Dear Climate Friend,
Thank you to our many members who took action prior to the election, from meeting with candidates to helping people register to vote to casting your own ballot. Collectively, we helped get candidates elected at the national, state and local level who will take action on climate change. But as we well know, that is not enough!
Now it is time to let those in office know that action is urgently needed. This is particularly important at the state and local level, because that is where new policies can be implemented, their effectiveness demonstrated, and they can become models for other states and the nation as a whole. Our members in Florida, South Carolina and California are already experiencing the effects of climate breakdown. The recently released
IPCC report
and
Fourth National Climate Assessment
make it clear that, unaddressed, climate change will undermine our way of life even more broadly as early as the end of the coming decade. For the sake of those younger than us, for future generations and for ourselves as we become older and more vulnerable, we each must step up and take action in the coming year. There is momentum building across the country and your elder voice is an essential part of that. We welcome your greater involvement in ECA!
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For the our grandchildren, future generations and all life,
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Thank you to all those who made a contribution to ECA on #Giving Tuesday.
Your gifts totaled $3,649.44 and got close to our goal! Will you give to help us surpass the goal?
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But we have a bit more to go.
It’s nearing the end of the year and we are preparing for the year ahead. In order to achieve the climate action needed, on the tight timeline presented in the recent UN report, it will take all of us. We hope you will consider making a year end contribution to support Elders Climate Action, which will allow us to continue to build resources and opportunities for elders to get inspired, informed and engaged in supporting climate action on the local, state and national level in 2019.
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Did you know that Elders (those 55+ and over) are the least likely population to care about and take action on climate change? Yet,
elders are one of the most affected demographics of climate change. We are here to prove the data wrong and prove that Elders CARE about CLIMATE CHANGE!
Will you join us and take a stand on the climate crisis?
We are dedicated to proving that elders care and we are mobilizing to unify our voice, our vote and our choices to support climate action.
Building the political will towards climate action has mostly been left to the people. As the largest voting bloc in the United States we elders have the power to change the future for our grandchildren, future generations and all life.
Help us Reach our Goal of $5000 by December 31, 2018 to Jump Start ECA in 2019. Give now and support a legacy of change.
Consider a monthly gift and help support ECA’s efforts to build a movement of elders taking action on climate change throughout the year ahead.
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We made great strides in Climate Action in 2018!
Our Highlights from the Year
- ECA has grown to over 5200 members
- We currently have 5 chapters and began the process of forming 2 new ECA chapters in Tennessee and South Carolina.
- We presented a series of 4 webinars by nationally known speakers that were attended by more than 175 people and viewed on YouTube by more than 330 people
- We launched a new website
- We entered into collaborations with Environmental Voter Project and Dear Tomorrow
- ECA participated in Voter mobilization - the Massachusetts Chapter contacted over 141,000 known environmental voters to encourage them to vote.
- Elders signed the "Elders Vote for the Climate 2018" pledge in partnership with the Environmental Voter Project
- Elders wrote letters to their loved ones through the Dear Tomorrow project
- Elders wrote letters to Members of Congress and Local and State Representatives
- ECA initiated monthly Climate Tea and Talk events so members could engage in casual climate discussions as well as continued the ECA Monthly National Call with a variety of guest speakers
- ECA received a $4,000 outreach grant to support our mission
- We launched a Candidates Pledge Climate Action Campaign in 2018 with 71 candidates for office signing the Pledge
- The first ever member of the national leadership team of ECA ran for state office in Arizona
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2018 Election – ECA gets out the vote
Submitted by Paul Dryfoos
ECA Mass organized a partnership with the Environmental Voter Project (EVP) to encourage voter participation among strong environmentalists in five swing states – Florida, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Georgia. Over the course of seven weeks leading up to the election, the ECA team of 54 volunteers contacted over 100,000 Florida voters, and over 130,000 voters overall. The ECA team focused primarily on Florida because it is a key swing state where environmental protection is a top priority among voters. Our goal was to encourage voter turnout and get them to pledge to vote in all future elections.
We did this as part of a national campaign organized by EVP that has accrued three million voter contacts in the past year. We are not aware of any other outreach effort targeting environmental voters at anywhere near this scale.
Sincere thanks to everyone who joined the ECA GOTV team and thanks to EVP for their pioneering work in environmental voter identification and outreach.
We are just beginning to build a strong pro-climate, pro-environment voting bloc in this nation. Both ECA and the EVP are committed to this goal, and we had a pretty good dry run in 2018. Today is the day that we start building the environmental voter bloc for yet another "most important election of our lifetimes" in 2020. Stay tuned.
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Tell us what you have been doing for climate action. Send a 150 word (max) summary of what you've been doing and we'll share it in a future newsletter. Send to
info@eldersclimateaction.org
.
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Now is the Time...There's Hope For Climate Action
We Must Keep the Pressure On!
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We made strides for taking action on climate change in the 2018 election! The Green Wave has begun.
There are a number of reasons for us to be optimistic about the results of the election. The number of climate allies in seats of power offers hope that climate action is possible.
Here is the Election Score Card for the Climate:
- Pick up of 7 new governors who support climate legislation in states that were not previously part of the Climate Alliance
- Took seats from a number of climate deniers in the House of Representatives, replaced with representatives who support climate legislation.
- We elected 10 new scientists to Congress, including an ocean expert, a nurse, and a biochemist (one senator and nine members of the House)
- A record number of women were elected, at least 123, including the first Muslim women, the first Somali-American, and the first Native American women.
- Discussions of Green New Deal are forefront
- Changes in local legislation in a number of states
- More voters are indicating climate change in their top two priorities
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Books for your Grandchildren
As the holidays near we thought you might like a little help finding great gift ideas for your grandchildren. Give a gift that starts a climate conversation in your own family.
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Welcome to ECA's
Two New Chapters in Formation
We are pleased to extend a warm welcome to the
Tennessee Chapter and
South Carolina Chapter!
We look forward to helping your chapters grow and seeing the many actions you will take!
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If you would like to join either of these chapters, find out more about starting an ECA chapter or connect with a chapter in your area, visit our website
Chapter Directory Page
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Help Us Spread the Word About ECA!
Download and Share ECA Social Media Graphics.
Share on your Facebook or Twitter page! Email to friends and family and include a message.
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Share Your Story at The UN Climate Summit - COP24 in Poland, Dec 3 - 14th
Your Story is needed ASAP!
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The Paris Agreement was signed in 2015 by nearly all countries on the planet to address global climate change, and to keep us below 1.5 degrees celsius of warming. This year countries reevaluate their commitments, known as Nationally Determined Contributions, to close the emissions gap in order to stay below this threshold. We want our negotiators to be inspired to take drastic action and to be courageous in the work they do at the UN Climate Negotiations in Poland this year, and that is why we need you!
Write a letter telling your story about how you are impacted by climate change and that
you're an elder who cares
, and sign off with the #climatesign
.
Your letter will be read out loud at the climate negotiations, as well as hand delivered to your country's negotiator during the UN Climate Summit in Poland.
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ECA Director of Operations, Jen Chandler shows her climate sign
Join Elders Climate Action and #Sign4Change!
We encourage you to post your letters and photos on your own social media as well to start the conversation in your own community.
The
Climate Sign
is an image and a hand sign similar to the peace sign that you can use to unite for climate action. A coalition of organizations and individuals have supported the use of the Climate Sign around the world.
Let's Add the Voice of the Elders!
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Use our simple online template to send a letter to Members of Congress to urge their immediate action on climate change. Add your info, personalize the message, and hit send. It's that easy
!
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If you are unable to attend the National Call, RSVP and we'll send you the recording.
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Join our
December National Call
on a Special Date and Time
DECEMBER 11
6:00 PM (ET) | 3:00 PM (PT)
We will not have Climate Tea & Talk in December, rather will have a National Call with Special Guest Galen Tromble and set our intentions for climate action in 2019!
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Elders Climate Action, a project of Elders Action Network
www.eldersclimateaction.org | info@eldersclimateaction.org
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