Read & Watch

October 2022 Newsletter

Introduction to CCL – October 18      Welcome to the new members of Citizens’ Climate Lobby who have signed up this summer at local tabling events or on the national website. The floods in Pakistan and the hurricane in Florida demonstrate that climate change is already posing grave dangers and all of us need to act.  We are grateful that you have chosen CCL as the means by which you can make a difference on climate policy.  But you probably would like to know more about… Read More »October 2022 Newsletter

Mark Neely’s Review of Klimat by Thane Gustafson

Thane Gustafson, Klimat:  Russia in the Age of Climate Change (Cambridge:  Harvard University Press, 2021).  321 pages.  Maps.      If you are travelling to Russia anytime soon (and I realize that you most likely are not), do not expect to see houses with solar panels on their roofs in the cities or electric cars on the roads.  Russia has very few of either.  Most people live in apartment blocks and there are few intercity roads for cars or trucks to travel on.  Trains are standard… Read More »Mark Neely’s Review of Klimat by Thane Gustafson

September 2022 Newsletter

It’s Time to Celebrate!!!    The Inflation Reduction Act was signed by President Biden on August 16, the date of our last monthly meeting.  This month we will be celebrating this momentous step forward in climate action.  We will also celebrate the beginning of a new academic year with all the opportunities that it promises to bring and will make plans for our next steps..  And of course we will celebrate our new CCL members who have joined recently, as well as the veterans who… Read More »September 2022 Newsletter

Review of Unruly Waters by Sunil Amrith

A review of Sunil Amrith, Unruly Waters:  How Mountain Rivers and Monsoons Have Shaped South Asia’s History (New York:  Penguin, 2020), 397 pp., maps, photos.      This sweeping history of India from the nineteenth century to the present focuses necessarily on agriculture, climate, and engineering.  Unlike the United States, where agriculture has not been dominant for a century, agriculture “employs 60 percent of India’s population,” and India’s “population will continue to be predominantly rural by the mid-twenty-first century” (p. 14).  Therefore, climate matters less in… Read More »Review of Unruly Waters by Sunil Amrith

August 2022 Newsletter

Inflation Reduction Act Needs Our Support      Good news! An agreement was reached between Senator Joe Manchin and Majority Leader Schumer that may make it possible to pass the (newly renamed) Inflation Reduction Act.  The Senate is expected to vote on this bill this week. This bill is a reduced and modified version of the Reconciliation Bill, also sometimes called the Build Back Better Bill.    Let’s get this bill over the finish line. Please call Senator Casey this week!  Notice that this action involves only Democrats.  If your Representative… Read More »August 2022 Newsletter

Review of Fire and Flood

A Review of Eugene Linden, Fire and Flood:  A People’s History of Climate Change, from 1979 to the Present (New York:  Penguin Press, 2022)      Eugene Linden’s Fire and Flood is a history of the problem of climate change over the last forty-odd years– must reading for members of CCL.  Linden captures the essence of developments decade by decade, the eighties, the nineties, and so forth, from four standpoints:  the reality of climate changes in the period, the scientists’ increasing understanding of them, public opinion… Read More »Review of Fire and Flood

July Newsletter

No regular monthly meeting this month. Instead we encourage you to join our tabling at the Arts Festival and then get together for a social event on Sunday, July 24.  This newsletter contains news from our chapter, actions you can take for the midterm elections, notices of community events, and a review of a climate book.   Join Us for Social Event     Arts Fest, Wing Fest, Spikes games, and farmer’s markets. Summer is in full swing in State College and that makes it a… Read More »July Newsletter

Review of Vaclav Smil book by Mark Neely

Vaclav Smil, How the World Really Works:  A Scientist’s Guide to Our Past, Present and Future (New York:  Viking, 2022), 326 pp.     Vaclav Smil, a member of the geography department at the University of Manitoba, in this well organized and clearly written book, argues that globalization and what he calls “the four material pillars of modern civilization,” plastics, steel, concrete, and ammonia, are central to understanding the problem of climate change.  The problem, simply put, is that all of them are carbon intensive.     … Read More »Review of Vaclav Smil book by Mark Neely

June Newsletter

Dear CCL members,     A few days ago, some of my friends were commenting that many things are going wrong with the world, and they wished there was something they could do.  While the problems may seem overwhelming, all of us working together can make a difference.  You have taken a first step by reading an email from Citizens’ Climate Lobby, an organization that brings together 200,000 volunteers from all over the world to attempt to halt the destructive power of climate change.  CCL has always understood that climate change… Read More »June Newsletter

May 2022 Newsletter

Dear CCL members,      Are you finding it difficult to keep up with all the climate-related news?  Despite subscribing to several email newsletters, attending webinars online, and reading daily newspapers and climate books, I find that I miss out on many things.  Another problem I have encountered is that a simple headline in the news might leave me with questions that are not easily answered from traditional news sources.       To partially address these concerns, we are starting a new section of our monthly newsletter… Read More »May 2022 Newsletter