“We may not know what lies ahead, but it’s only human to search for it.” – Chevron This is the concluding sentence from a recent Chevron ad I saw. Seems innocuous. It’s lofty and inspirational and would likely slip past, except it raised my “cow waste” detector. Not many [...]
I was in the great Southwest in April. I drove north up 84 toward Las Vegas, New Mexico glad to finally have a 40 mph tailwind. Halfway there, I ran into a tumbleweed storm. Hundreds of dusty rolling aliens flying across the road like some herd of strange frightened [...]
What is the Reconciliation bill, what’s in it, and can we afford it? Once again, the Left and climate champions missed the messaging on the “$3.5T Reconciliation Bill,” and it may be DOA, primarily because of 3 mistakes. The Right didn’t have to spend much effort to do this, [...]
Part V When I became a climate activist, I believed that there must be some phrase or a set of magic words that would get others to see the climate threat and act. Searching for these words was a fool’s errand. I knew words held power. But I was [...]
Part IV I’d like to tell you a story… I called my daughter and said, “Your son is home from the ER now, and he is going to be OK.” Imagine that you are driving in Atlanta rush hour traffic. In the middle lane. Your eight-year-old grandson is in [...]
(originally published July 2020) Part III I am giving testimony to an administrative law judge on the impact of climate change on Minnesota crops, and why we shouldn’t allow a dirty tar sands pipeline to be built in our state. There are three hundred people in the room. To [...]
Part II One day a friend of mine was helping me refine my climate talks approach. He asked me why I was interested in working in the climate movement. It’s easy I said, “I want to help others.” Then he did something very valuable for me. He asked me [...]
Part I I am frustrated. Walking out of my talk on the climate crisis, I know that I have failed. I’d prepared, rehearsed and had lots of facts about climate. The audience was polite, but at the end, their applause was tepid. While they likely care, they are unlikely [...]
I received an email from the New Yorker on a post by Bill McKibben. The subject line was “Big Oil’s Bad Day.” McKibben is the founder of 350.org of which I am an active member. He probably didn’t write the email subject line, but whoever did, fell into a [...]
I spend a lot of time around climate activists helping them with climate communications. Like most of us, their perceptions of where others are in their climate journey are based on where they are themselves. This is a common human characteristic. But if we want to move people to [...]
