March 2020

Monthly Meeting On Line
 
      Breaking News:  Our monthly meeting will still take place.  Although we will not be holding our monthly meeting as originally scheduled for Tuesday, March 17 at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship because of the dangers of bringing together groups of people in one place, we will be able to hold the meeting online.  Please watch your email for further news about this exciting new development along with instructions of how you can join the meeting.
 New Co-leader for our chapter
 
     Although there is plenty of bad news coming at us from all directions, I am happy to report some very good news.  Lisa Richardson has kindly agreed to become co-leader of the State College chapter.  Those of you who were able to attend the December meeting will recall her skillful leadership of that meeting.  She has many great ideas for making our group more productive.  I know that you will enjoy working with her and supporting her as she takes on these new responsibilities.  Please feel free to share with her any suggestions you may have for improving our CCL work.
News from our chapter
Mark Neely has written a review of Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo, Good Economics for Hard Times.  Understanding economics is important for CCL members because we are proposing an economic approach as part of the solution to climate change.  You can read his review on our website.Our members continue to publish in the Centre Daily Times.  Here are links to Ed Cullen’s letter which appeared on Feb. 12 and to the Feb. 16 OpEd by Dick Jones entitled “The Movement to Renewable Energy is Irreversible.”CCL member Milt Cole, co-author of the book entitled Science of the Earth, Climate and Energy, gave a presentation at Juniata College before a large and eager audience on February 27.  He was hosted by the very active CCL student group at Juniata, which is advised by Prof. Sharon Yohn, one of the founders of our CCL chapter.The annual international meeting of Citizens’ Climate Lobby is scheduled to take place on June 7-9 in Washington, DC.  CCL has announced that they will issue refunds of the registration fee if a health emergency requires them to cancel the gathering.  Here is the link to the registration and the schedule.  Scholarships are available.  Please be in touch if you want more information about them.
Meeting at Congressman Keller’s Office
The State College chapter and the Susquehanna Valley chapter of CCL are both in the large Pennsylvania 12th District, represented by Congressman Fred Keller.  On February 5, members from those chapters met for the first time with Congressman Keller’s District Director, Ann Kaufman, at his Williamsport office.  At this introductory meeting we learned about the Congressman’s interests and explained to Ms. Kaufman the goals and concerns of Citizens’ Climate Lobby.  In the photo are, left to right, Cathy Cullen from the State College chapter (who arranged the meeting), Kay Cramer from the Susquehanna Valley chapter, Ann Kaufman, and Sylvia Neely from the State College chapter.   
 
Monthly Calling Campaign
We are still looking for volunteers for the Monthly Calling Campaign.  We need 31 people to volunteer for this easy yet powerful way to influence our members of Congress.  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 Congressman’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 so that we can keep track of the numbers.  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.  Sign up here.
 
Community News
 –The Spring Creek Watershed Atlas is sponsoring a photo contest.  They ask you to submit “a photo that reflects the character or natural beauty of the watershed.”  Details and submission instructions are on their website.  Deadline is May 1.

An Evening with Elizabeth Rush at Schlow Library on March 23 from 7 to 8:30.  Rush is the author of the award-winning book Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore. 

— Penn State’s Earth and Environmental Systems Institute (EESI) sponsors a series of lectures entitled “Earth Talks” that are held on Monday afternoons at 4 pm in 112 Walker Building.  This spring the series focuses on “Societal Problems, EESI Science towards Solutions.”  You can read more about the series, including a list of the speakers and their topics, by clicking here.  March speakers are listed below.
Mar. 16 – Seth Blumsack  “How renewable energy really gets on the power gird (or doesn’t)”
Mar. 23 – Chris Forest  “Embracing uncertainty in Earth system modeling to assess climate change risk”
Mar. 30 – Roman DiBiase  “Geologic and climatic controls on the resilience of headwater watersheds”
 
Monthly Meeting times
Tuesday, March 17 at 5:30 pm
Tuesday, April 21, at 5:30 pm
Tuesday, May 19 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.
February 2020
April 2020

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