In addition to coursework, I dove into more environmental advocacy work. With the election of Trump, environment groups started seeing an explosion in membership as people have woken up and are rightfully worried about what could happen to our air, land, water, and climate.
This year I took on chair of the Conservation Committee of Sierra Club Central Ohio Group, which usually gets about three people per meeting but has now started to get 20. We have launched a Ready for 100 campaign to ask the city of Columbus to commit to 100% renewable energy. I was also elected chair of the Ohio Sierra Club’s Political Committee, which will be making endorsements in local elections this summer and state and national elections in 2018. I was also chosen to be a mentor for Climate Reality training in Denver.
In addition, I was asked to speak at several environmental rallies and events, including:
- Rally Against Trump’s Climate Denier Cabinet, January 9, 2017
- My speech, “Trump Climate Denier Cabinet in Their Own Words”
- “The Climate Denier Cabinet Hearings and the Grass Roots Rise of Environmental Dissent,” Huffington Post
- Our First Stand Rally, January 15, 2017
- My speech, “Climate Change, Environment and Public Health”
- “Sierra Club: Saving Obamacare, Environment Go Hand-In-Hand,” Statehouse News Bureau
- “Activists Mobilize As Trump Presidency Looms,” Statehouse News Bureau
- A Fierce Green Fire panel, April 25, 2017
- Rise Travel trip to the People’s Climate Mobilization, April 28-29, 2017
I also attended both the March for Science and People’s Climate March in Washington, DC. You can read about the march and see photos and videos in “A Tale of Two Marches.”
Finally, I tried to make connections and provide advice for new environmental activists and advocacy groups in town, including Keep Wayne Wild, led by young activists Joy Adams and Becca Pollard to oppose fracking in Wayne National Forest, and Defund Injustice, started by new activist Heather Ralston to ask the city to adopt a responsible banking ordinance as a precursor to divesting from banks that support the Dakota Access Pipeline.