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  Citizens' Climate Lobby  
 
  CCL Weekly Briefing, Feb. 7, 2018
   
 
   
Table of Contents:
CSC reaches 70 members
Spring Lobby Drive
June conference on NPR
Florida state conference this month
3rd Coast conference update
Mark's op-ed in Spanish
Building national partnerships
LTE of the week
Learning Opportunities:
2/8 - CCU: Supportive coaching
2/8 - Engaging Youth call
2/12 - Ag webinar on corn & carbon
2/13 - Tabling & presentations training 
2/14 - Effective Communication call
2/15 - CCU: Q&A with Dr. Paris
And more! See all upcoming topics
Climate Solutions Caucus reaches 70 members

 
With their latest two members, the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus hits another milestone: 70 members. The most recent pair to join are Rep. Judy Chu, a Democrat representing California’s 27th district, and Rep. Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen, a Republican representing the territory of American Samoa. 

“House members who represent districts feeling the impact of climate changeno matter what their partysee the urgency for Congress to step up on this issue, and that’s clearly the case with Representatives Chu and Radewagen,” said Citizens’ Climate Lobby Executive Director Mark Reynolds. “The Climate Solutions Caucus has reached a critical mass with 70 members, raising hopes that bipartisan solutions will be forthcoming in the months ahead.”

Share the announcement on Twitter to thank Rep. Chu and Rep. Radewagen for their commitment to finding bipartisan climate solutions. 

TWEET YOUR THANKS
Prepare for CCL's Spring Lobby Drive
 

It’s nearly time for CCL’s first big lobbying push of the year. Our Spring Lobby Drive will take place March 1 through April 15, and volunteers across the country will organize lobby meetings with members of Congress in their district offices.

Why lobby in the spring? Each year, Congress takes a spring recess and members return to their districts. It’s a great opportunity to meet with them at home. This year’s recess is from March 24 to April 8, so if you schedule a lobby meeting during that window, you have an especially good chance of securing a face-to-face meeting with your member of Congress.

To get ready, we’ve assembled a few steps for you to follow. Let’s make this the most successful Spring Lobby Drive yet! 

PREP FOR SPRING LOBBY
June conference featured on NPR

 
Last year, NPR’s “All Things Considered” featured CCL’s June conference in a wonderful story. The piece introduced hundreds of thousands of national listeners to Jay Butera’s unique story, CCL’s bipartisan approach, and our Carbon Fee and Dividend proposal. Here’s an excerpt:

This week, Butera joined with thousands of climate activists who traveled to Washington, D.C. to visit their members of Congress to encourage them to do something about warming temperatures, rising seas and melting ice caps.

They held an annual lobbying day for the Citizens Climate Lobby, which has 400 chapters across the country, and citizen lobbyists in every congressional district. Butera says instead of confrontation, they take a friendly, calm approach to an issue that has been mired in partisan roadblocks.

Read or listen to the full story here. To be part of the magic (and maybe even national news coverage) of this year’s June conference, register now. 

REGISTER NOW
Florida state conference Feb. 24

 

Later this month, CCLers from all across Florida will gather in Tampa for the 2018 Florida State Conference. (Pictured above is the Ft. Lauderdale group, launched last fall.) Attendees will hear from a variety of special guests, including former U.S. Representatives David Jolly and Patrick Murphy, current U.S. Representative Kathy Castor, “Our Climate” Executive Director Page Atcheson, CCL’s own Don Addu and Jay Butera, and more.

The conference also includes a Climate Advocate Training workshop, strategy sessions for CCL group leaders and liaisons, and educational presentations. Vegan breakfast and lunch will be provided, and students are welcome at a discounted registration rate.

For all lodging, travel and payment information, visit the registration page to sign up before online registration closes on Feb. 17. 

REGISTER NOW

 

P.S. Don’t forget that the Tornadoes Regional Conference and the Southern California Regional Conference are this month as well. Check out all the regional and state events here.

Growth & energy at 3rd Coast conference

 

3rd Coast Regional Coordinator Brett Cease said last weekend’s conference was a huge success. “It was in a new city for us: Houston, intentionally chosen after the impacts of Harvey. We ended up having more people attend than ever before,” he said—more than 200 unique attendees over the course of the weekend.

Some of the highlights were:

  • The Climate Leadership Council's Senior Vice President Greg Bertelsen delivering a keynote address

  • Texas’ State Climatologist Dr. John Nielsen-Gammon describing the science behind how Harvey occurred

  • A busy Houston Outreach Day, which included meeting with local officials and visiting district offices of members of Congress

  • A screening of “Age of Consequences” at the historic downtown Majestic Metro Theatre with a full panel, including two generals (Gen. Jameson & Castellaw)

One attendee said, "I left empowered and inspired—I am going to find ways to engage more with constituents and create conversations about our changing climate." Another said, "Thanks to the conference, I plan on participating more often, writing letters, creating blogs, and talking about climate solutions in a more bipartisan manner."

Check out the 3rd Coast’s Facebook videos and Twitter photos from the weekend.

Mark's op-ed picked up in Spanish outlets

 

Following the State of the Union address last week, we distributed an op-ed from CCL Executive Director Mark Reynolds (“State of our union is closely linked to the state of our climate”) that CCL volunteers across the nation submitted to their local newspapers. Thanks to their efforts, the op-ed has already been picked up in 19 publications, including places like Winston-Salem, Fort Lauderdale, Los Angeles and Austin.

Thanks to the efforts of our Spanish Language Action Team, led by Karina Ramirez, Mark’s op-ed was translated and picked up by two Spanish language publications: El Comunicador in Dallas and El Diario in El Paso. With surveys showing high numbers of Latinos expressing concern about climate change, publication in Spanish language news outlets can reach this important and engaged demographic.

If you’re a Spanish speaker, check out and share CCL’s Spanish website and Spanish Twitter with friends and family. You’re also welcome to join the Spanish Language Action Team to build on successes like these. 

JOIN THE TEAM
Building national partnerships

 
As Citizens’ Climate Lobby, our Carbon Fee and Dividend proposal, and the Climate Solutions Caucus become more well known, you may see other organizations commenting on our work. Maybe they’re cheering us on, or maybe they’re expressing concern or criticism. Either way, we have someone at CCL headquarters who is dedicated to working on these relationships: Stephanie Doyle, our National Outreach and Partnership Coordinator (pictured at left).

Stephanie is in regular contact with the national leadership of many environmental groups, from The Nature Conservancy to National Wildlife Federation to Climate Hawks Vote. She is doing everything she can to build those relationships and foster mutual understanding. (Building appreciative, respectful relationships is one of our core values, after all!) Ultimately, it’s okay for those of us working on climate action to pursue different strategies. We’re all on the same team, just working on different parts of the puzzle.

Before you contact the headquarters of any other national organizations, please reach out to Stephanie (stephanie@citizensclimate.org). She can offer guidance, support, and general information about where those national organizations stand on carbon pricing and on our work. This way, you can have the best possible information, and CCL can keep our relationships strong and coordinated.

LTE of the week: The Daily Freeman

 

This week’s featured letter to the editor comes from New York’s Daily Freeman, published on Feb. 4. This letter is a fantastic example of how CCL volunteers can use published media to support and encourage their members of Congress to move forward on the climate issue.

In praise of U.S. Rep. John Faso on climate change

In our fragile democracy, we need to criticize our representatives when we disapprove of what they do (or fail to do), and we need to commend them when we approve of what they do, especially if it involves swimming against the political tide. I do both with our representative, U.S. Rep. John Faso, R-Kinderhook.

On Jan. 11, 106 House members signed a letter criticizing the president’s National Security Strategy for omitting any mention of climate change, even though the National Defense Authorization Act the president signed last month explicitly recognizes climate change as a national security threat.

Of those 106 signatories, just 11 were Republicans. John Faso was one of the two from New York. I commend him for his action and for standing by his principles.

This was not Faso’s only stand on climate change during his first year in Congress. Early on, he joined the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus and signed the Republican climate change resolution. He also co-sponsored the Climate Solutions Commission Act, the Organic Agriculture Research Act and the Methane Emissions Mitigation Act, and recently he sponsored the Healthy Fields and Farm Economies Act.

There is another, badly needed action Faso could take to address climate change without abandoning any of his conservative principles: He could cosponsor bipartisan, revenue-neutral legislation putting a price on carbon. This would make him a real climate hero in the eyes of many on both sides of the political aisle. I know he can and hope he will take that action, soon.

Bruce Frishkoff, Ghent, NY

Want support for all your media efforts? Join the Print Media Action Team on CCL Community for new ideas, tips and more! 

JOIN PRINT MEDIA TEAM
 
Tomorrow's CCU: Supportive coaching


Have you ever been in a place where you’ve agreed to do things but didn’t follow through? Similarly, have you ever been on the other side of this equation, where someone has agreed to do something to help your group but that doesn’t happen? Tomorrow's CCU will provide support, perspective and ideas for responding to these situations in a manner that embodies the CCL values of relationships, personal power, integrity and optimism.

Join CCL Pacific Northwest Regional Coordinator and Integral Life Coach Tamara Staton for a webinar that will cover what to consider before, during and after having these conversations. If we are intentional about our responses and aware of what comes up for us when a miscommunication happens, it’s more than possible to respond in a supportive manner that inspires action. Feel free to email any questions in advance to brett@citizensclimate.org .

New to CCU: We're trying out additional times to see if a lunch-hour brown bag session is preferable for our volunteers. As a result, you're welcome to tune in either time tomorrow, Thursday, Feb. 8 at 1 p.m. ET or at 8 p.m. ET for the one-hour webinar. You can join online or call in with the number: +1 408.638.0968 and enter meeting code 2017201717. 

 
 
 
 
 Schools for Climate Action support call


Tomorrow, Feb. 8, the Engaging Youth Action Team will host a webinar to support anyone working on the Schools for Climate Action Campaign. This campaign is geared at generating climate resolutions from school boards.

To get up to speed, read this recent blog about the Schools for Climate Action Campaign, and then join the call tomorrow night at 8:30 p.m. ET / 5:30 p.m. PT. The meeting will take place on Zoom

READ THE BLOG
 
 Ag team webinar on corn & carbon


The CCL Agriculture Action Team’s winter webinar series continues on Monday, Feb. 12. The next session is called “Corn - The convergence of carbon, climate and soil health” and features Keith Alverson, a board member of the South Dakota Farmer and National Corn Growers Association. Keith also operates a sixth-generation farm (pictured above) near Chester, South Dakota, growing corn and soybeans on 2,700 acres. You can read about his farm at CarbonHarmony.org. 

The presentation will share Keith’s experience with farming practices that have sequestered carbon in his farm’s soils, their relation to soil health and the economics of his farm. The discussion will also cover some of the work the National Corn Growers Association is doing on soil health and climate.

Join the webinar via computer or via phone, by calling 408-638-0968 and entering meeting ID 682-425-9614.

 
 Core Volunteer Training: Grassroots outreach


On Tuesday, Feb. 13, the Core Volunteer Training series will cover the topic “Grassroots Outreach: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Tabling, Scheduling, and Giving Presentations.” The session will be led by CCL’s Presenters Action Team co-leader David Cain and CCL New Hampshire Group Leader John Gage.

David and John will trade off with each other to lead an interactive webinar highlighting the bite-sized best practices to prepare for both tabling and presentations and what to do once you get there. There will be time for in-depth Q&A regarding grassroots outreach, as well as the chance to set your own goals for getting involved with a grassroots event.

Come prepared to ask questions, or email them in advance to brett@citizensclimate.org. To sign up and find out about the full schedule lineup, register at CCL’s Core Volunteer Training page. You can also listen to the presentation recordings every week after the training on the same page.

Effective Communication call next week

 
The Effective Communication Action Team will meet on Wednesday, Feb. 14 at 8 p.m. ET. In this month's session, we will review techniques learned last month in Part 1 of Resistance, and move on to Part 2 of Resistance: “How to Deal with Resistance, Objections, and Oppositions.”

To join online, go to https://zoom.us/j/2017201718. To join by phone, call (646) 558-8656, and then enter the meeting ID 2017201718.

CCU 2/15: Extended Q&A with Dr. Celia Paris


On this Saturday’s monthly call, we’ll hear from Dr. Celia Paris. She’ll share her research on why Americans still value Accomplishment, Bipartisanship, and Civility (ABCs) in Congress. After the call, if you’d like some extended time to ask her questions, you can join next week's CCU. Dr. Paris, Assistant Professor in Political Science at Loyola University, will join this webinar exclusively to answer your questions.

Please send your questions in advance by next Tuesday, Feb. 13 to brett@citizensclimate.org . The one-hour webinar will take place on Thursday, Feb. 15, at 8 p.m. ET.  You can  join online or call in with the number: +1 408.638.0968 and enter meeting code 2017201717 .

 
 
 
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CCL Climate Advocate Training
Do you want to be a more effective volunteer? Start by joining our weekly intro call, then register for our Climate Advocate Training, and wrap up with our Core Volunteer Training.
The Intro Call is held weekly on Wednesdays at 8pm ET, 5pm PT.
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Climate Advocate Training is held the third and fourth Wednesdays of every month at 8 pm ET, 5 pm PT.
Register for Climate Advocate Training

Core Volunteer Training is held weekly on Tuesdays at 8 pm ET, 5 pm PT.
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