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A Personal Plea:
Perhaps more than ever before, this year we elders must remain centered in our elder wisdom for the sake of all of the grandchildren and great grandchildren.
Watching the Republican Convention felt to me like being stuck in some strange alternative universe. In my living room, I was well aware that climate change poses the greatest threat that human civilization has ever faced. That's not politics, it's just scientific fact. Yet climate change was never mentioned.
How could that possibly be? Just when our country needs to come together as we did for WWII, our politics seems to be tearing us apart.
If we look beneath the name-calling and fear-mongering, we can find signs of hope in Members of Congress of both parties who are stepping up to call for action on climate change.
We, the elders, must nurture those signs of hope. We must focus the power of our numbers and our wisdom to calling for bi-partisan action to protect life on the only planet we have.
One way to do that is to participate in ECA's Congressional Candidates Climate Project (See below)
. You can devote as little or as much time to this as works for you - but please participate. Your voice is needed!
Paul
Paul Severance
Co-Chair, Elders Climate Action
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2016 is a critical Congressional election year!
Will you help make sure the greatest threat to future generations in human history is not ignored?
Here's how you can make a difference:
Ask a couple of friends to join you to form a team (2-5 people) in your town, county, or congressional district to present Elders Climate Action's Climate Surveys to candidates for the US House of Representatives and Senate, and then follow up to urge them to participate.
This is a project that you can invest as little or as much time and energy as works for your team. And you'll have lots of support from ECA.
Fill out
THIS FORM to indicate your interest in participating in this project.
AND
Join our Congressional Candidates Climate Project Video Conference Call this coming Wednesday, July 27th,
7:00 PM Eastern Time; 4 PM Pacific Time:
Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android by clicking this link https://zoom.us/j/4772095159
Or you can join by telephone:
Dial: +1 646 558 8656 (US Toll) or +1 408 638 0968 (US Toll)
Meeting ID: 477 209 5159
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Elders Joining March for a
Clean Energy Revolution:
Philadelphia, PA, July 24th
On the Eve of the Democratic National Convention, elders will march with thousands of others as part of the March for a Clean Energy Revolution for action to prevent climate catastrophe and present these demands to current and future policy makers.
For detailed information, and to sign up to participate, go HERE.
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Chris Kane
Florida
Working With My Peeps
Or Why I Joined Elders Climate Action
 Hi - my name is Chris Kane and I am a recent member of Elders Climate Action. I'm a Climate Reality Leader and also Co-Leader of a newly formed chapter of Citizens' Climate Lobby. Those are my environmental creds, but, what I consider much more important is the fact that I am the Grandmother of two marvelous little boys.
When I met Geri Freedman at a Pachamama event in Orlando we began talking about Elders Climate Action. I'd never heard of it and I was very impressed with her passion.
What I particularly liked about what she was saying was that it was comprised of mature folks who'd been around the block and who were coming at the problem from a variety of avenues.  They were working on the big picture and were aligned with multiple organizations which had the same goal in mind.
My children and my grandchildren are my life. I want them to be able to enjoy living on this planet and don't want them wondering why I didn't do anything to save it.
I am looking forward to being able to contribute whatever I can to the cause and joining other like-minded new friends.
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Leslie Wharton
Maryland
Our Grandparents Climate Action Day planning day was fantastic! What a wonderful coming together and sharing around the table among our small team, many of whom had not met - or barely met - before.
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Grady McGonagill
Massachusetts
 I'm a person who doesn't usually make decisions quickly. But when I got a call from Paul Severance inviting me to join him and other members of something called "Elders Climate Action" for an event calling itself "Grandparents' Climate Action Day" (GCAD) last September, I signed up on the spot.
Something about using elderhood as an organizing frame for building a mass movement to generate the political will to address climate change struck a resonant chord with me. I was familiar with Congressional "lobby days" from having been twice to Washington, D.C. to advocate a "Carbon Fee and Dividend" on behalf of the Citizens' Climate Lobby. But who knew there was such a thing as "Grandparents' Day"?
I decided to go, and recruited the head of the Boston CCL chapter, Rabbi Judy Weiss, to go with me. Together we were able to meet one of our Senators, Elizabeth Warren. Speaking of her grandchildren brought tears to the feisty Senator's eyes.
What had brought tears to my eyes over 25 years ago was reading of the demise of the Texas horned toad. "Horny toads" had been a part of growing up in Texas. I couldn't imagine a world without these creatures. Their survival skills were legendary, yet they were disappearing for unknown reasons-human activity being the prime suspect. In that moment I resolved to do what I could to protect the environment.
As a consultant, I began seeking out opportunities to work with environmental nonprofit organizations. But none of this felt like doing enough. Enter the call from Paul Severance and my decision to take part in Elders Climate Action and Grandparents Climate Action Day.
I stayed on for a planning session following GCAD, where I learned that ECA not only embraces the CCL goal of putting a price on carbon nationally to address its mission, but also encourages actions at the state and local level. Inspired by the possibilities of shifting focus to activities closer to home, I invited the four other folks from Massachusetts who had attended GCAD to join me in forming the first local ECA chapter.
Five months into our existence, I continue to sense a palpable buzz of excitement at our meetings, where we share what we've done and support one another in taking on new challenges. Will ECA succeed in its mission? Who knows? But we're doing what we can and that gives us hope.
To read the full text of Grady's article click here
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VOICE OF A FUTURE ELDER
Julie Hantman
National Outreach Manager
Mom's Clean Air Force
 The climate movement is picking up steam and its increasing diversity is a big reason why. No longer can any headline say e.g. 'environmentalists decry roadblocks to climate action.' That's because it isn't just environmentalists speaking up anymore. We've got a big and bigger tent. There are scientists of course, there are experts on national security, food security and you-name-it security. There is the faith community, labor, and more.
And generationally there is the youth movement, there are moms and dads - and now elders.
The climate movement needs the unique voices of elders. Parents of school-age children have the exquisite focus of day to day parenting to bring to bear in our advocacy. Elders - grandparents or not - have the long view. As I meet more ECA members I see plenty of internal diversity but the common denominator perhaps is the passion that comes from experience and dynamic reflection. A different flavor! We need you and it's a pleasure to think and take action together.
Note: Julie adds new meaning to being a partner by spending a day with ECA elders to participate in our next Elders Climate Action event in 2017
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Center for Biological Diversity
Matthew Gregory, California Anti-Fracking Intern
The Center for Biological Diversity's Anti-Fracking team is currently working on a number of campaigns to ban fracking and extreme oil extraction in California. The newest of these campaigns, Protect California Food, takes aim at Governor Brown and oil companies who have been selling treated oil wastewater to farmers for crop irrigation in California.
This spring, the Center's team partnered with Protect Monterey County and nearly 200 volunteers from throughout California to collect over 16,000 signatures to qualify a fracking ban for November's ballot. As the November elections near, the Center, Protect Monterey County, and volunteers will continue to fundraise and build support for the measure, which faces a tough fight from oil companies.
In June, state regulators announced plans to submit 60 aquifer exemption applications to the EPA over the next four months. The Center's Climate team will be working to build resistance in the months leading up to the February 17
th
deadline.
The Center's team also played a hand in organizing the recent May action in LA; the "March to Break Free From Fossil Fuels".
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Climate Links
Elegy for the Arctic,
Ludovico Einaudi supporting the Greenpeace Save the Arctic campaign a short video.
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Stay connected via our
ECA website
,
Facebook
page,
bulletins and newsletters for updates and opportunities in
your communities.
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Elders Climate Action
is
a Project of the
Conscious Elders Network
The
Conscious Elders Network (CEN) is an educational, non-profit organization fostering a budding movement of vital elders, dedicated to growing in consciousness while actively addressing the demanding challenges facing our country.
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The most remarkable feature of this historical moment on Earth is not that we are on the way to destroying the world- we've actually been on the way for quite a while. It is that we are beginning to wake up, as from a millennia-long sleep, to a whole new relationship to our world, to ourselves and each other. Joanna Macy
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July,
