FALL 2020 Online Event – An evening with Dr. Renee Lertzman #WinterRendezvous

On Monday, November 23, psychologist Dr. Renée Lertzman helped us all achieve new heights in our activism. She has spent years straddling environmental work and psychology.

Singer-song writer Angie Nussey opened the event with a special song that called on us to have heart accountability.

Together we embarked on a journey of learning how being in tune with our own emotions and the emotions of others around us with regards to the issue of the climate crisis can be harnessed to make us all better human beings and climate activists.

 

Winter Rendezvous: Angie Nussey followed by Dr. Renee Lertzman

Outline of the November 23 event

AGENDA 
Begins 4:00 pm PT / 7:00 pm ET SHARP
  • Welcome AND Land Acknowledgements*
  • First 15 minutes. One song from Angie Nussey with a story to contextualize the choice of song
  • The workshop with Dr. Lertzmann.
  • Last 15 minutes. Closing comments. Answer any questions on next steps for lobbying.
*Note registrants will be asked to put their name, their city, CCL chapter and if they know it, the traditional or treaty territory they are joining from in the Zoom chatbox. If you don’t know the traditional or treaty territory you are joining from here is a map as a place to start.
Our overarching goal:  To enable and support CCL’ers in managing the high stakes experiences of engaging diverse and multiple stakeholders on climate, and learn tools/frameworks for helping us stay sustainable and balanced.

 

 

About Dr. Renée Lertzman

About Dr. Renée Lertzman

Having pioneered the bridging of psychological research and sustainability for more 20 years, Dr. Renée Lertzman gracefully marries the worlds of academia and practice. She does this by translating complex psychological and social science research insights into clear, applied and profound tools for organizations around the world seeking to engage, mobilize and connect with diverse populations, communities and individuals. Her unique and integrated approach brings together the best of the behavioral sciences, social sciences and innovative design sciences to create a powerful approach to engagement and social change.

Renée is an internationally recognized thought leader and adviser, and works with organizations, professionals, and practitioners from government, business, philanthropic, and non-governmental sectors to design research tools, brand strategy, trainings, workshops, engagement practices, and strategies suited for the uniquely challenging nature of environmental work.

Renée also is regularly commissioned to teach, present and produce research for a range of institutions, including WORLD WILDLIFE FUND, the White House Social and Behavioral Sciences Team (SBST), National Center for Atmospheric Research, NOAA, Climate Solutions, Sustainable Path Foundation, Columbia University, Portland State University, Center for Sustainable Energy, SKOLL GLOBAL THREATS FUND, Radboud University (NL), LANZHOU UNIVERSITY (China), ROYAL ROADS UNIVERSITY (British Columbia), Oxford University’s UK Energy Research Centre, and the University College London’s Climate Sciences Communications Policy Commission.

Also an experienced journalist, since publishing her first interview in 1997 with Ira Glass in The Sun Magazine (and numerous others as a prolific interviewer), she has written extensively about how intersections of psychology, environment, and culture illuminate change work. Her writings have appeared in a diverse set of publications including The Sun Magazine, Pacific Standard, Orion Magazine, The Ecologist, Climate Access, DeSmog Blog, Sustainable Brands, and Sightline.

Renée’s work has been featured in The Guardian, THE NEW YORK TIMES, Time, Washington Post, the Hollywood Reporter, Vice, DeSmog Blog, Grist.org, Huffington Post, The Correspondent (NL), Down to Earth (NL), ClimateAccess, Warm Regards (podcast), Cambridge TV (UK), Climate One at the Commonwealth Club, Climate Confidential, Oregon Public Radio, and the BBC.

Renée received her MA in Environmental Communications from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and her PhD from the Cardiff School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University, UK. She developed and taught the first course on the Psychology of Environmental Education and Communications for the MA program at Royal Roads University from 2011-2016, and has supervised over a dozen graduate students. She has also designed and taught courses on the psychology of climate change and environment since 2001, and has convened symposiums internationally since 2003. Following a post-doctoral position as senior researcher at Portland State University in 2011, she has been a full-time applied researcher and advisor. She is a founding member of the Climate Psychology Alliance. Renée’s first book, Environmental Melancholia: Psychoanalytic Dimensions of Engagement, was published by Routledge in 2015; a trade book will follow. She is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Registration

Registration is free but required. Please go here.  Registration closes midnight Sunday, November 22, 2020.
Karelo is handling the registrations again. Billing on your credit card will show up as Karelo, not Citizens’ Climate Lobby.
Registration for the November 23 is free. Donations are greatly appreciated as we have not had a fundraising drive since November 2018.

DONATIONS:
Any donations at this time would be greatly appreciated because we have not had a fundraising drive since November 2018 and canceled our March 2020 fundraising drive for obvious reasons. Donations will give us more time to focus on building political will for carbon pricing during this very critical time in history. We rely on donations to pay for conferences, legal fees, and online expenses.

Post-COVID we will again resume in-person conferences. However, in-person conference fees have only covered less than a quarter of the cost of our national conferences. Financial contributions have also allowed us over the years to reduce or waive fees for people who would otherwise not be able to attend and also provide communal meals for our volunteers so they can eat together while lobby planning.

Lobbying Resources

We just completed a series of lobby training sessions and can do a couple more in late November / early December.
If you are interested in being trained by us please sign up here by Tuesday, November 24, 2020.

KEY RESOURCES WILL BE UPDATED FOR THIS event by mid-November

LOBBYING POST EVENT will be distributed over the months of November, December, and January only if our volunteers feel that they have the bandwidth for it. 

Note you are to only lobby your own Parliamentarians.

If you want to lobby a Senator, please connect with us on the monthly calls or email canada@citizensclimatelobby.org.

Do you want to lobby with us and get notifications of helpful video conference calls? To get on our mailing list email canada@citizensclimatelobby.org.

Important Deadlines

Registration for this event is free but required. Please go here.  Registration closes midnight Sunday, November 22, 2020.

Do you want to lobby with us.? We just completed a series of lobby training sessions and are now planning a couple more training sessions in late November / early December. If you are interested in joining us please sign up here by Tuesday, November 24, 2020.

 

Never Lobbied Before?

Stay tuned, we are going to schedule at least one lobby Canadian Climate Advocate Training session in December.


NEVER LOBBIED BEFORE?

Don’t worry, we have been lobbying for lobbying since September 2010 in Canada.

To help our volunteers who want to lobby, we are conducting two lobby training sessions in November. If you wish to be part of those events, please sign up here by Thursday, October 22, 2020. Thereafter we will send out a schedule doodler and then announce the dates of the two training sessions. 

Canada is one of the top-ranked democracies in the world. We must be the change agents and catalyze the transformation of the world.

Online, you are going to be hanging out with some of the most interesting and talented climate volunteers on the planet and we like to have fun. Getting out of our comfort zone is our modus operandi.

Most of our MPs will be relieved to know that there is someone in her/his riding that supports a national and rising price on carbon pollution.

We have one over-arching rule: treat politicians with respect and admiration for their service.

Here are the key strategies we use.

tenways

About Citizens' Climate Lobby Canada

ABOUT CITIZENS CLIMATE LOBBY CANADA – to be updated

Citizens’ Climate Lobby is a non-profit, nonpartisan, grassroots advocacy organization focused on harmonizing Canada’s carbon pricing policies nationally. Our consistently respectful, nonpartisan approach to climate education is designed to create a broad, sustainable foundation for carbon pricing not just in Canada but in 60 CCL countries globally and across all political inclinations.

Since its inception in September 2010, CCL Canada has lobbied relentlessly for Canada to adopt Carbon Fee and Dividend as our national carbon pricing policy. Spanning almost 10 years, we have recorded over 1000 meetings with parliamentarians and appeared over three thousand on the editorial pages of Canadian newspapers.

On October 13,  2018, Citizens Climate Lobby was on Parliament Hill for the 13th time.

Thirteenth time lucky is what the foray onto Parliament Hill will be remembered as. While on the hill, there were indications that Carbon Fee and Dividend was going to be announced as the official backstop policy for pricing carbon pollution in Canada.  Additionally, at that time the senator for Edmonton, AB Senator Grant Mitchell said:

“You are one of the most successful lobbying groups I have worked with because you are about to get what you lobbied for.”

Subsequently, three MPs and an Environment Minister in a Canada province have confirmed that CCL’s relentless focus was helpful in Canada’s carbon pricing policy.

Our work is far from over, in fact it feel like we have only just begun. As all seasoned environmental and social justice advocates know, gains made must then be defended.  As well, given that Canada’s current carbon pricing policy needs a lot of improvements, that we have a minority government, and that we are in a global emergency, CCL Canada is doubling down on our efforts to build political will for effective carbon pricing nationally. We will be using an updated version of the Canadian Carbon Pricing Guidelines document to guide us.

We are action-oriented, highly focused and we are not guessing.  Most of all we like to have fun. In less than 10 hours a month, guided by our core values, especially our super power, focus, our volunteers are continuing to create the political will for nationally harmonized carbon pricing policy in Canada.

MORE ABOUT US
At Citizens’ Climate Lobby, we’re committed to building the political will for a liveable world. As empowered citizens, we talk with neighbors, friends, and local officials about how national climate action can help ensure a healthy future while strengthening the Canadian economy.

FullSizeRenderOur volunteers include high school students and concerned grandparents,  health care workers and many other walks of life. Some are Ph.D.’s who have spent careers researching the intricacies of climate change; others are concerned citizens who just want to know how to help. Whatever our backgrounds, we’re all united by a commitment to making our voices heard as we call for a healthy climate future.

CCL is a non-partisan international organization of almost 200,000 supporters in 58 countries including 37 active chapters in Canada. Members of CCL’s International’s advisory board include: George P. Shultz, former US secretary of state; Dr. James Hansen, retired Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies; Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, Canadian Climate Scientist at Texas Tech University; and others.

CCL believes politicians don’t create political will, they respond to it.

CCL believes citizens who are well trained, organized by ridings and with a good system of support can influence the political process.

Guided be our core values, our volunteers are helping Canada lead the fight to avert global climate breakdown, and they want to help politicians achieve this noble goal.

We are winning and going to win because of our incredible volunteers. They are truly some of the best volunteers on the planet.

Canadian Civics 101

CANADIAN CIVICS 101

For the benefit of our American Guests

OVERVIEW: The USA is a democratic republic whereas Canada is a constitutional monarchy. The President is the elected head of state in the USA. Queen Elizabeth II is our head of state and she is represented in Canada by our Governor General, Julie Payette, a former NASA astronaut. Our head of state is also called “the Crown”. Canada has a bicameral system, just like the USA, with lower and upper houses.

EXECUTIVE BRANCH: In Canada, the political party with the most seats in the House of Commons forms the government and the leader of that party becomes the Prime Minister (PM). The executive branch of the Canadian government is led by the PM and he/she appoints senior Members of Parliament to the executive in a cabinet adhering to the principle of cabinet collective responsibility. The Privy Council is the non-partisan, public service support to the PM and Cabinet and its decision-making structures.

HOUSE OF COMMMONS: Our lower house is called the House of Commons and it is the Canadian equivalent of the US House of Representatives. Our federal representatives are elected in electoral districts which we call ridings. We have 338 electoral districts for 35 million people.  Our federal representatives are called Members of Parliament or MPs. Until 2009, governments could call an election at any time within five years of being elected. Since 2009, we have legislated set election dates every four years, unless there is a non-confidence vote in the House of Commons which defeats the government and forces an election. This usually happens when we have minority governments.

MINORITY GOVERNMENTS A minority government happens when the ruling party does not have a majority of the seats in Parliament. Currently, we again have a minority government under the Right Honourable Justin Trudeau (and yes, we add “u’s” to a lot of words up here).

These recent governments were all minority governments as well: 2004-2006, 2006-2008 and 2008-2011. Canada is predisposed to minority governments because we have three major political parties and compared to the USA, a significant Green Party which garners about 5% of the popular vote and a regional party: the Bloc Québécois which currently holds 32 seats with all of the seats in Quebec. Like in the USA and Britain, Canadian MPs are among the last representatives elected using a first-past-the-post ballot which many Canadians hope will change to some form of proportional representation.

THE CANADIAN SENATE: The Canadian Senate, unlike in the USA, is not elected. It is an appointed senate. Most senators hold their seat until the mandatory age of retirement. There are three types of senators in Canada: Independents, Liberals and Conservatives. Currently, Independents and Liberals combined in the Senate are in a majority. The Canadian senate is undergoing a reformation currently. The Senate is divided equally amongst four geographic regions: 24 for Ontario, 24 for Quebec, 24 for the Maritimes (10 for Nova Scotia, 10 for New Brunswick, and four for Prince Edward Island), and 24 for the Western provinces (six each for Manitoba, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Alberta). Newfoundland and Labrador, which became a Canadian province in 1949, is represented by six senators. Further, Canada’s three territories—the Northwest Territories, Yukon, and Nunavut—are allocated one senator each. An additional four or eight senators may be temporarily appointed by the governor general, provided the approval of the Queen is secured, and the four divisions are equally represented, thus putting the maximum possible number of senators at 113.

THE DOMINATE BRANCH: The House of Commons is the dominant branch of parliament with the Senate and the Crown rarely opposing its will. The Senate is meant to take a second sober look at bills before they pass into law. The Senate reviews legislation from a less partisan standpoint and the Governor General provides the necessary Royal Assent to make bills into law.

POWERS OF A MAJORITY GOVERNMENT:
The Canadian Prime Minister in a majority government has powers that a US president could only dream of because she/he has complete control over the executive and the House of Commons for four years (we don’t have mid-term elections in Canada) and they are rarely opposed by the senate or the Governor General. Canada had a majority government from 2016-2020.

 

Zoom Instructions

Registrants, please look in your emails for login details.

Search for “Winter Rendezvous” WinterRendezVous Conference Booklet (pdf)

ZOOM CONFERENCING TIPS 

  • Download Zoom onto your laptop, iPad, or computer beforehand. You can also download this app on your smartphone.
  • Click on this link to download: https://zoom.us/download
  • Sign in 5 minutes early.
  • If you are not able to join over the internet for whatever reason, you can join by phone. A phone number and password will be provided and you can join in via audio-only.
  • To improve audio/video quality, close all applications and other browser windows.
  • At this time, many network providers are seeing massive increases in residential bandwidth use during the day, and many users are being throttled. If participants are experiencing lagging or skipping, suggest that they use their computer to access video, while simultaneously dialing in by phone for the audio.
  • If you have problems connecting, please contact Zoom’s 24/7 support at 888-799-9666.
 
TO JOIN THE MEETING
1. Click on this link on your browser. https://zoom.us/
2. When it opens click on the JOIN MEETING icon
3. Input meeting ID: Look in your emails from us. Search for #SpringRendezvous
4. Then join the meeting.

 

CAN’T FIND LOGIN DETAILS TODAY?
Search your emails using #Springrendezvous – all one word and use Hashtag.

 

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A membership decision

How we came to this decision:

We polled the membership and to balance the needs of about half of the group who are swamped with extra responsibilities during COVID, we have determined to do some personal work individually to help us all become better climate activists. The time commitment is doable, and there is a lobbying component that is separate and optional.

Previous Canadian Climate Advocate Training