Carson City chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby share in concern, hope for the future (opinion)
Submitted by Carson Now Reader on Tue, 01/26/2021 - 2:18pm
Climate change: Is it real? Yes! Is there something that you can do? Yes! A few years ago I became more aware and concerned about our environment. My concern was elevated based upon what I was reading, hearing and witnessing.
Summers seemed hotter; years ago, the higher mountains I could see from Eagle Valley usually made it through the summer with some visible snow. Recently, that has not always been the case.
Within the past few years, many areas in Nevada set records for single hottest days, and stretches of hottest consecutive days. I would hear about how Nevada was in an extended drought, and our snowpack/water content reports frequently were less than average. I was concerned. I wanted to do something.
A friend mentioned an environmental organization that had a local chapter here in Carson City. The organization is Citizens’ Climate Lobby. My wife and I attended one of their meetings in early 2017. It was a friendly group of folks who also shared similar concerns about the environment.
Citizens’ Climate Lobby is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, grassroots advocacy organization focused on national policies to address climate change; its primary focus is to promote national carbon fee and dividend (CFD) legislation.
CCL pursues this goal by organizing and training volunteers in local chapters to take a variety of actions: raising awareness of global warming; informing people of a viable solution to the global warming crisis; and lobbying Congress to take action to address global warming by passing carbon fee and dividend legislation.
There are more than 180,000 volunteers organized in more than 600 active chapters in the US, as well as 21 foreign countries.
I became more involved with CCL; regularly attending meetings, participating in various outreach programs/events, and participating in lobbying meetings with Nevada’s Senators Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen, and Congressman Mark Amodei. I also assumed the role of the custodian of the chapter’s membership roster. It is from this duty that I have become more hopeful.
As the chapter’s membership roster custodian, I have compiled annual statistics regarding the growth of our chapter.
— In 2018, we increased our membership by 76.
— In 2019, along with our regular informational booth at the Sierra Nevada Forums in Carson City http://www.sierranevadaforums.com/, we participated in Earth Day Events in South Lake Tahoe, Western Nevada College, and Carson City. 2019 was a stellar year. We signed up 129 new members.
Then there was 2020. Contrary to what you would expect, since our outreach activities were basically nonexistent, we still acquired 45 new members! The majority were from individuals “finding” Citizens’ Climate Lobby online and subsequently joining!
As evidenced in various political campaigns that recognize climate change is a crisis, the “word” is getting out there. People are becoming more and more aware, realizing that climate change is a result of global warming due to the excessive polluting of our earth’s atmosphere with greenhouse gases, primarily CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels! And, this is an issue to do something about!
This increased awareness and the resulting reaction as seen by the growth of our local chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby is the basis for my hope, hope for the future.
If you would like to become involved, join us, Citizens’ Climate Lobby here. Help us create the political will for a future livable world.
Rob Bastien
Carson City Chapter
Citizens’ Climate Lobby
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