March 2024 Quarterly Newsletter

Dear Friends,

What a terrific first quarter of our 10th anniversary year! We’ve presented to live audiences on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, and in Greenville, SC, and to virtual gatherings through Zoom talks, engaging hundreds in conversations about climate change and action. It’s shaping up to be a hot year – for both C-Change and our planet.
 
And while increasing temperatures are no joke, we also know that laughter has the power to bring us together – and isn’t that the very heart of what we’re trying to do at C-Change? To that end, we are very much looking forward to a night of levity and celebration with comedian Eric Lyden at our 10th Anniversary Benefit in April (details below).
 
We hope to see many of you there, and we’re looking forward to catching up with many more of you when we return to continue the conversation in your communities. We are working hard to help people understand that we all need to work together to change our trajectory – and that’s the kind of heat we are happy to bring to the table!
 
Sincerely,
Kathleen Biggins
President and Founder
C-Change Conversations

10th Anniversary Benefit with Comedian Eric Lyden

Join us on April 26th as we celebrate 10 years of climate education and action with a night of comedy at the Hun School’s Breen Performing Arts Center in Princeton, NJ. The evening will feature a light buffet d’oeuvres, cocktails, and lots of laughs.
 
For more details and to purchase tickets, please click here.

New Friends and Forums in Greenville, SC

On January 17, Kathleen presented to more than 300 people in Greenville, SC, during
C-Change’s first visit to the city. Her first stop was a Primer presentation to the Carolina Foothills Garden Club and the Dorothy Haynesworth Garden Club. That was followed by a Health Primer presentation for faculty, staff, students, and the public at the Shi Institute for Sustainable Communities at Furman University.
 
This visit was coordinated with help from both the Athens and Columbia C-Change affiliates, and members of those chapters joined Kathleen in Greenville. We are so grateful for their unflagging motivation and action, and we hope to return to Greenville in the future.

COP28 Recap Presentations via Zoom

C-Change continues to broaden the impact of the COP28 Climate Summit in Dubai by speaking with new audiences about the conference and its takeaways. It was an honor for us to attend this critically important summit, which hosted about 85,000 people from around the world – the largest COP attendance to date – and to be there in person to witness many “firsts,” including:

• A day devoted to climate health, recognizing that health impacts are the “face of climate” and the primary way we experience climate personally. Importantly, participating nations pledged funding to strengthen and prepare health care systems around the world.
• A day that focused on how climate change affects women. Women are often impacted more dramatically because they tend to be less affluent and they bear children – premature births and maternal deaths both increase with higher temperatures. In many developing countries, women are farmers, and their knowledge is critical for finding strategies to adapt to the new climate norms.
• Lastly, and clearly the most important, the first official acknowledgement that we have to “transition away” from all fossil fuels. While many hoped for stronger language, this agreement was unthinkable just a few years ago, and shows how much world opinion has changed. This consensus recognizes that while moving off of fossil fuels comes with real economic penalties for many countries (including the United States, which is the world’s largest oil and gas producer), we have to act collectively to do it anyway or we will face even larger economic costs from climate change consequences. It also recognizes that emissions anywhere can harm humans everywhere, and underscores that this is a collective problem. 

On January 30, Kathleen Biggins hosted a Zoom COP28 Recap to an engaged audience of about 60 people.
 
On March 12, Kathleen also shared the COP28 Recap with 23 representatives from Oncology Advocates United for Climate & Health (OUCH). OUCH is the only international volunteer organization dedicated to raising awareness of the impact climate change has on cancer incidence, treatment, and outcomes.
 
If you were unable to attend a Zoom COP28 presentation, you can watch the recording here.

C-Change Presents on the Hill in Washington, DC

Kathleen was thrilled to be featured in a high-powered lineup of speakers at the Garden Club of America’s National Affairs & Legislation Conference on March 19 in Washington, DC in the Cannon House Office Building. In honor of our 10th anniversary, we developed a new Primer showcasing “C-changes” from the last decade that give us hope that we can meet the climate change challenges ahead. Other speakers included Republican and Democratic legislators, including Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Edward Markey (D-MA), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (D-MI), and Congressman Garrett Graves (R-LA). Approximately 400 GCA delegates from around the country attended, and there was great excitement about our non-partisan, scientifically-based outreach.
 
Carrie Dyckman, Nancy Ylvisaker, and Athens affiliate member Ramsey Nix also attended and were recognized for their C-Change Conversations contributions. A red letter day for C-Change!

C-Change Conversations Athens (GA) Update

The Athens team has been branching out and connecting with other local climate activists to generate positive change in their community.
 
C-Change member Ramsey Nix has been appointed as co-chair of the newly established Sustainability Advisory Committee for the Clarke County School District. The Board of Education assembled stakeholders that represent district staff, the Athens-Clarke County government, the University of Georgia, parents, and students to envision how the district might increase health and safety, equity, and career readiness related to climate resilience and sustainability. The committee also will identify federal and state grants and explore cost-sharing opportunities.
 
C-Change Athens members Sally Coenen, Helen Kuykendall, and Lili Ouzts have participated in a study group committed to understanding and advocating for the Athens-Clarke Clean and Renewable Energy Plan. The group met with a county commissioner and the county sustainability manager to discuss measures to support and implement the plan recommendations.
 
On May 22, Emmy award-winning ecologist James Porter will share the C-Change mission and approach during a presentation sponsored by the Athens Area Community Foundation. Kathleen Biggins will introduce Porter via video before his lecture on “The Past, Present, and Future of Coral Reefs” in the University of Georgia Richard B. Russell Special Collections Library, where his extensive collections of coral and antiquarian coral books will be on display through July.

Featured Team Member: Nancy Ylvisaker

Let us introduce you to Nancy Ylvisaker, whom Kathleen nicknamed “Empress of the Outer Lands” for taking on the challenging task of facilitating the growth of C-Change beyond our headquarters in Princeton. As such, she helped find and train new speakers and develop the framework for our affiliate chapters. She was part of our executive team for many years and has traveled the country to present our primers.
 
Nancy is an excellent writer and an important contributor to our Primers and other materials. She recently wrote a deep-dive analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of carbon markets that we are thrilled to have on the website.
 
Nancy has extensive business experience as an investment banker at J.P. Morgan. She was the president of community development subsidiaries at both J.P. Morgan and Merrill Lynch. She was a two-time board chair for the Nature Conservancy in Missouri, and has served on the boards of the Center for Plant Conservation and the Missouri Botanical Garden Conservation Mission Council. She is a graduate of Brown University and Yale School of Management and recently completed a graduate program in deploying clean energy at the Yale Center for Business and the Environment.
 
As you can tell, she is one talented and engaged person – and we are thrilled to have her as part of our team!
 
Q: Why am I involved with C-Change?
I think climate change and biodiversity loss are the largest crises facing our generation. Non-biased community education is critical in helping people understand issues and support change. C-Change provides this independent, science-based education on climate issues better than any other organization I am familiar with.
 
I also love studying complex issues, and climate change is at the intersection of so many – science and technology, nature, public policy, and our culture and how we live. It is a wonderful way to understand our world, and how we as human beings make decisions – and can make a difference.
 
Q: What have I learned about climate change that makes me hopeful?
Two things make me hopeful. First, the dynamism and creativity of innovators creating technological solutions that will supplant fossil fuels – from solar, wind, batteries, efficiency. The pace of transformation in the energy sector seems astounding, and these technologies are now profitable and creating huge opportunities to make a better world – and to grow our economy in a meaningful way.
 
The second thing giving me hope is the passion, kindness, and intelligence of our younger generation. They see with clear eyes – without the calcified lens of self interest – what we are doing to our environment, and why change is imperative. Or maybe I should say they see their true self interest – a healthy environment that will sustain them and their families in the future.

Reducing Our Own Footprints: Tips and Advice

C-Change turns the hot-button issue of climate change into a discussion in which all participants feel comfortable and educated. But we know it’s not always easy to do the same when discussing the climate at home, in school, or at the office.
 
Yale Climate Connections has put together a guide to help you have a non-confrontational, productive climate conversation with family and friends. Here are some tips:

• Educate yourself as much as possible
• Recognize other people’s values and meet people where they are
• Talk about specific actions that someone might take
• Share your own climate actions and stories of your own experiences
• Don’t focus on doom and gloom
• Avoid scientific jargon
• Ask open-ended questions
• Stay positive

For more detailed advice, you can read the full Yale guide here. You also can check out the interactive conversation map that can support you in your own talks about climate change.

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