Iowa City Climate Advocates, 2/8/20 Meeting
People present: Miriam Kashia, Char Lange, Conner Hanke, Barbara Eckstein, Dawn Pawlowski, Brandon Jennings, Silvia Quezada, Bill Panther, Briana Hoffman, Joe Sarb (visiting from Moxie Solar), Elsa Janle, Mark Madsen, Jennifer Luria, Jerry Denning, Del Holland, Peter Rolnick, Jim Throgmorton, Jamie McCoy, Daniel Livorsi, John Macatee, Theresa Greenfield (candidate for Senate), Sam (with Theresa).
We participated in the CCL Monthly call and heard from Bob Inglis, founder of RepublicEn and member of the CCL Board. Bob gave some advice for communicating to conservative members of Congress: Remind them that CCL is not anti-capitalist, nor is it anti-corporation. Point out that staunch conservative economists like Art Laffer say we should price carbon.
Mark Reynolds, executive director of CCL, told about the great work we’ve been doing in 2019: 568 chapters worldwide, 460 in the US, presence in Europe and Africa growing rapidly, 181,421 supporters, 71,000 of them new, 30 editorial board meetings, 3,354 letters to the editor, 20 editorials, 568 op-eds. Our chapter contributed to many of those numbers!
Next month’s speaker will be someone who is a climate change trainer at museums and zoos!
Theresa Greenfield, candidate for US Senate in Iowa, spoke to us about her candidacy, and wanted to hear from us about our concerns, including HR 763, which she was not familiar with but was eager to learn more about. Brandon gave a good elevator speech about it. Theresa said that net farm income is down 75% since 2013. She also said concern about the climate, and a wish for action on climate, comes up everywhere she goes whether she is in a red or blue portion of the state. (Aside: Senator Ernst has been invited to attend one of our meetings.)
Joe Sarb, who works with Moxie Solar, told us a little about what they do. He gave the exciting news that, perhaps in a few years, Moxie would be making their own solar panels!
We did a communication exercise in which people asked each other open-ended questions about climate, listened to the response, then reflected back what they thought they heard.
Miriam suggested a CCL Media Rapid Response Team, to support letters to the editor, op-eds and press release publication for our local, regional media. Many people signed up to be on the team:
Mark, Dawn, Brandon, Jamie and Del. We need someone to step up and take the lead of this group.
People signed up for areas they want to work in:
Barbara: UN-USA liaison
Briana: help with data entry and other computer work
Jennifer: post on the blog at Hope Springs clinic where she works
Bill, Del and Sylvia: tabling (Sylvia has agreed to coordinate tabling efforts with John)
NEXT MEETING: Saturday, March 14
140 Prairie Hill Ln, Iowa City (in the Prairie Hill Common House, Lower Level)
11:30 – noon: social time,
noon – 12:40: CCL Monthly Call,
12:40 – 1:30: meeting and discussion
IOWA CITY CLIMATE ADVOCATES 