Citizens’ Climate Lobby
Washington, D.C.
June 11th to 13th, 2017
Park, Kai, Lola (and June) help recruit Congress to act on climate change
Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL)
+CCL is a non-partisan, grassroots lobby organization working to build the political will to implement fair, effective, and sustainable climate change solutions.
+There are 425 active local chapters in 95% of all US Congressional districts and around the world.
+We advocate for Congress to pass a Carbon Fee and Dividend which is a market-based strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 52% below 1990 levels while creating 2.8 million jobs without any additional environmental regulations or growing the size of government.
Lobby Day Work Started the Week Before:
June Helps Prepare Congress for the CCL Lobby Day
Here is June calling her MoC’s (that’s CCL lingo for Members of Congress) letting them know that the following week, 1,300 CCL members (including her dad and older sibs) would be coming to Capitol Hill to meet with them. Not only did June help set the context for high-impact lobby meetings the following week, but her example also had a positive ripple effect. This photo of June inspired Grandpa and Grandma (Dick and Cynthia) to call their own MoC’s.
Apparently, Grandpa and Grandma must have left a very persuasive message because just 3 days later, during the CCL conference, we learned that their Congressional Representative, Jimmy Panetta, became the newest member of the Climate Solutions Caucus! Good job Mom and Dad/Grandpa and Grandma. Chalk up a major climate victory to June :)!
2 Days of Whirlwind Training
Despite the jet lag, Kai and Lola made it through roughly 5 breakout workshops, 4 plenary sessions, and 3 lobby team prep meetings in just 2 days. It was sort of like a climate advocacy bootcamp.
Two of my favorite presentations were from Andy Leiserowitz who runs the Yale Program on Climate Change Communications and from Lou Helmuth who works at Our Children’s Trust.
Yale Climate Communications Study
Here is a slide from Andy Leiserowitz’s talk covering fascinating polling data related to climate change. According to their data, Americans fall into one of 6 categories based on their acceptance of mainstream climate science and their reactions to it.
Yale Climate Communications Program Study
Full disclosure---I’m in the alarmed/concerned category along with roughly 57 million fellow Americans.
Poll results: the majority of Americans believe in human-induced climate change and only 9% of Americans are dismissive of it. The Dismissive group, however, is way over-represented in Congress and has successfully blocked any Congressional action on climate change.
Note: CCL has a track record of moving Congress people of both parties up the ladder of concern. These are not fixed categories and everyone responds to social cues---including Congressional representatives.
+21 youth claimants: Suing the federal government for failure to enact science-based policies which preserve a safe and stable climate.
+Claim: federal government has known about the dangers posed by CO2 emissions for more than 60 years, but failed to act in the interest of future generations.
+Judicial approach will likely take years: At CCL, we’d rather get the legislative branch acting on this quickly.
Our Children’s Trust presentation (continued)
Example of Early Warning Ignored: 1979 National Academy of Science’s Charney report suggested a “wait-and-see policy may mean waiting until it is too late.” 38 years later and there is no national climate policy to manage this threat. Recent studies suggest even if Paris Accords were fully implemented it might actually be too late.
I could not stop sobbing during most of this presentation. Part of me wished I had not sat in the front row! But another part of me felt like it was important that there was at least some public expression of grief to contextualize the facts presented in this talk.
We have not yet acted as a nation to address these serious threats to the well-being of our children, grandchildren, and future generations. I had my bright, beautiful, engaged, and trusting 13 year-old daughter at my side. Her generation and her children’s generation will bear the many burdens my generation’s inaction has created.
But there is a time to weep, and a time to lobby! Tuesday, there was no weeping...
Lobbying with CCL is a joyous, hopeful, and democracy-affirming event!
1,300 of us met in the early morning heat for a team photo on the steps of the Capitol.
Santa Rosa Chapter of Citizen’s Climate Lobby
11 of us made the trip East.
One of the best things about Citizens’ Climate Lobby are the fellow volunteers. As a group, they are principled, disciplined, committed and positive. Ordinary Americans doing some very important work.
Mom, you might have noticed I was the only man not wearing a tie. Don’t worry. . .(next slide)
I wasn’t raised by wolves and I would not dream of lobbying Congress without a tie.
I did, in my packing frenzy, however, forget my tie and I did not realize it until late the night before we were due on Capitol Hill. The Congressional gift shop only had very expensive and partisan ties; bow-ties, however, were less than half the price and non-partisan. So I bought a bow-tie, never having tied one before. Fortunately about 25 minutes on YouTube, countless muttered curses, 15 failed attempts and the trusty bite-the-tongue technique was all it took for me to learn to a tie a bow-tie in the Congressional cafeteria (that’s where we hung out before and between lobby meetings).
The Picture Says It All
Lola in the tunnel between the Rayburn and the Longworth House Office Buildings ready to lobby! With her on our team, how could we lose.
Lola and I met with Rep. McClintock’s (R-CA) staffer.
McClintock represents constituents in the Tahoe/Yosemite region of California. There were 6 of us in the meeting including 2 CCL chapter chairs from his district and 1 CCL Conservative Caucus member. At the meeting, Lola shared her experiences backpacking every year in his district.
McClintock and his staff do not yet accept mainstream science about the climate. However, there are now 6 CCL chapters in his district and they are busy collecting endorsements for climate action from both the “grassroots” and “grasstops” in his district. My hope is that Rep. McClintock will soon become motivated to engage with the issue of climate action. As a politician with libertarian leanings, I expect he will find CCL’s non-regulatory, market-based Carbon Fee and Dividend, especially appealing.
Kai wasn’t slacking off either. . .
Kai Meets with our Representative Jared Huffman
Representative Huffman is a strong CCL supporter and knows leaders of our local CCL chapters well. For scheduling reasons, each adult could only be paired up with one youth for lobby meetings. I lobbied with Lola, so Kai was paired up with Bruce Hagen one of our CCL Santa Rosa Chapter leaders. (Bruce also leads the national Business Climate Leaders project.) Bruce and other members of the Huffman lobby team were impressed with Kai’s participation! Here’s an email I received one of Kai’s lobby teammates, Bob Archer:
“I just wanted to pass on my appreciation for Kai's contributions as part of the CCL delegation that visited with Jared Huffman during the CCL National Conference in June. He was well prepared and Jared listened. I hope he remains engaged and active in CCL.”
The Texans Went Big!
While many CCL lobby teams were hand-delivering envelopes stuffed with constituent letters for their MoC’s, the good folks from Texas outdid the envelopes! Here is a box full of hundreds, maybe thousands of constituent letters. The box is labeled TX Cruz.
There are many CCL chapters throughout Texas and there is even a Team Oil group in CCL consisting mainly Texan oil and gas company employees. Many energy companies welcome and endorse carbon-pricing for stability, predictability, and fairness.
Yay, Texas and yay CCL Team Oil!
Post Lobby Celebration and CCL Climate Hero Awards
On Tuesday, after lobbying we all celebrated by awarding Climate Hero Awards to four of the newest members of the Climate Solutions Caucus. I am proud to report that I cheered enthusiastically at speeches by both Democratic and Republican politicians. I was grateful for the opportunity for my kids to see that. I was grateful for them to hear Representatives Love (R-UT, pictured at podium) and Fitzpatrick (R-PA) talk about climate action as being very in line with both American and Republican party values. Let’s hope that many other representatives follow their courageous and compassionate lead.
Kai with CCL Super-volunteer Jay Butera
Jay Butera has visited Congress from his home in Philadelphia each week for the past 7 years to talk up bipartisan climate change solutions. Four years ago, he had the idea of the Climate Solutions Caucus which representatives could only join with a colleague from across the aisle (they call it the Noah’s Ark rule---1 Republican and 1 Democrat join together).
Butera spent three years searching for a Republican to help start it. Last year, Carlos Curbelo (R-FLA) (motivated partially by letters from 200 5th graders in his district) stepped forward and has done an amazing job with his colleague Ted Deutch (D-FLA). The Climate Solutions Caucus now has 52 members and is growing quickly. Both Butera and Curbelo have quasi-celebrity status in our household so it was great to meet Butera in person.
CCL Party Photobooth
Lola and I hamming it up at the CCL Photobooth. Note the C-C-L hand signs in the bottom photo.
Also note the Warriors T-shirt. This was the night of one of the playoff games. Fortunately, there was a big contingent of Ohio CCLers, so it was a great night of trash-talking for a Warriors fan!
The End
Thanks for watching!
+Here is a link for more information about the Citizens’ Climate Lobby conference in DC
+Here is a link for more information about the Carbon Fee and Dividend
+Kai, Lola, Kristan, and I (June would join us but we think she’s too young for this at this point) have started a campaign to empower school boards to speak up for climate action. Please join the Schools for Climate Action campaign.
+On a somber note, here is an article referencing a cluster of new studies which suggest if we do not act decisively and quickly, then there is a 32% chance of catastrophic warming of 3.2C by 2100. Our country has an amazing tradition of dealing with terrible crises. I am hopeful we can deal with this one if we all make our public and political will clear to fellow citizens and leaders at every level.