Climate Parents
– Artist’s Website –
The climate movement built incredible momentum in 2015! Our collective actions led to the final rejection by President of Obama of the Keystone-XL pipeline, the halt of drilling in the Arctic, an international climate agreement in Paris, the adoption of the Clean Power Plan, and the unprecedented expansion of clean energy. Climate Parents members were involved in supporting each of these efforts—and we continue to be inspired by the positive impact parents and grandparents are making in the push for climate solutions.
We’re writing to share some of the highlights of our year and to ask for your support in 2016. Here are just a few things Climate Parents accomplished:
1. We mobilized thousands of parents and families to support the Clean Power Plan, which cuts climate pollution from power plants for the first time. We organized press conferences, led petition drives and placed Op-Eds–authored by our members–in key newspapers around the country.
Even though the plan was adopted, it continues be challenged by the fossil fuel industry and its allies in Congress. Last month, we organized an event where Illinois Congresswoman and new mom Tammy Duckworth urged Republican Senator Mark Kirk to oppose pending legislation to repeal the Clean Power Plan. Our efforts and those of our allies paid off. The next day, he broke with his party and voted to keep the rule in place.
IL Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth, with Climate Parents Director Lisa Hoyos and key allies, calling on IL Senator Mark Kirk to defend the Clean Power Plan
2. We leveraged strategic opportunities to frame climate change as a parent and family issue with presidential candidates and the mainstream media. During a key week in October when we knew the presidential candidates from both parties would be in Des Moines, Iowa for separate flagship events, we held a press conference to unveil a billboard–on the main thoroughfare from the airport to downtown–calling on presidential candidates to champion clean energy. Our event featured Iowa celebrity Tim Dwight, a former NFL player turned solar entrepreneur, parent leaders, and local students. The event was covered on all three TV network affiliates and statewide radio.
Ellie Filippone and her mom, Climate Parents member Maria Filippone, unveil “clean energy=healthy kids” billboard aimed at visiting presidential candidates
3. Climate Parents played a leading role in launching a new international coalition of fifteen different parent and family organizations from eight countries called “Our Kids’ Climate.” The goal of this coalition is to engage millions of parents around the world to advocate for 100% clean energy. Our Kids’ Climate launched a global petition calling on world leaders to negotiate a bold agreement to protect the world’s children and delivered it to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at a Paris press conference, alongside allied organizations with similar petitions.
Climate Parents rallied for bold international climate action in Paris
4. We ran successful campaigns to expand statewide climate science education in multiple states. We countered politicians and activists seeking to block the comprehensive K-12 Next Generation Science Standards simply because they contain climate science. We began the year in West Virginia, where we led a successful campaign (covered in the New York Times) to remove inaccurate climate standards that had been inserted by a climate denier on the state board of education. We went on to mobilize parents, teachers and students to overcome anti-climate science forces, and win adoption of climate science standards in Iowa, South Dakota, Michigan and Utah.
LOOKING FORWARD!
In 2016 we will mobilize thousands more parents and grandparents in support of climate movement priorities, including campaigns to keep fossil fuels in the ground, and create a viable pathway for 100% clean energy.
Contributions from our supporters go a long way toward helping us achieve our goals, and if you can help out with a donation of any size, we promise to put it to good use.
We are thankful to have the opportunity to help build a vibrant parent and family movement for climate action, and proud of what we have been able to accomplish together. We know that we have a lot of work ahead of us, and we look forward to moving it forward with you.
Happy New Year!