October Meeting Follow-Up

Our next meeting is Saturday, November 7, 12:45 – 2:45 pm, First Unitarian Universalist Congregation (4001 Ann Arbor-Saline Rd).  Mark your calendars now.

Here are links for some of the items discussed in the meeting:

We have a great opportunity to do some outreach in Detroit and expand CCL’s presence there.  If you can spare a couple of hours on October 23-25 to help with tabling at the Great Lakes Bioneers conference at Marygrove College in Detroit, please sign up here. At a minimum, we need one person for each time slot, though it is nice to have 2 people.  If you’re new to tabling, you can sign up to work with someone else.

Meeting Summary

National Call

  • If you would like to listen to a recording of the call, access it here.
  • CCL Legislative Director Danny Richter gave a brief summary of how the Gibson Resolution came about.  You can listen to a 15 minute podcast in which he explains more of the details here.
  • The guest speaker, Dr. Patrick Verkooijen of the World Bank, spoke about the World Bank’s involvement in dealing with climate change, and specifically, how they have been advocating for carbon pricing to be part of the Paris climate negotiations.
  • CCLs involvement in the Paris climate negotiations: PathwayToParis.org
  • Mark Reynolds explained the two-fold purpose of the targeted lobby day on November 17.  First, to brief members of Congress on the results of our June lobbying.  Second, to invite them to attend briefings on carbon pricing and carbon usage given by Resources for the Future, a top economic research firm in DC.
  • CCL volunteer Rob Hogg is running for US Senate in Iowa.
  • Rear Admiral David W. Titley (ret.) is the newest member of CCL’s advisory board.

Local Discussion

Accomplishments:

    • MK described her efforts to contact all of the Washtenaw County Commissioners to seek their endorsement of Carbon Fee and Dividend.
    • We did tabling at several events: UM’s EarthFest, Our Climate Change Legacy summit for elders, Detroit March for Justice.
    • We scheduled a presentation on November 14 for the Adrian Dominican Sisters.
    • DG submitted an op-ed to the Detroit News, which has not been published so far.
  • We brainstormed ways to do outreach and recruit new members.  Here are some of the ideas we came up with:
    • Put on a skit about climate change / CCL at a coffee shop, such as Espresso Royale.
    • Climate Trivia night at Conor O’Neill’s
    • Host a Green Drinks evening
    • Host a screening of Merchants of Doubt or This Changes Everything. Possible locations/partners: School of Natural Resources and the Environment, UM student groups (Divest & Invest, Students for Clean Energy), Ann Arbor Public Library, UU Church.
    • Talk to family, friends and colleagues; ask them to go to the CCL website and click on the red Join CCL button to demonstrate support. (They enter their name and email address and will get one monthly newsletter).
  • We talked about possible ways to get the Detroit News to publish an op-ed from us.  LM suggested getting a big business to partner with us, such as Ford (!).  MB suggested getting AATA to partner with us.