| Monthly Meeting Feb. 18 Please join us for the monthly meeting of the State College chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby to be held on Tuesday, Feb. 18 at 5:30 pm at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship at the end of Waupelani Drive in State College. The speaker on this month’s call is Bob Inglis, founder of RepublicEN, whom some of us heard when he was in State College last year. We will share what we have been doing in the last month to advance climate action, plan future activities, and learn about solutions that will help stop climate change. In the meantime, see below for other things you can be doing till then. |
| Monthly Calling Campaign If you want to do something that will have a real impact on climate action, but are short on time, the CCL Monthly Calling Campaign is perfect for you. We are looking for 31 people to volunteer for this easy yet powerful way to influence our members of Congress. First, sign up at https://cclcalls.org/ You will be assigned a day of the month on which you will call (I was assigned the 16th). Each month on that date you will receive a reminder with a link to a site with the phone number to call and a script. When you call the Representative’s office you will speak to a staffer who will take notes on what you say. When you are finished, click on the button to indicate you made the call. That’s it. You do not need to be an expert on legislation or climate change. The staffer will not ask you questions. Any Congressional office that receives a friendly call from Citizens’ Climate Lobby members every day is bound to take notice. |
| The CCL Almanac CCL State College wants to hear from you. We are starting a section of our website, called The CCL Almanac, where we will record observations and anecdotes about how climate change has impacted us here in Central Pennsylvania. What have you experienced? Our changes may not be as dramatic as in Australia or Florida, but there are already signs of change. Send your observations to Dick Jones at richard@rwjonesagency.com so that they can be included in The CCL Almanac. We hope that the Almanac will become the basis for an article in the Centre Daily Times. So please share your stories so that we can all learn from each other. |
| News from our chapter CCL member Mark Neely had an Op/Ed published in the Centre Daily Times on January 28. It is entitled “Recall pragmatism of the New Deal” and you can read it on our Facebook page by clicking here. It is also on the CCL State College webpage. In November, our chapter hosted a public session at Schlow Library on “The Future of Nuclear Energy.” We are happy to report that the video of the presentation made by Prof. Arthur T. Motta of Penn State’s Department of Nuclear Engineering is now available for viewing on our webpage. Thanks go to Prof. Motta for allowing us to record his presentation and to State College Area High School students Nico Cardenas-Miller and Nicholas Cole for creating this video. |
| Marshall Saunders Interview At our January meeting we watched a video of the much admired Marshall Saunders addressing the CCL annual conference. Saunders, who died in December, founded CCL. You can learn more about his vision for CCL on the January podcast of Citizen’s Climate Radio entitled “The Extraordinary Marshall Saunders,” which features an archival interview with him. Citizens’ Climate Radio is hosted by Peterson Toscano, co-leader of the Susquehanna Valley chapter of CCL. The other co-leader, Kay Cramer, had this to say about the program: “This interview really lays out, in a vivid and moving way, Marshall’s vision for the organization and what we are all about. I would highly recommend it. Listen for 15 minutes–you will come away knowing why we do what we do and do it better than anyone else!” Here is the link: to the podcast. |
| Annual Conference registration opens Feb. 8 It is not too early to begin planning to attend the CCL annual conference in Washington, DC. This year’s dates are June 7-9. At this conference you will learn, make friends, and be inspired. On the last day, hundreds of volunteers meet with Congressional offices on Capitol Hill. Scholarships are available. Please contact us at pastatecollege@citizensclimatelobby.org if you are thinking of attending this year. |
| Community News 1. Earth Talks The Earth and Environmental Sciences Institute at Penn State offers a series called Earth Talks on Monday afternoons at 4 pm in 112 Walker Building. On February 3, Dr. Jim Kasting, Evan Pugh University Professor of Geosciences, Department of Geosciences & the Department of Meteorology & Atmospheric Science at Penn State, will be speaking on “Global warming, human heat stress, and energy/climate policy.” Other speakers in the Earth Talks seminars in February: Feb. 10 Christopher H. House, “Positive Societal Impacts of Origin of Life and Space Sciences Research” Feb. 17 Erica Smithwick, “Firescapes of the mid-Atlantic” Feb. 24 Richard Alley, “Collapsing ice sheets?” For the full list of speakers, click here 2. Sustainability Institute The Sustainability Institute at Penn State announces a series of events in February — On Feb. 12, at 7 pm — a screening at the State Theatre of Cooked: Survival by Zip Code, a great climate justice documentary that looks at the inequitable impacts of climate-related natural disasters and how they intersect with issues of race and poverty. The filmmaker, Judith Helfand, will be present for the screening with a panel of folks for a post-film discussion. — On Friday, Feb. 14, the Council of Sustainable Leaders’ regular Sustainability Showcase at noon in HUB 233AB will feature Isaac Vergun, one of the 21 students who participated in the Juliana v. United States court case suing the federal government over climate inaction (Isaac will also participate in the post-film discussion panel on 2/12). — On Feb. 15, Isaac and his parents, who founded a group called Youth Acting for Our Earth (YAE), will offer free training of students (grades 4-12) by students on how to become climate advocates. The training will be 8:45 to 2 at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. To learn more and to register: https://climatechangerecovery.org/ The calendar of events on the Sustainability Institute website can be accessed here. |
| Monthly Meeting times Tuesday, February 18 at 5:30 pm Tuesday, March 17 at 5:30 pm Tuesday, April 21 at 5:30 pm All monthly meetings take place on the third Tuesday of the month at 5:30 pm at Unitarian Universalist Fellowship at the end of Waupelani Drive in State College. |