 Welcome everyone. You are here for the Earth Day Speaker Series, advocating for the environment, how to gather your power and take action, and we're lucky to have two inches here giving this presentation today. If you'll go to the next slide, Marina, we just wanted to make sure probably everybody's a Zoom pro at this point, but we do ask that you keep your microphone on mute throughout the presentation just so there's not a lot of background noise. You'll see a microphone symbol located in the lower left of your screen as shown there, and if it's crossed through, you're muted, and next to that you'll see a video camera symbol. You're welcome to stay on or be off mute, and we are recording this webinar, so if you wish not to be seen then you may want to choose to have your video off. And lastly we invite you to put any questions in the chat. We'll have plenty of time for questions and answers at the end of the presentation and so we'll be monitoring that, but feel free to throw them in during so you don't lose those. Also I should say my name is Juliana DiTamosso. I'm just helping to moderate today. I'm on the Executive Committee of the Sierra Club main chapter. Thank you all for being here. And before we begin, if you'll go to the next slide, Marina, thank you. We wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the land beneath our feet. Here in Maine we live on occupied Wabanaki territory. The Wabanaki people have lived in this land and steered it for thousands of years. And if you aren't in Maine, I'll just put this link in the chat. You can see here if you aren't sure of who's land that the original occupants of the land are, then that takes you to a map where you can learn about that history. And I wanted to say just a little bit more because this is an ongoing issue in Maine right now. In June of 2020, the tribes in Maine, the heuristic band of McMack, Holton band of Malassee, Pasamaqwadi tribe, and Penobscot Nation formed the Wabanaki Alliance, which was formed to educate people in Maine about the need for securing sovereignty for the tribes in Maine. And it's a really interesting history to read up on. Essentially in 1980 the Maine Indian Claim Settlement Act was passed. But there was an understanding that it would be improved upon over time and it has not been for 40 years. And so in the legislature, both last year and this year, the Wabanaki people and the Wabanaki Alliance are fighting for their sovereignty, the same sovereignty that's awarded to nearly 500 other tribes across America. And so please, if you are not up to speed on this issue and or you're looking for a place to donate to Indigenous peoples, then the Wabanaki Alliance is a great place to do that. So with that, if you want to stop screen sharing there, I would love to introduce Sue Inches, who's our speaker today. Since childhood, Sue has envisioned a world that is compassionate, inclusive, and environmentally aware. His vision guided her throughout her schooling and a 25-year career in public policy. As deputy director of the Maine State Planning Office, she managed a portfolio of environmental policy issues on behalf of the governor. Prior to this, Sue worked with the fishing industries as a director at the Maine Department of Marine Resources. Signature policy issues she's worked on include fisheries, land use planning, smart growth, building and energy codes, renewable energy, energy efficiency, working waterfront access, community finance, and rural broadband. In 2018, Sue developed a unique college course on environmental advocacy, which she now teaches at Colby and Bates Colleges. Few schools offer courses and advocacy skills and students are eager to learn them. Demand for her course led her to write this book. Sue now works as a speaker, educator and advocate with a focus on the environment and climate change. This helps people find their power and provides them with the tools and guidance to address current environmental issues. She'll do BA in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic and MBA from the University of New Hampshire. Thanks for being here, Sue and I'll pass it over to you. All right, so hopefully everyone can see me and I'm just really excited to see so many familiar faces. This is a great surprise for me. I asked for the registration list about half an hour ago and saw that I had a lot of friends and family joining me, so I'm really happy with that. And a shout out to Phyllis and Penny and Art Bell, Mary Ann Hill, Ginger, and of course, Sandy Hazlet and Sarah Hunter, who are both cousins of mine. So anyway, I'm so glad you're all here. And what this really is is the first time I've actually come out to speak about my upcoming book, which is coming out in July. And so having said that, you might be on notice that I might ask you for feedback on this talk because I'm still figuring out what do I want to say. And I'm really happy to be with the Sierra Club today, celebrating Earth Week. It's the perfect time to start talking about these issues, of course. So I am going to talk probably for about a half an hour, and I want to leave lots of time for your questions and discussion because really I want to know what you want to know about more than I really want to talk. So I'm going to share my screen. Let's see. I need to be given permission to share the screen here. It says one participant at a time. Oh, there it is. Okay. Okay. So are you seeing my screen? Yes. Are people seeing it? Yep. Let's go ahead. All right. Great. And is there a way for me to see myself while I see the screen? Let's see. Just learning the technology. Okay. All right. Well, I can't see myself, but we'll just continue anyway. And so what I thought was, since it is Earth Week, Earth Day, that I would start talking a little bit about Earth Day. And so the history will start right there. So in the thing you need to know, and some of you will remember this, is that in 1969, there were three television stations, and entire families sat around and watched the the evening news together as a group. And so there are three events that took place in 1969, while these families are watching television. And one was an oil spill off of Santa Barbara, California. It was a spill that coated the long coastline of California. And there are lots of images on the evening news about sea otters, sea lions, sea birds covered with oil. And those were startling images. And very similarly, in 1969, the Cuyahoga River caught fire. Well, this river had caught fire probably seven or eight times in the past, but it wasn't until it was on television. And I remember seeing the flames kind of shooting up into the sky on the TV news that people kind of sat up and said, wow, look at this, the river's on fire. And this river is near Cleveland, Ohio, by the way, and it's typical of rivers at that time. There was a lot of rivers with a lot of pollution in them. And then similarly, there was a lot of visual images of smog, smoke and fog hanging over Los Angeles in particular. And there was kind of this imagery of this brownish yellowish fog over Los Angeles. So these images were presented. And let's see if I can advance the slides. Out of that came the very first Earth Day. That was held on April 22nd, 1970. 12,000 local events were held across the country, 20 million Americans participated. And as a result, we had major environmental legislation passed. In fact, 28 major environmental laws passed with bipartisan support between 1970 and 1980. In fact, all of the fundamental environmental laws that we work with today were passed during this period. And you can see this list here, very familiar, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the bill that allowed superfund sites to be cleaned, all of the major environmental legislation was passed during this period. But I want to take a little time and step back and do a little comparison here, because on Earth Day 1970, 20 million Americans participated. The climate strikes in 2019, just 4 million Americans participated. Sorry Sue, I muted you as well when you're ready. I can't unmute you. I thought I would be able to. Do you want any personal information being shared? Sue, you're muted, but I can't unmute you, and I'm sorry about that. I think we still don't have you. There you go. There we go. Sorry. It's all right. So just comparing this, that obviously we are not getting a participation today that we were getting in 1970. And I want to compare a few other things here too. So in the decade between 1970 and 1980, the Santa Barbara oil spill, which was so devastating, was only three million gallons. Compare that to the Deep Water Horizon oil spill, which took place in 2010, 134 million gallons. Hurricanes, two category five, that is, between 1970 and 1986, during the decade between 2010 and 2020. Wildfires, 4.7 million acres in 1980, 10.3 million acres in 2020. And then of course, we all know that atmospheric CO2 levels have risen enormously as well. So the point here is that we've got less participation and the problems are more severe. So that's kind of where we are. It's a bit of a stark message. But basically, the situation is pretty dire, right? The underlying structure of what we're doing economically, politically, are kind of driving us towards the edge of a cliff, right? And the need for change is really urgent. So that kind of leads the question of, well, what do we do about this, right? And there are really three things that I think are really important and that I write about. First is to understand power. Second is to challenge the status quo. And third is to gather our power and take action. So let's look at power. So one way to think about power is that there are really three major laws of power. These will seem intuitively familiar to you, I think, that power concentrates, right? So the wealthy get wealthier, the poor get poorer. You know, those people who have the power are making the rules to suit themselves and that concentrates power even more. So power does concentrate over time. And you see this in business, you see this in politics as well. And then also, we also tell ourselves stories to justify power. You know, you might hear things like, you know, people who are poorer, well, they're not applying themselves or they're not studying hard or they're not leading a good lifestyle. Or on the other side of it, well, you know, those people who are extremely wealthy, well, they've created a lot of jobs and they deserve to be that way. So we have sort of these underlying stories that justify the current power structure. Then the third law, which is the really important one for advocacy, is that power is infinite. Well, what does that mean? Well, basically, what it means is that power can be created by organizing. Power can be created by any group, by any people. It is not a zero sum game, but it's actually infinite. And there are many examples where very disempowered groups, people that were picking tomatoes in Florida, for example, living in shacks with no plumbing, having peace rate pay that was way below minimum wage, no benefits, no health care. Those people organized, they created power and now they have full health benefits, they have good housing, and so on. So power is infinite, and it comes through organizing. And just to add a little bit to this, there's a great book by Eric Liu called You're More Powerful Than You Think, and power is infinite is a quote actually from him. And so what I want to say is that we probably don't have as many people participating in Earth Day as we should right now, but if we get organized and work on it, I think we can get 33 million to show up, which be equivalent to the 20 million that showed up in 1970. And also, I want to just kind of make the point that what environmentalists really want to do is change the power structure, right? You know, they want to support the health and well-being of all people, not just the privileged, they want to empower local communities, they want to provide equal opportunity, they want to hold business and government accountable, so and make our healthy planet the highest priority. So basically, that's what it's really about. And I think that it is not about blaming, but it's about a cycle where we are in a place in the cycle right now, where the wealth and the power is held by a few. And we want to take that back and have it held by many. And so I'm just going to mention a couple issues that I'm working on here. I'm not going to go into great detail about them, but just to show how they fit into this model of taking the power back to the people. So I'm working on a coalition for the Pine Tree Amendment. What this amendment would do is it would add environmental rights. The right to clean air, clean water and a healthy environment would add those rights to the main constitution. And the interesting thing is this is a nationwide movement. There are 13 states working on similar constitutional amendments and two states that already have them, Pennsylvania and Montana, have environmental rights in their constitution. Well, what's important about that is this giving everybody environmental rights, every citizen, that helps put power back to the people so that if there's a very harmful development, there's a way for people to respond to that and say, well, that's violating my constitutional rights. And this has been very effective in Pennsylvania where they've had extensive fracking in communities that didn't want it. So that's the Pine Tree Amendment. The other issue I'm personally involved in is a consumer-owned utility. And this issue is about the fact that the electricity, the electric grid in Maine is, it's owned and run by a multinational corporation. And we have not been able to get them to respond on renewable energy, on reliability. Maine has the worst reliability, electric reliability in the nation and very high prices. So the idea is to actually bring back local control to electric utilities. So again, it's a shift of power that we're working on. So that's what these issues are based on. And I'm happy to answer questions on either of these issues in the Q&A. But I think I'm going to just move forward, but just want to show how the shift in power is what we're working on here. So what can we do about the situation we're in? Well, we just talked about understanding power. Let's talk about changing, challenging the status quo. So there are five examples here. And the two that are in white are success stories. And I love the story of mothers against drunk driving because when I was growing up, drunk drivers were kind of sort of funny characters. There were skits on television. I don't know if any of you remember the Jackie Gleason show, but he did skits many times where he would pretend or act as if he was a drunk person and do funny things. And we all kind of laughed about that. And then when there would be an car accident, a drunk driver would be injuring or hurting someone, maybe even killing someone. We kind of said, well, that's awful. And we send our thoughts and prayers. And that was it. We accepted that that was part of life. Well, mothers against drunk driving challenged that. And they said, wait a minute, drunk driving is a crime. It should be considered a crime. There should be consequences. There should be penalties, pay a fine, do deal time, get your license revoked. So they were very successful in totally challenging the status quo and changing how we think about drunk drivers. And now it's pretty common to have a designated driver if you're out partying at night. So anyway, that's just a great example of what I'm talking about where we have to change how we think. We have to learn to think differently in order to change public policy. So another great success story is the rivers across the country. So back in the 70s, 60s when the Cuyahoga caught fire, rivers across the country smelled terrible. Nobody wanted to live near them. They're basically industrial sewer pipes out to the ocean. And we just kind of said, well, that's the smell of money. That's the smell of progress. And that's where our thinking was. Well, over time, and especially after the river fires started happening and the Clean Water Act was passed, we changed our view of rivers. And now, as you know, river front property is considered high end real estate. Communities that have rivers going through them consider it a community asset and have built walking trails and parks along riversides, recreation, kayaking and canoeing, all kinds of things. So again, rivers are a great example where we changed our thinking. We challenged the status quo and then we changed our thinking and then our public policies changed as a result. So the three items in red here are the ones where we still have work to do. And the climate crisis, the great news about that is that in 2018 was the first time that young people led by Greta Thunberg and others stood up and said, is it right to leave the climate crisis to the younger generation? And it was the first time that that moral question had been asked. And I was thrilled with that because I knew that was a turning point when that question was asked. And of course, we still have quite a ways to go there. But we have asked the question, we're starting to move. Similarly, with environmental justice, it used to be common practice and still is in some places to cite toxic, you know, manufacturing near or in the backyards of low income neighborhoods. And Cancer Alley, which I write about is an interesting place. It's between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. There are 157 chemical and petroleum plants in Cancer Alley between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, all located near low income communities, some of color and some are white. And it wasn't until pretty recently that we started asking the question, is it right to locate these manufacturing plants in these neighborhoods? And it's about time we got around to asking that question. So I'm really happy to see it. And we have a ways to go. But at least we started asking the question of, is this right? Should we be doing this? And then finally, the Friedman doctrine, I just want to mention this. So Milton Friedman, some of you might know of him, was a, he was a Nobel prize-winning economist back 50 years ago. And he came up with this idea that the purpose of corporations was solely and only to reward the shareholders. And many, many educational institutions, many corporations, this became sort of the generalized thinking that the purpose of a corporation is to make money. It has no other social responsibility whatsoever. Well, just recently, the 50th anniversary of this Friedman doctrine was last year. And it was really interesting. There were lots of articles written, written people questioning that and saying, wait a minute, maybe it's time for this doctrine to go away. So anyway, so we're just starting to question and challenge that status quo, which I'm very happy to say. And then here, the next two slides are a little bit of a visual illustration of the same thing. So this picture is by Popham Beach State Park in Maine. And this is how it looked in the 1960s, all kinds of junk cars and everything on the side of the road. And we just kind of accepted that. That was the way things were, right? And it wasn't until we questioned it and started massive anti-liter campaigns and cleanups that this changed. And this slide is also in Maine, it's another site full of trash. And same thing, this is what we saw. And we accepted that was reality in the 1960s. And of course, that's all been cleaned up now because we changed how we think and we changed the public policies in accord with that. So change always starts with a moral question. And this is just a few examples. We talked about mothers against drunk driving. Is it right to allow intoxicated people to drive? Well, not anymore. Is it right for industrial ways to pollute our rivers? No, not anymore. Is it right to locate toxic chemical plants near low-income neighborhoods? Not so much. And down, I want to jump down to, is it right to allow corporations to manufacture unlimited amounts of toxic chemicals? This is a particular one that I'm focused on because there are 60,000 toxic chemicals being manufactured right now and distributed with an additional 2,000 every year that are new that get introduced. And we haven't questioned this. This is allowed. We allow corporations to do this and then we don't change anything. And then maybe 10 years later, if we find out something is harmful, we try to ban it and that takes another 10 years to ban. So we're really not there yet on this one. And then of course, is it right for 10% of the population to own 90% of the wealth? And we certainly had some questioning of that and we certainly have a ways to go. So here are just four areas that I think we really need to do more work. Fossil fuels, of course, we know they're bad. We know they're causing climate change, but we haven't banned burning fossil fuels yet. In fact, the oil and gas companies are producing more fossil fuels right now than they were 10 years ago. So the trajectory is we're talking a lot about climate change, but we're actually burning more fossil fuels. So we've got a ways to go on that one. Corporate responsibility, same thing, a long ways to go on this one. We're still allowing all kinds of packaging and waste to be produced. And there's really not a connection between the corporation that produces this and the cost of good disposal. Same thing with the toxic chemicals that I just mentioned, our consumption and waste. We need to do some big questioning there. And then finally, I put in here women's rights and family planning, because some of the studies that have been done about how do we turn around the environmental destruction and especially climate change that's going on have found that educating women and girls and offering family planning services are two interventions we can do that would make an enormous difference as far as the environment is concerned. And it's all about choice, right? In my research for the book, I found that 274 million women on the planet would like to have access to family planning services but can't get them. So it's really about choice. I think if women had the chance to be educated and they had the chance to plan the size of their families, I think they would do it and I think would have a very big impact on the environment. But we're not quite there on that one yet. So we've talked about understanding power. We've talked about challenging the status quo and now we're going to talk a little bit about how to gather our power and take action. So to match the action of the 1970s, we need 33 million Americans to act. That would be around 10% of our population. So we've got a little ways to go on that. And we need everybody. We need everybody to become an environmental activist. And when I say that, I will say also there are as many ways to be an advocate as there are people and that we did it in the 70s and we can do it now. So here's just a little brain dump of all the ways that you can advocate. So, you know, and I know that not everyone wants to be up there speaking to the legislature or out there in the street demonstrating, but there's so many things you can do. I mean, if you're a photographer, if you are a poet, if you're a video maker, if you like to build networks or you like to do social media, there's a role for everyone is my point here. And we do need everyone to play a role. And if we're going to have a healthy planet, that's what is at stake really is everyone has to play a part. So here are just a few ideas. And there's really, as I say, as many ways to be an advocate as there are people. And then this is really interesting. So it turns out that there are basically four roles that are necessary for social change to happen. And this was put together by a man named Bill Moyer, who was a social scientist and an activist, not Bill Moyers, but Bill Moyer. And so basically, these four roles are up here in front of us. And they are organizers, those are the people who like to bring people together, they like to build coalitions, they like to build networks. Then they're the advocates who like to work with institutions and decision makers, they like to negotiate, they like to strategize. Then they're the helpers, the people who share their skills, they educate, they might provide training, they love to help others. And then finally, they're the rebels who question the status quo, they protest, and they strategize. And what, hold on for one second. Nope, I have a new puppy and you can probably hear her in the background. So anyway, obviously, no one does just one thing, but it basically the research shows that people have a tendency towards one of these four roles. So you might want to think about how you feel and what things really resonate with you. And that can be your best contribution to social change. Puppy is waking up after a nap. So I want to talk a little bit about where your power comes from. And there's sort of two places in advocacy where you can find your power. And the first of course is your personal power, what you care about, your story and your commitment. And then there's the organizing power from what we said before, how we can create power through organizing. And this happens through the power of people and the number of people and the power of taking action and of collaboration and of partnerships. So let me talk a little bit about earth stories because it all starts with that. And probably each of us in this meeting have our own earth stories, our connection to the earth. And I have several and I'll tell you the first one, the first time I became aware of the environment. I was about eight years old and there was a beautiful place out in back of our house that I loved to play with my friends. It was woods and fields and a stream there. And one day when I was about eight years old, I went out to play after school and the stream had turned orange. And it was so opaque that you couldn't see. It was like a foot deep. You couldn't see the bottom of the stream. And it was kind of shattering to see this ugly mess. And so we went home and we told our parents and they did nothing. They did nothing. And that really startled me and woke me up. And I thought, this is, I just can't believe they've took our beautiful stream and turned it into this mess and the grownups are doing nothing. So really from that moment on, I knew that I wanted to advocate for the environment. And so that when I go back to that story, it grounds me and it helps me feel my power. And even if that story isn't directly relevant to an issue I'm working on, it does give me the strength. It's the grounding. It's the reason I'm doing this. It's the commitment. So I urge everyone to think about, what is their own connection to the earth? And maybe it's a place that you love to go that kind of feeds your soul or nourishes your spirit. We all have them. We all have a connection to the earth. And it's important to just touch that if you're going to do this work and know that it's there supporting you. So here's a little bit more about the power of story. So this is a grounding thing. They connect you with the issues. They connect decision makers with your passion. And the other thing about stories is really great is they can cut through the opposition, right? So let's just take an example where someone might believe that, you know, poor people are just lazy people who sit on the couch and watch TV all day and they really don't deserve to have any, you know, social programs to help them out. Well, if you have a woman telling her story of being a single mother working two or three jobs just to try to put food on the table for her children, describing her life and what she goes through every day. Well, that story can cut through that opposition. People do have preconceived beliefs on just about every issue. And it's the stories, it's the touching of the heart, transforming of the hearts and minds that can cut through that. So that's another reason why stories are really, really important in advocacy. So just to give you another example, and some of you in Maine may know this story, Fred Stone is a farmer in York County, Maine, a third generation over 200 years on this same property. And he has been doing dairy farming, as I said, for a long, long time. And one of the things he did is he spread sewage sludge on his fields as a way to fertilize them, thinking that that was a good organic thing to do. But then it turned out that there were toxic chemicals in the sludge. They're called PFAS. It's a whole group of chemicals that are endocrine disruptors, very harmful. And so Fred found out he had this chemical. He had his milk tested. He had the blood tested of his wife and his children. Turns out, and as well also, it turned out that all of them were contaminated. And unfortunately, he lost his business completely. And but the good news was is that Fred took his story to a legislative committee and told the story to them. And it was very powerful. And in fact, it really was something that has started a movement now to ban PFAS across the country. And we've already been working on that in Maine, and we've banned certain uses of it. And we're still working on cleaning up other places that have this chemical. So that's an example where his story really started changing things, both in Maine and nationally. So that's an example of a great unfortunate situation very much. And he's pretty much lost his livelihood. But he did use that as an occasion to create change. So let's talk a little bit about decision makers, too. So decision makers, when you think about it, they need you. Like they're not going to go out. We all wish that they would go and stand up for the right thing and just do it. But they won't do that because they can't go and stand up for something if there's no support behind them. So they need you. They need you and your neighbors and your community to support them. And then they can go and stand up for an issue. And so you must speak up. If you don't, they won't know that you care. And another really important thing to think about is that almost all when you're talking about laws, they're almost all abstract concepts, right? I mean, a consumer owned utility, a constitutional amendment for environmental rights, these don't become real until people tell the decision makers how it affects them, right? So this is the job. This is the job of citizen advocates is to bring those human stories in and make these issues real. So that's how important it is. And your perspective, especially to help solve a problem is really a gift to decision makers. And let's just touch up on decision makers a little bit more. And this is the main legislature, but it's true in almost all legislatures across the country and also city councils and other bodies that make decisions, maybe town board of selectmen, maybe the school board. But basically, most of these decision makers are volunteers. And in Maine, they get a small stipend every year, but it's not a salaried position. In some larger states like California, Massachusetts, they are salaried positions, but many, many states like Maine and definitely cities and towns, these are volunteer decision makers. And the reason they're serving is because they want to make a difference, right? They want to make a contribution. And so, you know, that's why they're there. And then it's going back to the main legislature, they are facing 200, 2000 or more, usually 2500 or so bills in each session. So they can't become an expert on every issue. And in addition to that, they're often bombarded by paid lobbyists. And they certainly know the difference between paid lobbyists and citizen advocates. And so, they really need the citizens to come in and explain what the issue is and show by their experiences, how these different bills or laws or proposals affect them. So that's the important role and you can help them, help them do this. So here's just a quickie on how to find out about issues. Environmental advocacy groups like the NRCM, Natural Resources Council of Maine, or the Sierra Club nationally, there are many, many environmental groups that track issues. And if you are interested in them, you need to connect with these organizations. You can also Google your city or your legislature and find out what's going on. And in Maine, there's four committees that deal with environmental issues. And these are the Environment and Natural Resources Committee, Energy Utilities and Technology Committee, Marine Resources and Agriculture Conservation and Forestry. So basically you can look, and it's so easy now, online access is so much better. The state legislature websites are much clearer and easier to navigate than they used to be. So it's not hard to find out about issues and figure out where you can participate. And so here are sort of seven things that you could do right now. You can find an issue you care about. You can write a letter to the editor. You can give testimony or written. You can call or email committee members or city councillors or your town board of selectmen. You can contribute articles to newsletters. You can get the word out over social media. You can talk to your friends and family about the issues you care about. But we all need to do this. Nobody, I think, should be exempt because really, as I said earlier, participation is low and the risk of really difficult environmental degradation is really high. So we've all got to do this. And whoops. So here's kind of a question for you. How many calls does it take to move a legislator or city councillor? And you'd be very surprised at the answer here. And the answer is, whoops. The answer is five. Five calls, email or text is enough to make a difference, to stand out. It's really, it's amazing. And I think, you know, if you're in a larger city or state, maybe that number goes up to maybe 20. But it really doesn't take that much because people just don't do it. And decision makers really appreciate it when people call them and say, please support this issue. And I care about this issue. And here is the reason why. So basically, the message here is if we all take action together, we can create a world that is compassionate, nurturing and healthy for everyone. And this is the vision is we all can move forward. We can create the world that we want. And here's the cover of the upcoming book. It is filled with information on things like, well, the whole first section is on how to think differently. And there's a great deal in there about how to work with conservatives, about worldviews, which I couldn't get into here. And then lots of detailed information about how to write testimony, how to organize a coalition, how to work with the media, how to work with decision makers. So lots of information for everybody in the book. And just in closing, I just want to say, this is really wonderful to be able to have this book to offer. And it really, it just came out of the teaching I'd been doing in colleges. And also with the encouragement and support of lots of people who I really, really appreciate. So thank you for that. And we'll be taking some questions. And here is my contact information. And you are welcome to contact me anytime. And the book can actually be pre-ordered. It'll be available in July. But if you go to Random House advocating for the environment, you can actually order it today. So with that, I will turn it back over to Juliana. And we can have a little dialogue and answer some questions. Awesome. Thank you so much, Sue. A little round of applause for the first talk of the book. Yeah. Thank you. That was wonderful. Do folks have questions? You can either put them in the chat or we don't have very, you know, we have a manageable number if you want to come off mute and ask a question as well. Anybody have one? We've got a few questions we kind of planted. So you might end up getting those. All right. So here's one question. Our country is so politically polarized today. How can we gain the critical mass we need to clean up the environment? Yeah. What a great question because we are polarized. And the interesting thing is, is I do a whole segment in my courses on conservatives for the environment because what I see is I see that things are starting to sort of move forward even on the conservative side. And of course, keep in mind, we don't have to have 100% of everyone in order to change to the world that we truly want. We do need a critical mass at least 10%, but that's not 100. So, but it is really interesting. There's a whole movement called creation care that has been started by young evangelical Christians, for example. And there are 600 million evangelicals. And so there's a group that would be really great. In fact, I think also partnerships, if environmental advocates can partner with other groups like this, I think it can be really powerful. So I hope that that can happen as well. Great. And it looks like we have one question here. Can you give a little bit of information on talking with hostile lawmakers? Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's that's really a tough one. And one of the things I can say is we a group of us did some research a few years ago on how to talk about climate change for this exact reason that a lot of people, you know, are still not comfortable speaking about it. And what we found was that relating to people's personal experiences is the way to create common ground. So, for example, in Maine, you know, things like the ice melts from the lakes sooner than it ever used to. Right. And so you asked people about, have you have you noticed that if you notice the the ice going out, you know, later than usual, have you noticed that there's either more rain or less rain or or more powerful storms, you have to create kind of create some kind of common ground based on personal experience in order to get through that. And you don't have to come right out and say climate change or or global warming or anything, but more, let's just talk about experiences. And then it's really interesting to find out what people's concerns are. You know, like, what are you concerned about? Are you concerned about, you know, you know, more severe storms in your area or maybe at sea level rise, you know, so that that's how you have to do it really. And it's not easy going always. Great. I have I have a question myself. One of your early slides seemed to show that, you know, we had much more numbers while the problem is born is bad. And now we have much worse problems. And we're not seeing those numbers. Do you do a sense of the why behind that? Why? How why is that? That's a great question. I wonder if it's because in part, because we have, you know, so many different ways of receiving information and so many such a broader range of issues to focus on, I think that might be part of of the issue. But the another issue, another part of it too is that, you know, back when the rivers were catching on fire, it was so visually obvious, you know, people like were horrified when they saw that. And the first oil spill in Santa Barbara, that was the first sort of big oil spill there was. And so people were just horrified by that. So pollution was something you could really see and really, you know, touch. And it's much harder with, I mean, climate change is more of an abstract concept, right? I mean, you can't see CO2. And also some of the other environmental degradation might be far away, you know, Cancer Alley, we can't see that here in Maine, right? We can read about it. But it's it's different when you're seeing those images. So I think that's maybe part of the reason as well. I don't know if that's a full answer, but I think, yeah, it's, yeah, interesting. Yeah, definitely. What about funding? How can people take on large and well funded opponents like corporations? Oh, interesting question. So one of the things I talk about in my classes is that people need to look at, you know, like how organized is the opposition? So for example, I worked on a constitutional amendment to preserve water access for the fishing industry. And yes, that was a new issue, and it took a lot of educating, but there was no organized opposition. So it enabled us to move it pretty fast. It's harder, you know, when you have like the oil and gas industry is actually being very subversive in some like state and local issues, where they want to continue fracking or drilling or whatever they're doing. So it's much harder. But there's always power in numbers of people, you know, and I think, you know, they're starting to see the handwriting on the wall and you have to just keep going. A great example of success with this was the American with Disabilities Act, actually. So back in like the 1960s and 70s, children with disabilities couldn't go to school. There was a woman who is now a wonderful activist who had polio. She's a very bright little girl, but she had polio. She was in a wheelchair and she was not allowed to attend school because they said she'd be a fire hazard. Well, she was up against some pretty stiff opposition. And it took them a long time. It took about 20 years to get the ADA passed from the beginning of protesting until getting it getting it passed. But it can be done with persistence and with numbers of people. And so sometimes that's what you have to do. If you don't have the funding, you have to be more creative and you have to be more persistent and you have to be willing to stick with it for a long time. But and certainly the tomato pickers basically had no money and they're picking for big corporations. But they were able, through getting a lot of media attention in everything they were doing, they ran a boycott of products and they were able to win it. So it can be done, but it's just more challenging. Thanks. Marianne here was especially surprised that you said fossil fuel use is increasing. Is that in transportation? Energy production has been switching toward renewables? No, actually it's in drilling and fracking and producing the actual fossil fuels. That's increasing greatly. And I've wondered, I don't know facts on this, but I've wondered if they are trying to get as much out of the ground as they can before they know that things are going to shut down, which may be the case. But if you look at the numbers, the gallons of oil and gas being produced has been steadily going up, even though we've been talking about renewable energy for a while now. Oh, that's surprising. I know it's depressing really, but it's kind of happening. All right, we have another question here. There's a great opportunity now with that position opening up on the main PUC, which is Public Utilities Commission. How do we lobby Janet Mills or others to choose a pro-environment replacement? The termed out member was a Paul LePage appointee. Great. So for those people not from Maine, Paul LePage was a governor in the past who was an extreme right-wing governor and he put industry people on the Public Utilities Commission, which is supposed to regulate energy and utilities. But someone just termed out from that right-wing administration and we were hoping to get an environmental person in. And I think the answer to the question of how to lobby Janet Mills is just to write her a letter and especially written. I mean, emails get lost in the pile, but a handwritten or typewritten personal note saying how much this matters, I think is really effective. I imagine too that some of the environmental groups in Maine will be organizing around this a bit. So you can join them in doing that. But there's nothing like a personal story or a personal note saying that you really care about this and hope that she puts environmental list on that board. So that's the thing to do. Great. Thanks. Another question here from Becky. In our Army Corps CMP effort, which is central Maine power effort, we are learning that the judiciary has a feeling of deference to agencies, but our agencies are underfunded and missing staffers and are under stress by significant big business pressure. How do we help with that? Yeah, that's a great question, Becky. It's we've been kind of undergoing it ever since the Freedman doctrine and throughout the 1980s and 1990s and 2000s. The right-wing with their small government agenda has been really pressuring government budgets and keeping both state and federal agencies small and lean and underfunded. That's really true. And the question was related to the Corridor Commission, right? Remind me what the actual question was. Yeah, how do we help with agency fund the agency? Yeah, yeah. So well, there's a couple of things I would say about that. One is we want really good people in the agencies. And we're kind of going through a wave of retirements right now in state government positions. And so one thing that we need to be doing is creating a pipeline of, you know, bright committed professional people to serve in state agencies. And I tell my classes about this. It's like people don't think necessarily about government careers, but I was in state government for 14 years and it was a tremendous opportunity to make a difference. It really was. And so, and it, you know, it paid well. It was, it was good. So I want, we need to see really good people in those agencies so that every position is one that can really, you know, make a difference. Then the other thing, of course, is to support the state budget and to work with decision makers, the legislators who create and approve the budget, we need to make sure that those agencies are being funded and that our representatives know how much we care about that. We can't do the job if there aren't any people in those seats. And we can't do the job if the people in the seats are sort of just there marking time and not really trying to make a difference in the world. So, but one thing I will say too is in my 14 years in state government, boy, the people I worked with were there because they cared. I mean, you could probably, many of us could have maybe made more money in the private sector, maybe, but we wanted to make a difference. And so there was a real sense of commitment by professionals in state government. So I wouldn't underestimate those positions, and we just need really good people to be in them, and we need the legislature to fund them. Great. This question is, do we use more calories taking fuel out of the ground than the amount of calories we get from the oil or gas? Oh, I don't actually know the answer because I'm not an expert in that area, but it's a great question. Another related question that I would like to learn more about myself is actually how much the subsidies are. Because, you know, I know the government subsidizes oil drilling and fracking for gas, and that obviously makes it less expensive to drill and frack, right? So what would it look like if there were no subsidies? Would it then be that getting it out of the ground costs more than what we get out of it as a fuel? Great question. And the other thing to know about this, too, is that all the really easiest to get oil and gas pretty much has been harvested already. And so now, I mean, things like the tar sands in Alberta and Central Canada, it's really expensive to get that oil, more so than just drilling into a deep pool of it. So it's getting more expensive to get those fuels. And so I still don't have the answer as to whether it costs more than what we get out of it as fuel or not, but there's the subsidy issue in there, and there's the difficulty in getting fuel from the more difficult sites now as well. So very interesting equation to look at. And I think the last I heard the subsidies per year to the fossil fuel industry was around $53 billion a year. Is that? Wow. I see Abby has her hand up. Yeah. I'm curious to know what your perspective is on the 2019 film that came out called Planet of the Humans that looked at whether renewable energy sources such as biomass energy, wind power and solar energy are as clean and renewable as they are portrayed to be. And remember, it was really controversial. It was taken down off of YouTube for a while and Michael Moore made it available for free eventually, but it was terribly panned. And then for some of us who believe almost everything we hear, we thought it was great. And I was totally blown away by Bill McKibbin's obtuseness. It was like having a hero fall off the pedestal. And I was wondering if you could comment on that moment in time and that subject matter. Wow. What a great question. I just happened to catch it before they took it away of that movie. And it was a pretty hard hitting thing where they basically ambushed Bill McKibbin at a outdoor rally event and asked him about biomass and whether that was considered renewable or not. And he was kind of like, I don't know. So it was a bad moment for him. I did think it was a little unfair in the way that the way they ambushed him that way, because they had him on camera and, you know, they hadn't asked to interview him or anything. He was just doing something else. But there is a great deal of controversy around biomass as to whether that really is renewable. And I think, you know, even here in Maine, that's been an issue. You know, we sort of went in that direction and now people are questioning it, right? Because, you know, initially, in Maine anyway, it was burning sort of waste. In other words, you know, we're harvesting wood for paper and for lumber and the slash and the bushes that were around the trees. And there's just things that were just not being used. And so the idea was just to use what was already there. But then it kind of grew beyond that. And then they started harvesting small trees and things that, you know, could have grown larger. And then people started to question, well, is this really renewable anyway? And plus it also does emit smoke and some carbon into the air. So it's not pure in that sense. So I think there, I think actually, I guess my comment would be, I think Michael Moore is sort of right to question biomass. I'm not sure that is a really good solution. So we should be questioning that. His methods of kind of, you know, ambushing people in the streets, not sure that's really fair. But anyway, it did certainly create a memorable moment of film, right? I mean, neither Abby or I could forget it because it was, you know, so. But I do think, yeah, biomass is not going to really be our solution, especially now that we know that, you know, forest sequester carbon and we want to keep them growing and standing and not be, you know, harvesting them all. So, you know, I think I personally would probably, you know, I'd be against biomass as a renewable solution. Yeah, we're on the same page. Yeah, I think we are. I do have one more question. Your slideshow, your PowerPoint that you just did is so concise and crisp. I'm wondering if you, I mean, obviously I'm going to order the book and have that as read it and have it as a reference. But having the PowerPoint or having access to it would be great. But you may not want to share it at this point when you're just launching. How do you feel about that? I haven't really thought about it. Let me think about it. I mean, honestly, I thought, how can I say anything in just half an hour? Because it's, you know, I mean, there's a whole really interesting section in the beginning about the conservative and the progressive worldviews and how they differ and why certain things have happened the way they have based on that. I mean, I have a whole talk on that, actually, that's separate from this one. And the book also, I should say, is it's also a reference book. It's the kind of book that you would have on your shelf. And then if you're working on something and you're like, oh, wow, I want to read that chapter on how to work with the media. You know, so it's kind of one of those things you'd go back to when you had a need for that chapter. So there's a lot of good stuff to read through on the worldviews and communications. And then there's stuff that, well, yeah, I might read that chapter sometime if I'm needing it, right? So I think that comes across well in your in your PowerPoint that this book is a Bible for political action. Yeah, great. Thank you. That's really helpful feedback. Because that's what I want people to think. This is something you want on your shelf. Yeah, yeah. That brings us to another great question, which is, you know, yeah, what are your plans for the book? Will you be doing speaking engagements in schools? Or I think we'd like to hear about that a little bit. Oh, what a great question. So it turns out that this afternoon at two o'clock, I am meeting with the publicist at the publisher to talk about that. So I'm not quite sure what she's going to say. And what we're going to plan yet. We're just that's exactly what we're going to be doing. And I do hope to be able to travel. In fact, I'm really excited about the vaccines getting out there because, you know, like, especially in the fall, I'd love to do some traveling and some presenting and meeting people. Just really want to meet people and talk about these issues primarily. So, so yes, I will be doing some of that. Exactly how much of my time will be in that. I'm not sure yet, actually. And of course, everything's changing with social media. So there'll probably some more of that too. And so yes, I and I love teaching. So I hope to do more of that. I teach as an adjunct professor at Bates and Colby colleges. I would love to add, you know, a few other schools to my teaching routines. And I'd even be willing to think about doing a senior high school class, I think would be really fun. It's great to talk to younger people about all these techniques and how to do it. And they really, they just really soak it up because they want to know. So it's been really fun to do that. That's awesome. Well, thank you so much. I think that will bring us to the end of this presentation. I know I learned a lot. Yeah, so thank you so much for being here and celebrating Earth Week with us. Well, thank you, everybody. I'm just so excited that you came. And I'll look forward to talking to a lot of you later on. But but your support just means so much to me. So really, thank you so much for that. All right. And we did want to mention one last thing is that we have another event tomorrow, which is climate change in the remotest reaches of our planet and its significance. And so that will be a really interesting talk tomorrow as part of our Earth Week series. And we'll hope to see you all there. Have a good rest of your day. Thank you, everyone. Bye.