Weekly Briefing – Letter of the Week and November Lobby Day Citizens’ Climate Lobby

Table of Contents: November regional conferences CCLU Schedule Letter of the week November Lobby Day Outreach presentations

The regional conferences are a great opportunity to hone our lobbying skills, strategize with one another, and spend a little quality time with CCL staffers. Two conferences are coming up next month: The Great North Winds Country Regional in Red Wing, MN, Nov. 6-8 and the Northeast Regional in Nashua, NH, Nov. 13-15. If you live in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota or South Dakota, you can find out more about for the Great North Winds Country conference and register here.

If you live New York, New Jersey or New England, learn more about and register for the Northeast conference – Dr. James Hansen will be speaking!

For CCL chapters, the monthly meeting is the place where things can really happen to educate our members and take the actions needed to generate political will. Join tonight’s CCL-University session at 8 p.m. ET as CCL Program Director Madeleine Para discusses how to plan and facilitate an effective group meeting.

Three ways to join the webinar/conference call:

1. Download the Fuze app/program and enter the meeting number 27579270 when prompted. *Best experience.

2. Join meeting through your browser: http://fuze.me/27579270

3. Join by phone: 201-479-4595 and enter 27579270 when prompted.

Next week on CCL University: A demonstration of the Surging Seas Risk Finder tool from Climate Central.

Lots of great opportunities for letters to the editor these days as we get closer to the Paris climate conference. Our show of support for the Gibson resolution is still very important, and we’re closing in on 100 media hits. Most of the buzz on Gibson is being generated by CCL, so thanks to all who are submitting those letters and op-eds. Please don’t forget to submit a field report when someone in your group gets published!

Our letter of the week, published in the Albany Times Union, comes from Iona Lutey:

A positive change in climate attitude

Thank you for your continuing coverage of climate change, including the fantastic column by Thomas L. Friedman, “Planet could easily tip to saturation,” Oct. 9.

Yes, indeed, Earth is our Eden, and we do have a chance to preserve it for future generations if we act swiftly and decisively. And act we must. As Friedman suggests, we can adopt the idea proposed by Ronald Reagan’s secretary of state, George Shultz, that “the conservative thing to do now is to take out some insurance against climate change, because if it really gets rocking the results could be ‘catastrophic.’ ”

In spite of the noise being produced by the Republican presidential candidates, there are Republicans out there who are making sense like Shultz and U.S. Rep. Chris Gibson, R-Kinderhook, and 10 other Republican members of Congress who recently introduced a resolution acknowledging the escalating costs and dangers of a changing climate. They are calling for serious dialogue about solutions that do not hurt the economy.

Congressman Gibson has already begun this dialogue by co-sponsoring a bipartisan, bicameral briefing on climate change, featuring key food company executives pledging to boost their carbon reduction efforts and, at the same time, calling on government leaders worldwide to come to an agreement for substantive action at the Paris climate talks in December.

Let’s hope all this is indeed the beginning of a “tipping point tipping” – for all our sakes.

Iona Lutey
Hillsdale