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Climate Changemakers Policy Action at SOAPBOXFEST.mp4
Key: Aditi Pradhan, moderator = AP; Dr. Eliza Nemser, Climate Changemakers founder = EN; Madeline Dyke, Climate Changemakers Ops Director = MD
EN (2:56): I used to study earthquakes; I'm an earth scientist. My expertise in earthquakes was very compelling to oil and gas companies who recruited me heavily! I even did an internship at Chevron 🤢 and they helped fund my PhD. I saw oil and gas from the inside.
Then I did earthquake work at an engineering firm. Four years ago, I had a lightbulb moment. I'm a mom now, of two kids with asthma, and the 2017 wildfires was the first "holy smokes!" wildfire year.
I said enough with earthquakes, enough with science, I have to get involved in politics and policy. The solution is political — the bottleneck is politics.
MD (4:24): For most Gen Z and millennials, there's no aha moment. The wildfires were part of my childhood. Acting on the climate crisis has never been a question for me; it's always been about how. What processes do I want to involve myself in?
The better story for me is, how did I realize the problem was political?
It happened in a roundabout way — I studied biology AND political science. As I was searching for internships, this amazing biotech company was talking about how they wanted to cure disease, but I at the same time, all my political science classes were saying it wasn't a lack of engineering know-how; it was a lack of policy.
Then, I realized, listening to a podcast, that this thing that had always been an extracurricular passion (climate change) should be front and center. The problem is political.
COVID hit; I was halfway through college, I just had this career realization, I have no experience doing politics or policy, so then I proceeded to message a million people including Eliza on LinkedIn, and she asked me to come join Climate Changemakers!
MD (7:20):** In your question, you implied that the fossil fuel industry is causing climate change, which is spot-on. Burning fossil fuels is causing climate change, so the industry that profits from it is directly responsible.
It's right in front of us and often we're tricked into thinking we should change just OUR lives while it's the companies who are responsible for causing this.
I see three levels of damage, and in those layers are the solutions (exciting news 😉).
The first level is the physical and economic damage. We know the doom-and-gloom is out there — ecological destruction, health impacts, forced migration, famine and drought — I don't need to tell you about this; we see this all day. In Climate Changemakers, we focus on the other two levels of harm.
The second level is the political damage to our democracy. We need to understand, as you said in your question, that the fossil fuel INDUSTRY is the problem. It's a coordinated effort, a coordinated economic sector, a whole structure of our economy and society. When this part of our economy pursues profit by any means necessary, those means include subverting democracy.
It means incredibly large campaign contributions that no one knows about, a revolving door between industry and regulators (people who used to LEAD oil companies get appointed to the highest level of government!), PR campaigns that deceive the public, and more. It's pretty nefarious smoke and mirrors stuff, and it manifests into this problem where politicians' actions are out of sync with public opinions.
According to Yale Climate Communications, 3/4ths of Americans want to see CO2 regulated as a pollutant. But that's not happening because of the way the industry has captured and subverted our democratic process. That's bad! Think about how that affects our cultural psyche.
This is the third level — there's real social damage when you know in your heart that everyone around you wants to see action on climate change, but NOTHING HAPPENS. You fall into this totally understandable place where you're super apathetic!
We think civic engagement is meaningless and we're powerless. I fall into this all the time, but the thing is it's NOT true! Civic engagement is NOT meaningless. We are NOT powerless. We can redress all these harms I've been detailing.
So Climate Changemakers helps people take action on policy.
EN (12:40):** The no-brainer is voting. Go out and vote; go out and talk about climate. There's an organization called the Environmental Voters Project — they turn environmentalists who don't vote into voters.
I'd like to say that at Climate Changemakers, we're turning people who ARE voting into voters plus. We want to help elect candidates that reflect our values and prioritize action on climate.
My eureka moment was about how a lot of these races boil down to a climate champion against a climate skeptic. So I wondered — why are we getting so mired down in partisan rhetoric? Part 1 of our climate action is to just vote for the candidate in any race who's going to champion climate action!
Part 2 is holding them accountable once they're in office. Advocating for policy, speaking up, writing letters, doing it the right way! We all CAN do that. We live in a democracy (kinda-sorta, but still). There are well-developed channels for constituents to reach out to their members. Lobbying WORKS, and we regular people can take political action.
The barrier to getting involved can be a little high, so Climate Changemakers is reducing that friction.
EN: Each month at Climate Changemakers, we take on a different issue through a really close lens, and in June 2021, we talked about fossil fuel subsidies. I didn't realize this until we took this on, but the United States government uses public money — OUR hard-earned money — to prop up the fossil fuel industry... to the tune of 650 BILLION DOLLARS a year.
In 2021, we have cost-competitive renewable energy out there! And we understand that fossil fuels are devastating our civilization, but OUR OWN MONEY — our paychecks — are going to prop up this industry!
That $650 billion is direct and indirect subsidies. It's gnarly stuff.
MD (19:00): Dr. Volts writes about something called the IDC subsidy — in states like New Mexico, etc., anywhere we drill for gas, IDC stands for "intangible drilling cost". That's the biggest direct subsidy where the government uses taxpayer dollars to pay oil and gas companies to literally cover their IDCs. They cover ground clearing, survey work, cost of wages, fuel for cars and machinery, etc.
All of those are literally paid for by the government as the single-biggest direct subsidy — that's a good thing to know about. That policy has been around for a really long time, and the fossil fuel industry has been lobbying to preserve its place in the tax scheme.
MD (21:32): What happens if we stop paying for these IDCs, for example? It's really just the end of these unfair advantages. Renewables are already cost-competitive in many markets.
We should definitely invest in alternative sources, but it's not BECAUSE we're no longer subsidizing fossil fuels; those are two separate parts to the solution. We have to phase down fossil fuels and ramp up renewable energy. But we're not in a situation where if we stop subsidizing, we won't have enough oil or anything like that.
EN: One of the most important things right now is to write a letter to your reps asking them to support the Clean Electricity Standard. That template will take you less than 2 minutes.
To keep up your involvement, you can attend our weekly hours of action with no preparation at all. Sign up here. Our Hour of Action calendar is here if you want to see what's coming up.
Extra credit: ALL our active letters are here and our issue briefings are here if you want to learn more and take action on other issues we've covered in the past.