PREPARING FOR A MEETING ON CLIMATE CHANGE
Whether your audience will be members of your League or those of another organization in your community, here are some suggestions to help make your meeting a success.
Determine your goal. What is the purpose of your meeting?
- Raising awareness?
- Promoting lifestyle changes?
- Motivating individuals to cut their carbon footprints?
- Engaging individuals in a program to reduce community greenhouse gas emissions?
- Building grassroots support for climate-protection policies or legislation?
Decide how you will measure your results. What outcome(s) are you seeking?
- Positive meeting evaluation forms submitted by audience members?
- Emissions-reduction pledges returned by attendees?
- Commitments from audience members to attend follow-up meetings on reducing their carbon footprints?
- Volunteers enlisted to help implement the community's climate action plan?
- Names added to a list of supporters interested in receiving legislative updates and action alerts?
- Creation of an action team to spearhead an initiative for change?
Understand your audience. What is the attitude of your audience to climate change?
- How much does your audience already know about climate change?
- What misconceptions about climate change might audience members have?
- What 'frame' or context is likely to be most effective? (See the Communications section for information about framing strategies.)
Choose a program and format suited to the group. Here are some suggestions and resources for developing the content of your meeting.
- You can start by looking within your local or state League membership for program expertise on climate change. You could also convene a group of members to develop your program. Or you could invite one or more outside speakers to share their expertise. Possible speakers might include
- University professors in climate-related fields
- Architects with 'green' reputations
- Environmental organizations, e.g., Sierra Club
- The Climate Reality Project has trained volunteers who will speak for free. There may be a presenter in your area who can meet your schedule. Click 'Request Presentation' at the top of the TCP webpage to submit a request form.
- One format that has been used successfully with larger groups is the World Café, a methodology for hosting conversations about questions that matter. The Basics for Hosting a Global Warming Café is a detailed guide to engaging an audience in exploring the subject of climate change in ways that are relevant to the real-life concerns of the members of the group.
- A number of videos on a wide range of climate and environmental topics are available from Earth Gauge, an initiative of the National Environmental Education Foundation and the American Meteorological Society. Another resource is a 32-slide power-point presentation -- Climate Change: Fitting the Pieces Together -- that you can download, personalize, and present yourself. The information is also available in an expanded form as a two-hour video course. (Free registration required.) The program is provided by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.
- The Low Carbon Diet: A 30-Day Program to Lose 5000 Pounds is a practical, easy-to-use guide to achieving measurable reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The illustrated workbook is particularly effective for a small group that meets weekly to learn about and adopt carbon-cutting practices. It can also be used in the workplace, in schools, and by whole communities. Quantity discounts of the workbook are available.
Bring the message home. Include information about the specific climate impacts that are projected for your area. Here are two good sources of regional information --
- Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States, United States Global Change Research Program (2009), includes sections on projected impacts for the Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Great Plains, Southwest, Northwest, Alaska, Islands, and the Coasts.
- The Union of Concerned Scientists has produced a number of reports on the impacts of climate change for different regions of the country and for several individual states.
Provide opportunities for discussion. Whatever type of program you choose, try to build in time for group interaction and discussion. Depending on your audience and the format of your meeting, you might ask people to share their "best practices." What steps have they taken to become more energy efficient? Celebrate all successes and avoid creating guilt.
Ask audience members whether they have a question about any particular aspect of climate change? Do their questions suggest that there are misconceptions that need to be addressed?
Offer solutions. Give audience members suggestions of specific things that they can do to address climate change -- steps that they can take to reduce their carbon footprint, prepare for the climate impacts projected for your community, and/or make their voices heard on proposed climate policies. Empower them to become part of the solutions process.
Prepare 'solutions' handouts for audience members to take home. Good resources include:
- Tips on Curbing Your Personal GHG Emissions -- at home, in the garden, on the move, at the store, and at the curb -- from the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES).
- The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy's Smarter House website, with a home energy checklist of things to do -- today, this week, this month, and this year -- plus more detailed advice about high-efficiency appliances, heating and cooling equipment, lighting, and consumer electronics.
- The ENERGY STAR website with tips on how to save energy at home and find energy-efficient appliances and products, home improvement tools, and information about tax credits and appliance rebates.
Last updated: 11/2/2013