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| Dear CCL State College members, In addition to the devastation visited upon the people of Ukraine, the invasion of that country has also upended energy markets, increased fuel prices, and brought greater attention to the need for a swift transition away from fossil fuels. What can we do to support the people of Ukraine and help bring about the transition to clean energy? Citizens’ Climate Lobby is starting a program called “Stand with Ukraine” to address these issues. At our monthly meeting on April 19, we will discuss this program and the challenges and opportunities created by the new global emergency. Please join us to learn more about Citizens’ Climate Lobby’s work at the local and national levels. Another IPCC report was published last week warning us that the time for action is now. If the news about energy and climate change is discouraging you, remember this saying: “Action is the antidote to despair.” Thank you for supporting CCL. Sylvia Neely Monthly Meeting Tuesday, Apr 19, 2022 5:30pm – 7pm This will be a hybrid meeting. You can join either by Zoom or in person at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in downtown State College. In Person Room 325 at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church 208 West Foster Avenue, State College, PA For directions and parking information, click here. Masks will be required Via Zoom Write to PaStateCollege@citizensclimatelobby.org for more information CCL State College Members in Action Tabling opportunities CCL will be tabling at Earth Fest on Sunday, April 24 from 1 to 5 at Millbrook Marsh in State College. If you plan to be there, please stop by our table to say hello. We welcome volunteers to help with the tabling. No previous experience is necessary. You will be paired with an experienced person. We will discuss our approach to tabling at our meeting on April 19. If you can help out, please write to Diane Mills indicating what hour you can be there. Diane’s email: tabling@statecollegeccl.org This month’s OpEd in the Centre Daily Times was a co-authored piece by CCL Executive Director Madeline Para and Dick Jones of our chapter. It was published on March 13 and entitled “Climate Watch: Clean Energy Transition Would Break Russia’s Geopolitical Hold.” On March 8, Sylvia Neely published an OpEd in PennLive.com that argued that a price on carbon would protect Americans from global oil volatility. It was entitled “Vladimir Putin may be saving us from global warming.” John Swisher’s letter arguing that the “Climate Crisis Contributes to Inflation” appeared in the Centre Daily Times on March 14. Lisa Richardson wrote a letter to the editor that appeared in the Centre Daily Times on April 3, entitled “Momentum Building for Carbon Fee.” It highlighted the local support for a price on carbon. Sylvia Neely gave a presentation on March 21 on the topic “Pricing Carbon: The Promise and the Problem.” This presentation was part of “Earth Talks,” a weekly series at Penn State is presented in conjunction with an upper-level course, Earth 400. The topic this semester was Energy and Climate Policy. The list of speakers and recordings of presentations can be found here. State College Borough Endorses EICDA Special thanks goes to the State College Borough Council for unanimously endorsing a resolution on March 7 calling on the U.S. Congress to pass the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act. Patton and Ferguson Townships have adopted similar resolutions. So has the undergraduate student government at Penn State. In Pennsylvania, the cities of Allentown, Bethlehem, Bloomsburg, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, and York also have taken this step. We really appreciate the support of our local municipalities for effective climate action. Thanks to Dick Jones for shepherding the measure through and making remarks at the Council meeting. PA Climate Convergence Climate activists from throughout Pennsylvania will be converging on Harrisburg for three days of activities on June 11-13. Here is the website. The Harrisburg chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby will be tabling at this event on Saturday and would welcome any CCL volunteers from around the state to join them. If you are interested in doing so, contact Rachel Mark of the Harrisburg chapter at rachelmark1207@gmail.com CCL National News Annual Conference in person CCL will once again hold its national conference in person in Washington, DC on June 11-13. If you have not had a chance to attend this conference, this is a great opportunity to meet people, to learn, and to be inspired. Registration is now open and the early bird rate applies until April 30. Please think seriously about attending this great conference. We have some funds available for scholarships, so let us know if you are interested and would like to apply. Write to PaStateCollege@citizensclimatelobby.org Take Action It is crucial that we keep the pressure on Congress and the White House to let them know that we want them to take action on climate. Here is a handy link to a CCL site that makes it easy for you to communicate with our elected officials. You can also sign up for our Monthly Calling Campaign. You will be assigned a specific day every month on which to call Congress. The idea here is to create a steady drumbeat of messages asking Congress to act on climate. This action is both easy and impactful. CCL National Call Every month, CCL hosts a call for all members throughout the United States and the world which features an invited speaker and news of CCL activities. The speaker on April 9 at 1pm is Keishaa Austin from Rewiring America. For more information, including how to listen to the call, click here. You can learn more about Rewiring America and their ambitious plans to electrify everything by checking out their website: https://www.rewiringamerica.org/ IPCC Report The third portion of this year’s IPCC report, focusing on mitigation of climate change, was just published. You can read the full report here. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3/ For an expert analysis of this report, we recommend the work of the British website Carbon Brief. They have created a Q & A page that analyzes and explains the findings. CCL webinar on agriculture “Farm Free or Die” is the title of a film and discussion sponsored by Business Climate Leaders as part of their series “The SOILution Revolution” that will take place on April 19 from 4:30 to 6:00. This webinar will discuss the needs of the farmer and those of the finance sector in the emerging field of regenerative agriculture. Community News April 22 is Earth Day, so it is not surprising that there are many events going on in our community that focus on the environment and climate change. Here are a few. Colloquium on the Environment Tonight, Wednesday, April 6 at 7 pm, the Penn State Colloquium on the Environment will hear a presentation by Hunter Lovins, a noted author and expert on sustainable development. Her talk is entitled Climate Change: Profitably Solving the Problem. Climate Change: Our Response as Artists This afternoon, April 6 at 3:00 pm in the HUB-Robeson Center’s Freeman Auditorium, there will be a two-hour panel discussion entitled Climate Change: Our Response as Artists, featuring artists from Small Island Big Song, being offered as part of IllumiNATION’S month of art and sustainability events focused on ocean conservation, indigenous voices, and water rights. Richard Alley, Evan Pugh University Professor of Geosciences at Penn State, will moderate. Click here for more information. Banff Film Festival, sponsored by Sierra Club Moshannon Group Friday, April 8 and Saturday, April 9. A different show each night. Doors open at 6 pm. Films start at 7 pm. Tickets on sale at the State Theatre (statetheatre.org) Earth Fest, Millbrook Marsh Environmental Center Sunday, April 24, 1-5 pm CCL will have a table at this event, if anyone is interested in tabling with us, please contact Diane at tabling@statecollegeccl.org or 570-660-7678 Please stop by and visit our table. Earth Talks, Monday afternoons at 4 pm This semester the focus is on climate policy and all of the presentations will be of interest to CCL members. Sponsored by Penn State’s Earth and Environmental Systems Institute. Lists of speakers and videos of previous presentations are available here. PA Climate Convergence Climate activists from throughout Pennsylvania will be converging on Harrisburg for three days of activities on June 11-13. Here is the website. The Harrisburg chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby will be tabling at this event on Saturday and would welcome any CCL volunteers from around the state to join them. If you are interested in doing so, you may contact Rachel Mark at rachelmark1207@gmail.com Climate Change and Penn’s Woods Greg Czarnecki, the Director of Applied Climate Science at Pennsylvania’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, will be speaking on Thursday, April 7 from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. Here is the Zoom link to join the lecture. In this event sponsored by the Sierra Club, he will discuss the impacts of climate change with special focus on Pennsylvania’s public lands and habitats. His talk is entitled: “Climate Change and Penn’s Woods – What Does the Future Hold?” |
| If you have ideas, comments, or just want to talk about climate, please feel free to contact Sylvia Neely (PaStateCollege@citizensclimatelobby.org) or Lisa Richardson (twitter@statecollegeccl.org). We would love to hear from you. |