Right now, this very second, UUCA has three recent graduates of Vice President Al Gore’s Climate Reality Leadership Training. Wink Zachritz, Ed Prestemon, and I will be receiving our Green Ring pins in the mail soon to indicate our accomplishments. We join Sally Beth Shore who completed her training in 2015!
In this time of “everything virtual” we have the bad news of being sick and tired of staring at computer screens (funny how I don’t mind watching TV after I get done with zooming—why is that?) countered by the good news of the many, many opportunities that are being offered for free as online experiences.
This particular training was global and free, with the cost paid in screen time. It ran over 9 days and included 14 hours of zoom and video watching along with several written assignments. About 10,000 people from all over the world participated, nearly doubling the number of active Climate Leaders. We are all committed to taking action on climate change in a variety of ways. We have access to the infamous Al Gore slide deck, so any trained Climate Reality Leader can give presentations. To anyone. That means that if you’re looking for a climate speaker, you can contact Wink, Ed, Sally Beth, or me! Other Acts of Leadership include contacting elected officials; leading climate events; writing blogs, social media posts, or op-ed pieces; or partnering with other local groups for climate actions.
One fun outcome is that I now have a Climate Accountability Partner in New Delhi, India named Gitanjali Sreedhar. We’ll check in with each other periodically to make sure we’re on track to perform the 10 Acts of Climate Leadership we committed to do in the next year. Turns out that my writing this blog gets me one act closer to my goal. (As in any group, there are super-performers. I don’t think I’ll end up in the big leagues where Climate Leaders are accomplishing many 100s of Acts of Leadership a year.)
But I digress in a major way. I wanted you to know about the Climate Reality Leadership Training (another virtual training is being planned for August 28-September 3) but I HAVE to tell you about Climate Change!!!!
The whole point of the Climate Reality Project is to continue to get the word out that the need for DOING SOMETHING is urgent. The tide seems to have turned in people “believing” that climate change is happening. Mother Nature has a very convincing repertoire of actions. However, it is not at all a commonly held belief that a 2-degree rise is a big deal and that changes have to happen now.
Here’s a graph that shows the urgent nature of the situation.
Source: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 5th Annual Assessment Report, 2014
The thermometer on the left shows the rise in Celsius degrees using a slightly different baseline than the thermometer on the right. Each bar shows how risks increase as the global mean temperature rises. It’s probably important to point out that in 2019 the mean global average temperature was 1.15C degrees on the right-hand thermometer. Note that the highest risks are to unique and threatened ecosystems. One of these ecosystems is the southern Appalachian Mountains. Just sayin’.
The basic questions, to which the Climate Reality Project answers yes, are:
Must we change? (the science is clear, although the weather effects are getting pretty clear, too)
Can we change? (there turns out to be a LOT of good news on this front—just not quite enough yet)
Will we change? (This part is our job. And when I say “our,” I mean all of us!)
Linda Topp
Director of Administration