SEND THE MESSAGE
CLIMATE MUST BE
PRIORITY ONE IN 2021!
SEND A LETTER TO JOE BIDEN:
We were all overjoyed when President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were recently inaugurated. Take a moment to bask in the fact that we now have a climate champion at the helm of our executive branch.
Ok, you had your moment to bask, now it's time to get to work to ensure that Joe and company keep climate action at the top of their agenda. We know he has the best of intentions, but there are many distractions and there are many vested, powerful interests that are laser focussed on ensuring that he is unsuccessful in his efforts to implement the transition to clean energy.
That's where you come in. Please send a letter to Joe Biden urging him to keep climate action at the top of his agenda. The letter below is just a starting point. The best kind of letter is hand written and brings in reasons that climate change effects you personally. The more personal your letter is, the more likely it is that the interns that open and read all of Joe's constituent letters will pass your letter on to Joe to read.
That said, all letters are counted and categorized. And that's important. The more letters Joe gets that ask him to keep action on climate change at the top of his priority list, the more likely it is that he will do just that.
Month/Day/Year
Your Name
Your Address
President Joe Biden
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Biden,
I am writing to express my hope that despite the pandemic, an economic crisis, systemic racism and a broken immigration system, that you maintain laser like focus on solving the climate crisis. Your appointments so far have been very encouraging, as well as your day-one executive orders.
[ YOU COULD INSERT PARTICULAR EXAMPLES OF APPOINTMENTS YOU LIKED OR EXECUTIVE ORDERS YOU LIKED].
[ INSERT YOUR PERSONAL REASON FOR WHY ADDRESSING CLIMATE CHANGE IS IMPORTANT TO YOU]
And that is why I am writing to you to urge you to keep action on climate at the top of your to do list. I also encourage you to work closely with Congress to enact bipartisan climate legislation. With the current balance of power in Congress, bipartisanship is the only approach that will yield results.
Our country just squandered the last four years in the fight against climate change. We may only have two years before one house of Congress changes hands. So you must act quickly to take advantage of this once in a generation opportunity to set the transition to clean energy on an unstoppable path.
Sincerely,
Your Signature
Your Name
Please consider hand writing this letter. If its good enough Joe may just get a chance to read it!
Mail the letter to:
President Joe Biden
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
When the letter is in the mail, please let us know so we can keep track of how many have been sent.
CALL CONGRESS:
Click here to get the phone numbers of your two Senators and your Member of Congress.
Phone script for Democrats or moderate Republicans:
Hi,
My name is Your Name. I'm a constituent of Name Of Senator/Member of Congress. I live in Your Town. I am calling to let Name Of Senator/Member of Congress know that I feel strongly that the first priority of Congress in 2021 should be to transition our country to clean, renewable energy. This transition will put the millions of people who have lost their jobs due to the pandemic to work thereby helping to simultaneously solve the two great crises of our time: the economic fallout from the pandemic and climate change.
Please also consider reaching across the aisle to work on bipartisan climate solutions.
Thank you for your time.
When you have made the three calls, please let us know so we can track how many calls have been made.
WRITE A LETTER TO THE EDITOR:
Please consider sending your local paper a Letter to the Editor (LTE). This is a great way to spread the word in your local community. LTE's are typically very short: 150-200 words.
The best bet is to write about something that was on the front page of the previous edition of that paper. That will be your hook. Then tie it into the need to prioritize a transition to clean energy and putting our country back to work.
The following is just an example to get your juices flowing.
Build Back Cleaner
Dear Editor,
So far 2021 has been anything but a smooth ride, but there is some reason for hope that the multiple crises that our country faces will be dealt with. We have a new administration at the helm that will listen to experts, including scientists and policy makers. We have a Democratically controlled Congress that is excited to work with an Executive branch that has one of their own at the helm.
I am writing to urge all your readers to join the army of citizens that are demanding that our elected officials take this once in a generation opportunity to rebuild our economy and at the same time address the climate crisis. Now is not the time to prop up old industries that continue to pump gasses into the atmosphere that continue to make an already bad situation even worse. Now is the time to stimulate our economy by supporting new industries and new technologies that produce and use clean energy. At the end of last year, Korea, Japan and China committed to mid-century net zero targets. The European Union will soon be levying tariffs called border carbon adjustments on goods imported from countries that have not put a price on carbon. The United States must play catch up now to regain the lead in the fight to reign in climate change. If we don't, we'll find ourselves paying tariffs to other countries, using more expensive sources of energy and living with more deaths per capita due to air pollution than countries that take this golden opportunity to transition to clean energy.
Our country cannot afford to squander this opportunity.
Sincerely,
Your Name
X Year resident of Your Town
Most local papers have a website where you can submit your LTE. That said, it never hurts to follow up with an email or a call to the editor. Local paper employees typically wear multiple hats and are very busy, so a little persistence will pay off. Also, do not expect them to let you know that they published your LTE. Check the print and online versions every so often. When your LTE has been published, please let us know so we can keep track of how many have been published.
SHARE OUR MESSAGE ON SOCIAL MEDIA:
If you are active on social media, please share our message on your favorite platforms. Currently, we are active on the following platforms (if you are active on a different platform, please feel free to adapt our message to the platform of your choice):
OUR SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGNS:
Our current social media campaigns are 4OurKids and Dirty2Clean! Feel free to pick your favorite posts, then comment and share them.
4OurKids:
Today's kids will be the first generation to be aware that they are under the imminent threat of climate change for their whole lives. So who better to be the spokespeople for our movement to halt it? We'll be rolling this campaign out over the next several weeks.
Dirty2Clean:
Today's economic recession due to the pandemic has put more Americans out of work than any time since the Great Depression. So what better way to contrast where we stand today with where we can be if we commit to transitioning to renewables?
