Welcome to Climate Week En Review. I’m your host, Chelsea Henderson, only slightly bruised from the negative responses to last week’s email. That was me practicing my podcast voice, because readers… the first episode of our EcoRight Speaks podcast is being finalized as I write. See below for more.
NEW PODCASTEcoRight Speaks: It’s happening.
We are super excited to announce the long awaited launch of our EcoRight Speaks podcast on June 16th. Please share this exciting news with all your social networks! Subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher and/or Google Podcast and be sure to give us a five-star rating, which helps other listeners find us.
Why are we doing this? To amplify the EcoRight voice. To encourage conservatives to speak up. To present conservative solutions to climate change. To help bring America together to lead the world to solutions.
For years, Price Atkinson and I have dreamed of launching a republicEn.org podcast. But the time and energy it took to get off the ground was daunting with all the other work on our plates. In this time of the coronavirus, with Bob Inglis’s EnCourage Tour travel schedule converted to zoom and the EcoRight news I follow on the regular at a trickle, we found ourselves with a little more time on our handsand a need for a new way to produce the EcoRight content you know (and love) us for.
Over the last six weeks or so, our team has come together to make this podcast possible. From Price, the producer, teaching me everything I need to know about using my best radio voice and how to sound engaging. To Jack Pleasants and Wen Lee, who brought their ideas (and artwork) for spreading the word. To Bob, who trusted us when we said we wanted to do it and could do it while still performing our other responsibilities. And Alex Bozmoski, who gave us resources and advice and cheered us along the way. Next week, you will get to know our colleague Kevin Croswhite.
The first episode features Mary Anna Mancuso from our Spokesperson team (??don’t we look like we are having fun?) and the second episode features Lance Lawson and his father, discussing the topic of Lance’s first op-ed, How I convinced my dad climate change is real. Future segments will feature Nick Huey and John Sweeney, as well as an episode with Alex Posner of Students for Carbon Dividends fame. Every Tuesday, a new episode will drop. Be sure to tune in!
Who do you want to hear from? Be sure to drop me a line to let me know!
The farmer and the offset: Indiana Senator Mike Braun joined a bipartisan group of senators, including Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) to introduce the Growing Climate Solutions Act, a bill which would break down barriers for farmers and foresters interested in participating in carbon markets so they can be rewarded for climate-smart practices. The bill has the support of the American Farm Bureau Federation, National Corn Growers Association, Environmental Defense Fund, McDonald’s, Microsoft, and over 40 farm groups, environmental organizations, and Fortune 500 companies.
“As a Main Street Entrepreneur and conservationist, I know firsthand that if we want to address our changing climate then we need to facilitate real solutions that our farmers, environmentalists and industry can all support, which this bill accomplishes,” Braun said in a statement. In the same statement, Graham noted: “As Americans we have the ability to come up with climate solutions that can benefit our economy and our way of life. The United States has long been a leader in innovation. This legislation is an opportunity to put our knowledge and can-do spirit to work to promote business opportunities for the agriculture industry while promoting the protection of our environment.”
The program would improve transparency and make it easier for farmers and other landowners to participate in carbon markets. Third-party entities would be able to become “USDA certified” as technical service providers or verifiers, a move aimed at creating more legitimacy and consistency as more carbon sequestration initiatives crop up.
YOU’RE INVITED: Next week, the Metropolitan Republican Club is hosting a virtual event, The Green New Deal versus the EcoRight: an evening with Bob Inglis on June 17th at 7pm on their Facebook page. Bob will talk about all our favorite subjects from the EcoRight to free enterprise. Go to the Met Club Facebook page at the time of the event to livestream. (H/T to Spokesperson John Sweeney for the open invitation.)
This week’s must read: With a revised version of his statement last week, Bob Inglis was published in the State: The fight for racial justice and harmony can be won one small breakthrough at at time. “As we work to solve climate change at republicEn.org, we’re aware of the environmental injustices that subject low-income people to the worst effects of climate change; disproportionately, they will be people of color,” he writes. “And as a white guy I need to humbly acknowledge the unearned privilege that exempts me from much of that suffering.”
On a personal note, thanks to all of you who reach out to me and/or Bob to offer your support in response to last week’s email. Your kind words meant a lot, especially in the face of some not nice words… This community is important to climate change action, and as always, I appreciate you. See you next week!