Climate change is real, its here, it’s happening now. Every day we are confronted by new proof from nature, new scientific studies and more anecdotal stories told by our friends and relatives about how our world is changing before our eyes. Allergies are worse, rain and snow are coming down in heavier downpours and drought continues to plague much of our country. But if you are like us, your neighbor, friend, brother or grandma may still insist on challenging you about the facts on climate change.
Grab the kids in your life and sit down with Al Gore, while he explains a cool new tool, Reality Drop, developed by our friends at The Climate Reality Project that you can use to help present the facts. Let Mr. Gore show you and your family how to spread the truth about the Climate Crisis and “destroy” denial. Reality Drop is also a game, so your kids can rack up points and “win” while we all win by facing denial head on and making sure that truth wins out!
While you’ve got their attention, help your kids (and your neighbor, friend, brother or grandma) understand what price we are all paying when we let polluters go “free” by not putting a “Price of Carbon!”…This short video narrated by Reggie Watts for the Climate Reality Project is fun, to the point, and easy to understand…
So do something today…help spread the truth about the climate crisis, beginning at home..
At ClimateMama we owe our start, our inspiration, and a debt of gratitude to the Climate Reality Project it’s staff, leaders and it’s chairman Al Gore. Our own Climate Mama, Harriet was personally trained by Mr. Gore and the Climate Reality Project staff six years ago. This training was the beginning and impetus for the development and launch of our ClimateMama organization. Along the way there have been many wonderful surprises, great friendships and amazing programs and projects that Climate Reality has shared with us, and that we in turn have been able to share with you.
We want to tell you about some new and exciting developments that we think will make you smile, help you learn and give you real and simple ways to share more about the reality of the climate crisis, how we can all be part of the solution, AND have some fun along the way! (Because we believe that all should be able to enjoy our journey to change the world and make it a better place…)
1. Catch our own Climate Mama in an up close and personal Town Hall encounter with Al Gore. Harriet was invited to participate in SiriusXM’s “Town Hall with Al Gore” hosted by Ari Rabin-Havt—host of SiriusXM’s The Agenda, Senior Advisor to Media Matters and a leading voice in progressive politics—The Town Hall program with Al Gore, was recorded in New York City at the Sirrius XM studios. The program will air on various channels and at various times: 3/2 4 pm ET , Saturday 3/2 10 pm ET , Tuesday 3/5 5 pm ET , Tuesday 3/5 10 pm ET.
Find out how Mr. Gore answered Harriet’s question: Our community at ClimateMama is made up of many parents who are choosing to face reality head on and who are often very knowledgeable about the current and anticipated impacts of our changing climate. We recognize the path we are hurtling down. When we sit back and let ourselves put our arms around the big picture, the perils that our planet faces and which we and our families are headed towards, it often feels overwhelming. Knowing the uncertainties we face and the hard choices we will need to make in a very short time, how do you nurture yourself and what advice would you give others on how to build the inner strength needed to keep “fighting the fight” and believing in a hopeful path for our future?
Tell us what you think and what you do to nuture yourself and build inner strength as you find and fight for solutions to combat climate change?
2. Grab the kids in your life and check out the latest tool and fun program and game developed by Climate Reality called Reality Drops. Do you ever find yourself at a loss when confronted by a friend, colleague or stranger who questions your facts on the climate crisis and seems to have “contradictory” facts of their own? Not to worry, Drop some Reality on your friends and family today…!
“Just like the tobacco companies in the ’50s, the fossil fuel industry has engaged in a well- funded and coordinated effort to mislead the public about the scientific reality of climate change,” said Al Gore, former Vice President of the United States, and Founder and Chairman of the Climate Reality Project. “Reality Drop provides an easy, intuitive way for people to arm themselves with the facts, educate their friends, family, and networks, and call on the media to report the truth.”
3. Take two minutes with the kids in your life and watch this short video that helps us understand why we should Put a Price on Carbon.There is a lot of talk about why we should be doing this and how that would help us solve the climate crisis, this helps put it all in perspective. We are allowing fossil fuel companies to use our atmosphere like a sewer, free of charge. This is hurting our economy, our health, our children, our future and our now!
What are you doing on May 5th, 2012? Did you know that this day has been designated as “Climate Impacts Day” and that all around the world, individuals will be “Connecting the Dots” between climate change and extreme weather.”
Climate change is happening now; we are witnessing it around the world. In March 2012, over 15,000 temperature records were broken in the United States alone. A recent Yale University poll in the U.S. found that Americans’ concern about climate change was increasing with more extreme weather and warmer temperatures. According to the research, 82 percent of Americans report that they personally experienced one or more types of extreme weather or a natural disaster in the past year. “Most people in the country are looking at everything that’s happened; it just seems to be one disaster after another after another,” Anthony A. Leiserowitz of Yale University, one of the researchers who commissioned the new poll, told the New York Times. “People are starting to connect the dots.”
Many organizations including the Climate Reality Project - which I am proud to work with – are coming together to ask us to make the connections between extreme weather events and climate change. We need to “get angry, ” to demonstrate, to call out for action. Scientists are telling us that there is a direct connection between our use of fossil fuels, and the increase in carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere. This carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, acts like a blanket around our earth, trapping solar radiation and causing our climate to change.
“We just celebrated Earth Day. May 5 is more like Broken Earth Day, a worldwide witness to the destruction global warming is already causing,” said Bill McKibben, the founder of 350.org, the global climate campaign that is coordinating the events. “People everywhere are saying the same thing: our tragedy is not some isolated trauma, it’s part of a pattern.”
On May 5th my family and I will be joining friends, new and old, and heading out for a morning hike to visit the proposed site of a natural gas pipeline that would carry gas derived through hydraulic fracturing (or fracking) through a State Park. We will hold a “teach in” on fracking with others on the hike. We will also discuss the fact that this park land was put into the public trust, and yet the State of NJ is considering “diverting” the land to be used to convey a gas pipeline. As well, in it’s wisdom, the State will lease this public land to the pipeline company for pennies on the dollar. The state may do this, without even waiting for the results of an environmental impacts study, one the EPA and NJ DEP say we need. Not only is this wrong for all the obvious reasons, but it also serves to keep us addicted to fossil fuels, rather than taking bold steps to move us to renewable energy sources. An interesting fact is that the pipeline company, which will use this line to carry gas from Pennsylvania, won’t even say if the gas will be used in New Jersey. Governor Christie’s energy master plan calls for an increase in natural gas use in NJ and therefore, more pipelines to bring it here!!
NJ is one of many states that are “drinking the Kool-Aid” and buying the media hype that “natural” gas, is some how “natural” and cleaner then other fossil fuels. In fact, new studies are showing us that current methods of extracting this gas from shale (fracking) are anything BUT safe! Fracking is causing earthquakes, poisoning aquifers and has a greater carbon footprint than even coal (a fact the coal companies are now trying to exploit!) Nothing “natural” here. Following the hike we will join together with a gathering of local tribes from the Ramapough/Lunappe nations and other supportive individuals from a wide range of communities for a rally to stand up for the protection of native traditions, for the protection of water from fracking and for the healing of our earth. I think my kids are in for an incredible learning experience!
You are a mother, a father, a grandparent, an uncle, an aunt, a teacher or a child at heart. When you hear the Native American saying, “We don’t inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children”, it makes you stop for a moment and think. You love nature, travel, adventure and believing in a world that is special and unique. Climate change and global warming are words that alarm you, that often seem too big to get your arms around. You care about what’s happening to the world and notice small changes in your own life that seem to point in the direction of a threatened environment. But you wonder if these changes are real, and if they are you can’t imagine what you can do to help change what is happening.
Climate Change so often seems too big to get our hands around. We wonder where we can start and how we can actually make a difference. Each one of us has a different path that we will follow. Some of us cut a wider swath than others, but each of us has a role to play. We would like to introduce you to some amazing individuals, Climate Mamas and Papas who are making a difference, who are, through their daily lives, affecting the lives of all of us. They inspire us, empower us, and challenge us to reach for the stars, to strive to do the best we can to help change the crash course we are currently on with our environment. Lets meet some of these amazing people and find out what inspires them. Meet our featured Climate Mama, Desiree Di Mauro today!
The Climate Reality Project is one of the world’s leading organizations dedicated to mobilizing action around climate change. With a global movement that is more than 2 million strong and a grassroots network of trained Climate Leaders, Climate Reality is "spreading the truth and unleashing the cultural momentum to solve the climate crisis."
The Climate Reality Project 
