November 2016     
After the 2016 Election . . .

. . . The level of greenhouse gases in our Earth's atmosphere will still be going UP!

. . . Rising sea levels that threaten to displace millions of people who live on the world's coasts will still be a reality.

. . . The threats to the lives of our grandchildren and great grandchildren of agricultural disruption, increased droughts, intensified storms, and spread of tropical diseases will still be very real.

. . . The signs of hope generated by the Paris climate agreement will still be present.  And scientists will still be telling us that we have a window of opportunity in the next couple of decades to mobilize America's and the world's resources to bring about a massive shift away from burning fossil fuels - before the planet passes tipping points beyond which it will be too late.

The problem of political gridlock in the US is not likely to have disappeared.  And the potential of elders to make a difference will still be here.

Focusing on the Vision of Elders
Taking Action to Break the Political Gridlock

Elders Climate Action believes that elders could be a critical force to break the gridlock on climate in the US - and thereby unleash a massive international response.
  • Elders have become a hugely important voting constituency, both because our numbers have grown so much as a result of the aging of the baby boom generation, and because we vote more reliably than other age groups.
  • Elders naturally have a longer term view as a result of decades of life experience - and can more easily focus on long term problems as opposed to only short term crises.
  • And Elders naturally think about the meaning of our lives, and the difference we can make for future generations.
So elders could be the critical force that breaks our national gridlock on climate change.  We believe that all our grandchildren and great grandchildren deserve our dedication to that vision.

Our Leadership Team has been developing a strategic plan for moving forward toward that vision.   All of the elements of this plan need many of us to step forward to do our part.  This must be the beginning of a true elders movement.  And, like all movements, it must start with a critical mass of "early adopters" - visionaries who take responsibility for getting the movement off the ground.

Here are the ways YOU  can be part of building this movement:
  • Volunteer.   Our strategic plan calls for a variety of Action Teams to move the vision forward.  Are you ready to consider stepping up and helping make this happen?  Email us at info@eldersclimateaction.org and say "Volunteer Options."  We'll email you a list of volunteer possibilities to review.  And we'll give you information on a special volunteer options Conference Call we'll be holding on Thursday, November 10th at 7pm Eastern, 4pm Pacific.
     
     
    Volunteer Conference Call 
     
    Thursday, November 10
    7 pm Eastern/4 pm Pacific


    Join from your Computer
     
    Or by Telephone: 
    (646) 558 - 8656

    Meeting ID: 
    477 209 5159
       
  • Donate.  Your gift to Elders Climate Action will help us take more action to reduce carbon emissions and preserve the planet for future generations. ECA needs substantial resources to move ahead on building the mass movement that is required.  We need a full-time organizing director, and several part-time organizers in key regions of the country.  And we need the resources for a sophisticated communications/social media strategy.
We will be asking our members to make a pledge to sup port this  effort in 2017.  Please respond as generously as you can when you get the request.


What's Left To Do About Climate Change
During The Last Days of the 2016 Election ?


Special Thanks!!!
Special thanks to all the Elders Climate Action volunteers who have been working on the ECA Congressional Candidates Climate Survey Project.

85 volunteers have been working on asking candidates for the US House of Representatives to respond to an ECA survey of candidates' positions on climate change.  They are taking responsibility for asking candidates in 59 House of Representatives Districts in 16 states.  They are following up to try to get as many of these surveys completed as possible, and they are published on the ECA website.

This has been the first step in an ongoing effort which will expand each national election.  We will be aiming for 300 volunteers taking a survey to candidates in 150 House Districts in the 2018 Congressional elections. To see the results from the candidates who responded click here .



Our Elder Climate Voters Project

Another key effort that many of us have been involved in is an effort to secure the pledges of elders to vote, and to consider the positions of their candidates on climate issues.  Studies have proven that people, who pledge to vote, actually do vote in higher percentages than others.

We just began this Project:  Our goal is to eventually have a million elders who have pledged to be Elder Climate Voters.  And every vote may be really important in some states this election - so it's not too late to sign the Pledge!  And it's not too late to ask 10 of your family and friends to sign the Pledge.

Elders! Help us Plan our Spring Campaign!

We are planning Elders Climate Action Day 2017 and we want to hear from you! Based on input from some of our members, we have put together a short survey. Please click HERE and tell us what you would like to have on the ECAD 2017 program next spring.


ELDERS CLIMATE ACTION DAY IS COMING! SPRING 2017

As Elder activists,  we depend on one another to keep us inspired and involved. Let us know why you care about climate change.   Click here to share your story!


Words from a Grandfather
Bert Berlin, Virginia

A story from the Talmud: 

One day Honi was journeying on the road and he saw a man planting a carob tree. He asked, "How long does it take for this tree to bear fruit?" The man replied: "Seventy years." Honi then further asked him: "Are you certain that you will live another seventy years?" The man replied: "I found already grown carob trees in the world; as my forefathers planted those for me so I too plant these for my children."

Now, you and I must plant for our children and grandchildren and great grandchildren. Even for those of us who will not have children, we must plant.

Global climate change is taking place and it will get a lot worse if we don't take action now. I'm in my 73rd year and will not live to see the severe effects of climate change that are coming. But, my children and certainly my grandchildren will.

The only carob tree that you and I can plant for the next generations is to demand that our government leaders take action now to alleviate the future effects of climate change and to vote out of office those leaders who refuse to act.

What I don't want, and I assume you don't want, is for our grandchildren to look at our pictures in 60 years and ask why we didn't protect their future while we still had the chance.


"Climate Lies?   Exxon and New York Attorney General Butt Heads"

a review of   Exxon's Forecasts, Not Past Views are at Core of Climate Investigation , New York Times, August, 20, 2016.

A recent New York Times article explores the fraud
inve stigation  by New York  Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman of Exxon Mobile ' s past research and current contradictory claims. The September 2015 story illustrates that in the mid-1970s Exxon executives commissioned climate scientists and outfitted a ship with state of the art tools to measure the impact of fossil fuels on atmospheric carbon increases around the world.   According to a climatologist hired by Exxon to do the research, company executives sought objective data about atmospheric warming.  The results of Exxon ' s sailing lab were clear. Oil and gas extraction and use were dramatically increasing climatic warming from a greenhouse gas effect.

By the 1980s the Exxon corporate leadership reportedly had changed and was no longer interested in objective scientific measurements that assessed the relationship between fossil fuel use and climate change.  The new management team cancelled the research ship and retreated from the discoveries of their own scientists.  Instead of going public with their costly and well-documented findings, according to investigative journalists, Exxon Mobile allegedly began investing in disinformation, hiring faux scientists to "educate" state legislators and sow uncertainty about the claims by climate scientists that widespread use and extraction of fossil fuels were altering nature
' s balance and heating planet Earth.  Read More



Climate Change Global Deal Reached: global deal reached to limit use of hydrofluorocarbons, From The Guardian


New James Hansen Paper  Prominent Climate Scientist James Hansen, and 11 colleagues, recently published a new scientific paper: Young People's Burden: Requirement of Negative CO2 Emissions.  One of his conclusions at the end is: 

"Technically, it is still possible to solve the climate problem, but there are two essential requirements," which he explains are (1) Carbon fee and dividend legislation backed by Citizen's Climate Lobby and Elders Climate Action; and (2) robust government support for development of clean energy technologies.  Read More



Moms Clean Air Force Blog on Wind Energy









Watch this short video by Conservation International, Nature Is Speaking - Harrison Ford
  
Important Message From Keeper of Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe  - Chief Arvol, Make No Bones About it, The Quest For Truth, August 27, 2016

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In This Issue
 
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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.


Do you shop online? Here is a way to help Elders Climate Action!

If you shop on Amazon you can sign up for Amazon Smile and every time you make an eligible purchase a donation is made.  All you have to do is sign up and select Conscious Elders Network as your organization to receive the funds.  These donations will help Elders Climate Action.  What an easy way to contribute and it costs you nothing. To sign up and read about the program go to Amazon Smile.  After you sign up you will use smile.amazon.com to make your purchases.  



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