With Gratitude #4: A CCL blog series
By Katie Zakrzewski
As the holiday season draws near, this is a great time to reflect on all that we’ve accomplished this year, and everything that we have to be thankful for. Fortunately, we have a lot to be thankful for, especially this year. One of the best ways to do that is to revisit all of the neat things that our volunteers have been up to over the course of the year.
Through the end of the year CCL will be spotlighting some of our favorite volunteer efforts from 2022 as we look back on all of the hard work that allowed us to be where we are today, as well as the financial support that helped mobilize our volunteers to do incredible things. We couldn’t have done it without you.
In this blog, you’ll read about volunteers who host congressional forums, create displays for local libraries, get endorsements from business leaders, and plenty more examples of CCLers creating the political will for a liveable world!
California CCL chapter hosts candidate climate forum
As CCLers made climate an election issue for the 2022 midterms, the San Mateo county chapter of CCL went a step further by hosting a Zoom candidate climate forum.
One Republican and three Democrats were vying for the seat of Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA-14), who announced that she wouldn’t be running for reelection. The four candidates, Emily Beach, David Canepa, Gus Mattammal and Kevin Mullin, each emphasized what they would do to address climate from their own political perspectives.
Bob Steele, a San Mateo County chapter member and congressional liaison for California’s District 14, says, “We had 345 advanced registrations on Eventbrite, of which 145 actually attended. We have had over 400 views of the forum recording that was posted on YouTube.”
The chapter’s hope is that voters who have attended or viewed the forum will be better able to choose a candidate who has the climate and the environment as a central focus.
“We found the candidates to be well informed about climate issues and very responsive in their answers,” Bob shared. “Climate is a major issue in our area, and we feel that the candidates’ positions on climate issues rank high on the list of what our local voters take into account when deciding who to vote for.”
Businesses signal support for Inflation Reduction Act
Since the Senate’s passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, dozens of businesses have come out in support of the climate provisions included in the bill.
CEO Climate Dialogue, a coalition of four leading environmental organizations and 22 businesses representing multiple sectors across the United States, was one of the first coalitions of its kind to publicly support the bill. The Zero Emission Transportation Association also supported the Inflation Reduction Act, stating that it would “make an unprecedented investment in our clean energy infrastructure and zero-emission transportation system.”
Over a dozen corporations even wrote and signed a letter calling on Congress to “quickly pass the Inflation Reduction Act.” Some of the countries that signed the letter include bp American, Ford Motor Company, IKEA Retail US, Levi Strauss & Co., and Shell USA.
These corporations are joined by several others, whose executives have released individual statements or spoken in support of the Inflation Reduction Act.
You can like and tweet those business endorsements here.
Bob Inglis does outreach with Idaho, Washington CCLers
Former Republican Congressman and CCL Board Member Bob Inglis worked with CCLers in Idaho and Washington to spread the word about conservative support for climate initiatives.
“We’re trying to show a way for my party to embrace the idea of free enterprise innovation leading to climate action,” Inglis said on one stop of his outreach tour, as quoted by the Moscow-Pullman Daily News. “In other words, that we can solve this through the power of the marketplace.”
Inglis visited churches, Rotary clubs, and other organizations, emphasizing the importance of tackling climate change and decreasing reliance on fossil fuels from other countries.
“It’s all about accountability,” Inglis said on one stop chronicled by the Idaho Press. “We think that’s rock-solid conservatism. Because we think that blessings flow from accountability. Havoc results from a lack of accountability. Climate change is that havoc.”
Read more about Bob’s outreach.
CCL tables at Indiana University’s First Nations Powwow
In April of this year, CCL Indiana’s South Central Indiana chapter tabled at IU’s First Nations Cultural Center for the 10th annual Powwow.
“The Indiana University annual Traditional Powwow attracts hundreds of visitors each year and boasts a line-up of nationally known dancers and singers, along with traditional foods, crafts, and dance clothing,” according to an informational guide on Indiana University’s website. “Performers of all ages participate, carrying on the traditions of their people as they represent them through their feathers and beadwork, their dance clothes, the songs they sing, and the styles in which they dance. The powwow is an important time when generations come together to share in dance and song, and to celebrate the diversity of contemporary Native American tribal identity.”
CCL members tabled and held a group potluck, shares Indiana State Co-Coordinator Marcia Veldman.
Howard County Greenfest Tabling with Yale’s Six Americas, Stand with Ukraine
Back in April, Mid-Atlantic Regional Coordinator Sabrina Fu shared details about tabling at a local environmental festival, Greenfest, in Howard County, Maryland.
Sabrina shared that after being virtual since the beginning of the pandemic, she wanted to come back to face to face sessions with a bang.
“We wanted a fresh look for 2022 and incorporated the ‘Stand with Ukraine’ messaging and items CCL marketing has done so well to provide. Our tabling event was headed by our wonderful volunteer Cheryl Arney with tabling support from our state coordinator Thaddeus Waterman. I hopped onto the ‘Stand with Ukraine’ training CCL had on April 7 to get my head wrapped around the campaign and be ‘trained’ to do tabling for April 9,” Sabrina explains.
Sabrina’s Maryland chapter also decided to use Yale’s Global Warming Six Americas graphics to gather data while tabling.
“Nadine Sapirman shared on that call that she was excited to try out using Yale’s Global Warming Six Americas graphics as part of her group’s tabling. It hit me that we should definitely try that out too so I printed the graphics below and taped it to some foam board. The resulting pins are from about half of the people who passed by to talk to us,” Sabrina shares. “Many people went directly to hearing about our Stand with Ukraine actions. Those who seemed more hesitant or simply because the volunteer holding the Six America figure was closest to the person coming by our table, we asked if they would like to self-identify as part of Yale’s Global Warming Six Americas.”
Sabrina elaborated that if a table goer identified as either concerned or alarmed, her team shared that Yale found most Americans in those categories are very frustrated because they don’t know what to do. The CCLers would then introduce concerned volunteers to CCL and CCL actions that could be taken.
CCL Fresno spreads word about climate
CCL’s Fresno chapter spread the word about climate in their community throughout the year at multiple events.
Volunteers Jeffrey Young, Andrea De Zubiria, Bruce Ratcliffe, and Ze Xiong participated in a parade celebrating the Chinese New Year.
Volunteers Dhwani Maheshwari, Abby de Castro, and Andrea De Zubiria helped create a CCL display at a local library for Earth Month.
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