Episodes

Friday Jan 24, 2020
CCL Training: Generating Editorial Endorsements
Friday Jan 24, 2020
Friday Jan 24, 2020
Join Flannery Winchester and Steve Valk, CCL's Communications team, for a training that will detail how you and/or your group can prepare for, structure and facilitate an editorial board meeting. Meeting with and developing a relationship with a newspaper’s editorial board is one of the most highly leveraged things volunteers can do to generate political will for the Energy Innovation Act.
Skip ahead to the following section(s):
Role of the editorial board (1:52)
Examples of editorials (5:12)
Ways to engage your newspaper's editorial board (10:42)
Preparing for the meeting (16:43)
Closing the meeting (24:18)
Presentation Slides: http://cclusa.org/meeting-editorial-boards
CCL Community Training Page: https://community.citizensclimate.org/resources/item/19/114

Friday Jan 24, 2020
CCR Ep 44 The Extraordinary Marshall Saunders
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 Jan 17, 2020
CCL Training: Developing Your Chapter Action Plan
Friday Jan 17, 2020
Friday Jan 17, 2020
Join Todd Elvins, CCL's Action Coordinator, for a training that provides a thorough action guide organized by CCL’s five levers of political will that your group can use to plan and coordinate your areas of focus for the year ahead. We trust that each group will do what is appropriate for its local politics and volunteer resources.
Skip ahead to the following section(s):
Actions For All (2:59)
Group Development (7:12)
Lobbying Congress (10:25)
Media Relations (14:45)
Grassroots Outreach (18:12)
Grasstops Engagement (22:32)
CCL Training Page: https://community.citizensclimate.org/resources/item/19/384
Presentation Slides: http://cclusa.org/chapter-action-slides

Saturday Jan 11, 2020
John Wood | Citizens' Climate Lobby | January 2020 Monthly Speaker
Saturday Jan 11, 2020
Saturday Jan 11, 2020
Searching for ways to bridge the partisan divide in America, we hear this month from John Wood, Jr. at Better Angels, a national citizens’ movement “to reduce political polarization in the United States by bringing liberals and conservatives together to understand each other beyond stereotypes.” Wood is a national leader for Better Angels, a former nominee for Congress, former Vice-Chairman of the Republican Party of Los Angeles County, and author of the upcoming book, “Transcending Politics: Perspectives for a Divided Nation.”

Friday Jan 10, 2020
CCL Training: Starting A Monthly Calling Campaign
Friday Jan 10, 2020
Friday Jan 10, 2020
Join CCL leaders from Texas, Ben Boral and Ham Richards, for a training that will walk you through how to utilize a new tool their team has created to help generate calls across your district for your member of Congress to create a steady presence of political will for a livable world and support for the Energy Innovation Act.
Monthly Calling Campaign: http://cclusa.org/mcc
Skip ahead to the following section(s):
Background (3:38)
How to make a call (6:37)
Running a Calling Campaign (14:31)
Success Stories from the field (27:26)
Getting Support Ahead (35:04)
CCL Community Training Page: https://community.citizensclimate.org/resources/item/19/390
Presentation slides: http://cclusa.org/calling-campaign

Friday Dec 20, 2019
CCL Training: Outreach To Faith Communities
Friday Dec 20, 2019
Friday Dec 20, 2019
This training focuses on how to begin reaching out to your national faith headquarters, potential allies, and local places of worship, given that many voices within the faith community have been making a moral case for action on climate change.
Featuring the stories of Bill Bray (CCL Presbyterian Action Team & TX Woodlands Leader), Andy Panelli (CCL IL Chicago South Suburbs Group Leader), Nadine Sapirman & Ann Perry (CCL Unitarian Universalist Action Team Co-Leads) and Judy Berlfein & Dadla Ponizil (CCL Jewish Action Team and CCL CA San Diego North Co-Leads)
Skip ahead to the following section(s):
Overview of Faith Outreach (2:19)
Presbyterian Faith Outreach (6:45)
Catholic Faith Outreach (15:49)
Unitarian Faith Outreach (22:27)
Jewish Faith Outreach (31:45)
Where to Find Faith Action Teams (40:04)
Presentation Slides: http://cclusa.org/faith-outreach
CCL Community Training Page: https://community.citizensclimate.org/resources/item/19/337
Follow us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/citizensclimatelobby
Twitter: http://twitter.com/citizensclimate/

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 Dec 14, 2019
Dr. Carolyn Woo | Citizens' Climate Lobby | December 2019 Monthly Speaker
Saturday Dec 14, 2019
Saturday Dec 14, 2019
Dr. Carolyn Woo spearheaded a dialogue at the Pontifical Academy of the Sciences on “The Energy Transition and Care for Our Common Home.” At the conclusion of the event, leaders from the energy sector and the global investment community released a statement saying, "The combination of policies and carbon pricing mechanisms should be designed in a way that simultaneously delivers innovation and investment in low carbon solutions while assisting those who are least able to pay."
Woo, currently a Distinguished President’s Fellow for Global Development at Purdue University, served as President and CEO of Catholic Relief Services from 2012 to 2016. She was featured in the May/June 2013 issue of Foreign Policy as one of the 500 Most Powerful people on the planet and one of only 33 in the category of “a force for good.”
More Information on the Dialogue: http://www.humandevelopment.va/en/eventi/2019/la-transizione-energetica-e-la-cura-della-nostra-casa-comune.html
Monthly Action Sheet (and Dr. Woo's slides): http://www.cclusa.org/actionsheet

Friday Dec 13, 2019
CCL Training: Extended Q&A with Dr. Andy Hoffman
Friday Dec 13, 2019
Friday Dec 13, 2019
Join our November 2019 speaker, Dr. Andy Hoffman, University of Michigan, for an extended Q&A featuring CCL volunteer questions that we didn't have time for during our monthly call.
Solving climate change — and saving civilization as we know it — will require a major systemic shift in our culture. Dr. Hoffman maintains that we are in a societal moment akin to a new era of enlightenment and joins us to talk about the system-level changes to our thinking needed in the anthropocene and the role of business in the great rethinking of our economy. Dr. Hoffman is the Holcim (US) Professor of Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan. He has published 16 books, including How Culture Shapes the Climate Change Debate and Re-engaging with Sustainability in the Anthropocene Era: An Institutional Approach.
Skip ahead to the following section(s):
- The critical role of business engagement on climate action with its associated opportunities (1:44)
- Encouraging companies to be first movers towards solving climate change (5:12)
- Fundamentally rethinking the transportation industry, consumers vs. producers (10:25)
- Whether carbon fee and dividend policies violate the concept of a free market (12:41)
- The influence of the military in climate change (15:14)
- Changes impacting the broader public conversation on climate change (16:57)
- Changes in our cultural self-awareness (24:15)
- Encouraging people to live their lives to reduce energy use (29:37)
- Artists and sports figures influencing public opinion on climate change (33:29)
- How climate change has affected real estate prices & development (38:21)
Find this recording on CCL Community's Monthly Speakers page: http://cclusa.org/monthly-speakers
Find out more: https://citizensclimatelobby.org/

Friday Dec 06, 2019
CCL Training: Hosting A CCL House Party
Friday Dec 06, 2019
Friday Dec 06, 2019
Join CCL Leaders Bill Barron, Sarah Karush, and Julia Selker for a training that will walk you through how local groups have hosted house parties, open homes, or climate action salons in their own homes to help generate engagement in their local communities for Citizens' Climate Lobby and the Energy Innovation Act.
Skip ahead to the following section(s):
Community Climate Party (VA) (4:40)
Energy Innovation & Carbon Dividend Action Party (UT) (13:53)
Climate Action Open House (DC) (25:00)
Presentation Slides: http://cclusa.org/house-party
Follow Citizens' Climate Lobby on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CitizensClimateLobby
Twitter: https://twitter.com/citizensclimate

