Citizens' Climate Lobby

Chapter Development Basics [Core Volunteer Training]

CCL chapters form the backbone of the CCL organization. People from all walks of life who understand the urgency of climate change have started local CCL chapters across the world. This training, led by CCL's Education and Resilience Coordinator Tamara Staton, highlights recommendations and resources to help get a new CCL chapter up and running as well as the chance to hear from CCL group leaders about their experiences organizing their groups.

Skip ahead to the following section(s):
(0:00) Intro & Agenda 
(3:01) Leadership Potential
(4:24) Starting A Chapter
(16:36) Growing A Chapter
(28:20) Running A Chapter

Presentation Slides: https://cclusa.org/cvt-chapter-development

Chapter Development Basics: https://community.citizensclimate.org/topics/group-organizing-and-mentoring/chapter-development 

Dr. Katharine Hayhoe | Citizens' Climate Lobby | November 2016 Monthly Speaker

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

Creating Champions in Congress and in the Media

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

Say what???

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

Getting Endorsements to Create Political Will

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

Climate Geopolitics

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

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

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

 Register for the Webinar

Citizens Climate Radio Ep 5 Diving into Denial

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

Main Section

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

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

Art House

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

Puzzler

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

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

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

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

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

Dig Deeper

• Global Warming's Six Americas, Yale Program on Climate Communication
• Protect Our Winters, professional athletes, including Angel Collinson, promoting climate advocacy
• Nationwide Carbon Price in Canada marks start of transition to clean energy, Citizens' Climate Blog
• Chile faces climate change challenge, BBC News

You can hear Citizens' Climate Radio on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, and Podbean. We would love it if you rate and review the show. This will make it easier for new listeners to find us. Also, feel free to connect with other listeners, suggest program ideas, and respond to programs by visiting the Citizens' Climate Radio Facebook page. 

Partnering with Allies and Non-Governmental Organizations

There are a wide variety of organizations out there working on a wide variety of environmental causes.

In this lesson, CCL's Senior Outreach Liasion Stephanie Doyle explores how to engage with other organizations in a respectful, understanding and productive way. 

Creating an editorial board meeting binder

The creation of a binder of resources for an editorial board is optional but highly recommended. Newspaper editorial board staff may appreciate having information on CCL and climate change to review after a meeting.

Preparing and presenting a binder is one way to show the editorial board that CCL can be a resource to them on the issue of climate change. We want to be their “go to” people for information, letters to the editor and op-eds.

Post-election editorial board meetings

Following the November 2016 elections, CCL volunteers have a unique opportunity to meet with newspaper editorial boards and ask for their support for congressional action in the 115th Congress. This webinar details how you and/or your group can prepare for, structure and facilitate the meeting.

Dr. George Lakoff | Citizens' Climate Lobby | October 2016 Monthly Speaker

Linguistics expert George Lakoff, author of “Don’t Think of an Elephant,” “The Political Mind,” and many more books examining the power of language, is our guest for the October national call. He’ll share his recent work on the distinction between direct causation and systemic causation, which is the frame through which climate change can be better comprehended. Mr. Lakoff is recently retired from the University of California at Berkeley, where he was Professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics.