Notes on Climate Change Meeting Led by LWVC

On June 22, 2019, about forty Leaguers from ten Southern California Leagues met to talk about climate change and what they wanted to do about it. The meeting was led by Diz Swift, from the LWVC Climate Change Task Force.

The San Diego League was having their annual meeting and did not attend. Otherwise, members were there from Santa Barbara to Orange County. The meeting was held at All Saints Church's Sweetland Hall, where the LWV-PA has held many events. The lunch was arranged by Anne McCormack with no waste.

The first hours were spent giving us an overview of the LWVC website on climate change and the many areas that we can explore. I think that many of us didn't realize the scope of what had been done before we met. We were called on by the League to state what our climate change committees have been doing—Santa Monica, for example, has been working on its Climate Action Plan and sponsoring “solar brunches” to encourage people to go solar.

After lunch, we organized into groups determined by the topics we most wanted to pursue. The topics were whittled down from eight to four by the number interested. They included carbon drawdown, electrification, climate action, and transportation and housing.

I joined the electrification group, which was based on an event held at a farmers' market in Berkeley by the Berkeley, Albany, Emeryville League led by Candace Hyde-Wang. It had vendors, speeches by climate authorities, and the regular ebb and flow of the market.

We want to replicate it down here in Pasadena, led by Kathy Berlin of LWV-PA. We will contact the electric utilities to supply some of the products, instead of vendors, and thus avoid having to deal with problems of favoritism. We are going to look at both the Pasadena Farmers’ Market and the Pasadena Convention Center as possible venues. We have a list of possible speakers courtesy of Candace. We are on our way.

—Kitty Koger, Chair, Natural Resources