Weekly Briefing: Your donation helps volunteers like Gigi

December 14, 2022

Your donation helps volunteers like Gigi 

Gigi Santo, a Florida high school student, was determined to have a big impact on climate change. She might be too young to vote, but she’s not too young to organize. 

With support from her chapter, she got other students in her high school to join Citizens’ Climate. Now, she leads the Broward Chapter of Citizens’ Climate, with over 400 members — and they’ve convinced their Congresswoman to introduce new climate legislation.  

Name a paid lobbyist who’s done THAT. 

At Citizens’ Climate, we know that the best way to solve climate change is together. We provide training, education, and support. Our volunteers bring determination and some pretty amazing talent to solve the problem. Together, we get climate legislation passed. 

Consider a tax-deductible, year-end donation to Citizens’ Climate Education today. Donations will help us recruit and empower more lobbyists like Gigi in 2023.

Donate now!
In other news this week: 

• Speaking of Gigi: Gigi Santo was also a speaker at our December conference. She talked about the importance of being a leader in your community to stop climate change. You can watch her speech and read the transcript of her speech here. 
• An expanded policy agenda: CCL shared a press release yesterday highlighting the successes of our conference for media outlets across the country to see. You can read that press release here.  
• Do not try to bend the spoon: John Sabin, CCL Regional Coordinator for the Great Lakes Region, wrote about the importance of persistence and kindness when working with congressional offices and encountering frustrating situations. Read more here. 
• With Gratitude #4: In this installment, you can read about volunteers who host congressional forums, create displays for local libraries, and create the political will for a liveable world!
• Madeleine’s conference speech: Executive Director Madeleine Para’s conference speech focused on the importance of our policy rollout and how CCL will function in 2023. You can watch her speech and read the transcript here.
• Carlos Curbelo’s conference speech: Former U.S. Representative Carlos Curbelo spoke at our December conference about the importance of CCL’s role in bridging the political divide on climate change. You can watch his speech and read the transcript here.
• December monthly call: CCL’s December monthly call featured Marcelo Mena, CEO of Global Methane Hub, which supports methane emissions reduction efforts around the world. In this call, Mena offered his perspective on the recent COP27 climate summit. You can watch the recording of that call here. 

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Take action this week  

If you have a little time: Check out CCL’s lobbying efforts on Twitter
CCLers have been virtually lobbying their members of Congress to help the climate movement finish the year strong! Scroll through CCL’s Twitter and like and share all of our lobbying tweets!

If you have more time: Ask your member of Congress to support the RISEE Act
Thanks to the efforts of CCL volunteers, we’ve seen a boost in members of Congress paying attention to the RISEE Act. We've got one more shot at passing climate action before the 117th Congress ends. Reach out to your member of Congress and ask them to protect American coastlines and coastal communities!

Find your CCL chapter | Check out our Action Teams | Browse upcoming events
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Featured Lever This Week 

Quintet uses music to tackle climate anxiety, grief

(Photo courtesy of Courtney Flatt, Northwest News Network)

Members of the Tri-Cities chapter of CCL in Washington organized a concert to help attendees process emotions related to climate anxiety and grief. The concert brought in a packed house. 

Nelda Swiggett, a musician and the leader of a jazz quintet, shares that their concerts about climate change tours through churches in the area. The idea came to Swiggett after she visited Alaska and noticed the effects of climate change. 

Her concert, titled "The Alaska Suite,” features nine pieces named after climate effects, such as “Melting,” “Burning,” and “Worry.” Before each piece performance, Swiggett reads a brief introduction about climate change in Alaska, and how some of the same effects can be seen in Washington. 

Her hour-and-a-half-long concert also includes poetry and narrations of the things that she saw throughout her trip. 

CCLer Lora Rathbone explained how art can reach audiences that might not be as likely to talk about climate change.

“A lot of social science shows that people not only respond more to emotion, but it's got to be personal somehow to them, experienced firsthand, like we do here, the increasing temperatures in the summer and other strange weather events,” Rathbone said.

You can read the full story in the link below.

Read the full story

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Upcoming Trainings 
 

• 12/15: Getting Started With Local Partnership Ideas: As CCL expands our policy agenda, it opens up possibilities for our chapters to do more work with local and state-level climate groups and policymakers. Join CCL staff for a discussion around how you can gett started with local partnership ideas. Join us!
• Trainings will resume after the holidays on Jan. 5, 2023.

To see other topics and past trainings, visit the Training Topics page of CCL Community.