ECA In Action

Fire Drill Fridays & Jane Fonda

ECA members in the Maryland/DMV chapter have been busy participating weekly in Fire Drill Fridays in Washington, DC started by actress Jane Fonda.

In January, members of the Maryland/DMV chapter presented Jane Fonda with a Certificate of Appreciation for her work amplifying the urgency of climate action through Fire Drill Fridays.  Thank you Jane for helping to ignite our generation into action!

ECA members will continue to support Fire Drill Fridays in 2020.

Elders Promote the Vote

Over 120 ECA members registered to participate in the Elders Promote the Vote Project in 2019.  This project focuses on mobilizing self identified environmentalists into becoming consistent voters.  We achieve this goal through a non partisan get out the vote effort, texting and canvassing voters. Our focus in 2018 & 2019 was to create and implement training programs for our members and build teams trained individuals.

Our members sent over 248,388 text messages in 2019 and over 650,000 text messages in two years!  We hope to text over a million voters in 2020!  Join us and help!

2019 Climate Strikes

Elders Climate is proud to be a Movement Partner of the US Climate Strikes. In September over 6 million people participated in the Global Climate Strike.  Elders Climate Action had members in more than 22 states participating in the strike, with a number of ECA related activities hosted in conjunction to the Week of Climate Action.  ECA will continue to support the youth strikes and are currently working with the Future Coalition to support and plan Earth Day events in 2020.

2019 Elders Climate Action Day, Play-In and Congressional Meetings, Washington, DC

Embracing Intergenerational Action

In July, we joined our partners, Moms Clean Air Force, in Washington DC for a Play-In on Capitol Hill followed by intergenerational congressional visits including elders, parents and children.  We spent the day discussing how climate change has impacted our communities and urging legislative action.

The following day, the elders gathered for Elders Climate Action Day at the Nation’s Capitol filled with guest speakers including members of congress, open discussion among participants, and a brilliant and inspiring panel of Youth Climate Activists from Zero Hour.

ECA Webinar Series (began Fall 2018)

In the fall 2018 Elders Climate Action added a webinar series to better reach our members and keep elders informed in the climate crisis, solutions and actions.  The webinar series provides expert guest speakers in areas critical to climate action, including climate justice and critical action.  In 2019 we expanded the series to include a spring and fall series. Stay tuned for more information about the 2020 webinar offerings.

2017 Elders Climate Action Day, Washington, DC 

Education, inspiration and Congressional Visits

We Came, We learned, We Got Inspired, and We Took ACTION!!!

Elders from all over the US spent two days in Washington DC learning about climate change, being inspired by others and taking action.   See the ECAD 2017 program here.

On the second day of Elders Climate Action Day, 22 groups of ECA members visited the offices of all 535 Members of Congress to ask that they pledge to make climate change legislation a priority. Congressional staff noted that, unlike most visitors to their offices, we were not there to benefit ourselves, but for the benefit of young adults, children and future generations. This helped to affirm our belief in the power of Elder action.

The next day, we joined  hundreds of thousands of participants  in the People’s Climate March. Surrounded by young people in the “Guardians of the Future” section, we marched to protect our grandchildren, future generations and all life.  

2015 Grandparents Climate Action Day, Washington, DC

Education, inspiration and Congressional Visits

The first Grandparents Climate Action Day in, 2015, drew over 100 elders  to Washington, DC to show Members of Congress and political leaders what an important issue climate change is. We were inspired and informed by many expert speakers including  Dr. James Hansen, Former Head of NASA & Director of the Program of Climate Science, Awareness and Solutions at Columbia University,  For many of us, it was our first experience in DC activism!  We were very excited to learn that we could just walk into our Congress members offices and speak to staff and in many cases the Congress member!  We were thrilled to participate in our Democracy in this way!

Additional ECA Actions

Over the past two years, ECA members have initiated and participated in a number of direct actions, such as:

• 2016 Congressional Candidates Climate Project
• 2016- 2017 Elders Climate Voter Pledge
• 2017 Campaign To Stop the Scott Pruitt Nomination as Administrator of the EPA
• Letter writing campaigns to Congress

Members have also been actively engaged in a variety of national, local and state-focused actions through local chapters and in collaboration with ECA’s partner organizations.