ECA Members in Action – Margo, California

 

Listen to ECA’s leader Margo Frank’s celebration of Earth Day on station KZYX, Ecology Hour.  

 

April 20, 2021–This week on The Ecology Hour, two local members of Elders Climate Action, Margo Frank and Steve Zuieback have a conversation about simple things you can do to lower your carbon footprint and make an impact on climate change. They share some individual and community actions you can join at the local, state and national level and they’ll inspire you with hopeful and positive changes that are taking place around the country and the world. Their conversation is followed by questions and comments from the community fielded by Margo Frank.

Margo with her climate change hat a few years back.

 

Did You See ECA mentioned in the New York Times?

New York Times Article 

By Cara Buckley, Nov. 3, 2019

Excerpt from the Article.

After finishing an interview with NPR, Fonda, wearing her red coat and a tilted olive fedora, flitted among them like a mother bird, delivering greetings and long hugs. Then they marched toward the Capitol, Fonda leading the way, camera crews and other journalists hustling to keep up.

A stage with a Fire Drill Fridays backdrop was set up on the lawn, and among the hundreds gathered were alumni from Fonda’s high school, the Emma Willard School in Troy, N.Y.; members of Elders Climate Action, and someone dressed in a plush polar bear costume. Fonda greeted them all, and invited up speakers; among them Keener, Arquette (“Every human life depends on honoring our planet”) and Ensler, who recited a poem about the Earth that left listeners misty-eyed. Then it was off to the Senate building, where, shortly before her arrest, Fonda was asked if her civil disobedience was having its intended effect.

Read the full article here

 

 

Did You See Bill McKibben’s mention of ECA in The New Yorker?

The New Yorker – Annals of a Warming Planet

The Answer to Climate Change Is Organizing

Dealing with global warming is always going to be about the balance of power.
By Bill McKibben,

Excerpt from the Article.

The only way I can think of to meet this challenge is with more mass organizing. Young people are now fully engaged and leading the way; we’re seeing remarkable activism in frontline and indigenous communities. But there’s a group that, I think, is not pulling its weight, and it’s a group I’m now a part of. Call us “experienced Americans”—the baby boomers and silent generations that make up a huge percentage of the population, own a remarkable share of its financial assets, and vote in large numbers. As a rule, people do become more conservative as they age, but it’s not an inviolable maxim—many of the people in these generations witnessed broad cultural and political change in their early years, and now, conscious of their kids and their grandkids, they may be emerging from the primes of their lives with the skills and the resources to help make big change again. And so some of us are planning an organization called Third Act, an effort to mobilize older Americans in defense of environmental sanity and economic and racial fairness. We need a working, equitable society, both because it will do less damage and because it will be better able to cope with the damage that’s no longer preventable. If you’re part of this demographic, I hope you’ll figure out a way to help with this new venture—or that you’ll join with existing efforts such as Elders Climate Action and Great Old Broads for Wilderness. In any event, much of my writing going forward will be more closely tied to that activism. Not that I’ll give up writing for The New Yorker—I’ve been proud to be in its pages since I started as a staff writer, at the age of twenty-one. It’s the best magazine there ever was (and my colleague Elizabeth Kolbert may be the single most elegant chronicler of our climate peril); to be numbered among its contributors is an enormous honor. Because you’ve subscribed to this newsletter, the magazine will kindly e-mail you commentaries that I write for the publication in the future. (To hear from The New Yorker more often, you can also sign up for The Daily newsletter.)

Read the full article here

 

 

National Catholic Reporter features Elders Climate Action

National Catholic Reporter: EarthBeat

Elders fight for children’s, grandchildren’s future climate

By Lucy Grindon Oct 27, 2020

Excerpt from the Article.

Lynne Iser’s daughter was 16 years old when she told her mother she wished she’d grown up in the 1950s and 60s, as her mother had, free from existential dread about climate change.

That conversation, a decade ago, changed Iser’s life.

Hearing her daughter’s pessimism and fear for the future of the planet hit Iser “in the gut” and propelled her to action, she said.

“What [my daughter] was concerned about was what I knew to be true, but I wasn’t taking it in the same way that she was,” Iser told EarthBeat. “It sunk into me — I really need to stand with my kid.”

Today, as president of the national nonprofit Elders Action Network, Iser leads a growing movement of older adults who are addressing social and environmental crises through education efforts, advocacy and activism.
Because of the prominence of Greta Thunberg and other young activists, climate activism is often portrayed as a young people’s movement. But Iser, 70, and others like her believe that elders have a critical role to play in protecting the planet, and an obligation to do so for the sake of younger generations.
“As future ancestors, what do we want our legacy to be?” Iser says elders must ask themselves. “How do we want to be remembered?”

Among Elders Action Network’s largest projects is Elders Climate Action, whose members, organized in 12 official chapters throughout the United States, advocate for environmental protection and encourage other elders to join in climate action.

David and Gloria Mog, 77 and 78, have been active members of the Washington, D.C.-area chapter since 2015, taking part in demonstrations like “Fire Drill Fridays,” which gained national attention last year because of actor Jane Fonda’s  weekly participation.

David first learned about human-caused climate change in 1984, in a conversation with Roger Revelle, one of the first scientists to study the growing impact of human actions on global temperatures. David, a chemist who was working then with the National Academy of Sciences, recognized the enormous significance of what Revelle told him.

Read the full article here

 

 

Jen Chandler

Director of Operations at ECA

Observations of an Elder in Training….

A year and a half ago, I joined Elders Climate Action as the first staff position to help move the organization forward and achieve its critical mission. My choice to join the volunteers at ECA has without a doubt proven to be one of the most fulfilling decisions of my life. Although I am not yet an elder, I consider myself an elder in training; someone with a personal responsibility to learn from previous generations, bridge with younger generations, and bring change for future generations and all life.

Since returning from Elders Climate Action Day in Washington, D.C. I have spent time reflecting on the experience. Beyond the obvious highlights including brilliant and inspiring speakers, a discovered love of the diverse city, and taking to the streets with over 250,000 people at the Climate March.  I was deeply moved and inspired by the passion, commitment, caring, and deep questioning that came from the elders in attendance.  For me, one of the most powerful moments of ECAD was the visit from Our Children’s Trust and FrostPaw, and subsequent impromptu apology from ECA member, Margo Frank. (see Youtube Video below)

What I experienced most in D.C., was multiple generations standing up and taking action for the climate. It was a vibrant illumination of a common value, a common acceptance of responsibility for the damage that has happened, and a common commitment to take action for the future.  Take Climate Action Now, Take Climate Action Often. Protect the Future.

 

Julie Hantman

VOICE OF A FUTURE ELDER

 

Julie Hantman, National Outreach Manager, Mom’s Clean Air Force

The climate movement is picking up steam and its increasing diversity is a big reason why. No longer can any headline say e.g. ‘environmentalists decry roadblocks to climate action.’ That’s because it isn’t just environmentalists speaking up anymore. We’ve got a big and bigger tent. There are scientists of course, there are experts on national security, food security and you-name-it security. There is the faith community, labor, and more.

And generationally there is the youth movement, there are moms and dads – and now elders.

The climate movement needs the unique voices of elders.  Parents of school-age children have the exquisite focus of day to day parenting to bring to bear in our advocacy.  Elders – grandparents or not – have the long view. As I meet more ECA members I see plenty of internal diversity but the common denominator perhaps is the passion that comes from experience and dynamic reflection.  A different flavor! We need you and it’s a pleasure to think and take action together.

Note: Julie adds new meaning to being a partner by spending a day with ECA elders to participate in our next Elders Climate Action event in 2017

 

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