Citizens' Climate Lobby

CCR 47 Eco-Grief in a Time of Coronavirus Mourning

How are the impacts of climate change similar to what we are experiencing with the Coronavirus global pandemic? Many climate advocates have long felt sadness, anger, and despair over the destructive effects of climate change and the slow response by elected officials to do anything about it. Suddenly with the Coronavirus Outbreak we are all thrust into yet another existential crisis and even more grief. Eight women talk about working through grief to a place of action. They use their expertise to connect the impacts of climate change to what we are now seeing with Covid-19.

 

Guests include:

• 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

See our complete show notes at Citizens Climate Lobby. 

 

Host, Peterson Toscano says, “As a podcaster, I get to hear and share stories. The stories and people I cover educate me about climate change and many other issues. They also affect me emotionally. They stir up sadness along with empathy.” Fellow climate podcasts, Edie Lush and Anna Jane Joyner, point out how essential grief was for them in helping understand what roles to take in the climate movement. 

 

In addition to the mental health risks we face, Dr. DeJarnett highlights the groups most vulnerable to the impacts of Covid-19 and to Climate Change. These include people of color, children, and women. In episode 23 Dr. DeJarnett shared research conducted after Hurricane Katrina. It reveals women experienced extreme trauma in various forms including domestic violence during and after the storm. Dr. DeJarnett worries about similar dangers women now face during this time of extreme isolation. Solemi Hernandez speaks about her concerns for farmer workers and the multiple risks they face as essential workers living in remote rural areas often without health care and with unresolved immigration issues. 

 

LaUra Schmidt and Aimee Lewis-Reau from the Good Grief Network, share the tools they use to help climate advocates face the eco-grief that often slows us down. Through their 10-Step Program, Personal Resilience and Empowerment in a Chaotic Climate, they have seen climate advocates breakthrough so they are more energized to do their work.

 

All of the guests share best practices and strategies to help process grief and cope with stress in this time of Coronavirus. 

 

Thank you to Raul Diaz Palomar for music from his album Musica Para Poder Contra La Verdad.

 

Art House 

 

In the Art House, writer Elizabeth Rush returns with good news. Her book Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore has garnered awards and was chosen as the Read Across Rhode Island pick. At the kick off event Elizabeth watched an excerpt of a play based her book. Observing herself portrayed on stage gave her a chance to realize something about her own grief process she had not noticed before. 

 

She talks about what she learned and reads selections from her book. 

 

Dig Deeper

• 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

 

Puzzler Question

 

Listeners share what they would say to Charles. He was worried about the Yellow Vest Protests in France and how something similar might happen in the USA if legislation is passed to put a price on carbon. 

 

New Puzzler Question 

On Earth Day in an on-line conversation with your friend, Gretchen, you share your renewed commitment to promote climate solutions. Gretchen slowly shakes her head  and says, “You know 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..”

 

Gretchen is correct. When people are struggling to pay bills, put food on the table, and as they recover from so many different losses, they often don’t have space for climate conversations. In fact, this has been true for lots of marginalized people for a long time, even before Coronavirus. So this puzzler question is for you to answer for yourself. How do you navigate your climate work as we deal with the impacts of Coronavirus? 

 

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

Get back to him by May, 17th, 2020. Email your answers to radio @ citizensclimate.org or leave a voicemail at 518.595.9414. (+1 if calling from outside the USA.)

 

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.

 

CCL Training: Preparing For Media Interviews

Join CCL's Communications Director Flannery Winchester for a training that builds volunteers’ interview skills, particularly for radio and television. Learn how to prepare for and respond to interview questions, keep the interview on track, and get your message across in the media.

Skip ahead to the following section(s):
Pre-interview prep (1:59)
Preparing your message (6:05)
Practicing: Bad, better, best (11:20)
CCL’s recommended talking points (17:11)
Pivoting (28:08)
Presentation tips (37:15)

Helpful resources:
Presentation Slides: http://cclusa.org/preparing-for-interviews
CCL Community Training Page: https://community.citizensclimate.org/resources/item/19/110

Nathaniel Stinnett | Citizens' Climate Lobby | April 2020 Monthly Speaker

Step one to generate political will for climate solutions is to get people who care about the environment to vote. When Nathaniel Stinnett found out that environmentalists, by and large, were staying home on election day, he saw a problem in need of a solution. That's why in 2015 he launched the Environmental Voter Project, which identifies environmentalists who don't vote and reaches out to get them to the polls. On this month's call, Nathaniel will share some of the ways his organization has successfully activated this important bloc of voters.

Helpful Links: Environmental Voter Project: https://www.environmentalvoter.org/

CCL Action Sheet: https://cclusa.org/actionsheet

Citizens' Climate Lobby Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CitizensClimateLobby/

CCL Training: Talking Climate Change with NNOCCI

This training will boost your skills in proven communications techniques that shift the national conversation about climate change to be more positive, civic-minded and solutions-focused through providing an overview of the National Network for Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation's recommendations for identifying common values, metaphors, and solution-framing.

Skip ahead to the following section(s):
What is NNOCCI? (3:14)
NNOCCI Resources Available (11:40)
What Americans Think About Climate Change (13:37)
The Core Story of Climate Change (21:35)
What Does This Look Like In Conversation? (31:48)
Summary & Next Steps (44:15)

Presentation PDF: https://cclusa.org/talking-climate-change-training

CCL Community Training Page: https://community.citizensclimate.org/resources/item/19/451

Follow NNOCCI On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NNOCCI/

CCL Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CitizensClimateLobby

CCL Training: Self-Care For Stress Reduction

The overwhelming unknown of a global pandemic, impacting our families, our futures, and for many of us, our own well-being is quite the recipe for chaos, both inside and out. Add to this the underlying stress of climate change and everyday life management and our well-being as climate advocates can teeter on the edge. This training features CCL Pacific Northwest Regional Coordinator and Education & Engagement Assistant Tamara Staton and CCL's Peer Support Action Team Co-leads Laura Sacks and Jeff Joslin to support us in attending to our inner advocate - the one who so clearly wants change, ease and calm, but may at times struggle to find it.

Skip ahead to the following section(s):
Consider The Context (4:28)
Know Yourself & Accept Your Needs (5:57)
Lean On Your Resources (10:04)
The Importance Of Play (18:14)
Climate Anxiety Event (27:36)
CCL Peer Support Action Team (30:32)

Presentation Slides: http://cclusa.org/self-care-stress-reduction

Follow us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/citizensclimatelobby

Twitter: http://twitter.com/citizensclimate/

CCL Training: Communicating With Progressives

Join CCL Texas State Coordinator and Progressive Outreach Action Team leader Bob Hendricks and LA State Coordinator Nicole Hammond for a training on communicating with progressives regarding putting a price on pollution. We'll facilitate a review of what CCL's ongoing plan for outreach to non-profit organizations is at the national and local level, and recommendations to talk about carbon fee and dividend with progressive groups.

Skip ahead to the following section(s):
(0:00) Intro & Agenda
(3:30) Who Are Progressives? 
(7:03) Talking to Progressive Individuals
(13:28) Climate Justice and Environmental Justice
(18:37) Talking about CCL's Policy Agenda
(28:45) Conclusions

Presentation Slides: http://cclusa.org/progressive-communications 

CCL Community Training: https://community.citizensclimate.org/topics/communicating-across-the-aisle/communicating-with-progressives 

CCR Ep 46 Coronavirus, Climate Adaptation, and a Resilient Tomorrow

The issue on most everyone’s mind right now is Coronavirus or Covid-19. We are witnessing a massive social and political transformation as we respond to the outbreak of the virus. Individuals have rapidly and radically changed their behaviors—from washing hands to self-isolating. Nations and local authorities are each taking their part to stop the spread of this disease. We see in real time how quickly and effectively we can adapt to a crisis. We also are discovering where we have failed to anticipate this crisis that is upon us. 

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. 

Listen Now

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The Art House

Survivor Generations 2165 An original radio drama by the Climate Stew Players. 

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.

 

Historical details and survivor narratives from the 900 day siege of Leningrad were drawn  primarily from Leningrad: State of Siege by Michael Jones, Leningrad Siege and Symphony by Bryan Moynahan, Writing the Siege of Leningrad: Women’s Diaries, Memoirs, and Documentary Prose by Cynthia Simons, The Besieged: Voices from the Siege of Leningrad by Caroline Watson, and The 900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad by Harrison E. Salisbury. Research for the radio play was conducted by Alex Skitolsky. 

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

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.

 

 

Music Credits: Skaj Da Waidah, Raúl Díaz Palomar,  J Buckner

 

CCL Training: Generating Media Coverage

Join CCL's Communications Director Flannery Winchester for a training that explores news coverage in the media - articles, press, and media awareness which mentions our organization and CCL's work earned outside of paid advertising. Flannery reviews strategies for generating news coverage with your local chapter and the support of CCL's national communications team.

Skip ahead to the following section(s):
Writing Media in the COVID Era (2:45)
What is news coverage? Why now? (7:16)
How to alert media to your story (12:12)
Develop your local media list (16:18)
Pitching and next steps (30:52)

Presentation Slides: https://cclusa.org/generating-media-coverage

CCL Community Training Page: https://community.citizensclimate.org/resources/item/19/293

Follow us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/citizensclimatelobby

Twitter: http://twitter.com/citizensclimate/

CCL Training: How To Host Online Zoom Meetings

Join CCL's Field Development Director Elli Sparks & Volunteer Education Coordinator Brett Cease for a training that walks through the process of setting up and hosting an online group meeting on Zoom. For those interested in minimizing public meetings, hosting online meetings offer a safe alternative to meeting in person and this training walks through the considerations to get you started.

Skip ahead to the following section(s):
Setting Up For Success (3:10)
Practicing With Zoom (14:36)
+Audio Controls (18:30)
+Video Controls (22:24)
+Renaming Users (23:18)
+Monitoring Chat (24:24)
+Claiming Host Key (26:45)
+Sharing Screen (28:24)
+Breakout Rooms (31:06)
+Ending The Meeting (34:37)
+Additional Controls (35:20)
Where To Go For Technical Support (40:45)
Suggestions For Engagement (44:05)

Presentation Slides: http://cclusa.org/hosting-zoom-meetings

CCL Community Training Page: https://community.citizensclimate.org/resources/item/19/347

Follow us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/citizensclimatelobby

Twitter: http://twitter.com/citizensclimate/

Hannah Pickard | Citizens' Climate Lobby | March 2020 Monthly Speaker

Hannah Pickard trains people in proven communications techniques that shift the national conversation about climate change to be more positive, civic-minded and solutions-focused. She is the Network Manager for the National Network for Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation. NNOCCI currently supports climate communicators in 184 institutions in 38 states. As we go out in our communities to lead presentations, Hannah’s coaching can help us to inspire audiences to take action and be part of the solution.

More Information: NNOCCI: https://climateinterpreter.org/about/projects/NNOCCI

Hannah's Slides & March's Monthly Actions: https://cclusa.org/actionsheet

Citizens' Climate Radio Episode 39 featuring Hannah Pickard: https://citizensclimatelobby.org/citizens-climate-radio-ep-39-envisioning-and-communicating-climate-success/

Coronavirus Forums: https://community.citizensclimate.org/discuss/viewcategory/2762