Welcome to the fall edition of our quarterly newsletter. As you will see below, we are committed to reaching new audiences – even during the pandemic – and extending our impact far and wide.
 
In the Northeast, the leaves are beginning to turn, splashes of vibrant colors erupt across the tree-scape, and we are reminded of the ever-constant flow of seasons, the consistent and comforting rhythms of nature. Yet, at the same time, we are experiencing nature in ways that are no longer consistent or comforting – whether it’s the hottest temperature ever recorded earlier this year, running out of traditional names for tropical storms because we’ve had so many, or the behemoth “gigafire” (an unprecedented 4 million acres) burning in California. These events underscore that our world is evolving, made more dangerous by climate change.
 
There is just so much vying for our attention – the pandemic, the election, racial injustice, to name just a few – and it’s easy to get overwhelmed. But we’ve got to keep our eye on the biggest threat of all – the one that has so clearly crossed from the future into the present – that nature is now playing by new and dangerous rules. Our economy and civilization are built on the premise that nature acts a certain way. There is a good chance that this premise will no longer hold true if we continue on our current emissions path. We are changing the chemical composition of our atmosphere, which, in turn, is changing our natural systems at a breathtaking rate.
 
So, what can we do?
 
Scientists say we need to pull together, to forge social consensus for action, to face this threat successfully and overcome it. But we can only pull together if enough people care. People will only care if they understand the scope and scale of the risk and how it will impact them personally. C-Change Conversations provides that understanding – in a clear, science-based, non-partisan, non-threatening way. And we bring that message across the country, including to conservative groups and to conservative places where this message isn’t often heard. We are successfully opening minds and hearts and pulling people together so we can meet this threat.
 
We are working hard to provide valuable information to empower you, our C-Change family, to influence others and help build the consensus, too. Thank you for being on this journey with us.
 
Best,
Kathleen Biggins
Founder and President

Land Trust Alliance National Conference Features C-Change Speakers
C-Change returned to a national stage on October 6th with Kathleen Biggins and C-Change co-founder Katy Kinsolving speaking during “Rally 2020,” the annual conference of the Land Trust Alliance. More than 3,600 land conservation trustees and practitioners virtually attended the 3-day conference that examined issues critical to the future of land conservation. Kathleen and Katy presented “How to Talk to Moderates and Conservatives about Climate Change” to an audience of 500. Their talk featured excerpts of the C-Change Primer presentation and examined how land preservation and use, and agricultural practices, can mitigate climate change. After the taped presentation, Kathleen and Katy fielded questions from the audience. You can watch the presentation here.

In her introduction to the presentation, Lisa Ott, President of the North Shore Land Alliance in Oyster Bay, New York and a member of the Garden Club of America, notes that C-Change Conversations team members were “just the right people to bring this message” about climate change to her colleagues and that they presented the risks and opportunities of climate change “factually … in a science-based way … and they were not threatening to the people of our community.”

New Primer Presenters Extend Our Reach
A handful of C-Change volunteers have presented the Primer to about 10,000 people in 29 states since 2018. The demand for non-partisan, science-based information about climate change spurred us to expand our ranks, and over time, we developed a robust presenter-training program that will enable us to reach even more people.

Ask a Scientist

Here are some questions we recently asked our science advisors. Be sure to check out more Q&A on our website and submit your questions here.

Bernadette Woods Placky, Climate Central’s Chief Meteorologist and Climate Matters Program Director

How is climate change impacting hurricanes now and what’s expected in the future?

Hurricanes get their strength from warm water, and those waters are getting warmer.

Scientific research shows that more of the hurricanes forming these days are rising to the level of a major hurricane – category 3-5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale. And more storms are rapidly intensifying – when storms go through an explosive growth period of 35 mph in 24 hours. This is particularly dangerous when it happens close to landfall, limiting time for proper preparations. When storms do make landfall, they are more damaging due to more heavy rain and higher storm surges that push farther inland.

Nadir Jeevanjee, Princeton University

What argument is used by the 3% of scientists who don’t agree that climate change is happening/human-caused?

My impression is that this “3%” generally consists of scientists who acknowledge that CO₂ is rising due to human activities, and who also acknowledge that this rising  CO₂  will cause some global warming, but who disagree on the amount of warming it will cause. These scientists might be suspicious of estimates from computer climate models due to their complexity, and may have other explanations for some of the warming we’ve observed so far, such as natural fluctuations. Such skepticism and formulation of alternative hypotheses is natural, and is moreover an essential part of a healthy scientific enterprise. But the accumulated evidence, as documented in ever-expanding reports by the IPCC  and other bodies, continues to point to human-emitted CO₂ as the main driver of observed climate changes.

Liz Sikes, Rutgers University

What factors triggered the end of the last ice age?

We believe that the fundamental trigger for the end of the last ice age was increasing insolation (more heating from the sun) over the northern hemisphere, where the main glacial ice cap sat. Increasing insolation happens as the earth’s orbit changes shape naturally – sometimes a component of this is referred to as the “wobble of the poles.”  These changes have timescales of about 20,000 and 40,000 years and have a slow-paced influence on climate. These shifts in solar radiation can initiate carbon feedback loops, which causes more rapid changes within the climate system. Scientific evidence shows that as the increased solar radiation warmed the oceans, circulation patterns changed and CO₂ that had been sequestered in the deep ocean was released into the atmosphere. These increased CO₂ levels heated the atmosphere up further and were an important driver in the last deglaciation, the ice loss that ended the last ice age. We are seeing the same thing happening today. As we raise CO₂ levels through our greenhouse gas emissions, we are seeing increased deglaciation in our polar regions.

“I have had such good fortune in experiencing the profound beauty of our world, and learning how critically reliant we are on the health of our planet.  I want to address these issues for the sake of my children and all future generations – and for the sake of our imperiled earth.”

Nancy’s career has spanned investment banking, community development, and non-profit management. She spent 15 years with JP Morgan and Merrill Lynch in New York as an investment banker and then as head of their Community Development Corporations. After moving to St. Louis, she headed Bellefontaine, a non-profit historic cemetery and arboretum. Nancy is the board chair for the Nature Conservancy in Missouri and serves on the board of the Harris World Ecology Center,  the Conservation Mission Council of the Missouri Botanical Garden, the Finance Committee of the Garden Club of America. Nancy also is starting a C-Change team in St. Louis. She recently completed a post-graduate program at Yale in Financing and Deploying Clean Energy.

We live in interesting times (an understatement!). Our sense of security has been shattered by the COVID-19 crisis and our sense of identity challenged by George Floyd’s killing and the ensuing reflection of who we are as a nation and as individuals. We are emotionally spent.

And yet, exhausted as we are, we need to keep in mind another challenge, climate change. Its threat may feel less immediate, but its consequences are much longer term. Scientists warn we need to act now, or our current emissions path will create a dangerous and dystopian world – one with devastating heat waves, food deprivation, more droughts and floods, and more exposure to disease. Because of our inaction so far, we are on track to leave our children and grandchildren a world we would never accept for ourselves.

Before COVID-19 emerged, the momentum on climate change had shifted. Republican leaders, recognizing that younger Republicans and independents care deeply about the issue, were finally talking about solutions like planting trees, investing in carbon capture and new nuclear power technologies. Democrats were fleshing out different approaches to a “Green New Deal.”

Back in February, C-Change Conversations presented the Primer to our largest audience ever (600 people!) in Shreveport, LA. Then we headed to public and private events in South Carolina, speaking to curious, concerned, everyday citizens and business and community leaders alike, all grappling with the issue of climate change.

Today is a very different story as we practice social distancing, quarantining, and adjusting to the realities of a pandemic. We are concerned with the safety of everyone, especially our many friends and supporters around the country. Our thoughts are with you as we collectively negotiate these difficult times.

And, as preoccupied as we are with COVID-19, we can’t take our eye off the slower yet no less menacing threat of climate change. Now more than ever we need trusted, scientific sources to better understand our world and
how to keep it and all of us safe.

To that end, we bring good news. C-Change Conversations is pleased to present new virtual learning resources for fans of our science-based, non-partisan approach to climate change: two virtual presentations of the award-winning C-Change Conversations Primer and “Ask a Scientist.”

While we can’t be together, we can band together to share good information and good thoughts. Please stay in touch and stay safe.

Warmly,
The C-Change Conversations Team

Virtual Presentations of the C-Change Conversations Primer
In celebration of Earth Day, C-Change presented the Primer as a webcast for the first time, in partnership with the New Jersey Conservation Foundation and Princeton Public Library. You can watch and share a recording of the webcast here. If you would like to schedule an interactive, virtual Primer presentation like this for your group, please let us know. Or, consider watching this recording of our Primer presentation, which we produced in the Princeton Community Television studios. 

Ask a Scientist
At a time when there are many unanswerable questions, we are happy to have enlisted three trusted scientists to provide answers to common climate questions (see below). We encourage you to submit your own questions here and visit the C-Change website often to read new questions and answers from the scientists.

Thank you for being part of our journey.

Kathleen Biggins, Founder
C-Change Conversations

This Gives Us Hope
The Great Green Wall of Africa is a 10-mile wide, 4,000-mile long greenbelt designed to stop desertification around the Sahara.  As trees grow, they change the weather patterns, enhancing rainfall. By encouraging the planting of drought-resistant species and garnering support from local farmers and herders, policy leaders hope to contain the desert, which is expanding due to climate change, deforestation, and overgrazing. Learn more.

Did You Know?
Did you know revitalizing nature is often the most economically efficient way to fight climate change? Improving our land use approaches (such as using regenerative agriculture practices), encouraging mangroves on shorelines, protecting peat and wetlands, and reforestation could absorb up to 30% of excess carbon by 2030. 

Tips for Taking Action

1. Talk about your climate change concerns with family and friends. The Nature Conservancy offers a how-to guide with 4 simple tips to get the conversation started. Check out and share the organization’s funny video, too!
2. Holiday travel is right around the corner. Why not offset the carbon you release while flying or driving? Learn more.
3. This fun and informative quiz tests your knowledge about what can be done to fight climate change. Take the quiz.

Notable Quote
“Climate change is by far the most formidable, catastrophic, and certain risk to our economic security and social stability.”  

Welcome to the First C-Change Conversations Newsletter!

My colleagues and I founded C-Change Conversations to educate and empower people to take action about one of the most critical issues of our time: climate change. You are on our mailing list because the topic interested you enough to attend our Primer presentation in your area or a talk by a noted expert we sponsored in Princeton, NJ on climate change impacts.

Starting today, we’ve decided to share—in the same clear, non-partisan approach we’ve always taken—what we think is relevant and thought-provoking climate change news. (Scroll down to find our selections.) The C-Change newsletter will help you stay current and provide useful tips for taking action. Our goal is to equip people who care about this issue with the information and tools to talk about it with family, friends, and even elected officials who can change policy for the good of us all.

When I was first learning about climate change and as my concern grew, I felt powerless because no matter how strong my facts and arguments were, my mostly conservative family, colleagues, and friends didn’t want to hear them, in part because the subject was socially uncomfortable, and in part because they believed the risks were being overhyped for political reasons. I felt powerless because moderates like me were not engaged on this topic, and I didn’t fit in with the liberal environmentalists who were. I felt powerless because the topic seemed too big for any individual to impact.

Fast forward to today. By the end of this year C-Change Conversations will have visited 28 states and presented the Primer to more than 7,000 people in local garden clubs, investment clubs, business clubs, country clubs, churches, libraries, schools, rotary clubs, regional planning associations, and in private homes. We’ve been on the national stage too, presenting at Garden Club of America and American Geophysical Union conferences. The initial team of four has grown to 14, and we are training new presenters around the country.

Other highlights include launching a promotional video about our work and appearing on She Roars. This podcast normally features alumnae and faculty of Princeton University, and I’m neither, so it was an honor and testament to our work to be interviewed on the show.

C-Change also has showcased 17 highly respected climate change experts from the business, military, legal, and scientific arenas. For example, in April we heard from Fred C. Rich, a noted author and former partner at the law firm of Sullivan and Cromwell, who deepened our understanding of how climate change became a partisan issue, manufactured and exploited by both sides, but now could be a bridge issue that brings us back together. He emphasized that peer to peer communication is the vital step in all of this, something we could not agree with more. You can watch his presentation here.

Our non-partisan message, that climate change is a human issue, not a political one, continues to resonate in every region of the country. Astonishingly, C-Change’s growth has been solely through word of mouth from supporters like you. Thank you for your belief in us and our mission.

Let’s keep the conversations going!
Kathleen Biggins, Founder

This Gives Us Hope
An Unusual, Bipartisan Rebuke
Former NewJersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman and three other former EPA heads from Republican and Democratic administrations recently joined forces to harshly criticize the agency’s failure to address the risks of climate change, among other concerns. Their testimony before a House subcommittee followed an April 2019 letter in which seven former EPA administrators of both parties wrote to Congress urging greater EPA oversight. Learn more.

A Moonshot for our Era
Invoking President Kennedy’s 1961 call to put a man on the moon within a decade, Michael Bloomberg, in a stirring speech to the 2019 MIT graduating class, announced his plan to address a similarly serious and complex challenge: climate change. “Beyond Carbon” is a $500 million national effort that will bolster state-level incentives and efforts to build a clean energy economy.

Did You Know?
Soggy Stuff
Experiencing flash floods, soggy lawns, and rain tempests? You probably are, now that climate change is supercharging the water cycle. The average precipitation has risen in 90% of states analyzed since 1950. In fact, the last 12 months have been the wettest on record. Learn more about how climate change is impacting rainfall nationwide and near you.

People for Paris
More than 3,700 organizations, from cities to universities to businesses, representing 155 million people across the country, have declared they will continue to support the Paris Agreement so that the U.S. will remain a global leader in reducing global emissions.

Tips for Taking Action
Talking is a powerful tool.
Recent research shows that conversation about climate change is critical to building consensus. Start talking about climate change:

• With policymakers
  Contact your elected officials here. Let them know that you think climate change is a threat to our health, economy, and national security.
• In your community
  Speak up at meetings of business and civic leaders, clubs you participate in, and wherever people gather.
• Among your family and friends
  This is how our organization got started, by like-minded friends talking about climate change and inviting others into the conversation.

Praise for the Primer
“The presentation blew me away–both in comprehensiveness of the facts and message, but also the way it is delivered with a passion and compassion that is stirring, resonating, and impactful but not far out for a skeptical conservative audience. These women have created, to my mind, one of the best, most persuasive presentations on climate change that I have seen and heard–it is the message and messenger both. Their work is revolutionary in concept and ambition.”

Joseph Stanislaw
International energy economist and co-author,
Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy