's areas of focus in 2022
(7:32) How Shannon got involved in the climate movement

(10:12) How can groups get trained up by EVP for phone banking?

(13:47) using CCL's Environmental Voter Project handout

(16:24) EVP's assessment of the current moment in climate policymaking

(19:33) Inspirational stories of CCL's involvement

(21:58) Q&A From Audience

 

Helpful links:

Upcoming Events: environmentalvoter.org/events   

Get Involved with EVP: https://www.environmentalvoter.org/get-involved 
2021 Impact Report: https://www.environmentalvoter.org/sites/default/files/documents/2021-impact-report.pdf

CCL's recent blog on EVP: https://citizensclimatelobby.org/blog/democracy/elections-provide-opportunity-to-make-climate-change-a-priority

Join CCL: https://citizensclimatelobby.org 
Register For Next Quarter’s Big Tent Climate Talk Episode: https://cclusa.org/bigtent 

 

In this episode you will hear a lively conversation between our host, Peterson Toscano, and four South African veterinarians. Like many climate advocates, Peterson couldn’t help himself, and asked Kristine and Roy Page along with their friends and fellow veterinarians Adrian and Ashleigh Tordiffe about climate change in South Africa and how it is affecting household pets and wild animals. 

The conversation is rich, informed, and at times hilarious. You will learn about pets in South Africa, and about the many ways animal lovers everywhere can protect their pets from extreme heat, extreme cold, and vector-born illness spread by fleas and ticks. You will hear about the North American ticks that strikes fear in the hearts of all meat-loving South Africans.  

Adrian is an academic and researches wildlife populations, and tells us about the adorable and very loud bush baby (also known as galago.) It is one of the very few nocturnal primate, and has two completely diets. In the rainy season it eats fruits and insects, and in the dry month it consumes plant gums produced by certain trees. Twice a year it has to completely transform its digestion system to accommodate its diet. 

In addition to demonstrating the signature shrieking sounds the bush baby makes from high up in the trees, Adrian also tells us about how extreme heat and extended drought is making life harder for these amazing creatures. 

Join Peterson for a beautiful summer day braai, on the back stoop of Roy and Kristine’s home, as their many dogs roam around and the children play nearby. Joining the four veterinarians is Glen Retief, Peterson’s husband, who grew up among wildlife in South Africa’s Kruger National Park. 

The Art House

Krista Hiser is back with another installment of The Ultimate Cli-Fi Book Club. Every few months Krista Hiser shares with us her thoughts about climate-themed literature. This episode Krista looks at the 2010 satirical novel Solar by Ian McEwan. 

Michael Beard is a Nobel prize–winning physicist whose best work is behind him. Trading on his reputation, he speaks for enormous fees, lends his name to the letterheads of renowned scientific institutions, and half-heartedly heads a government-backed initiative tackling global warming. While he coasts along in his professional life, Michael’s personal life is another matter entirely. His fifth marriage is crumbling under the weight of his infidelities. But this time the tables are turned: His wife is having an affair, and Michael realizes he is still in love with her.

When Michael’s personal and professional lives begin to intersect in unexpected ways, an opportunity presents itself in the guise of an invitation to travel to New Mexico. Here is a chance for him to extricate himself from his marital problems, reinvigorate his career, and very possibly save the world from environmental disaster. Can a man who has made a mess of his life clean up the messes of humanity?  (Goodreads)

Krista is also responding to a hard-hitting research paper Through the Eye of a Needle: An Eco-Heterodox Perspective on the Renewable Energy Transition by Megan K. Seibert and William E. Rees. 

Abstract: This analysis makes clear that the pat notion of “affordable clean energy” views the world through a narrow keyhole that is blind to innumerable economic, ecological, and social costs. These undesirable “externalities” can no longer be ignored. To achieve sustainability and salvage civilization, society must embark on a planned, cooperative descent from an extreme state of overshoot in just a decade or two. While it might be easier for the proverbial camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for global society to succeed in this endeavor, history is replete with stellar achievements that have arisen only from a dogged pursuit of the seemingly impossible

This research reveals just how tricky it is to take on climate change. It is a wicked problem with many moving parts we often do not want to see or acknowledge, but Krista encourages us to see the problems in their fullness so we respond with significant and effective solutions. 

Dr. Krista Hiser is Sustainability Curriculum Coordinator for the University of Hawaii Office of Sustainability, where she facilitates change management, interdisciplinary dialogue, and professional development opportunities for faculty to design, update and transform courses to integrate sustainability across the curriculum. She serves on the advisory board for the Sustainability Curriculum Consortium (SCC) and on the Steering Committee for the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE).

You can read a written version of Krista’s essay at The Ultimate Cli-Fi Book Club for Sustainability in Higher Education.

You can hear standalone versions of The Art House at Artists and Climate Change. 

Good News Report

Our good news report comes from State College, PA, the home of Penn State University.  

CCL volunteer Dick Jones and the State College CCL chapter is pleased to report that State College Bureau Council unanimously passed a resolution calling on congress to pass Energy and Innovation Act. It is one of over 100 city councils to pass such a resolution including Allentown, Bethlehem, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, and York, PA.  

 

Join CCL Research Coordinator Dana Nuccitelli for a training that will discuss all three volumes of the new Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) of its Sixth Assessment Report. The report summarizes the latest scientific research on climate change adaptation and vulnerabilities and highlights the urgency of climate change impacts. Scientific assessment warns that missing Paris targets would harm human health and biodiversity worldwide, and risk irreversible losses sooner than previously thought. But the IPCC report does make clear how important it is that Congress pass the strongest climate package possible through reconciliation this year, ideally including a price on carbon.

Skip ahead to the following section(s):

• (0:00) Intro & Overview
• (3:07) Working Group I: Causes
• (12:22) Working Group II: Impacts
• (23:35) Working Group III: Solutions
• (37:06) Taking Action

Presentation Slides: http://cclusa.org/2022-ipcc-slides  
CCL Community page: https://community.citizensclimate.org/resources/item/19/260 
IPCC Reports: https://www.ipcc.ch/assessment-report/ar6/ 
Dana's Yale Program on Climate Communication Blog: https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2022/04/new-ipcc-report-only-political-will-stands-in-way-of-meeting-the-paris-targets/  
Dana's CCL Blog: https://citizensclimatelobby.org/blog/policy/the-latest-ipcc-report-has-a-lot-to-say-about-carbon-fee-and-dividend/ 

Join Elli Sparks, CCL's Field Development Director, for a training that will highlight new ways of engaging your chapter roster to build a thriving local chapter filled with engaged volunteers focused on roles and tasks they love. Elli will review new resources to help our chapters like a template for a virtual signup sheet (3rd bullet) and an organizational chart Jamboard to identify volunteer opportunities within your chapter. Elli will also review how to build a leadership team, determine which roles you would like to fill in your chapter next, and access the Volunteer Opportunities Emails for template emails you can send to your chapter roster to recruit for those positions.

Skip ahead to the following section(s):
(0:00) Intro & Agenda
(2:41) Virtual Signup Sheet (Action Sheet)
(11:44) Chapter Organizational Chart
(17:46) Volunteer Opportunities Emails
(22:56) Empowering Your Requesting
(28:20) Action Tracker - Recent Actions

Presentation Slides: http://cclusa.org/mining-roster-slides
CCL Community Training Page: https://community.citizensclimate.org/resources/item/19/147 

Join us for CCL's April Monthly Speaker: Keishaa Austin, Head of Engagement and Partnerships at Rewiring America.

#ElectrifyEverything is the hot hashtag of late, especially in light of the invasion of Ukraine, the sanctions against Russia and the need to end our fossil fuel dependency. Joining us this month is Keishaa Austin from Rewiring America, which is working to launch a movement to electrify everything, starting with our nation's 121 million households. Their latest policy brief, the Electrify for Peace Policy Plan, calls for ramping up American capacity to manufacture and install heat pumps in Europe and the U.S. 

Skip ahead to the following section(s):
(0:00) Introduction & Agenda
(2:48) Keishaa's Presentation
(17:16) Q&A Discussion
(28:16) April Monthly Actions 

CCL's Stand With Ukraine Campaign: https://community.citizensclimate.org/resources/item/19/499 
CCL's April Action Sheet: https://cclusa.org/actionsheet
April Pre-Call Video: https://vimeo.com/676599489 
More About Rewiring America: https://www.rewiringamerica.org/ 
Register for CCL's June 2022 Conference: https://cclusa.org/juneconference 

Join CCL's Marketing Manager Ashley Hunt-Martorano and Vice President of Organizational Strategy Tony Sirna for a training that will introduce CCL's Stand With Ukraine Campaign. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine we’ve all seen the calls to “drill, drill, drill”, and the President and some members of Congress pushing back on that with a clean energy agenda. We want to make sure the President and members of Congress know there is support from their constituents for prioritizing clean energy as a way to achieve real energy independence and reduce the power of autocrats and dictators like Putin.

Skip ahead to the following section(s):
(0:00) Intro & Agenda
(2:26) Campaign Background & Objectives
(5:32) Creative Choices We Made
(10:18) Volunteer Resources 
(16:50) Tabling Event Ideas & Talking Points

Presentation Slides: http://cclusa.org/ukraine-slides 
Training Page on CCL Community: https://community.citizensclimate.org/resources/item/19/499 
Main Ukraine Action Campaign: https://cclusa.org/ukraine 
Ukraine Graphics: https://citizensclimatelobby.org/ukraine-graphics/ 

Join CCL Education & Engagement Director Brett Cease and Education & Resilience Coordinator Tamara Staton for a training that will review recommendations and tips for chapters interested in running engaging online & hybrid (with both in-person and online attendees) meetings. The training will highlight resources you can use to deepen engagement and connectivity with your meeting and review some of the basic technical details for setting up your hybrid meeting.

Skip ahead to the following section(s):
(0:00) Intro & Agenda
(3:03) Facilitation Tips
(9:51) Three Steps to Make Your Meeting More Engaging
(21:24) Need Ideas? Resources
(24:22) Basic Hybrid Tech Overview
(33:30) Advanced Hybrid Recommendations

Presentation Slides: http://cclusa.org/engaging-hybrid-meetings 
CCL Community Training Topic Page: https://community.citizensclimate.org/topics/group-meetings/ 

With Earth Month coming up around the corner, join CCL's Field Development & Membership Director Elli Sparks for a training that reviews how to find, recruit and talk about CCL to potential new supporters. Supporters are the backbone of CCL! People want to help, be part of a team and exercise personal power, but they also have to balance their lives. To keep vibrant groups Elli will highlight many ways your local team can look for opportunities to add new volunteers.

Skip ahead to the following section(s):
(0:00) Intro & Agenda
(2:37) Info Session Data
(7:41) Four Basic Tools
(11:04) Presentations & Printed Materials
(15:31) Online & Media (Print, Radio, TV)
(21:09) Other Organizations & Your Events
(26:10) Practicing Your Pitch & Follow-Up

Presentation Slides: https://cclusa.org/growing-local-group 

CCL Community Training Page: https://community.citizensclimate.org/resources/item/19/146