PREPARING FOR A MEETING ON CLIMATE CHANGE
Whether your audience will be members of your League or will include a broader segment of 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?
- Motivating people to adopt more climate-friendly behaviors?
- Engaging individuals in initiatives to reduce your community's carbon emissions?
- Building grassroots advocacy for state/federal climate 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?
- Volunteers enlisted to help implement your community's climate action plan?
- New members for an action team to advocate for climate legislation?
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 expertise on climate change and/or the particular focus of your meeting. 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
- Your municipality's sustainabiity officer
- University professors in climate-related fields
- Architects with 'green' reputations
- Climate activists from other organizations, e.g., Sierra Club, Citizens Climate Lobby
- 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.
- 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 (for purchase) 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. A good source of regional information is the Fourth National Climate Assessment (United States Global Change Research Program, 2018), which includes sections on a variety of topics (e.g., water, agriculture, human health) and the outook for the various regions of the country (e.g., Northeast, Southeast, Midwest).
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, engage with local climate action initiatives, and/or make their voices heard on proposed climate policies. Empower them to become part of the solution.
Prepare 'solutions' handouts for audience members to take home. Good resources include:
- From the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES): Ten things you can do [this Leap Day] to maximize your climate impact and Reducing Your Carbon Footprint: Resource Use.
- 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: 3/27/2020