Author: annarborccl

On Tuesday, November 14, 500+ CCL volunteers from all across the U.S. will be on Capitol Hill asking Congress to support Carbon Fee and Dividend legislation, a simple, fair and effective national policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

YOU can help amplify our message and demonstrate that the public wants #ClimateAction by calling Congress on Wednesday, November 8. Use this website http://cclusa.org/callcongress to get a sample script, phone numbers and log your calls.  RSVP on our Facebook page, or sign up to get text alerts if you want to get a reminder!

Already know your Senators’ and Representative’s phone number?  You can use this sample script:

I’m a constituent and I’m calling about climate change. Would you like my address to confirm I’m a constituent? I want Senator / Representative _____________ to enact Citizens’ Climate Lobby’s carbon fee and dividend proposal. Congress should be moving strongly forward on solving the climate problem, rather than pulling back. This is a very important issue to me because…..[INSERT YOUR REASON]

Thank you for taking my call.

Feel free to use your own message, but please always be respectful.

Let us know how your calls went by sending email to annarbor@citizensclimatelobby.org

Thanks for your help!

In Winter 2017, University of Michigan students in Catherine VanVoorhis’ Drawing II class viewed the film, Before the Flood, a documentary produced and narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio. In this film, DiCaprio travels to five continents and the Arctic to witness climate change firsthand.

The students then did further research about an issue that is featured in the film, and created posters to help others become aware of worldwide problems and possible solutions.

Here are some of the original poster designs that they created.  A selection of these posters are on display in the University of Michigan Union (530 S. State St, Ann Arbor, MI 48109) until October 30, 2017.

Tom Stedman

During their meeting on August 21st, 2017 the Ann Arbor City Council unanimously passed a resolution supporting carbon fee and dividend (CFD) legislation. The passing of this resolution represents positive momentum for Citizen’s Climate Lobby whose primary goal is to pass CFD legislation on a federal level. It is also representative of the political power that organized and active citizens hold in a democracy. This is more than just a symbolic victory as the city will take action to advocate for CFD legislation. The resolution will be sent to Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, Senators Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters to propose CFD as a viable piece of legislation to mitigate the impact of climate change.

Council Members Chip Smith (D-Ward 5) and Jason Frenzel (D-Ward 1) sponsored the bill and both offered comments expressing their support for this resolution. Frenzel clarified that the resolution is nonbinding and serves primarily as a catalyst to encourage action on both the state and federal levels. He further commented that the resolution was “well liked in business” due to its clear language and lack of ambiguity regarding the fees. Ann Arbor joins a list of around 50 other U.S. cities such as Philadelphia, Portland, and San Francisco in supporting CFD policy. Councilwoman Kailasapathy (D-Ward 1) agreed with the resolution but had a concern over the lack of “action items”. As a result, Councilman Eaton (D-Ward 4) proposed language that included the suggestion from Kailasapathy for sending the resolution to Dingell, Stabenow and Peters, plus language directing the city to come up with a plan for how to advocate for CFD and work to get the plan enacted. This amended version of the resolution was the one passed by City Council.

Although the primary goal remains federal enactment of CFD legislation, the passing of this resolution is a testament to the hard work of CCL and community members to offer pragmatic, bipartisan solutions for monetizing environmental damage caused by fossil fuel consumption.

Want affordable solar?

Want to know more about Ann Arbor’s Climate Action Plan?

Please join the Ann Arbor Citizens’ Climate Lobby as we host representatives from the City of Ann Arbor for a special information session. We’ll hear about the City’s “A2 Solar Club”, a campaign to incentivize solar installations in Washtenaw County by simplifying the process and offering a low price guarantee. We’ll also learn about the City’s Climate Action Plan goals and what actions the City is taking to meet those goals. Join us to learn more about what our local government is doing to act on climate.

The presentation will be on Thursday, August 10, 7:00 – 8:00pm in the basement meeting room of the Ann Arbor Public Library (343 S 5th Ave).

Hope to see you there!

By Mark Reynolds

They’re shooting congressmen now. That’s the level of insanity we’ve finally reached in our toxic political environment.

Our nation prays for the recovery of Rep. Steve Scalise — still in critical condition with life-threatening injuries as of this writing – as well as the others injured in a hail of gunfire from deranged shooter James Hodgkinson, who was reported to be a supporter of former presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders.

Sanders went to the floor of the Senate to say, “I am sickened by this despicable act, and let me be as clear as I can be: Violence of any kind is unacceptable in our society, and I condemn this action in the strongest possible terms.”

Unfortunately, Sanders’ words will not stop the war between our ideological tribes. They won’t stop some people from exploiting this tragedy for political purposes. After a brief respite from partisan bickering in which House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Speaker Paul Ryan made impassioned speeches on the House floor, most Americans expect Congress will return to business as usual. These days, business as usual means savage attacks in which each side depicts the other as evil.

That’s a shame, because as horrible as this incident was, it should provide us with the opportunity for serious introspection. It should shock us into acknowledging that the current public discourse is unsustainable and bad for our nation. It should make us realize that in order to solve the big problems our country faces we must start listening to each other rather than demonizing each other.

The first small steps toward adopting that attitude are now being taken with the issue of climate change, perhaps the most toxic topic in America today. One day after the shooting, South Carolina Republican Congressman Mark Sanford was asked on MSNBC’s Morning Joe how we could return to civility. This is what he said:

“We’ve got to find a way to dial this back. I would give an example of people trying to do that in a small way. There’s a Climate Solutions Caucus here in the Congress, and what they’ve said is that for every Democrat that goes on, you can’t get on unless there’s a Republican that goes with you. And I think there probably ought to be a little more pairing, whether it’s in a caucus form or whether it’s in legislative form here in Washington, and I think people are going to be looking for ways to do just that.”

The Climate Solutions Caucus was started by Republican Carlos Curbelo and Democrat Ted Deutch, both of whom represent coastal Florida districts that have become ground zero – literally – for rising sea levels. It’s predicated on a simple idea: We know our nation is facing big problems with climate change, so let’s have members of Congress from both sides of the aisle come together, listen to one another, and find the common ground to introduce and enact effective solutions.

It’s an approach that many members of Congress appear to be hungry for. Since the start of the year, the caucus has tripled in size to 42 members with equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats. Following meetings that 1,000 climate advocates recently had with 500 House and Senate offices, that number will soon reach 50 and continue to climb throughout the year.

Pennsylvania Republican Brian Fitzpatrick, a member of the caucus who recently received the 2017 Climate Leadership Award from Citizens’ Climate Lobby, said, “We need to get beyond this Hatfields versus McCoys brand of politics.”

He’s right. We have to end this feud, because it’s a war where people are now being shot.

Mark Reynolds is executive director of Citizens’ Climate Lobby, a non-partisan advocacy group working to preserve a stable climate.

CCL volunteers had a lot of fun tabling at the Ann Arbor Earth Day Festival at Leslie Science and Nature Center on April 23!  Like last year, we asked participants to respond to one of two statements, “One thing I love on Earth is…” or “We must act on climate change because…”  Here are all of the terrific responses.

Please join us for a statewide CCL meeting on April 8 in East Lansing!

This day-long event is open to anyone interested in furthering national climate change policies, whether you are a seasoned CCL volunteer or have no experience at all with CCL.  Register for the meeting here.

Our Climate Advocate Training takes place from 9:00am – noon.  This FREE workshop teaches the background, philosophy and methodology of CCL, and the details of our Carbon Fee and Dividend (CFD) proposal.  You will learn why CFD is a simple, fair and effective climate change solution and what makes it politically feasible.  The workshop will prepare you to be an effective citizen lobbyist.  Sign up here.

Keynote by Kyle Meyaard-Schaap, National Organizer and Spokesperson for Young Evangelicals for Climate Action

The afternoon session begins at noon with lunch and and a keynote presentation by Kyle Meyaard-Schaap, National Organizer and Spokesperson for Young Evangelicals for Climate Action (YECA). Mr. Meyaard-Schaap will speak about Keeping the Faith: Mobilizing Young Evangelicals Toward Climate Action.

Following lunch, the agenda includes a state planning session and training on levers that build political will for climate solutions such as:

• Lobbying and Communication Skills
• Media Relations
• Grassroots Outreach
• Grasstops Outreach
• Chapter Development

The statewide meeting is a great opportunity to:

• Get training on how to create political will for climate change solutions
• Meet other volunteers who are passionate about addressing climate change
• Learn what other CCL chapters are doing and share your ideas
• Get energized and inspired to take action on climate change

We hope you can join us!  Please register here.  The Climate Advocate Training is free.  The afternoon session, including lunch, is $22 (or $10 for students).  We encourage all Climate Advocate Training participants to stay for the afternoon.

Any questions? Contact annarbor@citizensclimatelobby.org.

The following is a guest post by CCL volunteer Brad Sharp

---

Climate overload. Too much talk. I suggest to anyone reading this, stop now.  This is only an attempt of someone over fifty looking to justify 30 years of what I call Environmental Futurism; fully understanding that human actions are destroying the earth but waiting until the future to do anything about it.

A lot of us who grew up in the 70s and 80s have enjoyed many things such as traveling thousands of miles, living in warm houses and sharing reliable electricity. We were also fortunate to have owned a lot of personal property which mostly ended up in landfills.

Some of us understood that our actions were having a negative impact on the land, air and water and but we never changed our activities other than we began driving compact cars, eating less meat and living in smaller homes. There were others of us who didn’t look at our environmental impact, we just drove large cars, ate a lot of meat and lived in bigger homes. All the time believing the benefit of consumption was a safe, strong economy. Our right. Either way, most of us assumed that the earth was going to absorb the damage from human activities or the earth was going to be saved by some future technologies. We also believed coal, oil, and gas were the only possible sources of reliable energy.

We all lived through the Cold War, Y2K, No Nukes, H1N1 Virus and so many other possible, “End of the World” scenarios. So, it only makes sense that to us we are going to live through “Global Warming” or “Climate Change”.

So what. Why am I crying now? I’ve enjoyed my life. I’m not rich but I’m also not poor. I’m also not someone to stand up in a crowd and yell, “Hey look at me, I got the answers”. However, I did one great thing in my life, I had kids. They are now young adults and asking, “What the hell is going on?”. To them there is no debate as to whether humans are doing damage to the earth’s atmosphere. That debate is long over. Of course we are. The data is everywhere.

“What data?” “Are you sure?” “I’m living the same way I did 30 years ago” is what I thought. Feeling a little embarrassed and very guilty that I have not been paying attention, only a little out of the corner of my eye, I had to respond. How? What? To figure that out, I had to understand the debate for myself. So, I set upon a goal to seek information regarding the climate system and energy management. I did research at least once a day for 30 days. I pulled out a notebook and every day wrote down what one activity I did for that day. The types of activities included: library research, commuting to work with recorded books, conversing with anyone that had an opinion, reading online web sites of environmentalist, climate scientist, government agencies and listening to climate change deniers.  In addition, following my son’s lead, I joined a group, the Citizens Climate Lobby (CCL). Their philosophy made sense to me since the group’s mission is to have both Republicans and Democrats work together on a solution to solve climate change.

My life has changed. The information is everywhere. The results are obvious. Of course, if you don’t want to believe, the Internet is full of opinions. I’m sure some opinions are genuinely-held beliefs but I’m also sure many of the opinions are from people paid to troll in web and cast doubt.

At first, I would sometimes think, maybe I was just predisposed to hear the message and believe. I’ve always enjoyed the outdoors. Plus, I’ve always thought that it made sense that the atmosphere, a contained system, is being influenced by the constant burning of coal, oil and gas. This burning has been going on for over 200 years. At the same time we continue to remove forests that would have absorbed carbon emissions from the atmosphere. Plus now there are over 7 billion people on the planet and most of the people want to live the same life I have had. Not viable. Now I had proof, the science is clear. With this knowledge, there is no way for me now to do what I’ve always done.

At first I was manic. There must be a solution; I must save the world now. This is also not viable. Hit a wall. Swallowed up in depression. Failure. Lost 2 months to holidays, election, work, and family health issues. Thought maybe I should just lie on the floor and curl up. Tired of talking to people that are indifferent, not concerned or just don’t believe there is a problem.

So now I had to take a step back and change the focus of my research. The debate is over. Globally we have had the 3 warmest years in history over the past three years. A lot of people worldwide are paying attention. Surprisingly, there is a lot of talk about what steps can be taken. The solutions are in the efficient use of water, gas and electric as well as the use of clean, renewable energy sources.

The truth is many of us are stubborn and absolutely unwilling to change even though change is inevitable. There are many new ways to power our lives without destroying the planet. We will need to work together. There will need to be a process for the re-training of workers from one job market to another. Very large corporations will need to adapt to the new business realities. Large investments in technology are needed. Neighbors will need to accept the look of solar panels, wind turbines and other renewables. This change is going to happen whether we like it or not. This change to investing in efficient, clean, renewable energy will power our economy. It is going to happen sooner or later.  So why shouldn’t we be the leaders?  Why not start now? We must take action for future generations who will ask “What did we do?”

Fortunately, there are positives everywhere. In Michigan, where I live, there are two great examples. The cities of Grand Rapids and Traverse City have very ambitious sustainability plans.  It’s not about big government, it’s about good government; acting for the future now.