“People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive.”
– Joseph Campbell from the 1987 book, Joseph Campbell and Power of Myth with Bill Moyers

A birthday is a good day to reflect upon what have I done with my life and where do I want to go from here. Five years ago, I did a blog of life reflection, “On turning 50 years old, reflections for my climate advocacy.“

In that blog, I wrote about pivotal years of my birth, age 10, 20, 30, 40 and turning age 50. I then focused on the advice I would give my 40-year-old self, since I grew up hearing my parents and their friends say, “Life begins at 40.”

My advice to my younger self: “Believe in you and keep your eye open for opportunities and people to meet because you will accomplish far more than you can even envision right now.”

I then listed and described my accomplishments, adventures and highlights from the age of 40 years old to 50 years old. I then ended the blog thinking about my own mortality. It is possible I have more yesterdays than tomorrows since it is statistically unlikely that I will reach 100 years old or now even 110 years old. It could happen. I am not fatalistic or pessimistic. I love life, but tomorrow is never guaranteed.

Here is how I ended that blog: “Now I am looking forward to my next 10 years. I sure hope to do something big in my 50s, like giving a TED Talk. If life begins at 40 and my life certainly felt like it did, I am eager to see what my 50s and beyond have for me. Let the adventure begin!”

I have not accomplished a TED Talk yet, but I hope to do that. However, I am now halfway through that ‘next 10 years.’ I had some fabulous high points and some crushing low points.

Earlier in 2023, I blogged, “For Climate Action, who’ll buy my memories?” That blog was a potential introductory chapter when I eventually write my autobiography or memoir about my life as a climate organizer. My goal is to write a memoir called From Park Ranger to Climate Activist: My peaks and valleys on this Journey. In that blog, I touched upon highlights and low lights from life from the past five years. This blog expands upon my life’s journey of the past five years.

July 2018 – Transitioning from a Tesla Motors employee to a Renew Oregon volunteer

In July 2018, I was in a mid-life crisis. Just nine days before my 50th birthday, I quit my job at Tesla Motors. That job was not a good fit for me. From January to June 2018, I worked at Tesla Energy selling solar panels at nearby Home Depots. As my first sales job in my career, It presented a big challenge for me to sell home solar systems to often skeptical and uninterested Home Depot customers.

This Tesla Energy job felt strange after working 25 years a park ranger in the national parks. People love park rangers. They treated me like a celebrity as a park ranger. I loved my seasonal park ranger job in the Everglades and Crater Lake National Parks, but I stopped working as a park ranger in October 2017. I wanted to organize for climate action. This Tesla sales job allowed me to set my own hours and schedule, enabling me the flexibility to be a climate organizer.

On June 12, 2018, I was lobbying Congressional Offices at the U.S. Capitol as part of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) Lobby Day. Suddenly, my iPhone exploded with texts and messages with my job. In the messages, I learned Tesla laid off my supervisor, the advisor manager, their regional boss and 9% of Tesla’s staff, mostly in the Tesla Energy Division.

When I returned to Portland days later, I received the news that my job transferred to Tesla Motors, located just south of downtown Portland. Sadly, the new job felt relentless and demoralizing for me with the long hours, long commute, unsupportive work environment, and stifling work culture. Therefore, I decided to leave that job on July 9, 2018.

That day I resigned from Tesla, my mind was in a fog. I was not sure what to do with my life. The Tesla store was in the south waterfront district just south of downtown. I decided to go to the Powell’s Books downtown store to restore my soul. Powell’s Books is a big landmark, institution, and tourist destination in Oregon. It claims to be “the largest used and new bookstore in the world, occupying an entire city block and housing approximately one million books.” After spending two hours there to cheer myself up after quitting a very stressful job, I walked towards a MAX commuter train stop to take public transit home.

During this walk, I ran into Sonny Mehta, an organizing Field Director for Renew Oregon. I first met Sonny October 22, 2017, two days before I departed Portland to start the 2017 The Oregon Stewardship Tour. In autumn 2017 and 2018, Renew Oregon was in the middle of organizing a campaign to lobby the Oregon Legislature to pass cap and trade legislation in the upcoming 2019 session. When I led The Oregon Stewardship Tour, Oregon CCL leadership wanted me to include information in my talks on Renew Oregon’s cap and trade policy. Thus, I stopped by the Renew Oregon office in downtown Portland just before I left for the 2017 tour. As I chatted with Sonny, he gave me handouts from Renew Oregon to share with Oregonians during my tour.

When I ran into Sonny on July 9, 2018, he asked what I was doing. I shared that I just quit my Tesla job. Sonny and I agreed to meet for coffee in a couple of days. He encouraged me to volunteer for Renew Oregon in their organizing efforts to get the Oregon Legislature to pass a cap-and-trade bill in the 2019 Oregon Legislative session. Looking to do the most effective climate action, I jumped at the opportunity to get involved with Renew Oregon. I soon joined their weekly organizing calls late in July.

July 2018 – My first efforts to fund raise for climate and political action

It took several weeks for me to be fully involved with Renew Oregon’s campaign. A few days before my 50th birthday, I choose to do something new to boost my morale. I posted a birthday fundraiser on Facebook for CCL on July 13th. My initial goal was to raise $200. I actively promoted this fundraiser and encouraged friends and family to contribute.

To my surprise, I blew past that $200 goal within a couple of days. I then set a goal to raise over $1000 by the time of my birthday. By the time of my birthday on July 18th, I raised over $1,137 for CCL. That far surpassed any expectations I had. I discovered a new talent and skill for myself: fundraising. Two years later in the fall of 2020, I co-hosted two virtual fundraising house parties for the campaign for Chris Gorsek for Oregon Senate and Shemia Fagan for Oregon Secretary of State. Those house parties went above expectations for fundraising.

In 2022, I co-hosted a successful fund-raising house party for my Oregon Senator Kayse Jama. From April to September, I was the Outreach Coordinator for the Raz Mason for Oregon Senate Campaign. I co-organized three house parties for her campaign. Furthermore, I encouraged local and national friends and family to contribute to her campaign. I helped raise over $7000 to her campaign. All my efforts for fundraising started with that 2018 fundraiser for CCL.

Around the time of my CCL birthday fundraiser, the Climate Reality Project (CPR) asked my permission to use my image for their fundraising campaign. CRP was originally known as the Alliance for Climate Projection. Al Gore established CRP in 2006 with the proceeds he received from the 2006 documentary film and book, An Inconvenient Truth, plus the prize money he received as the co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. CPR’s mission is “to recruit, train, and mobilize people of all walks of life to work for just climate solutions that speed energy transition worldwide and open the door to a better tomorrow for us all.”

Along with over 850 other climate advocates, I first attended a Climate Reality Project Training led by Al Gore in San Francisco in August 2012. Since then, I was a mentor to help train other Climate Reality Leaders in Chicago, Illinois in 2013, Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 2015, Houston, Texas in August 2016, Denver, Colorado in March 2017, and Bellevue, Washington in June 2017. After I became an active Climate Reality Leader after the 2012 San Francisco training, I frequently promoted CRP as a great organization to get involved with the climate movement.

By July 2018, CRP appreciated my efforts to promote them as I organized for climate action. Thus, I was honored when they selected two Climate Reality Leaders and me as the faces to represent their summer 2018 fundraising campaign.

August to November 2018: Actions as a public speaker, canvasser, and volunteer lobbyist

Around the time of that July fundraiser for Climate Reality Project, they invited me to be a breakout speaker for a co-presentation with another Climate Reality Leader for their upcoming training in Los Angeles August 28-30, 2018 . That took time to prepare that presentation and schedule time with the co-presenter Itzel Morales to get our talk ready for the training. Itzel and I gave this breakout session, “Mastering the Presentation” to several hundred people during this Climate Reality Training. We were very pleased how the presentation unfolded and the positive responses we received from fellow Climate Reality Leaders and mentors.

In September and October, I devoted consider time to canvass in Washington state for their 1631 ballot initiative to put a price on carbon. I knocked on many doors of the homes in Vancouver, Washington to urge these residents to vote for this carbon pricing initiative. This ballot measure lost by a vote of 43% to 56%. I was very proud of my efforts to engage with Washington state voters to support this climate action.

In mid-October, I organized a climate change speaking tour across my home state of Missouri. I gave presentations at my alma mater William Jewell College, Missouri University in Columbia, my alma mater Oakville High School, St. Louis University, and teaching a Climate Change 101 continuing education class at St. Louis Community College. It was a very successful tour with the presentations I gave across Missouri. The student newspaper for William Jewell College, The Hilltop Monitor, published an article on October 26, 2018 about my talk on the campus, “Brian Ettling presents the conservative case for a carbon tax at the 2018 Truex Economic Lecture.”

Before the 2018 Missouri climate speaking tour and while I canvassed for the 1631 ballot initiative, I deepened my involvement with Renew Oregon as they ramped up their efforts to urge Oregon Legislators to pass a cap-and-invest bill in the upcoming 2019 Legislative session.

During the summer of 2018, I started reaching out to my Oregon Legislators. In August 2018, fellow CCL volunteer and Climate Reality Leader KB Mercer and I met for coffee with our Democratic nominee for the Oregon Senate, Shemia Fagan. As constituents, we urged her to support the cap-and-invest bill in the upcoming 2019 Oregon Legislative session.

In addition, I wrote letters to my Oregon Representative Diego Hernandez. I met him for the first time on September 25, 2018, on a legislative working day at the Oregon state Capitol. We met for a second time on December 18, 2018 to urge him to support a Renew Oregon cap-and-invest bill. Both of my legislators were strong climate champions and dependable supporters of the legislation, so my meetings with them were positive experiences.

As a side note, I will point out that Shemia Fagan was elected as Oregon Secretary of State in November 2020. She resigned from that position in May 2023 because of ethical violations while serving in that position. In March 2021, Diego Hernandez resigned serving as a Representative from the Oregon Legislature due to multiple accusations of sexual harassment.

In both cases, the professional conduct of these two public servants disappointed me. I thought they took the appropriate position to resign their elected positions because they lost public trust with their ethical violations. Having acknowledged this, I still want to note both of these individuals were very supportive and generous with their time with me when I started lobbying them in 2018 to support the cap-and-invest bills.

Besides lobbying my state legislators, I wrote op-eds for Renew Oregon’s cap and trade bill for Oregon newspapers in the fall of 2018. On September 25, 2018, Klamath Falls Herald and News published a guest opinion that I wrote. “To reduce wildlife smoke, let’s act on climate change.” At that time, I was an active volunteer with Citizens’ Climate Lobby and Renew Oregon. Thus, it was fun for me to promote CCL’s carbon fee and dividend proposal and Renew Oregon’s Clean Energy Jobs Bill in one op-ed.

On October 6, 2018, the Bend Bulletin printed my guest column, “2018 drought and smoke should push us to act on climate change.” My op-eds for the Herald and News and the Bend Bulletin both referenced recent articles about the intense heat and smoked happening in Oregon that summer. In writing those op-eds, I then pivoted to the solution of supporting CCL’s carbon fee and dividend and Renew Oregon’s Clean Energy Jobs bill. These op-eds were published just days before I left for my October speaking tour in Missouri.

2018-19: Inviting guest speakers for Climate Reality Portland Chapter Monthly Meetings

On September 17, 2018, around the same time I volunteered with Renew Oregon, I attended the Climate Reality Portland Chapter monthly meeting. I was active with this group since I first moved to Portland in February 2017. At this meeting, I volunteered to be the Program Director recruiting guest speakers for the monthly meetings. For over the next year and four months, I enjoyed booking the local monthly speakers for the chapter meetings.

• For the October 2018 meeting, my friends Marvin Pemberton and Ken Pitts talked about how they give climate change presentation to the schools in the Portland area.
  
  
• At the November 2018 meeting, I booked Climate Reality Leader Katy Eymann from Bandon, Oregon shared about her latest efforts to stop the proposed Jordan Cove LNG pipeline and Sonny Mehta from Renew Oregon gave an update about the Clean Energy Jobs bill to price carbon pollution in Oregon.
  
  
• For the January 2019 meeting, I asked Lenny Dee, co-founder at Onward Oregon and Just Energy Transition Campaign Co-Coordinator for 350PDX, to share the latest about the Portland Clean Energy Fund and Climate Reality Leader Jane Stackhouse gave a summary on what was happening with Renew Oregon’s Clean Energy Jobs Bill.
  
  
• At the February 2019 meeting, I recruited 15-year-old organizers Jeremy Clark and Charlie Abrams to talk about their achievements in climate organizing and my friend Francine Chinitz gave a 10-minute presentation about Citizens’ Climate Lobby.
  
  
• For the March 2019 meeting, I reached out to Charlotte Shuff from the Community Energy Project, to share how her organization helps low-income renters in Portland with weatherization to reducing their utility costs. This also helps them lower their carbon footprint.
  
  
• For the May 2019 meeting, we invited chapter member Kate Gaertner, founder of TripleWin Advisory to present the necessity and opportunity of pursuing deep corporate sustainability measures within business. During the second half of the meeting, I gave a sample Truth in 10 Climate Reality Talk on the problem and solutions to climate change.

Organizing in 2019 to urge Oregon Legislators to pass the Clean Energy Jobs Bill (HB 2020)

For the first half of 2019, I was very involved volunteering to Renew Oregon to urge Oregon legislators to pass a cap and invest bill. It was introduced in the Oregon House as the Clean Energy Jobs Bill or HB 2020 on February 4, 2019.

Just two days after the bill’s introduction, I helped Renew Oregon turn out volunteers and participants for their Lobby Day at the Capitol in Salem on February 6th. Along with other CCL members and Climate Reality Leaders, I called over 160 volunteers across Oregon with CCL and Climate Reality Project to attend this rally and lobby their state legislators to pass HB 2020. Over 700 people attended this rally. The day after the rally, Sonny Mehta called me to thank me for all my efforts. He shared that many people told him that they were there because of CCL. He was blown away by CCL’s involvement and participation in the event.

Renew Oregon and their many volunteers, including me, lobbied the legislators extensively before and during the session to build good relationships with them. Therefore, we were confident we had the votes among the Democratic legislators in the Oregon House and Senate to pass this bill before the end of the legislative session. One of the highest moments of my climate organizing and for all the Renew Oregon climate organizers was the moment HB 2020 passed on the Oregon House floor on Tuesday, June 18, 2019.

The Clean Energy Jobs Bill moved on to the Senate floor where we had the Democratic votes to pass this bill. On June 20, 2019, it was very disheartening when Oregon Senate Republicans fled the state to deny the required 2/3 quorum for a floor vote for HB 2020. Over the next ten days, it felt more depressing as Republicans Senators refused to return to work until the Democrats agreed to kill HB 2020. It felt like a year of effort for me of numerous lobby meetings with legislators, attending organizing meetings, testifying at hearings, helping to organize events and rallies, encouraging residents across Oregon to contact their legislators, and countless trips to the Capitol in Salem was all going down the drain. It was a helpless feeling that a bitter defeat was about to happen and there was nothing we could do about it.

The bill had to pass the Legislature before the Sunday, June 30, 2019, the last day of the session or it would die. The last day of the session is known on the Oregon Legislative calendar as Sine Die. According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary Sine Die means, “without any future date being designated (as for resumption): indefinitely. the meeting (or legislative session) is adjourned.” We hoped for a miracle that the GOP Senators would come to their senses and return to Oregon. However, it looked bleaker each day.

On Tuesday, June 25th, Oregon Senate President Peter Courtney announced that he did not have the Democratic votes to pass HB 2020. Therefore, the bill was dead. On Friday, June 28th the Republican Senators returned to Salem to vote on the remaining legislative bills before the Sine Die happened. I felt so numb that a major bill on climate action failed. I had no energy in July 2019. I did not want to get off the couch for weeks. Fortunately, I had other climate actions happening at that time that gave me some hope.

June 2019 to February 2020: Persuading a Member of Congress to co-sponsor a climate bill

From November 2015 to November 2018, I attended 6 Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) Conferences and Lobby Days in Washington D.C. I participated in numerous CCL lobby meetings with Congressional staff to ask them to support CCL’s preferred policy of a climate bill that included a carbon fee and dividend. On November 27, 2018, a small bipartisan group of House members and U.S. Senators introduced Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (EICDA).

This climate bill was first introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Democratic Reps. Ted Deutch (D-FL-22), Charlie Crist (D-FL-13), and John K. Delaney (D-MD-06), as well as Republican Reps. Francis Rooney (R-FL-19) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA-08), On December 19, 2018, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Arizona) and Sen. Chris Coons (D-Delaware) introduced bipartisan Senate version.

Those versions of EICDA died when the new session of Congress started on January 3, 2019. However, the House version of the EICDA was re-introduced on January 24, 2019. In the 6 previous times I lobbied with CCL in Washington D.C, I never persuaded the staff of a member of Congress to support or co-sponsor climate legislation.

I only had one face to face meeting with a member of Congress, U.S. Senator Clair McCaskill of Missouri, on November 17, 2016. This meeting happened just 9 days after Donald Trump was elected President. During a morning coffee meeting with her and other constituents, I voiced my concerns about climate change. She retorted, ‘Good luck with anything good happening with climate policies for the next four years.’

This face-to-face meeting did not go well. My hunch was that I would probably have better success persuading Congressional staff to support a climate bill than a member of Congress. If the Congressional staff likes your policy, you may have a powerful ally that can help sway the Representative or Senator to support your position.

This strategy turned out to be successful for me in June 2019 when CCL volunteers and I met with the Washington D.C. Congressional staff of Representative Frederica Wilson, Florida District 24. We had a very productive conversation with her Legislative Correspondent, Devin Wilcox. Devin seemed very supportive of the EICDA. I very distinctly heard Devon say towards the end of the meeting that he felt his boss Rep. Wilson could easily co-sponsor our bill.

The Florida CCL volunteers and Washington D.C. CCL staff stayed in touch with Devin for months afterwards. I reached out to Florida CCL volunteers periodically to make sure they were in contact with Devin regularly. That June 2019 meeting, plus CCL volunteer and staff follow up conversations with Devin led to Congresswoman Frederica Wilson to join with 95 of her U.S. House colleagues to co-sponsor the EICDA on February 24, 2020.

Inviting Kelsey Juliana to speak at our June 2019 Climate Reality Portland Chapter Event

As Program Director for the Portland Climate Reality Project Chapter, I asked the Chapter Leadership Team in the spring of 2019 for suggestions for a speaker for the June 2019 meeting. Someone suggested that we reach out to Kelsey Juliana one of the lead plaintiffs for a Youth vs. Gov court case, officially known as Juliana vs. the United States. Their complaint asserts that the federal government’s affirmative actions cause climate change. Therefore, it violated the youngest generation’s constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property, as well as failed to protect essential public trust resources.

Kelsey is originally from Eugene, Oregon. In June 2019, she was a college student at the University of Oregon in Eugene. She is the oldest of the youth 21 plaintiffs taking on the federal government. The plaintiffs in this lawsuit were represented by the non-profit Our Children’s Trust, located in Eugene, Oregon. Hence, that’s why her name is on the lawsuit. The CBS TV show 60 minutes featured these plaintiffs, including Kelsey Juliana, on their March 3, 2019 broadcast.

I emailed Kelsey at the end of April 2019 and she responded that she would be “be happy to come up and present.”

Our leadership team decided to go big for scheduling this event on June 18, 2019. We secured an event space in northeast Portland, known as Tabor Space. The Sanctuary Room at this venue could hold up to 250 people. One member of our Leadership Team, Jonathan Bailey, was able to persuade the City Club of Portland to help co-sponsor the event. The City Club was a terrific partner helping to split the rental costs of the large room at Tabor Space with us. Everything was falling into place for a fabulous event to happen.

The turnout exceeded our expectations. We estimated over 220 people at this event. We had a professional videographer record the event to Vimeo. The Leadership Team chose me as the MC (or Master of Ceremonies) to give the introductions and announcements during the event.

Overall, the event went fantastic. I was very proud to have participated in it, sent the initial email to invite Kelsey Juliana to the event, and to be the MC for the event. I was honored to get my picture with Kelsey Juliana. The full credit to making this event a success really goes to Amy Hall-Bailey and her husband Jonathan Bailey, as well as Brenna Burke, Deborah Lev, Wally Shriner, Brittany Kimzey, Jane Stackhouse, Steve Holgate, the Portland City Club, and many others. My friend and fellow Climate Reality Leader Ken Pitts took wonderful pictures of the event. It was great to be at the right place at the right time to see this event come together.

We really did appreciate Kelsey Juliana and Our Children’s Trust for their time and participation. Kelsey was an enthusiastic and engaging speaker with the audience.

Organizing two big climate events in Portland OR in August 2019 and January 2020

In June 2019, Deb Lev, the Chapter Chair of the Portland Climate Reality Chapter, announced to the Leadership Team that she intended to step down. She quickly needed an interim Chair for our Chapter to replace her. I wanted to take the chapter up to the next level so I asked The Leadership Team if I could take on the role. At that time, I served as the Program Manager on the Leadership Team. That role organized the monthly meetings and inviting guest speakers. I would continue as Program Manager, along with performing as the interim Chapter Chair.

As Chapter Chair, I wanted to organize two big events over the next six months to urge legislators to take another shot at a cap and invest bill. With these two big events, my goal was for the Climate Reality Portland Chapter to become well known in Portland, Oregon. I hoped that more recognition would help us attract more members and energize our membership. Even more, I intended that we partner more closely with other climate and environmental groups in the Portland area to help get climate legislation passed in the 2020 Oregon legislative session.

With approval of the Leadership Team, I organized two very successful events. The first was held at a local theater in Milwaukie, OR on September 16, 2019. We filled this theater with over 80 local climate advocates and Climate Reality Leaders for an event called: “Climate Legislation: Where do we go from here in Oregon?” We had a panel of three speakers: Milwaukie Mayor Mark Gamba, Dylan Kruse from Sustainable Northwest and Shilpa Joshi from Renew Oregon.

At this event, we encouraged folks to fill out post cards to their legislators. We ended up with 50 postcards and 11 letters. Two days later, I took the train to Salem. I delivered the postcards and letters to legislators at their offices at the state Capitol. They just happened to be having a workday in Salem that same day.

We had another large Climate Reality Portland Chapter event on January 21, 2020, attended by over 100 people. We packed the meeting space at the Hollywood Senior Center in northeast Portland. The speakers were Oregon Senator Michael Dembrow and Oregon Representative Karin Power, the chief sponsors of the 2019 Clean Energy Jobs Bill. At this gathering, I encouraged attendees to fill out postcards to their legislators urging them to support the cap and invest bill for the 2020 legislative session. I had another huge stack of filled out postcards to take to the Oregon Capitol. I was exhausted from organizing these events.

At both events, I shot 4 second videos with the packed audience hold up pieces of paper that read, “CLIMATE ACTION NOW!” I then had the audience shout in unison with their fists pumped: “CLIMCATE ACTION NOW!” I sent these videos to Climate Reality staff to use these videos as they see fit, but I did not get much of a response.

Similar to the Milwaukie event, I had a big stack of postcards and letter filled from the attendees to their Oregon senators and representatives urging the legislators to pass the cap and invest bill during the 2020 legislative session.

Organizing an Oregon legislative resolution for climate action

I did not know it at the time, but this was the last Climate Reality Portland Chapter event or any kind of climate event that I organized. At the end of February 2020, the House and Senate Republicans walked out of the legislative session killing all the bills waiting to be passed that session, including the cap and invest bill. For the second legislative session in a row, Republican legislators used a walk out to deny a 2/3 required quorum to kill a climate bill. It was another kick in the stomach and depressing defeat.

On the bright side, Oregon Governor Kate Brown did not take that bad news lying down. On March 10, 2020, she signed bold climate executive orders aimed to cut Oregon’s greenhouse gas emissions. Governor Brown signed her climate executive orders surrounded by youth active in the climate movement. Governor Brown’s office invited climate advocates from around the state to attend, such as Renew Oregon volunteers. Thus, I was part of the group in her office to watch her sign the climate executive orders. That day provided hope and some solace, but the defeats of the cap and invest bills still felt like open wounds.

The bright spot of Governor Brown’s executive climate orders soon ended. Within a couple days, by the the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns loomed over everything. All events, meetings, and indoor activities soon cancelled indefinitely. For years, I was very active in the climate movement planning meetings, organizing events, lobbying, attending hearing, etc. All my climate organizing seemed like it fell off a cliff overnight. I was not sure what to do. I was very depressed.

In March 2020, I resigned as the interim Chair and Program Director of the Climate Reality Portland Chapter. I was burned out from the feuding within the Leadership Team over the previous six months. Fortunately, the bad apples within the Leadership Team who caused the strife left, but I then I had no energy or motivation left to lead the chapter after all the battles with them.

At the same time, I found ways to bounce back from the lowest times. During the summer of 2020 while the COVID pandemic was still raging, I met with numerous Oregon legislators by phone and Zoom. I led the efforts with Oregon CCL volunteers for over 30 Oregon legislators to endorse the CCL federal bill, the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (EICDA). During one of these meetings, Oregon Rep. Tiffiny Mitchell asked if she could introduce a state resolution endorsing the EICDA. Representative Mitchell did not run for re-election. Thus, Senator Michael Dembrow proudly introduced the resolution on the Oregon Senate floor on February 4, 2021, when it officially became known as Senate Joint Memorial 5 or SJM 5.

SJM 5 passed the Oregon Senate on April 7th by a vote of 23 to 5, with 6 Republican Senators, half of the Oregon GOP Senate caucus, joined all the Democratic Senators present to vote to support it. Unfortunately, SJM 5 fell short of receiving a floor vote in the Oregon House in June 2021. It was exciting was that 30 House members, including 7 Republicans, signed on to co-sponsor it. The Oregon House has 60 members. Half the chamber was SJM 5 co-sponsors.

The worst part of this defeat was Oregon CCL leadership becoming very angry when the OR House Democratic Leadership refused to give SJM 5 a floor vote. After I experienced two dreadful GOP walkouts that defeated the 2019 and 2020 cap and invest bills, I never believed SJM 5 would pass until I saw it with my own eyes. The Oregonian published an opinion editorial (op-ed) from Oregon CCL leadership and I disagreed with the tone. Former Rep. Tiffiny Mitchell advised us not to publish it since it seemed to attack OR House Democratic Leadership.

I pleaded with the Oregonian and Oregon CCL leadership to re-edit the op-ed to be more gracious, but they ignored my input. Oregon CCL leadership then organized a protest at the Capitol that I did not want to participate. It looked pointless. OR House Leadership conveyed to me in a clear message that SJM 5 would not receive a vote. The reactions of the CCL Leadership Team after SJM 5 died left me feeling disenchanted with CCL and the climate movement.

My comeback after the COVID Pandemic setback and defeat of the Oregon resolution

In autumn of 2021, I began writing a blog which turned into over 82 pages of writing. It looked like a possible book with the title Why I Quit the Climate Movement. However, that title and those writings felt too pessimistic. I set those writings aside in 2022 to work on political campaigns for state legislators. I focused on trying to elect local Democratic candidates who would protect our democracy. The violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C. on January 6, 2021 frightened me that we came close to losing our democracy. Former Vice President Gore said it best years ago, ‘In order to fix the climate crisis, we first must fix the democracy crisis.’

As a climate organizer, I devoted my energy in 2022 to elect local Democratic candidates who would be strong on enacting climate policies and protecting our democracy. Out of nowhere, Robin Riddlebarger, Park Superintendent of Hanging Rock State Park, North Carolina sent me an email in May 2022. She asked me if I would speak to a group of crusty park superintendents at their annual conference of North Carolina State Parks Superintendents in November 2022.

I jumped at this opportunity to travel to North Carolina to give a climate change talk to these state park superintendents. I had a great time speaking at this conference on November 14, 2022. It felt like I had my groove back giving an in-person climate change talk for the first time since before the COVID pandemic started in March 2020.

In August 2022, my South County Toastmasters group, where I was a member from 2011-17, invited me to be a guest speaker. I gave a short climate change talk to them on April 19, 2023, Reaching for Your Dreams, when I traveled to St. Louis to visit with family for over a week.

In June, I traveled to Washington D.C. for the Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) conference and lobby day. Because of the COVID 19 pandemic, this was first scheduled in-person conference and lobby day since November 2019, about 3 and a half years ago. I had many frustrations with CCL over the years, especially how the SJM 5 resolution ended. Thus, I had a hard time deciding if I wanted to go to Washington D.C. to attend their conference and lobby day.

The key factor that pushed me to register to attend the CCL conference and lobby day was the CNN town hall with Donald Trump on May 10th. It upset me that CNN allowed this twice impeached, indicted, disgraced former president to say a lot of false information with very little real time fact checking. Even worse, the audience cheered with approval when he lied about the 2020 Presidential election was stolen from him. It still seemed like our democracy was under severe threat from Donald Trump and this modern Trumpist movement.

Thus, I chose to lobby with CCL in Washington D.C. for climate action to celebrate our democracy and stress the importance of climate action. Yes, I felt raw how CCL treated me over the years. However, my love for our democracy and passion for climate action was a higher priority for me than my misgivings about CCL. Thus, I bought my airline tickets and registered for the CCL conference and lobby day just a couple of days before the May 21st deadline. I really do try to live my life by the Winston Churchill quote:

“It’s not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what’s required.”

I was glad I attended this CCL conference and lobby day. It was great to see fellow climate advocates that I had not seen in over three and a half years. Even more, my three lobby meetings on Capitol Hill were productive. The best part was a brief conversation that two other CCL friends from Oregon and I had with Congresswoman Andrea Salinas. We were originally scheduled to have a face-to-face meeting with her. However, on the CCL lobby day, that meeting changed to a staff level meeting when the time of one of her committee meetings changed.

My friend Walt and I spotted her in a Congressional hallway. She recognized us from when we lobbied her on climate during her time as an Oregon legislator. We asked if we could chat with her as she walked briskly to her office. She happily agreed. During this quick chat, I asked her if she would co-sponsor the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (EICDA), if it was re-introduced. Rep. Salinas endorsed the EICDA as a state representative in 2020. Even more, she was one of the first legislators to co-sponsor the SJM 5 resolution in 2021. She indicated that it was a possibility co-sponsor the EICDA, but she would want to read the bill first.

Then she was nearly at her office. I wanted to give her time and space to go to her next scheduled commitment. In the rush of everything happening, I asked if we could get a picture with her. She graciously obliged to get a selfie photo on with her along with Oregon CCL friends Walt Mintkeski and Tamara Staton.

Final Thoughts

In 2023, I am focusing my efforts on writing blogs that I hope to eventually turn into a memoir. As I wrote in the opening paragraphs of this blog, my working title for a book is From Park Ranger to Climate Activist: My Peaks and Valleys on this Journey. I hope someone would be interested in reading my life stories as a park ranger to climate organizer.

As I look forward in my life, I hope to turn my blogs on the www.climatechangecomedian.com website into a book or two. I still hope I to do something big in the last five years of my 50s, like giving a TED Talk. For many years, I dreamed of going to grad school to learn how to become a better climate organizer. I still would love to get a dream job as a climate organizer. I don’t have a clue how to do that yet. I hope that path becomes more apparent in the next few years.

Life is a gift. I believe that Joseph Campbell said it best:

“People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive.”

I want to use my remaining years, which is hopefully many years, to experience life fully that I can inspire others, hopefully you, to make a difference to reduce the threat of climate change.

“Fight for the things that you care about but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”

– Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court

As a climate organizer, one of my proudest accomplishments was organizing three large climate events. I am a climate change speaker who has given talks to groups of over 200 people. At the same time, it was fun for me to plan three separate events where I packed a large room with over 80 and even 100 people to see speakers that I had invited. All of these events happened before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when it was easier to gather large groups of people. I organized one of these events in St. Louis, Missouri in 2017 and two in the Portland, Oregon area. My final large event happened in Portland in January 2020, less than 6 weeks from when the COVID pandemic shutdown started.

I learned a lot from organizing these events. These events would not have been a success without friends from the Climate Reality St. Louis Meet Group (now known as Climate Meetup-St. Louis), the St. Louis Chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) the Climate Reality Portland Chapter, the Metro Climate Action Team, and the CCL Portland, Oregon Chapter. I wanted to share my story of organizing these three large events with this blog as I aim to document about my life as a climate change organizer.

My Climate Change story

As I blogged about previously, I was a seasonal park ranger at Crater Lake National Park, Oregon and Everglades National Park, Florida for 25 years from 1992 to 2017.

In 1998, I started giving ranger talks in Everglades National Park. Visitors then asked me about this global warming thing. Visitors hate when park rangers tell you, “I don’t know.” Visitors expect park rangers to know everything. Don’t you?

Soon afterwards, I rushed to the nearest Miami bookstore and to the park library to read all I the scientific books I could find on climate change.

The information I learned really scared me, specifically sea level rise along our mangrove coastline in Everglades National Park. Sea level rose 8 inches in the 20th century, four times more than it had risen in previous centuries for the past three thousand years. Because of climate change, sea level is now expected to rise at least three feet in Everglades National Park by the end of the 21st century. The sea would swallow up most of the park and nearby Miami since the highest point of the park road less than three feet above sea level.

It shocked me that crocodiles, alligators, and Flamingos I enjoyed seeing in the Everglades could all lose this ideal coastal habitat because of sea level rinse enhanced by climate change.

I became so worried about climate change that I quit my winter job in Everglades National Park in 2008. I moved back to my hometown of St. Louis, Missouri in the winters to give speeches and organized about climate change. However, up until 2017, I still worked my summer job Crater Lake National Park. I loved the incredible beauty there and wearing the ranger uniform with pride while engaging with park visitors.

During my winters in St. Louis, I started organizing slowly for climate action because I was unsure how to go about it. I started giving climate change talks at my nieces and nephews grade schools in the spring of 2010. In the winter of 2011, I joined South County Toastmasters to become a better climate change communicator. That same winter, I worked at the St. Louis Science Center at their temporary climate change exhibit from March to May 2011.

Up until 2017, I still worked my summer job Crater Lake National Park. While working there for many years, the impacts of climate change became apparent with the average annual snowpack diminishing. I noticed more mild winters with below average snowpacks. The summer wildfire seasons became more longer, hotter, dryer and more intense. By August 2011, I had gathered enough information to start giving a climate change ranger evening program at the campground amphitheater to the park visitors.

Getting involved with Citizens Climate Lobby and The Climate Reality Project

In April 2011, while attending a St. Louis Science Center lecture about how climate change is impacting the weather , I met and became friends with St. Louis businessman Larry Lazar. We had a mutual longing to do something about climate change. Thus, Larry and I co-founded the St. Louis Climate Reality Meet Up group in November 2011 (now called Climate Meetup-St. Louis) to organize regular meetings and promote events in the St. Louis area to create more awareness about climate change.

Larry and I had our first meeting at Cafe Ventana in St. Louis on December 11, 2011. Larry organized the meeting around all of us getting to know each other and our concerns about climate change. We had about 16 people attend the meeting, including Tom and Carol Braford. Larry did a great job making our initial Meet Up meeting a success. After the meeting, I will never forget Carol personally inviting me to a Citizens Climate Lobby (CCL) conference call meeting.

Over that winter of 2011-12, Larry Lazar and I led our Climate Reality Meet Up meeting on the third Sunday of each month. Up to 20 people attended our meetings, including Tom & Carol Braford. Carol was very persistent in promoting CCL and inviting me to their meetings. I felt in a bind because attending a CCL meeting intrigued me, but my job schedule made it hard.

Finally, the timing was right when my winter seasonal job ended at the Science Center at the end of April. I was free Saturday, May 5th. I was very impressed with CCL and immediately became involved. At the close of the meeting, I boldly told Carol that I was going to establish a CCL group in southern Oregon when I returned to Crater Lake National Park to work as a park ranger that summer. It took all summer, but I eventually helped establish the southern Oregon CCL chapter that regularly meets in Ashland, Oregon.

In 2011 and into 2012, I also became very interested in the Climate Reality Project (CRP), founded in 2007 by former Vice President Al Gore. I networked with friends involved with CRP to see if I could attend one of their trainings. In the spring of 2012, I applied to attend their next three-day U.S. training that was scheduled in San Francisco in August 21-23. In June 2012, CRP invited over 850 applicants, including Larry and me, to attend this training. As trained Climate Reality Leaders, Larry and I started giving climate change presentations in the St. Louis area that winter. Larry and I gave several joint presentations with Lucas Sabalka, a mathematics professor at St. Louis University who had also attended the Climate Reality San Francisco Training.

In the winter of 2012-2013, Larry, Lucas, and I gave several joint Climate Reality Presentations to large audiences at churches in the St. Louis area. Lucas and his wife left St. Louis in May 2013 to accept a job in his hometown on Lincoln, Nebraska. Up until January 2017, Larry Lazar and I continued to organize monthly meet up events and give regular joint Climate Reality presentations in the St. Louis area. Larry and I gave climate change presentations at some of monthly meet ups, but we mostly invited other speakers.

Because of the magic of Skype and Zoom, we brought in national speakers such as

• Scott Mandia, Professor of Earth and Physical Sciences and Assistant Chair of the Physical Sciences Department at Suffolk County Community College, Long Island, New York. He co-authored the book, Rising Sea Levels: An Introduction to Cause and Impact highlighting the impact of sea level rise on 25 major cities around the world.
  
  
• Dr. Michael E. Mann, Presidential Distinguished Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of several books. Dr. Mann is well known as creator of the “Hockey Stick” temperature graph, an icon in the intense political battle over human-caused climate change.
  
  
• John Cook, founder of the Skeptical Science website in 2007. He is now a Senior Research Fellow with the Melbourne Centre for Behaviour Change at the University of Melbourne. John authored several books on climate changes, such as Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand. More recently, in 2020 he wrote and drew the cartoon illustrations for the book, Cranky Uncle vs. Climate Change: How to Understand and Respond to Climate Science Deniers.
  
  
• Peter Sinclair, a Michigan-based videographer, specializing in climate change and renewable energy issues. He has created hundreds of educational videos correcting climate science misinformation, including his independent “Climate Denial Crock of the Week” series, and the monthly “This is Not Cool” series for Yale Climate Connections, which has run since February 2012.
  
  
• Brian Malow, Earth’s Premier Science Comedian (self-proclaimed). He was featured on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, co-hosted shows on The Weather Channel, and been profiled in Nature, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Washington Post, and the New York Times. “Brian worked in science communications at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, and blogged for Scientific American. His website describes Brian “as currently freelancing as a speaker, performer, consultant, writer, producer, and whatnot.”
  
  
• Dr. Richard Alley, a Professor of Geosciences at Penn State. He was presenter for the PBS TV miniseries on climate and energy Earth: The Operator’s Manual and author of the book. His book The Two-Mile Time Machine, tells a riveting history of global climate changes that is discovered by reading the annual rings of ice from cores drilled in Greenland.
  
  
• Dr. Margaret Klein Salamon, a clinical psychologist turned climate activist who founded and directed The Climate Mobilization from 2014-2020. She is the Founding Principal of Climate Awakening, a project to help foster the power of climate emotions through meaningful small group conversations. She is the author of Facing the Climate Emergency: How to Transform Yourself with Climate Truth, a self-help guide for the climate emergency.
  
  
• Karen Street, a science writer and retired teacher who helps educate the public on climate change science and solutions, sharing the best understanding of scientists and economists. She has a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from UC, Berkeley. She worked as an electrical engineer for several years before becoming a high school math and physics teacher until 1994. As she transitioned to become a science writer, Karen researched the differences between coal and nuclear energy and became aware of the serious threats from climate change. Since then she has become a strong proponent of nuclear energy as a key solution to address climate change.
  
  
• Sam Daley-Harris, an organizer, author, and founder of the anti-poverty organization RESULTS. He wrote a very inspiring book for organizers, Reclaiming Our Democracy, Healing the Break Between People and Government. In 2012 Daley-Harris launched the Center for Citizen Empowerment and Transformation to help organizations more deeply engage their supporters and create champions in Congress and the media for their cause. With his background of creating and building RESUTS, Sam was a mentor to Marshall Saunders over 15 years ago when Marshall created Citizens’ Climate Lobby.
  

I met nearly all these speakers at scientific or climate conferences. However, Larry had a genuine gift of recruiting nearly all these guest speakers and turning out good size audiences in the St. Louis area. The exception was I successfully invited Peter Sinclair, Brian Malow, and Sam Daley-Harris to speak to our Climate Reality St. Louis Meet Up. Because of Skype and later Zoom, I marveled how fabulous it was to be able to invite these national speakers to chat with us by video over 10 years ago, before it became commonplace today.

Organizing my first large meet up event in St. Louis with over 80 people in attendance

In January 2017, my wife interviewed for a job in Portland, Oregon, so we knew we had a good chance of moving there. She accepted the position towards the end of the month, so we decided to move to Portland in early February. Before we knew for sure we were moving, I wanted to start off 2017 on a positive note as a climate organizer.

January 2017 felt very gloomy with Donald Trump’s inauguration as President. Trump vowed to reverse all of Obama’s climate policies. Climate advocates viewed this with a sense of doom and a heaviness of not knowing what to do next. I believed I had the perfect speaker in mind to provide hope and inspiration to St. Louis area climate activists: Jay Butera. He was a volunteer with CCL from Gladwyne, PA. In 2016, after years of effort, “Jay was the concept-originator and driving force behind formation of the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives.” For several years, Jay served as CCL’s Senior Congressional Liaison in Washington, working to maintain a continuous year-round presence for CCL in the Halls of Congress.

In November and December 2017 it took several emails to Jay and a few mutual friends reaching out to him for Jay to say Yes to speak to our Meet Up. We met via Skype in mid-January to plan this event.

Jay and I agreed upon the date of Sunday, January 29, 2017. He would speak to us live by video link at Schlafly’s Bottle Works in St. Louis, Missouri. Before Jay spoke, he wanted me to play the 2016 National Geographic Years of Living Dangerously episode, “Safe Passage.” This episode featured former West Wing TV star Bradley Whitford returning to Washington D.C. to try to lobby Republicans to act on climate change. In the process, he learns about Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) and CCL’s Senior Congressional Liaison in Washington D.C, Jay Butera.

Larry Lazar and I found a way to pack the room with 80 people to hear Jay Butera speak that evening. You could have heard a pin drop when I played that Years of Living Dangerously episode for the audience. They gave Jay a resounding applause when the video stopped. The audience seemed to hang onto every word that Jay spoke. He seemed to have gained a deep respect from this audience. Many folks in this audience were progressives, deeply cynical about Republicans or any politicians solving climate change. They felt deep hurt by the outcome of the 2016 election with the recent inauguration of Donald Trump as President. You could feel Jay giving them a sense of hope and a way to step forward on climate. Jay showed a way to reach Republicans on the issue of climate. It had a sincere impact on this audience.

As a climate organizer, it felt like a peak moment for me. Around that time, I found that that Madeleine Para, then Vice President of Programming for CCL, reluctantly approved of Jay speaking to our Climate Reality St. Louis Meet Up. However, she made it clear that she did not want Jay to speak to any other CCL or climate group. She strictly wanted him to be focused on lobbying members of Congress in Washington D.C.

I wish Madeleine could have been in that room that evening to see how Jay was impacting progressive, more cynical climate advocates. That felt bittersweet at the event that I successfully persuaded Jay Butera to speak this this St. Louis group. At the same time, there seemed to be a bit of resentment from national CCL that I persuaded Jay Butera to speak to this CCL group. When Jay spoke at that meeting, I could not think of a better speaker at that moment. I was very proud of what I had accomplished in that moment and place for climate action.

Unfortunately, everything soon went sideways at this meeting and this era of good feelings quickly fell apart. After Jay spoke, Larry Lazar took over for the second half of the meeting. Early that week, Larry asked me if he could invite a new group to attend this meeting. It was a group I had never hear of before called Indivisible. At that time, I thought they were called Invincible.

Early that same day, there was a protest rally at Lambert International Airport to express over the ban of Muslim immigrants to the U.S. that the new President Donald Trump had just imposed with an execute order. Most of this audience came directly from that protest. They were still simmering with anger over this recent decree by Donald Trump.

They made those feelings very clear when the break was over and we moved into the second half of this meet up. The good vibe that Jay Butera had dispelled over the room suddenly evaporated. One of the first speakers said: ‘I am mad as hell at Donald Trump and something must be done immediately to stop him. We need to impeach him!”

The room then burst into a strong applause. I urged them to follow the path that Jay Butera laid out for us just a few minutes earlier. I tried to counter with a sense of reason that even if we impeached Trump, we would then have a President Mike Pence. I pleaded with the audience that a President Pence would also be terrible for America, especially on the issue of climate change.

Someone yelled out from the audience at me: “I DON’T CARE!”

It felt like I lost control of this audience that they just wanted to grab some pitch forks and storm the castle. Someone else got up to speak that he creates puppets for protest movements, and he wanted to know if anyone would join him. That felt like a face palm moment to me.

It looked like Jay Butera’s message got drown out by the anger towards Donald Trump. I kept thinking: ‘Where were these people in 2016 to organize with the Democrats to prevent Donald Trump from becoming President?’ Most of these folks knew in 2016 that Trump was a threat to climate action, women’s rights, immigration, and our democracy. Yet, they seemed to understate the threat and were super angry now. I felt speechless in that moment.

After another round expressing how angry they were, I responded than you cannot just be against something. Then you automatically have opposition and resistance. You must be smart about your protest, or you can fail. Internally, I was thinking about the 2011 Occupy Wall Street protest. In my view, the 2016 Bernie Sanders movement did not seem to comprehend this.

From a 2016 Toastmasters speech I gave, I shared with this audience an example of something to be in favor of: China plans on spending $361 million dollars on clean energy in the next several years. By that time, they were the world’s largest market and manufacture of solar panels. They also installed more wind turbines than anyone else in 2015 (not sure about the figures for 2016 then). China plans on kicking our ass in the renewable energy race. If we really jump all in on the renewable energy race we clean up our air, provide tons of jobs, grow our economy, become truly energy independent, and best of all, reduce the threat of climate change.

Sadly, my words just seemed to fall on deaf ears.

Larry Lazar soon wrapped up this meeting. Before he adjourned the meeting, Larry announced that my wife Tanya and I were moving from St. Louis to Portland, Oregon in a few days. He shared how much he enjoyed co-organizing the St. Louis Climate Reality Meet Up group with me. His voice seemed almost choked up as he was announcing this. I sure did appreciate Larry saying that. At the same time, I felt deflated from the second half of the meeting. It felt like we lost all momentum for folks in the room to join CCL or try to follow Jay Butera’s example.

After the meeting, I walked up to Larry Lazar who was relaxed and enjoying a beer with an attendee. I asked Larry if he knew inviting the Indivisible or Invincible folks could lead to an uneven meeting like that. Larry responded that if he had not invited Indivisible, we would not have had that huge crowd that evening. He went on to very coldly say, ‘To be honest, I invited them because I doubted most of those folks would be interested in coming to see Jay Butera.’

Larry’s words stung. I had nothing left to say and I just left. Our relationship never seemed to be the same. It was a shame because he was the best man at my wedding on November 1, 2015. I asked him to be my best man because of the great relationship we had co-founding the Climate Reality St. Louis Meet Up group.

A few days later, Tanya and I moved to Portland, Oregon. Larry then dropped out of the climate movement. We lost touch soon afterwards. Larry and I exchanged emails this year. In April 2023, Tanya and I went to St. Louis for a week to celebrate my parents’ 60th wedding anniversary. During this visit, I accepted an invitation to give a climate change speech to my old Toastmasters group, South County Toastmasters. I sent Larry an email inviting him to my speech.

He did respond that he would try to make it. He went on to say: “I’m taking classes (on-line) to learn about solar with the hopes of becoming involved in the solar industry. Maybe even becoming an installer or sales person. I’m open to either and will be starting from the ground up. I think it will be the best use of my time and skills going forward.”

Larry did not come to my Toastmasters speech. However, I was happy to hear that he found a new way to be involved in the climate movement. When I knew him well 10 years ago, he constantly organized climate events and gave climate change talks in the St. Louis area. I was sorry to see that he dropped out of the climate movement in recent years. I assumed that he became very busy with work as a businessman, and he could not handle the distraction of climate organizing anymore. If he puts his mind into solar installation like he did for creating and organizing the Climate Reality St. Louis Meet Up group, I know he will be a success as a solar installer.

As time passed, I am now incredibly proud of that Climate Reality St. Louis Meet Up event with Jay Butera as the guest speaker. I have not seen Jay at the most recent CCL conferences in Washington D.C. He seems to have dropped out of CCL, except for now just being a member of CCL’s Advisory Board. I was delighted to show that Years of Living Dangerously episode with Jay Butera and to see how it positively touched the audience.

The first half of that event went beautifully. I don’t dwell about the second half of the event now. I chalk it up to the anger and despair that all of us climate advocates were feeling when Donald Trump became President in 2017. Thank goodness all of us climate activists and so many other Americans found a way to defeat Donald Trump in the 2020 Presidential election.

Leading Climate Change speaking tours in Missouri and Oregon in 2017

After Tanya and I moved to Oregon, it would be a couple of years before I would organize a large climate event like I did in St. Louis in January 2017. When Tanya and I decided that we were moving to Portland in February 2017, I had to call climate friends in Missouri to let them know we were moving so I could not organize events in Missouri with them anymore. At that time, I was the co-state CCL Coordinator in Missouri with George Laur, who lives in Jefferson City, Missouri. George was happy for Tanya and me, but he was sad because we really did enjoy working with each other. George then said to me: ‘Looks like you will have to fly back to Missouri in March because I am planning for you to speak in Jefferson City and Kirksville, Missouri.’

After Tanya and I moved to Portland in February 2017, I became very active as a volunteer in the Portland, Oregon Chapter of CCL. I immediately loved living in Portland, but it felt like ‘a blue bubble’ with many people living there who are passionate about climate change and taking climate action. Thus, I envisioned a road tour to travel to central, southern, and eastern Oregon to inspire Oregonians in those more rural areas to organize for climate action and join CCL.

The CCL volunteers and I who organized this tour called it The Oregon Stewardship Tour. We thought that taking climate action, especially with urging Congress to pass a carbon fee and dividend, is one of the best ways to be good stewards of Oregon’s precious air, and and water.

It was also one of the bravest and boldest feats I have done driving 1,600 miles myself in my car to 11 cities for this 12-day tour from October 24 to November 4, 2017. I traveled to give presentations in La Grande, Baker City, John Day, Burns, Prineville, Redmond, Lakeview, Klamath Falls, and Grants Pass to talk to rural and conservative Oregonians about climate change.

This tour was a huge undertaking for me. For a recap, I had

9 public outreach events
2 lobby meetings with district offices of Rep. Greg Walden
2 newspaper editorial board meetings
2 live radio interviews
4 published articles in Oregon newspapers featuring the tour
4 press releases published announcing local tour events.

Like the Missouri tour I completed in March, I did not organize any of the local events of the Oregon Stewardship Tour. All those events were organized by local volunteers in those Oregon cities, plus the CCL volunteers on our tour planning committee. Thus, I can’t take credit for organizing those events. All these events took place in small cities in eastern, central, and southern Oregon. Therefore, we were happy when we had 20 to even 30 people show up at these events. This was quite an adventure for me to give 9 climate change presentations in 12 days while driving over 1,600 miles alone in my car to reach all these destinations. I was running so ragged with this intense schedule that I was exhausted and had a cold by the end of that tour.

Just one week after that tour ended, I traveled to Washington D.C. to attend a CCL conference and lobby day. I gave a presentation about the tour at the December Portland Climate Reality Chapter meeting. Fortunately, my schedule in November and December was much lighter for me to rejuvenate after the intense schedule of the Oregon Stewardship Tour.

Briefly working for Tesla Energy and then volunteering for Renew Oregon

In January 2018, I started working for Tesla Energy. For the next six months, my job was selling solar panels at nearby Home Depots. This was my first full time sales job, much different my ranger jobs or any previous jobs I held.

It quite an adjust for me. I had grown very comfortable having seasonal jobs as a park ranger working the national parks for the previous 25 years. I got used to nearly everyone loving me as a park ranger. In sales, it seems like nearly everyone hates you for bothering them and occasionally you find someone who likes you. It took all my energy to succeed in this job. There was no time, interest or desire to plan large events especially for climate action.

Sadly, Tesla laid off my supervisor, the advisor manager, their regional boss and 9% of Tesla’s staff, mostly in the Tesla Energy Division, on June 12th. My job transferred to Tesla Motors, located just south of downtown Portland. Sadly, the new job was not a good fit for me with the hours, commute, work environment, work culture, so I decided to leave that job on July 9, 2018.

The day I quit Tesla, I ran into Sonny Mehta, an organizing Field Director for Renew Oregon. I just happened to see Sonny when I was walking in downtown Portland as I was getting ready to catch public transportation to go home. I met Sonny the year before on October 22, 2017, just two days before I departed Portland to start The Oregon Stewardship Tour. I stopped by the Renew Oregon office in downtown Portland on that beautiful October day and he gave me handouts from Renew Oregon to share with Oregonians during my tour.

Sonny recruited me to volunteer for Renew Oregon in their campaign to urge legislators to pass cap and trade legislation in Oregon Legislature during the upcoming 2019 session. Looking to do the most effective climate action, I jumped at the opportunity to get involved with Renew Oregon. I soon joined in on their weekly organizing calls. Sonny encouraged me to get involved in various ways such as writing op-eds and letters to the editor (LTE) in newspapers in Oregon.

On September 25th, I attended a Renew Oregon lobby day at the Oregon Capitol in Salem. This lobby day focused on attending a public hearing of the Legislative Carbon Reduction Committee. This would be the joint legislative committee created by the Senate President and Speaker of the House to craft a legislative cap and invest bill in the 2019 legislative session. That same day of the hearing, I lobbied my state legislators for to support a cap and invest bill. This lobby day would be the start of many lobby days over the next 9 months to attend many public hearings of the Joint Carbon Reduction Committee and to lobby state legislators to do whatever I could to help Renew Oregon pass their cap and invest bill.

On February 4, 2019, the cap and invest bill was introduced in the Oregon Legislature as the Clean Energy Jobs Bill or HB 2020. Renew Oregon and their many volunteers, including me, lobbied the legislators extensively before and during the session to build good relationships with them. Therefore, we were confident we had the votes among the Democratic legislators in the Oregon House and Senate to pass this bill before the end of the legislative session. One of the highest moments of my climate organizing and for all the Renew Oregon climate organizers was the moment HB 2020 passed on the Oregon House floor on Tuesday, June 18, 2019.

Recruiting guest speakers for the Climate Reality Portland Chapter Monthly Meetings

On September 17, 2018, around the same time I volunteered with Renew Oregon, I attended the Climate Reality Portland Chapter monthly meeting. I was active with this group since I first moved to Portland in February 2017. At this meeting, I volunteered to be the Program Director booking guest speakers for the monthly meetings. For over the next year and four months, I enjoyed booking the local monthly speakers for the chapter meetings.

• For the October 2018 meeting, I had my friends Marvin Pemberton and Ken Pitts talk about how they give climate change presentation to the schools in the Portland area.

• At the November 2018 meeting, I booked Climate Reality Leader Katy Eymann from Bandon, Oregon shared about her latest efforts to stop the proposed Jordan Cove LNG pipeline and Sonny Mehta from Renew Oregon gave an update about the Clean Energy Jobs bill to price carbon pollution in Oregon.

• For the January 2019 meeting, I asked Lenny Dee, co-founder at Onward Oregon and Just Energy Transition Campaign Co-Coordinator for 350PDX, to share the latest about the Portland Clean Energy Fund and Climate Reality Leader Jane Stackhouse gave a summary on what was happening with Renew Oregon’s Clean Energy Jobs Bill.

• At the February 2019 meeting, I recruited 15-year-old organizers Jeremy Clark and Charlie Abrams to talk about their achievements in climate organizing and my friend Francine Chinitz gave a 10-minute presentation about Citizens’ Climate Lobby.

• For the March 2019 meeting, I reached out to Charlotte Shuff from the Community Energy Project, to share how her organization helps low-income renters in Portland with weatherization to reducing their utility costs. This also helps them lower their carbon footprint.

• For the May 2019 meeting, we invited chapter member Kate Gaertner, founder of TripleWin Advisory to present the necessity and opportunity of pursuing deep corporate sustainability measures within business. During the second half of the meeting, I gave a sample Truth in 10 Climate Reality Talk that went for 20 minutes on the problem and solutions to climate change.

Inviting Kelsey Juliana to speak at our June 2019 Climate Reality Portland Chapter Event

All the planning and recruiting speakers for these meetings led to our Climate Reality Portland Chapter Leadership Team deciding to go big for a June 2019 event. We decided to reach out to Kelsey Juliana one of the lead plaintiffs for a Youth vs. Gov court case, officially known as Juliana vs. the United States. Their complaint asserts that the federal government’s affirmative actions cause climate change. Therefore, it violated the youngest generation’s constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property, as well as failed to protect essential public trust resources.

Kelsey is originally from Eugene, Oregon. In June 2019, she was a college student at the University of Oregon in Eugene. She is the oldest of the youth 21 plaintiffs taking on the federal government. The plaintiffs in this lawsuit were represented by the non-profit Our Children’s Trust, located in Eugene, Oregon. Hence, that’s why her name is on the lawsuit. The CBS TV show 60 minutes featured these plaintiffs, including Kelsey Juliana, on their March 3, 2019 broadcast.

Someone on our Chapter Leadership Team had connections to Kelsey Juliana, so they asked me to email her to see if she could be the speaker for our June event. I first emailed her in March 2019, but I did not get a response. In April, our Leadership Team started to worry since we had not heard back from her, so I emailed her again in late April. On April 30, 2019, she responded:

“Hi Brian!

I will have just finished my finals by that time, so I’d be happy to come up and present to you all, thanks for the invite. Let me know how to best prepare, however if we could touch base a little closer to the date that would be appreciated. Thanks!
-Kelsey”

With this confirmation, our leadership team decided to go big for this event. We secured an event space in northeast Portland, known as Tabor Space. A member of our Leadership Team, Jonathan Bailey, was able to persuade the City Club of Portland to help co-sponsor the event. The City Club was a terrific partner helping to split the rental costs of the large room at Tabor Space with us. Everything was falling into place for a fabulous event to happen.

As of late May, we had not heard anything more from Kelsey Juliana. We needed a short bio, a photo, and a brief overview of her topic for promotional purposes. On June 4th, a massive rally happened in downtown Portland supporting the Juliana vs. the U.S. lawsuit as the court case was argued in front of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Afterwards, many of the plaintiffs, including Kelsey Juliana, spoke to huge crowd that was assembled. Since we had not received a recent confirmation from Kelsey about the June 18th event, I hoped to chat with her very briefly.

I stood around for a long time among all attendees hoping to get a brief word with her. As I was just about to say hello to her, Jo Rodgers, Plaintiff Engagement Coordinator for Our Children’s Trust stopped me. She very briskly said to me, ‘I am very sorry, but Kelsey does not have time to talk. She must catch a train back to Eugene right now.’

I responded, ‘I totally understand, Jo. However, Our Climate Reality Leadership Team is planning a big event with Kelsey. We have not heard from her in over a month. We still need items from her like a photo, a short bio, and confirmation that she will be able to make it by 6 pm before the event starts at 6:30 pm.’

Jo replied, ‘She will be there, and I will pass along this information to her.’

Then Jo, Julia and others were whisked away from this rally. It was one of my most frustrating moments as a climate organizer. Our Climate Reality Portland Leadership Team had put hours into planning this event, including me. I felt like I had just been blown off, belittled, and felt very unappreciated. It hurt. At the same time, I was going to have to swallow my pride, and continue doing what I could to make that event a success.

I did send a friendly email to Jo Rodgers the next day and she did apologize for rushing Kelsey out of the rally. She did appreciate my understanding and said that they just made the train on time. I then explained that I would be flying to Washington D.C. to attend the CCL conference June 6th to 12th, plus traveling June 13th to 16th to Crater Lake National Park to be a guest speaker. Thus, I would not be available to answer any questions during that time. During my absence, my friend and fellow member of the Portland Climate Reality Chapter Leadership Team, Amy Hall-Bailey, would be the point of contact.

While I was in Washington, D.C. attending the CCL conference, the Leadership Team did an amazing job putting the final touches on organizing this event for Kelsey Juliana on Tuesday, June 18, 2019. The emails were really flying back and forth between the Leadership Team members as the final details were hammered out. I received an email from Jonathan on the Leadership Team two days before the event on Sunday, June 16th asking if I would MC (be the master of ceremonies) for the event. My wife and I were driving all day from Talent Oregon back to Portland, Oregon, so I was not able to respond until that evening. However, I did respond that I would be happy to be the MC.

On Monday, June 17th, I spent the day at the Oregon Capitol in Salem. It was an exciting day to witness history. I sat in the Oregon House gallery for over six and a half hours while the chamber debated the Clean Energy Jobs Bill when the bill finally passed the chamber that evening. In the meantime, on this same day, emails were flying back and forth for the final logistics of this event. One Leadership Committee member Brenna wrote:

“Has Brian had any time to go over what he plans to say? I know he’s been busy today. With such a short timeline, we need to keep all speaking succinct and maximize our time with Kelsey.”

My friend and Climate Reality staff member Brittany responded: “If Brian is in the Capitol today, I’ll check with him.”

Amy Hall-Bailey replied: “Thanks, I know that you, Jane and Brian are probably really occupied with the events in Salem, but it looks like we have a full house for tonight’s event- 250 people, if they all show. I hope everyone is prepared!”

Fortunately, I did have all day on Tuesday, June 18th to prepare for this event. The turnout was amazing. We estimated we had over 220 people at this event. We did have a professional videographer record the event to Vimeo.

Even though I printed out the prepared introductions that Amy sent me, I was still a little nervous speaking in front of this very large audience. Lee van der Voo, an award-winning investigative journalist, interviewed Kelsey Juliana. Lee covers the youth in climate change movement for The Guardian and Reuters. She is the author of The Fish Market: Inside the Big-Money Battle for the Ocean and Your Dinner Plate and she was in the process of writing a book for Timber Press about the Juliana v U.S lawsuit.

Liv Brumfield, field representative for U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, (D-OR) was in attendance and sitting in the front row. As the MC, it was my job to introduce her so she could read a brief statement of support from the Portland Congressman Earl Blumenauer. I was so nervous in the moment that I could not pronounce her name correctly. Understandably, she corrected me in front of the entire audience.

Overall, the event went fantastic. I was very proud to have participated in it, sent the initial email to invite Kelsey Juliana to the event, and to be the MC for the event. I was honored to get my picture with Kelsey Juliana. The full credit to making this event a success really goes to Amy Hall-Bailey and her husband Jonathan Bailey, as well as Brenna Burke, Deborah Lev, Wally Shriner, Brittany Kimzey, Jane Stackhouse, Steve Holgate, the Portland City Club, and many others. My friend and fellow Climate Reality Leader Ken Pitts took wonderful pictures of the event. It was great to be at the right place at the right time to see this event come together.

We really did appreciate Kelsey Juliana and Our Children’s Trust for their time and participation. Kelsey was an enthusiastic and engaging speaker with the audience. Lee van der Voo had great questions that allowed the audience to get to know Kelsey, her thoughts on the lawsuit, and her ideas how we should reduce the threat of climate change.

Organizing my second large climate event in Milwaukie, Oregon in September 2019

The day after the Kelsey Juliana climate that felt so triumphant, disaster happened in Oregon.

The Clean Energy Jobs Bill moved now moved from the Oregon House to the Senate floor where we barely had the Democratic votes to pass this bill. On June 20, 2019, it was very disheartening when Oregon Senate Republicans fled the state to deny the required 2/3 quorum for a floor vote for HB 2020. Over the next ten days, the mood was more depressing as Republicans Senators refused to return to work until the Democrats agreed to kill HB 2020. It felt like a year of my effort of numerous lobby meetings with legislators, attending organizing meetings, testifying at hearings, helping to organize events and rallies, asking residents across Oregon to contact their legislators, and countless trips to the Capitol in Salem went down the drain. It was a helpless feeling that a bitter defeat was about to happen and there was nothing we could do about it.

The bill had to pass the legislative before the Sunday, June 30, 2019, the last day of the session or it would die. The last day of the session is known on the Oregon Legislative calendar as Sine Die. According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, Sine Die means, “without any future date being designated (as for resumption): indefinitely. (Example) the meeting (or legislative session) is adjourned sine die.” We hoped for a miracle that the GOP Senators would come to their senses and return to Oregon. However, it looked bleaker each day.

On Tuesday, June 25th, Oregon Senate President Peter Courtney announced that he did not have the Democratic votes to pass HB 2020. Therefore, the bill was dead. On Friday, June 28th the Republican Senators returned to Salem to vote on the remaining legislative bills before the Sine Die happened. A friend talked me into going to the Capitol to at least look at the weak-kneed Democratic Senators in the eye. I felt so numb that a major bill on climate action failed.

The peak experience of the Kelsey Juliana event was just one week previously, yet it felt like a very distant memory under the weight of this very bitter defeat. I felt so depressed by this letdown that I did not want to get off the couch for weeks.

On June 26, 2019, Deb Lev, the Chapter Chair at that time, informed the Leadership Team that she intended to step down to work full time for another environmental organization. She quickly needed an interim Chair for our Chapter to replace her. I liked Deb a lot. I was her mentor at the 2016 Climate Reality Training in Houston. However, I wanted to take the chapter up to the next level so I asked The Leadership Team if I could take on the role as an interim Chapter Chair. At that time, I served as the Program Director on the Leadership Team. My role was organizing the monthly meetings, so I would then be performing two roles as the Chapter Chair.

As Chapter Chair, I wanted to organize two big events over the next six months to urge legislators to take another shot at a cap and invest bill. With these two big events, my goal was for the Climate Reality Portland Chapter to become well known in Portland, Oregon. I hoped that more recognition would help us attract more members and energize our membership. Even more, I intended that we partner more closely with other climate and environmental groups in the Portland area to help get climate legislation passed in the 2020 Oregon legislative session.

The Kelsey Juliana Event took a lot of effort and energy for the Leadership Team to successfully create. It showed that we could achieve a large event with a great turnout. After the disaster of the Clean Energy Jobs bill getting killed by the Oregon Senate walkout, I needed some event to devote my energy to heal from that devastating loss. I suggested at the June 26th Leadership Team meeting an event in September called Climate Legislation: Where do We Go from Here?”

The group seemed sort of ho hum about it. When I suggested various speakers that I had in mind, a member of the leadership team, Sally remarked in a condescending tone: “I think you need to noodle it some more and then get back to us.”

Ouch. I tried not to dwell on her remarks. I envisioned a panel discussion. The person I approached to be a speaker was Climate Reality Leader and the Mayor of Milwaukie, Mark Gamba. Milwaukie is a suburb town nestled against the southern city boundary of Portland. Mark and I met for lunch on July 8th at the Milwaukie Food Court Station Pod. I took public transit, MAX light rail commuter train – the orange line, to meet up with him. That was the first time I remember showing up to a town or city for the time and immediately having a meal with the mayor. I first met Mark at the 2017 Climate Reality Training in Bellevue, WA.

Mark is a former National Geographic photographer who has traveled the world. These experiences made him deeply appreciate our natural world and “acutely aware of the changes in our climate.” He is a strong climate champion. As Mayor of Milwaukie, Mark led the effort for Milwaukie to become the first city in Oregon to declare a climate emergency. Mayor Gamba and City Council members unanimously passed the resolution in January 2020. The resolution speeds up by five years the city’s timeline for achieving the goals it previously adopted in its Climate Action Plan. In addition, the resolution calls for the city to become carbon neutral by 2045.

I knew Mark Game would be a great speaker for our panel discussion. He immediately said yes. The catch was we would have to schedule our event on Monday, September 16th because Tuesday evenings is when Milwaukie has their city council meetings.

I knew securing Mark as a speaker would help attract other speakers to the panel and would draw in an audience. The point of this September event would be to energize climate advocates to push their legislators to pass a cap and invest bill in the 2020 Oregon Legislative session. After Mark agreed to be a speaker, I next approached Renew Oregon for a speaker. Shilpa Joshi, Coalition Director for Renew Oregon, said she was available to speak at this event. I still struggled to find the third speaker.

My friend on the Climate Reality Portland Leadership Team, Amy Hall-Bailey, suggested that I ask Dylan Kruse, Director of Government Affairs & Program Strategy for Sustainable Northwest. Amy set up a meeting for with Dylan at Sustainable Northwest’s downtown Portland office in early August. I was very impressed with Dylan’s knowledge of Oregon’s politics and rural Oregon. Dylan immediately said yes when I asked him. Whew! We had our three panel speakers!

I next needed a venue, and I was really racking my brains on this problem. Every place I considered was already booked or too expensive to consider. Someone suggested that I approach Mark Gamba to see if he had any places in mind that could seat up to 100 people. Mark recommended the Chapel Theatre in Milwaukie. With Mark’s permission, I contacted the owners of the Chapel Theater and they generously offered to host the event for free. I asked if I could check out their venue. They graciously met with me at their Theater on Tuesday, August 13th. My in-laws were visiting from St. Louis. Thus, my wife and her parents joined me as I met with the owners of the Chapel Theatre.

I thought it was a beautiful old church that was converted years ago into a dramatic, multi-purpose theatre. It was a very well-kept theatre that looked to be a fun place to stage a play or a community event like ours. When the owners let us inside, there were no seats in the main part of the chapel. Yet, they informed me that the chairs could be set up any way we liked, and the facility could hold up to 99 people depending on seating layout. It seemed like the perfect event space for us. Even more, they did not want to charge us. They seemed like they wanted to help us as a favor to Mark and our cause for environmental activism.

Now that I had the date, the speakers, and the location with over a month to go, we now had to promote the event and invite as many people as possible to pack the house. As always, Amy Hall-Bailey came up with lovely graphic designs artwork to promote the event online. I would have liked to have found an MC, but it looked like it was going to fall onto me. The members of the Climate Reality Leadership Team helped me on the day of the event with setting up the chairs, signing people in as they came in the doors, networking during the event, etc.

I reached out to my friends in Citizens’ Climate Lobby, the newly formed Metro Climate Action Team, Renew Oregon, Climate Reality Leaders who had not attended an event in a while, and basically anyone I knew in the Portland area to attend this event. The good news is that over 80 people showed up and the Chapel Theatre looked packed.

Mark Gamba, Shilpa Joshi, and Dylan Kruse all did a great job answering questions. I appreciated how they spoke to the audience why it is still important to press forward to urge our Oregon legislators to pass a cap and invest bill in the upcoming 2020 Oregon Legislative session.

Unlike the Kelsey Juliana event, we did not get a video recording of this event. It was a shame because I was very happy how the event happened. I tried something new at the beginning of the program. I printed over 70 signs on white paper with green letters that said, CLIMATE ACTION NOW! I took a short video of the audience shouting those words in unison.

I started the program with a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. quote:

“Through education we seek to change attitudes; through legislation and court orders we seek to regulate behavior. Through education we seek change internal feelings (prejudice, hate, etc.); through legislation and court orders we seek to control the external effects of those feelings. Through education we seek to break down the spiritual barriers to integration; through legislation and court orders we seek to break down the physical barriers to integration. One method is not a substitute for the other, but a meaningful and necessary supplement. Anyone who starts out with the conviction that the road to racial justice is one lane wide will inevitably create a traffic jam and make the journey longer.”

I wanted to make the point with this event that I won’t solve the problem of climate change by just changing our own hearts and other people’s hearts to kindly be more sustainably. We also must do the heavy lifting of changing the laws to alter people’s behavior to live in a more sustainable way to reduce the threat of climate change. Leadership Team member Wally Shriner complimented me on that quote. I was shocked and pleased to hear him say anything positive because he always seemed to be critical and nitpicking everything I did as the Program Director and interim Chapter Chair.

The most effective part is that we encouraged folks to fill out post cards to their legislators. We ended up with 50 postcards and 11 letters. I took the train to Salem and delivered them to legislators. They just happened to have a workday in Salem two days after our event. It felt very fulfilling to deliver these constituent postcards to the offices of Oregon Senators and Representatives on a beautiful fall day on September 18th.

Organizing my third large climate event in Portland, Oregon in January 2020

Even as I organized this event in Milwaukie Oregon on September 16, 2019, I planning months ahead. The 2020 Oregon Legislative session started on February 3, 2020. In even years in Oregon, the legislative session only goes for 5 weeks. It is very compressed with Senators and Representatives only able to introduce a couple of bills, as opposed being able introduce multiple bills in the long, odd year sessions. Thus, any kind of cap and invest bill must be ready to be introduced at the start of the session so it can pass in that short 2020 Legislative session. In early September, I envisioned having a Climate Reality event around the third week of January 2020. That would be just less than two weeks to the start of the 2020 Legislative session, to urge legislators and energize climate advocates to support another Clean Energy Jobs bill.

Thus, on August 30, 2019, I sent emails to the two Oregon legislators that led the efforts for the Clean Energy Jobs Bill in the 2019 legislative session, Senator Michael Dembrow and Representative Karin Power. In the emails, I asked if they would speak at a Climate Reality event on January 21, 2020. Both immediately said yes to speaking at such an event.

I thought it might be easier organizing a second event since the first event I organized in Milwaukie on September 16th went well. Unfortunately, open warfare broke out among the members of Climate Reality Portland Chapter Leadership Team in August. Some of the Leadership Team were unhappy that I was the interim Chair of the Chapter.

They were critical of everything I was doing, but they had no big ideas of their own. They accused me of having no vision. However, they did not consider that I was organizing a big event in September 2019 and January 2020 while working with them to recruit monthly speakers in between. I thought it was vital for the Climate Reality Portland Chapter to work in coalition with other Portland climate groups, such as Renew Oregon, Metro Climate Action Team, Citizens’ Climate Lobby, etc. to organize to get effective climate legislation passed.

Even more, half of the Leadership Team voiced frustration with the way I moderated the September 16th event. They thought that I talked too much, and I used the word ‘I’ and instead of ‘we’ too much. This was my first time moderating a panel discussion. Overall, I was very pleased how the event happened. It felt like we had plenty of time for the speakers to talk about themselves and answer my questions, answer audience questions, and make community announcements during that event. Everyone who attended seemed satisfied with the event. Most importantly, we got attendees to fill out over 50 postcards and letters to their legislators to urge them to support another cap and invest bill.

Half of the team though supported my leadership. Sadly, it was very hard to lead a group of a house divided. It started to wear me down that I started to dread the Leadership Team meetings. The infighting led to a point where I wanted to resign in early October, but two members of the Leadership Team talked me out of it. I was committed to making this event a success with Senator Dembrow and Rep. Power on January 21, 2020. That focused me to grind it out.

The Climate Reality Project seemed supportive of my chapter leadership since I was very committed to the organization, their Pricing Pollution Campaign, and the chapter. Their Pricing Pollution campaign worked closely with Renew Oregon to urge Oregon legislators to pass a cap and invest bill. At the same time, they did not want to get in the middle of our strife. Sadly, this did not help because we really did need a good meditator with this stressful situation.

The best way to resolve the tension among the Leadership Team was to bring in new members to serve on the Team. The optimal way to recruit new members to serve on the Portland Chapter Leadership Team was to invite new Portland Climate Reality Leaders who had just attended a training. New members could possibly bring positive energy, fresh ideas, and team building skills. After new Climate Reality Leaders just attended a training, they are at their peak enthusiasm to join a Climate Reality Chapter or even a Leadership Team. Unfortunately, there were no upcoming Climate Reality Trainings until sometime in 2020.

As the autumn turned to winter, the January 2020 event started coming together. Like the Milwaukie event, I struggled with trying to find an event space. In November, Senator Dembrow and his staff recommended the Hollywood Senior Center (now Called the Community for Positive Aging) in northeast Portland. This community venue could hold over 100 people and they were willing to not charge us a fee since this was an open community event. I had attended some of Senator Dembrow’s monthly town halls at the Hollywood Senior Center. I thought it would be a great facility to hold this event.

Just like the Milwaukie event and other events, plus climate meetings that I organized, now was the time in December and early January to try to turn out my friends and fellow climate organizers. I called friends and emailed that attended the Milwaukie event. I contacted climate advocates I knew with Citizens’ Climate Lobby, the Metro Climate Action Team, Renew Oregon, etc. to ask them to attend this event. Like the previous events, Amy Hall-Bailey created an excellent online graphic to promote this event that I could include in my emails. This graphic was primarily used in the email newsletter to Climate Reality Portland Chapter members, on Meetup.com, the Climate Reality Portland Chapter Facebook page, etc.

Over 107 people RSVPed on the Eventbrite page for this event. Over 100 people showed up for the event. The room was packed. Senator Dembrow and Representative Power did an outstanding job of addressing what they hoped the next cap and invest bill would accomplish and how we can help them try to get this bill passed in the Oregon Legislature. They did a terrific job of answering audience questions. My friend and fellow Climate Reality Leader, Ken Pitts, took fabulous pictures of the event. My wife Tanya also took superb photos.

Like the Milwaukie event, I MCed this event. Just like before, I had my printed signed on white paper with the words printed in green, “CLIMATE ACTION NOW!” Once again, I made a very short video of the audience hold up the signs and yell in unison “CLIMATE ACTION NOW!”

I injected some impromptu humor into this event by remarking that I planned play that video clip on a repeated loop to my wife later that evening. As I closed out the event, I thanked Senator Dembrow and Representative Power for all their leadership in the Oregon Legislature on the cap and invest bills. I attempted to joke that I sometimes fell asleep when I attended the Joint Legislative Carbon Reduction Committees meetings that they co-chaired because I could not always follow the fine details of the bills. Senator Dembrow chuckled and said that he forgave me, understanding that the public does not always understand the minute details in these bills.

I do not think that Representative Power got my sense of humor. She did not seem to laugh at that joke. After the event, when we were chatting, she asked me point blank: ‘Are you really going to play that video for your wife on a repeated loop this evening?’

I tried to explain to her that it was a joke and that my wife and I like to tease each other. However, I don’t think she was buying it.

Like the previous events, I very proud how everything unfolded. Everyone who attended the event seemed to enjoy it. Because of the fighting within the Climate Reality Chapter Leadership Team, it was basically just Amy Hall-Bailey and I who organized this event. I thought we were a great team putting this event together. I could not have accomplished it without her.

Similar to the Milwaukie event, I had a big stack of postcards and letter filled from the attendees to their Oregon senators and representatives urging the legislators to pass the cap and invest bill during the 2020 legislative session.

Final Thoughts

I did not know it at the time, but this was the last Climate Reality Portland Chapter event or any kind of climate event that I organized. Amy Hall-Bailey did a great job of recruiting speakers and organizing the February 2020 meeting.

At the end of February 2020, the House and Senate Republicans walked out of the legislative session killing all the bills waiting to be passed that session, including the cap and invest bill.
For the second legislative session in a row, Republican legislators used a walk out to deny a 2/3 required quorum to kill a climate bill. It was another kick in the stomach and depressing defeat.

On the bright side, Oregon Governor Kate Brown did not take that bad news lying down. On March 10, 2020, she signed bold climate executive orders aimed to cut Oregon’s greenhouse gas emissions. Governor Brown signed her climate executive orders surrounded by youth active in the climate movement. Governor Brown’s office invited climate advocates from around the state to attend, such as Renew Oregon volunteers. Thus, I was part of the group in her office to watch her sign the climate executive orders. That day provided hope and some solace, but the defeats of the cap and invest bills still felt like open wounds.

The bright spot of Governor Brown’s executive climate orders was soon overtaken within a couple days of the shutdowns with the COVID-19 pandemic. All events, meetings, and indoor activities were soon cancelled indefinitely. For years, I was very active in the climate movement planning meetings, organizing events, lobbying, attending hearing, etc. All my climate organizing seemed like it fell off a cliff overnight. I was not sure what to do. I was very depressed.

In March 2020, I resigned as the interim Chair and Program Director of the Climate Reality Portland Chapter. I was burned out from the feuding within the Leadership Team over the previous six months. Fortunately, the bad apples within the Leadership Team who caused the strife left, but I then I had no energy or motivation left to lead the chapter after all the battles with them.

Amy Hall-Bailey graciously took over as the interim Chapter Chair. She wrote a very sweet and kind note in the April 2020 Climate Reality Portland Chapter online newsletter:

“Brian Ettling is stepping down as Interim Chapter Chair. He offered to be Interim Chair in July 2019. He has done a great job with organizing and leading our chapter including two large successful events around Climate Legislation. He and Amy Hall have been working to keep a Portland Chapter presence as we lost many of our Leadership Team in November 2019. We are grateful for his leadership, and grateful that he has offered to continue to work with us on presentations and other needs!

First of all, thank you to Brian for all your work. It’s been a challenge and I appreciate you staying on longer than you planned.”

With the pandemic and lack of any climate organizing on the horizon, I did fall into a very deep depression. I found a way to pull myself out of it by organizing an Oregon legislative resolution supporting federal carbon pricing during the first half of 2021. After that, I did a lot of writing and journaling in the second half of 2021. In 2022, I worked on legislative campaigns to try to get Democratic candidates who would protect our democracy, climate, and a woman’s right to choose. In 2023, I am writing and blogging a lot to try to document all my climate actions over the years, especially before the pandemic.

In writing this blog, it was fun to reflect on the 3 large climate events that I organized. No doubt there was exhilarating and painful moments. At this point, I still have no plans to organize another large climate event or even a climate meeting in the future. However, anything is possible when inspiration strikes!

“It’s not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what’s required.”
– Winston Churchill

As a climate organizer, one of my favorite actions is traveling to Washington D.C. to lobby Congressional Offices to urge them to pass effective climate policies. Since November 2015, I traveled eight times to Washington D.C. to attend Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) conferences and lobby days on Capitol Hill. In 2015, I blogged about my first experience lobbying in Washington D.C. In 2016, I wrote about lobbying in Washington D.C. and Ottawa, Canada . Plus, I blogged about lobbying on Capitol Hill with CCL in 2017. That same year, I shared how climate Lobbying is very hard, but it is so rewarding. Indeed, it has been very meaningful to lobby at the U.S. Capitol because I once persuaded a member of Congress to co-sponsor a climate bill in 2020.

I got injured the first time after I lobbied as I returned from Washington D.C. for climate action, but I have no regrets. I love traveling to the U.S. capital, but it is a very long flight from Portland, Oregon. Washington D.C. is a very beautiful city, with similar weather as my hometown of St. Louis, Missouri. It can be quite humid and hot in the summer and frigid at times in the winter. The iconic monuments to Lincoln, Jefferson, Washington, the Vietnam Memorial, the White House, the Supreme Court, and the U.S. Capitol Building are all sacred sites to see. It is very convenient to get around the city with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority commuter rail system (or the Metro). The trains roar like a lion as they loudly enter the subway stations. They carry up to 8 passenger cars that seems to stretch for over a mile.

On the lobby day, I love walking out of the Metro Union Station to be greeted by the shiny white Capitol dome above the trees several blocks away. It is a hassle but a necessity to go through airport like security to get inside the Senate and House office buildings. Walking inside the Congressional office buildings, it is a fun and complicated maze to try to find the exact offices of Senators and Representatives to arrive at our CCL scheduled lobby meetings. Arriving inside the offices of the members of Congress, one is greeted by friendly staff and exquisite artwork, photography and mementos that represent that Congressional district or state.

The best part is the scheduled meeting with the Congressional staff or possibly even a member of Congress to urge them to support specific climate legislation. It feels very empowering as a citizen to petition them to support climate bills. At the same time, the Congressional staff often provides valuable information where the member of Congress stands on a particular bill. The staff or member of Congress can be very helpful on what information they need before supporting or co-sponsoring a bill, who they like to work with across the political aisle, and what’s happening in Congress that can help or impede getting a climate bill passed. It is very fascinating to hear what the staff or member of Congress has to say.

Many other things make lobbying Congressional Offices in Washington D.C. amazing. The shiny marble hallways and floors with people walking about and talking in quiet voices. The national media gathered at various spots to try to snag a quote from a U.S. Senator. Recently, I playfully posed in front of them for a second pretending like they were interviewing me for a story.

The Congressional cafeterias have an amazing variety of food for whatever you are in the mood to eat that day: pizza, sushi, tacos, spaghetti, hamburgers, garden salads, wraps, soups, ice cream, etc. You name it!

You never know who you are going to run into walking down the Congressional hallways. On my most recent visit on June 13, 2023, I said hello to U.S. Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and John Kennedy of Louisiana. In addition, many other groups are lobbying Congressional offices the same day as the CCL lobby days. I chatted with volunteers with the Susan G. Koman Foundation in a Congressional cafeteria as they lobbied Congress for funding to research to prevent and cure breast cancer the same day CCL was there. As you can tell, I love everything about lobbying the Congressional Offices for climate action in Washington D.C.

My disillusion with Citizens’ Climate Lobby in recent years

Sadly, with the 2020 COVID pandemic I was not able to travel to Washington D.C. for the last three and half years. During the pandemic, I participated in some Zoom lobby meetings with Congressional staff. That was enjoyable, but it was not same as traveling to Washington D.C. and the U.S. Capitol to lobby Congressional offices.

Since I last lobbied in Washington D.C. in November 2019, I became disillusioned with CCL. As I blogged about previously, it always felt like national staff in the organization and leaders in Oregon CCL kept me at arm’s length. They emphasize a core value of treating people with appreciation, gratitude, and respect. However, it never felt like the organization treated me that way.

By far, my lowest moment in my climate organizing, was in 2016. Then Vice President of CCL, Madeleine Para, did not want me to do my own fund raising to organize a speaking tour across Missouri to promote CCL and climate action. My friend and Missouri state CCL Coordinator, George Laur, organized a Missouri speaking tour for me in March 2017. It left a bad taste in my mouth though that Madeleine and CCL national did not want to support me for devoting myself to a tour across Missouri to promote them.

In October 2018, I organized a climate action speaking tour across Missouri. I spoke to over 200 students, faculty and alumni at my alma mater William Jewell College, just outside of Kansas City, Missouri. I then gave talks at Missouri University in Columbia, my alma mater Oakville High School, St. Louis University, and teaching a Climate Change 101 continuing education class at the Meramec campus of St. Louis Community College. It was a very successful tour with my presentations across Missouri. By giving these talks, I hoped it might inspire other climate organizers to speak to their alma mater colleges and high schools. I requested to write a blog on the CCL website to report on this Missouri tour, but CCL was not interested. They offered to feature me on their Citizens’ Climate Higher Education website, but not their main website.

In 2017, I decided that I really loved climate lobbying and wanted to a career doing this. I was very impressed at that time with Jay Butera, a volunteer with CCL from Gladwyne, PA. In 2016, after years of effort, “Jay was the concept-originator and driving force behind formation of the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives.” For several years, Jay served as CCL’s Senior Congressional Liaison in Washington, working to maintain a continuous year-round presence for CCL in the Halls of Congress. In January 2017, I invited Jay to be the guest speaker at the last St. Louis Climate Reality Meet-Up event I organized before moving to Portland, Oregon a week later. Over 80 people attended this event, packing the room at Schlafly’s Bottleworks in St. Louis.

In April 2017, I emailed the Vice President of Government Affairs at CCL, Danny Richter, and Jay Butera to see if I could shadow Jay and learn how he lobbies in Washington, D.C. Both flatly turned me down. Their responses really stung. I felt like neither one of them wanted to advise me at all to be an even more effective climate lobbyist and make a career out of it.

Feeling like I frequently got the door slammed in my face by CCL hurt badly. However, I kept picking myself back up to try again. My last straw with CCL when I organized a state resolution in the Oregon Legislature in 2021 to urge members of Congress to support the federal bill, the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (EICDA).

This Oregon resolution became known as became known as Senate Joint Memorial 5 or SJM 5.
It passed the Oregon Senate on April 7th by a vote of 23 to 5, with 6 Republican Senators, half of the Oregon GOP Senate caucus, joined all the Democratic Senators present to vote to support it. Unfortunately, SJM 5 fell short of receiving a floor vote in the Oregon House in June 2021. It was exciting was that 30 House members, including 7 Republicans, signed on to co-sponsor it. The Oregon House has 60 members. Half the chamber was SJM 5 co-sponsors.

The worst part of this defeat was Oregon CCL leadership becoming very angry when the OR House Democratic Leadership refused to give SJM 5 a floor vote. After I experienced two dreadful GOP walkouts that defeated the 2019 and 2020 cap and invest bills, I never believed SJM 5 would pass until I saw it with my own eyes. In June 2021, the Oregonian published an opinion editorial from Oregon CCL leadership, and I disagreed with the tone. Former Rep. Tiffiny Mitchell advised us not to publish it since it seemed to attack OR House Democratic Leadership.

After that happened, I lost nearly all respect for CCL and I stepped away from volunteering from the organization. I then focused my energy on my climate writings, volunteering for the Oregon League of Conservation Voters (OLCV) and canvassing for Democratic legislative candidates in 2022. CCL challenges its volunteers to ‘step out of their comfort zone’ because ‘that’s where the magic happens.’ However, whenever I tried to step out of my comfort zone to promote and organize for CCL, I felt like I only received pushback from the organization.

To this day, I still love CCL. They are the only environmental and climate organization that I know that truly strives to empower their volunteers to build positive relationships with elected officials, the media and their local community for climate action. I learned so much volunteering with them. At the same time, they have broken my heart at times and left me feeling demoralized as a climate organizer. I first wrote a blog about them in February 2013, Want to change the world? Be Persistent! If I could go back in time to when I wrote that blog or when I first became involved with CCL in May 2012, I would have lots of words of caution for myself.

Deciding to attend the CCL Conference and Lobby Day in Washington D.C. in June 2023

In early 2023, CCL announced it would be lobbying for the first time in person in Washington D.C. since November 2019. This would be their first in-person conference and lobby day on Capitol Hill since before the COVID-19 pandemic. After my setbacks interacting with CCL, I was not sure if I wanted to attend.

In late April, I reached out to friends in the Washington D.C. are to see if I could stay with them. In my previous eight times that I attended CCL conferences and lobby days in Washington D.C, I stayed with friends in the D.C. metro area. If either of my friends indicated that I could stay with them, that would be a deciding factor if I would register and attend the conference. If those friends did not offer for me a chance to stay with them, I would not travel to Washington D.C. because I cannot afford the hotel rooms in the D.C. metro area.

On May 2nd, I heard from my friends Tom and Reena that I could stay with them. Sadly, that same day, I received the news that my car needed over $2000 in repairs. On May 18th, I started crafting an email to Reena to say that I could not afford to travel to stay with them. On the bright side, my wife felt bad seeing how much I had to pay to repair my car. Thus, she bought me a brand-new Mac Book Pro laptop because I desperately needed a new and faster laptop. To my relief, the final car repair bill turned out to be a little less expensive at $1650. May 21st was the final day to register, so I needed to decide to attend or not to attend quickly.

The final straw that pushed me to register to attend the CCL conference and lobby day was the CNN town hall with Donald Trump on May 10th. It upset me that CNN allowed this twice impeached, indicted, disgraced former president to say a lot of false information with very little real time fact checking. The day before, a New York jury found Trump liable for battery and defamation in the lawsuit filed by E. Jean Carroll. She claimed that Trump raped her in a Manhattan department store in the mid 1990s and the jury basically agreed. Trump used that townhall to call her a “wack job.” It was appalling that town hall audience laughed and clapped when Trump called her that name. Even worse, the audience cheered with approval when he lied about the 2020 Presidential election was stolen from him. It still seemed like our democracy was under severe threat from Donald Trump and this modern Trumpist movement.

Thus, I decided I was going to Washington D.C. to lobby for climate action to celebrate our democracy and stress the importance of climate action. Yes, I felt raw how CCL treated me over the years. However, my love for our democracy and passion for climate action was a higher priority for me than my misgivings about CCL. Thus, I bought my airline tickets and registered for the CCL conference and lobby day just a couple of days before the May 21st deadline. I really do try to live my life by the Winston Churchill quote:

“It’s not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what’s required.”

Attending the CCL Conference in Washington D.C. in June 10-12, 2023

My flight arrived in Washington D.C. around 5:40 pm on Friday, June 9th. I told Tom and Reena that I would not be arriving at their house until sometime after 7 pm. In the previous days, Washington D.C, New York City, and much of the northeast U.S. coast experienced hazardous and smoky air due to wildfires in western Canada. I felt a sense of dread receiving that news.

In past years, my wife and I experienced very unhealthy air from western wildfires while living in Portland and Crater Lake National Park, Oregon. It was very dispiriting to be trapped indoors, especially during the 2020 pandemic, due to wildfire smoke causing awful air conditions. I would not wish those smoky conditions on my worst enemy. I had compassion for people living on the northeast coast experiencing this extremely poor air quality in the second week of June. I worried about experiencing those smoky conditions when I arrived in Washington D.C.

I was very fortunately the Canadian wildfire smoke had mostly dissipated when I arrived in Washington D.C. The weather was pleasant and sunny. I hopped on the Metro to head to Tom and Reena’s home in Tacoma Park, Maryland, which bordered Washington D.C.. The outdoor conditions were nice enough that I decided instead to get off the Metro at Union Station to walk a couple of blocks to the U.S. Capitol to see the building for the first time since November 2019.

The U.S. Capitol Building looked majestic and peaceful on that lovely late Friday afternoon. I loved seeing the exterior of this temple for democracy in all its glory. The building and the Capitol grounds looked very serene and relaxing. As a climate organizer, the U.S. Capitol area seemed like it was welcoming me back to do my first in-person lobbying there in three and a half years. A positive spirit was in the air as I took several “selfies” with my iPhone. A friendly person asked me if I wanted my picture taken. At the same time, it felt heavy and sad that January 6th took place there only a year and a half before. It was hard to believe that a very dangerous and unruly mob wanted to vandalize the building and hurt elected officials on the inside.

I then took the Metro to Takoma Park, Maryland to stay with Tom and Reena. They were happy to see me for the first time in three and a half years. They very generously had a comfortable guest room for me to stay. They were one block from a local food co-op where I could buy all my own groceries to make my own breakfasts while I stayed with them.

Late the next morning, I planned to attend the first sessions of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby conference. On the way there, I got off the Metro near the White House to walk by the building on Pennsylvania Avenue and view it from Lafayette Square. As always, the President’s Executive Mansion looked beautiful, a bright color in the summer afternoon sun. Seeing the building in person, looked different how it is seen on TV. It looked a bite like a southern slave plantation house in keeping to the style when it was first completed around 1800. The scene on Pennsylvania Avenue was lots of tourists admiring the building and taking pictures. A religious man shouted into a megaphone deriding gay pride as a sin, since June is Gay Pride month. Nearly everyone there ignored him and his message as they enjoyed the scene of seeing the White House.

I then took the Metro to the first day of the CCL conference at the Omni Shoreham Hotel where author and environmentalist Bill McKibben spoke via video from his home in Vermont for the CCL monthly conference call. Bill promoted his new group, Third Act, to build “a community of Americans over the age of sixty determined to change the world for the better.” The goal of Third Act is to use the resources and energy of people over 60 years old to “use our life experience, skills and resources to build better tomorrow” in areas such as divesting large banks from fossil fuel investments, safeguarding our democracy, and powering up communities with clean energy. In addition, McKibben spoke in favor of CCL’s top priority for reforming the permitting process to speed up the pace to build new clean energy projects.

After Bill McKibben’s presentation, I enjoyed attending the CCL breakout session for the En-ROADS climate Workshop. For years, I found the En-ROADS climate solutions simulator to be an excellent tool to model the various solutions needed to reduce the climate crisis. I enjoyed the Saturday and Sunday sessions of the CCL Conference to prepare us to lobby Congressional Offices at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, June 13th. It was invigorating for me to see friends from across the U.S. who volunteer and work for CCL that I had not seen in three and a half years.

Lobbying Senator Ron Wyden’s D.C. office on permitting reform on June 13, 2023.

Over 850 CCL volunteers registered to lobby Congressional offices on the CCL Lobby Day of Tuesday, June 13th. As with all previous June CCL lobby days, all the volunteers lined up on the steps of the Capitol at 8:15 am for a large group photo. We then went our separate ways to our scheduled lobby meetings.

I had three scheduled lobby meetings that day with the staffs of Senator Ron Wyden, Representative Earl Blumenauer, and Representative Andrea Salinas, who are all members of Congress from Oregon. My first lobby meeting was not scheduled until 10 am, so I had time to call my wife Tanya, plus my mom and dad to let them know I was in front of the U.S. Capitol Building getting ready to lobby Congressional offices that day.

My first scheduled lobby meeting was a 10 am lobby meeting with staff of Senator Ron Wyden. Ten of us Oregon CCL volunteers were scheduled to attend this meeting. All of the roles for this meeting, such as appreciator, time monitor, notetaker, asker, follow-up, and listener, were divided up at a planning meeting on Friday, June 10th. I could not attend that meeting since I was flying from Portland to Washington D.C. that day. From that meeting, the remaining role assigned to me was the photographer. My task would be to make sure that we took of picture of all of us CCL volunteers by or in Senator Wyden’s Office, plus the staff member if they were willing to be in the group photo with us. At the lobby meeting, I made sure we got the group photo.

On Sunday afternoon, June 11th, Tamara Staton, Education and Resilience Coordinator for CCL, announced that that she had to back out of our Tuesday Wyden lobbying meeting. The leader of this meeting, Teresa Welch, asked for someone to step into Tamara’s role for this meeting to share with Senator Ron Wyden’s staff CCL’s position on permitting reform. I immediately jumped at the opportunity. I felt like I absorbed CCL’s detailed reasoning why permitting reform was a top priority during the CCL Conference that happened between Saturday, June 10th to Monday, June 12th. From what I learned about performing reform at the CCL conference, I was eager to share understanding of this issue in the lobby meetings.

When I texted Teresa on Sunday offering to explain CCL’s stance on permitting reform during the Wyden lobby on Tuesday, Teresa responded “Are you OK with doing that whole job (introduce the topic, share CCL’s perspective, and ask a question to start the conversation)?”

I texted back that I was. I then wrote out CCL’s position on permitting reform, which is:

CCL’s position that clean energy permitting reform is a top priority for us:
• We can’t implement the IRA without it. Over 80% of the potential emissions reductions delivered by IRA in 2030 are lost if transmission expansion is constrained.

• We can’t reduce US greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030 without it. It’s a key policy action if the US is going to meet the 2015 COP Paris commitments.

• More than 92% of new energy projects currently awaiting permits are solar and wind, and just 7.5% are natural gas. We need permitting reform to get the good projects implemented more quickly.

• It takes an average of 4.5 years for federal agencies just to complete environmental impact statements for major energy projects. That’s way too slow! These are important assessments, but we need speed up the pace with which we build new clean energy projects.

• We want a bill that will be:
– bipartisan
– improves community engagement.
– makes federal agencies more efficient,
– allows transmission lines to be permitted and built much faster.

We want a permitting reform bill that allows for the good clean energy projects to be approved more quickly and the bad ones to be rejected faster.

Basically, we want a permitting reform bill that speeds up approval of clean energy projects with community engagement.

In addition, I shared with Senator’s Wyden’s staff a printed graph from CCL that shows the U.S. is projected to have a 28% decrease in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. However, if we enact permit reform, we could get to a 40% decrease in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. With permitting reform, it gets the U.S. a giant step closer to its 2015 Paris commitment of a 50% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions below the 2005 level by 2030.

When I was finished explaining all of this, I asked Senator Wyden’s legislative aide what the Senator’s position was on permitting reform. The aide’s response was very positive. I can’t say anything beyond that because the CCL meetings with Congressional staff and members of Congress is confidential. Overall, all the Oregon CCL volunteers and I in the meeting with Senator Wyden’s staff felt like we in near agreement about permitting reform.

Meeting with staff of Rep. Earl Blumenauer about CCL’s carbon pricing bill

For our noon meeting with staff of Rep. Earl Blumenauer, the meeting leader, Walt Mintkeski, asked me to do the brief asks at the end of the meeting. Specifically, I would be asking Congressman Blumenauer to support permitting reform. Even more, we were asking him to support our carbon pricing bill, The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (EICDA) when it is re-introduced soon in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The EIDCA was introduced in the two previous Congressional sessions in 2019 and 2021. In the previous Congressional session (2021-2022), the EICDA reached 95 House co-sponsors. I strongly support their advocacy for a price on carbon such as the EICDA bill. This policy puts a steadily rising fee on carbon at the source, such as the oil well, methane well, coal mine, or fossil fuel imports at the U.S. border.

The fee starts at $15 per metric ton of greenhouse gas emissions and increases by $10 or $15 each year, depending upon future emissions. The revenue from the fee is then returned to American households in a monthly dividend check. It is one of the best policies to protect American businesses while holding international polluters accountable with a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM).

The EICDA targets 90 percent emission reductions by 2050 compared to 2016 levels. The United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (the IPCC) urges all nations of the world, especially the U.S, to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050 to avoid possible catastrophic consequences from climate change.

In the graph on U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions from CCL that I showed above in the previous section, a carbon price is a vital tool to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Implementing effective permitting reform, plus a carbon price, help the U.S. reduce its GHG emissions by 52% by 2030. As I mentioned previously, the U.S. has a 2015 Paris commitment of a 50% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions below the 2005 level by 2030. Permitting reform, plus a carbon price, helps the U.S. exceed its 2030 goal to reduce GHG emissions.

The United States and Australia are the only developed economies without a nationwide carbon price in place. The European Union, the largest foreign market available to U.S. producers, will begin implementation of a CBAM on imports (including American exports to the E.U.) this year based on its existing carbon price. Thus, a carbon fee and dividend with a CBAM, such as with the EIDCA, can help the U.S. reduce its harmful greenhouse gas pollution that causes climate change while helping make American products more competitive in the E.U.

Climate change is a high priority for Congressman Earl Blumenauer. In past years, he introduced his own carbon pricing bills. In our previous lobby meetings with Rep. Blumenauer and his staff, he has indicated that he would vote for the EICDA on the House floor if it came up for a vote. However, with his concerns about environmental justice, he resisted co-sponsoring the EICDA. On our June 13th lobby meeting, we asked his staff to pass along to Rep. Blumenauer that the EICDA will most likely be introduced soon. We asked that he please consider voting for it if it came up for a floor vote in the U.S. House, like he indicated in the past that he would do.

Like the meeting I attended with Senator Ron Wyden’s staff, we felt like we had a positive exchange of information with the staff of Congressman Earl Blumenauer.

Briefly Chatting in the Halls of Congress with Rep. Andrea Salinas about carbon pricing

After my meetings with staff of Senator Ron Wyden and Rep. Earl Blumenauer, I had over two hours before our 2:15 meeting with staff of Rep. Andrea Salinas. My friend and fellow CCL volunteer, Walt Mintkeski, who led the Rep. Blumenauer meeting and would be leading the Rep. Salinas meeting, decided that we would hang out together until the Rep. Salinas meeting.

Walt informed me that our meeting plans for the Rep. Salinas meeting had changed. Originally, we were scheduled to meet with her office staff for 30 minutes. However, halfway in this meeting, the legislative aide would then walk us to the door of the nearby committee room, where we would have a brief chat with Rep. Salinas as she came out of her committee hearing.

Unfortunately, the committee meeting time had changed the day before. The legislative staff then informed Walt that the brief meeting with Rep. Salinas was cancelled. We felt a little disappointed since we hoped to say hello to Congresswoman Salinas. At the same time, we totally understood because the schedules of members of Congress change quickly. When that happens, face to face meetings with the Senator or Representative then gets cancelled.

As Walt and I walked towards one of the Congressional cafeterias, Tamara Staton, a staff person for CCL, joined us. She also was scheduled to be at the 2:15 pm meeting with staff of Rep. Salinas. As Walt, Tamara, and I waited for an elevator to go to a Congressional cafeteria around 12:48 pm, I noticed Rep. Salinas walk right by us. I said to Walt: “That’s Andrea Salinas!”

Walt is in his mid 70s, but he bolted after her like a kid running on a racetrack. I then ran to catch up to both of them in a quick instant.

Walt said hello to Rep. Salinas and she quickly remembered Walt and me. Walt mentioned that we were supposed to have a brief chat with her at 2:30 pm, but that was cancelled. Rep. Salinas confirmed that. Walt then asked if we could chat with her while she was briskly walking to her office. Rep. Salinas welcomed that idea and seemed very happy for us to walk with her.

I lobbied in Washington D.C. eight previous times. However, this was my first time directly lobbying a member of Congress while they were very quickly walking to their next scheduled event. Walt brought up permitting reform. She had interesting but confidential thoughts on that.

I was very excited to chat with her in person. I thanked her for being one of the first Oregon Legislators to endorse the EICDA in October 2020. I then thanked her for agreeing to be one of the first co-sponsors Senate Joint Memorial 5 (SJM 5) in the Oregon Legislature when it was first taking shape in December 2020. SJM 5 urged Congress to pass the Energy Innovation & Dividend Act. She was very supportive of all my climate organizing in Oregon in 2020 and 2021. Thus, this was a dream come true for me to talk with her directly on Capitol Hill. When I asked if she would support the reintroduction of the EICDA in this Congress, her response was positive. However, she said she wants to see the bill first.

She was then nearly at her office. I wanted to give her time and space to go to her next scheduled commitment. In the rush of everything happening, I asked if we could get a picture with her. She happily obliged to get a selfie photo on my phone with Walt, Tamara, me, and her.

It was a sublime and exhausting experience to briskly walk to directly engage with her. She explained to us the political atmosphere in Congress. She had good insights on what was happening in Congress. At the same time, it frustrated me because I could not hear her well with the background noise. The acoustics of the Congressional hallways were terrible with lots of other people walking by and the sounds bouncing off the marble floors and hallways. Overall, I was very thrilled for a chance to chat with her and directly ask her to support climate legislation.

We then had over an hour to debrief from that experience and then get ready for our 2:15 pm meeting with staff of Rep. Andrea Salinas. Unlike the hallway frantic chat with Rep. Salinas an hour earlier, it felt much more relaxing to be sitting in her office exchanging information with her staff about permitting reform, carbon pricing, and other climate bills that CCL supported.

Final thoughts

That evening, I enjoyed attended the CCL reception at the Omni Shoreham that evening to see Congressman Scott Peters from California speak. It was great to connect with friends that I got to know from over the years in CCL and scarf down some free appetizers at the event. I then took the Metro back to Takoma Park to briefly visit with my hosts Tom and Reena before they went to bed. I flew back from Washington D.C. to Portland, Oregon the next day.

After feeling burned over the years with my involvement with CCL, I feel rather leery to be involved with them again. I do really love lobbying in Washington D.C and possibly attending a future CCL conference there. As a climate organizer, I am not sure what the future holds for me. I hope to find a way to successfully urge Rep. Andrea Salinas to co-sponsor the EICDA if it is introduced soon, but we shall see. I know for sure that I will find some way to feel productive and useful in the climate movement, whether I am involved with CCL or not.

Growing up in St. Louis, Missouri in the 1970s and 80s, our family enjoyed getting the daily newspaper delivered each morning to our front lawn. Yes, we also watched the news on TV. However, our daily subscription to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch was how we primarily received our local and national news. Whoever woke up first in the morning was then asked by the second person, “Did you bring in the newspaper this morning?”

I remember my dad and older sister enjoying reading the daily newspaper from cover to cover, from the headlines to the comics on the last page. We enjoyed reading the newspaper’s analysis of the previous day’s local, national, and international events. Our family felt like we had a better grasp of what was happening in the world and could discuss it in a more meaningful way by reading the newspaper. Even more, it felt like the people who truly made a difference in the world, somehow got their name in the newspaper.

As a kid, I somehow wanted to get my name in the newspaper. I did not know how, but I was going to find some way to make it happen. Since my parents loved reading the newspaper, I knew it would make them proud if I could get my name in the newspaper in a positive way.

I kept a low-key life not drawing any media attention to myself graduating from Oakville High School in St. Louis in 1987. I then graduated from William Jewell College in Kansas City, Missouri with a degree in Business Administration in 1992. I then started working seasonally in the national parks, spending my summers working at Crater Lake National Park, Oregon and my winters in Everglades National Park, Florida.

Getting my name in nationally known newspapers as an Everglades Park Ranger

In 1998, I became a naturalist guide narrating the concession boat tours at the Flamingo Outpost in Everglades National Park. Flamingo and the Everglades would attract travel writers looking to write stories about what saw and their recommendations for visiting the Everglades. On February 27, 2000, Chicago Tribune staff writer Robert Cross wrote about his experience visiting the Everglades. He was a passenger on an Everglades boat tour that I narrated.

Writing about my boat narration, Cross observed: “Everything about the park filled (Brian) Ettling with excitement. His energy compensated for the lack of snowcapped mountains.”

He went on to report: “Out of the Buttonwood Canal, Brian Ettling began rattling off the names of birds and animals that were nesting, wading or soaring overhead. He saw a lot, and so he had to speak so fast that he ended up sounding like a tobacco auctioneer.”

I enjoyed that description of me talking so fast like a ‘tobacco auctioneer’ because that did describe me to a T. I did talk very fast then. Partially because this was my first job narrating tours in a national park and I wanted to share all my knowledge and love for the area. If I could go back in time, I would encourage myself to speak slower so the park visitors could understand me better. Even with my very fast talking, Robert Cross described me as “alert and energetic.”

This was the first time I had recalled getting my name in any publication. I have kept a hard copy of that article to this day. In 2003, I landed a winter job as an interpretative/naturalist ranger at the Everglades City Visitor Center in Everglades National Park. At this location, I regularly led ranger guided canoe trips into the Ten Thousand Islands area on the Everglades on weekends. On one of those trips was New York Times travel writer Beth Greenfield.

I was told in an advance by my supervisor that she would be on my canoe trip. Even more, we ended up sharing the canoe with her in the front rowing. I was in the back steering and narrating for her and the other visitors in canoes who signed up for this ranger led canoe trip. Beth Greenfield quoted me several times for this NY Times article, “Slipping Slowly Into South Florida’s Grassy Water.” She wrote:

“(Beginner paddlers) are best off joining the short, organized trips on more navigable creeks, led by park naturalists like (Brian) Ettling, 38.

‘I never get tired of this area,’ he said one day this winter as he led canoeists paddling single file beneath a cathedral of arching mangrove branches. He excitedly pointed out blue herons, jumping mullet fish and skittish tree crabs.”

She then reported how I pointed out and described of other Everglades wildlife. I will never forget when I and the other Everglades Park rangers saw that we were quoted in this article in the travel section of the New York Times. It felt at that time like we had accomplished something big to be quoted in the New York Times. I still have hard copies of that newspaper article to this day.

Looking back at it now, nearly all the rangers I encountered working in the national parks were extremely knowledgeable and very enthusiastic about sharing their vast knowledge with park visitors. In some ways, it is a matter of luck for a ranger or naturalist guide to be at the right place and at the right time to be quoted for one of these articles. It had little to do with us as individuals. These travel writers just needed good quotes and names for their travel articles.

I loved being a park ranger. Every day was lovely wearing that park ranger uniform while working in magnificent national parks. Being a park ranger was the best job I ever had, but it started to feel like a theme park mascot after a while. Visitors are really enthralled with the ranger uniform. They wanted to get their pictures with a ranger, ask a ranger questions, and attend a ranger program. They were not as interested in the individual wearing the uniform.

Many visitors did ask me the same monotonous questions such as ‘Where did you come from?’ ‘How did you get this ranger job?’ and ‘What other national parks have you worked?’ Those questions still seemed superficial to me. The visitors asked those questions because they really wanted to be a park ranger. They asked about my background to see if their background could lead to a job like that. Or they loved national parks and park rangers, so they wanted to compare my story with other park rangers they encountered.

As the years went by working in the national parks, I wanted to be known more as Brian Ettling. Not just Park Ranger Brian Ettling interacting with visitors at their national parks vacations.

In my desire to learn all I could about the Everglades to answer visitor questions and give nifty quotes to travel writers, I discovered my lifelong passion that eventually led me away from the national parks. This journey led me to get my name in newspapers for the pressing issue of our times, climate change.

Discovering Climate Change while working in the national parks

In 1998, I started giving ranger talks in Everglades National Park. Visitors then asked me about this global warming thing. Visitors hate when park rangers tell you, “I don’t know.” Soon afterwards, I rushed to the nearest Miami bookstore and to the park library to read all I the scientific books I could find on climate change.

The information I learned really scared me, specifically sea level rise along our mangrove coastline in Everglades National Park. Sea level rose 8 inches in the 20th century, four times more than it had risen in previous centuries for the past three thousand years. Because of climate change, sea level is now expected to rise at least three feet in Everglades National Park by the end of the 21st century. The sea would swallow up most of the park and nearby Miami since the highest point of the park road less than three feet above sea level.

It shocked me that crocodiles, alligators, and beautiful Flamingos I saw in the Everglades could all lose this ideal coastal habitat because of sea level rinse enhanced by climate change.

I became so worried about climate change that I quit my winter job in Everglades National Park the year in 2008. I started spending my winters in St. Louis Missouri to find some way to organize for climate action. I started giving climate change talks at my nieces and nephews grade schools in the spring of 2010. In the winter of 2011, I joined South County Toastmasters to become a better climate change communicator. That same winter, I worked at the St. Louis Science Center at their temporary climate change exhibit from March to May 2011.

Up until 2017, I still worked my summer job Crater Lake National Park. While working there for many years, the impacts of climate change became apparent with the average annual snowpack diminishing. I noticed more mild winters with below average snowpacks. The summer wildfire seasons became more longer, hotter, dryer and more intense. By August 2011, I had gathered enough information to start giving a climate change ranger evening program at the campground amphitheater to the park visitors.

Getting involved with Citizens Climate Lobby and The Climate Reality Project

While attending a St. Louis Science Center lecture about how climate change is impacting the weather in April 2011, I met and became friends with St. Louis businessman Larry Lazar. We had a mutual longing to do something about climate change. Thus, Larry and I co-founded the St. Louis Climate Reality Meet Up group in November 2011 (now called Climate Meetup-St. Louis) to organize regular meetings and promote events to create more awareness about climate change in the St. Louis area.

Larry and I had our first meeting at Cafe Ventana in St. Louis on December 11, 2011. Larry organized the meeting around all of us getting to know each other and our concerns about climate change. We had about 16 people attend the meeting, including Tom and Carol Braford. Larry did a great job making our initial Meet Up meeting a success. After the meeting, I will never forget Carol personally inviting me to a Citizens Climate Lobby (CCL) conference call meeting.

She had an enticing way to describe the group. She mentioned conference calls on the first Saturday of each month listening to national experts on climate change. Then the group plans actions to lobby Congress to pass effective laws to protect us from climate change. I was interested. One big problem: I just took a job at the St. Louis Science Center where I agreed I would be working weekends. Thus, it would be really hard for me to attend these meetings.

Over that winter of 2011-12, Larry Lazar and I kept leading our Climate Reality Meet Up meeting on the third Sunday of each month. Up to 20 people attended our meetings, including Tom & Carol Braford. Carol kept mentioning CCL. I felt in a bind because attending their meetings intrigued me, but my job schedule made it hard.

Finally, the timing was right when my winter seasonal job ended at the Science Center at the end of April. I had a free Saturday, May 5th. I arrived at Tom & Carol’s house around 11:30 am. She had a lot of delicious and healthy snacks for us to eat, especially wonderful cheese, crackers, fruit, and amazing homemade bread. There was 5 of us in attendance. Then Carol connected us to the conference call, and I was blown away.

All these groups from North America were calling into the conference call: Atlanta, New York, Chicago, San Diego, San Francisco, Toronto, Phoenix, Minneapolis, Albuquerque, Madison, Seattle, and new groups in Portland and Eugene, Oregon. The Executive Director of CCL, Mark Reynolds began this call with a quote from Dr. Peter Joseph: “Action is the antidote for despair.”

This amazed me because I first met Peter in San Francisco just 5 months before at a party while I was attending the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting. We happened to attend a Union of Concerned Scientists reception and we struck up a conversation. Peter mentioned that he was a Climate Reality Leader, trained by Al Gore. I told Peter that I wanted to be a Climate Reality Leader, so we exchanged business cards and we kept in touch. I was blown away that Peter was mentioned by CCL Executive Director Mark Reynolds on that May 2012 CCL monthly call.

Even more, during that May 2012 CCL conference call, I connected with the elegant and effective solution that CCL championed to reduce the threat of climate change, a carbon fee and dividend. At that time, I was thinking: ‘Where has this group been my whole life?’

At the close of the meeting, I boldly told Carol that I was going to establish a CCL group in southern Oregon when I returned to Crater Lake National Park to work as a park ranger that summer. It took all summer, but I eventually helped establish the southern Oregon CCL chapter that regularly meets in Ashland, Oregon.

Thanks to the help of Peter Joseph putting in a good word for me, I attended a Climate Reality Training in San Francisco, August 2-4, 2012. The training is a great way to network and help participants become more effective taking action to reduce the threat of climate change. At that training, I met Dr. Lucas Sabalka. His name tag stated he was from St. Louis. At the time, he was an Assistant Professor of mathematics at Saint Louis University. I encouraged Lucas to get involved with the St. Louis group of Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL). When Lucas returned to St. Louis, he immediately attended the local St. Louis CCL group meeting.

A St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial leads to my first op-ed published for climate action

When I was finished with my seasonal job at Crater Lake National Park, I returned to St. Louis in late October. It was a thrill to be involved with the St. Louis CCL group when they made a huge accomplishment this winter. Steve Valk, Director of Communications of CCL at that time, came to visit the St. Louis CCL chapter in early December. Carol and Tom Braford arranged for a group meeting that included Steve Valk, Lucas Salbalka, and me. Carol then scheduled our group to have a meeting with Kevin Horrigan, the Managing Editor of the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

We persuaded Kevin for the Post-Dispatch to write a supportive editorial about the danger of climate change. Even more, the newspaper strongly affirmed need for Congress to pass a carbon fee and dividend, which is the priority of CCL. On December 27, 2012, The Post-Dispatch published the editorial, “Save the Planet. Save Social Security, Save Medicaid, Tax Carbon.”

Kevin Horrigan gave each of us his business card at that meeting. He told us that if we ever wanted to write an opinion editorial (op-ed) for the Post-Dispatch about CCL and carbon fee & dividend, he would make room to publish our op-ed. This really intrigued me because I grew up reading the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. I had always wanted to get my name in the newspaper. After that editorial board meeting and the December 2012 Post-Dispatch editorial endorsing CCL’s carbon fee and dividend, I was determined to an op-ed for the Post-Dispatch to publish.

After that Post-Dispatch editorial meeting, I talked with CCL friends for months about writing and submitting an op-ed to the newspaper for climate action. On the Saturday, April 6, 2013, monthly meeting, CCL Executive Director Mark Reynolds urged the volunteers on the national call to submit LTEs and op-eds around the time of Earth Day. He pointed out that there is a heightened sense of awareness in the media with environmental and climate issues that makes it more likely that newspapers would publish submitted LTEs and op-eds focused on those issues. That certainly intrigued me to try to write and submit something.

When I mentioned this to Lucas at the CCL meeting, he said in an exasperated tone: ‘Brian, you have talked about writing something for months. I think it is time for you to just do it.’

I had a lot of respect for Lucas. I didn’t want to let him down. He was correct that I had talked about it, but had procrastinated about it for months. I loved that Lucas pushed and challenged me to step out of my comfort zone to write an op-ed for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. That Saturday evening, I stayed up super late and wrote the op-ed. I immediately took up his challenge, wrote out the op-ed and submitted it by email to the Post-Dispatch that night.

The Post-Dispatch published this op-ed on April 19, 2013, close to Earth Day:
“For Earth Day, a GOP free-market solution to climate change.”

I will never forget waking up that morning to retrieve the newspaper from the front lawn. When I brought the newspaper inside, opened, and went to the opinion section, I noticed that my op-ed was published in the Post-Dispatch. It was a feeling of joint elation, since I was staying with my parents at their home for the winter. My dad’s cousin from Los Angeles was visiting, plus two of my parents’ good friends from Anaheim, California. It was a house full of people to celebrate my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary party that was happening the next day. I fulfilled a childhood dream to get my name in the newspaper in a positive way!

Everyone was very proud of me for getting this op-ed published in the newspaper. My parents responded like I gave them the perfect 50th wedding anniversary gift. It certainly added to the joy of the party. I felt elated getting published in the newspaper for an op-ed promoting climate action. Even more, it was great to weave into the article support for CCL, their carbon fee and dividend solution, and urging by name the local members of Congress to support this policy.

It felt like a very sweet accomplishment. I wanted to find ways to duplicate that success again to get published in more newspapers to elevate climate action.

My second published St. Louis Post-Dispatch op-ed kept me up late at night in July 2013

With the success of my first published op-ed, I wanted to get a second one published. I waited a few months so the Post-Dispatch would not become tired of me. For my second op-ed submission, I decided to talk about a different subject besides CCL and carbon fee & dividend.

Besides my involvement CCL, during the winter of 2012-13, I also volunteered for the Missouri Sierra Club and the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign. With the climate organizing that Larry, Lucas, and I did during the winter of 2012-13, I met Sara Edgar, an organizer with the Missouri Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign. I then stumbled across a news article that I learned how dependent St. Louis was on burning coal for electricity.

On December 31, 2012, the headline for St. Louis Post-Dispatch grabbed my attention: “One in five kids in parts of St. Louis area struggles with asthma.” Underneath the headline was an 8-year-old African American boy, Xavier Miles, with a big smile on his face before receiving his spirometry test, which shows the function of the lungs, at his school. The caption stated that “Xavier has asthma and met with various educators who reminded him how to take off himself during an asthma attack.”

The article then mentioned that St. Louis has twice the national average of children suffering with asthma. In an amazing coincidence at that time, St. Louis got around 84% of its electricity by burning coal, that is over twice the national average of 39%. Even worse, Ameren, the local electric utility, operates 4 three coal-fired power plants in the St. Louis metro area, 3 of which run without modern pollution controls.

According to the Clean Air Task Force, retiring one coal plant prevents annually 29 premature deaths, 47 heart attacks, 491 asthma attacks, and 22 asthma emergency room visits.

Just a couple of miles from where I grew up in my childhood home was the Meramec Coal Plant. It was originally built in 1953. Its health costs to society is larger than profits from production. According to the Environmental Integrity Project, the plant causes about 1,000 asthma attacks and 57 to 100 premature deaths each year.

On March 2, 2013, my dad had surgery to remove a six-inch cancerous tumor below his kidney. The doctor asked my dad if he was a smoker because my dad’s cancer was typical of a smoker. However, my dad has been a non-smoker his entire life. I was worried for my dad living 36 years just a couple of miles from the Meramec coal plant increased his risk of cancer.

From the awareness I learned how bad it is to burn coal, especially in my hometown St. Louis, I gave a speech at the April 17, 2013, St. Louis South County Toastmasters meeting called “What Keeps Me Up Late at Night.” The goal of that speech was to urge my fellow Toastmasters to request the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to require Ameren, the local electric utility which operates Meramec Plant, to lower its sulfur dioxide emissions to levels that are safe for our families according to the Clean Air Act.

That Toastmasters speech led me to write an opinion editorial published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on July 10, 2013. Just like my Toastmaster’s speech, the title of this op-ed was called, “What Keeps me Up Late At Night.” This op-ed asked St. Louis area residents to urge Ameren to retire the local coal plants because of the health risks from the polluted air.

My dad was a retired 40-year employee of Ameren, the utility that operated the Meramec coal plant. My parents had concerns about me speaking so publicly against Ameren and the Meramec Coal Plant since my dad received a retirement pension from Ameren. Even more, my parents knew a lot of people in the St. Louis area, including Ameren employees. They felt like my op-ed had put them in an awkward position. This led to some strained conversations with my parents. We eventually moved on and forgot about this subject. However, the difficulties it caused within my family did probably keep me up late at night more than my first published op-ed. We came to an agreement to let them know before I had an article published like that again.

The good news is that my op-ed did generate a conversation in the St. Louis area about the Meramec Coal Plant. Ameren first announced its plan to retire the Meramec Coal Plant in 2014. It officially closed Meramec on December 31, 2022. Meramec was Ameren’s oldest and smallest coal-fired power plant. Would this plant retirement happened without my op-ed? Probably. It is obvious now that this was Ameren’s oldest and possibly most inefficient power plant. Thus, its future looked limited.

At the same time, it felt good to put a spotlight on that unhealthy and polluting power plant to put more pressure on Ameren to retire it. In time, my parents seemed to also come around to be proud of my advocacy to urge the retirement of the Meramec Coal Plant.

10 Oregon Newspapers publish my 2013 op-eds promoting CCL and carbon fee & dividend

After I had success in 2013 getting two op-eds published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, I wanted to get climate change op-eds published in Oregon newspapers. As a seasonal park ranger at Crater Lake National Park, I worked there from mid-May to the end of September in 2013. Even more, I had co-founded the southern Oregon chapter for Citizens’ Climate Lobby earlier that year. Thus, I aimed to create more success and publicity for this group. The CCL Chapter Leader for the southern Oregon group, Susan Bizeau, knew I had written and published op-eds in St. Louis. She also thought I should write op-eds to submit to be published in Oregon newspapers.

I first emailed a guest opinion submission to the Medford Mail Tribune on September 9th. It amazed me that it was quickly published on Thursday, September 12, 2013, “2013 drought, wildfires call for action on climate change.” The day it was printed, I was running errands in Medford, Oregon with my Crater Lake National Park ranger job. Medford is about 76 miles or an hour and a half drive southwest from Crater Lake. I occasionally was assigned to go to Medford with my job pick up or drop off vehicles, pick up park newspapers, etc. By chance, I happened to be in Medford that day with work errands which enabled me to buy a hard copy of the newspaper with my guest opinion on page 9. It was exciting to have my first op-ed published in Oregon.

As a side note, unfortunately, the Medford Mail Tribune shut down abruptly in early January 2023. As of this writing, they don’t have an active website to share an online link to my op-ed. Therefore, here is a screenshot of the print edition:

With my breakthrough Mail Tribune op-ed in September 2013, I next submitted a guest commentary to the Klamath Falls Herald and News. It took a while for the Herald and News to publish my submission, but they did on September 22nd. Southern Oregon experienced a bad drought in 2013, so I stuck with the same theme that I used for the Mail Tribune. My guest commentary for the Herald and News was called “2013 Oregon drought calls for action on climate change.”

Klamath Falls is only about 60 miles or a little over a one-hour drive directly south from Crater Lake. Klamath Falls and Medford are in opposite directions from Crater Lake. The cities are separated by the Cascade Mountains. When I was driving back from Medford on the weekend of September 22nd as it was getting dark, I happened to find a newspaper vending machine in the small town of Rocky Point. I just happened to have one remaining hard copy of the Herald and News with my guest commentary printed inside towards the back page.

With these two published op-eds, I decided to try for the other large city newspaper in southwestern Oregon, The Grants Pass Daily Courier. It published my submission on Friday, September 20, 2013. The Daily Courier gave my guest opinion a different headline, “See Crater Lake as climate bellweather.” On that weekend of September 21st, I traveled down through Medford to see friends in Talent. I purchased a copy of this Grants Pass newspaper among the newspapers for sale by the checkout stand by the Fred Meyer’s supermarket in Medford.

It is hard for me to access this Daily Courier op-ed online because it is behind a pay wall subscription fee. Here is a screenshot of the print edition:

Around that same time, The Bend Bulletin published an op-ed by me on September 18th, “2013 Oregon drought calls for action on climate change.” I emailed a submission to them around the same time I emailed my other submissions in early September. Bend is a two-hour drive north of Crater Lake. It was my only op-ed where I was not able to get a printed copy. At the same time, it was still exciting to be published in their newspaper.

I felt like I was on a roll getting op-eds published in southwestern Oregon’s three largest newspapers within a week, plus The Bend Bulletin. On that Saturday evening, I had dinner with Susan Bizeau, the Group Leader of the southern Oregon CCL chapter. Susan was ecstatic that I got op-eds published in so many local newspapers in the past week. She responded to my Medford Daily Tribune guest opinion with a supportive letter to the editor that was published. She was eager to show me and read it to me as a group of us went out for Thai food in Talent, Oregon.

Since I was having success getting published in newspapers, Susan challenged me to submit op-eds to more Oregon newspapers, even the largest newspaper in Oregon, The (Portland) Oregonian. I did not want to let Susan down and I loved being challenged by friends in this way. I wrote it the submission and emailed it on September 27, 2013. I forgot about this submission because I then had too many other things on my mind. I was totally focused on wrapping up my season at Crater Lake, packing up my belongings, cleaning out my seasonal park residence, loading my car, and planning about my cross-country drive back to St. Louis.

During my cross-country drive, I woke up in a motel room in West Wendover, Nevada, on the second day of my journey on October 4, 2013. As I was getting ready to brush my teeth, I received a phone call Steve Valk, Director of Communications of CCL. He wanted to congratulate me for getting a guest opinion published in The Oregonian. This was a complete surprise to me. I asked Steve how he knew about this. He responded that it popped up on his Google alerts for “Citizens Climate Lobby” that day. This was a thrill to get this news out of the blue. I immediately had to turn on my laptop to see for myself. It was so cool to see it online for the first time, “Shrinking Crater Lake snowpack argues for carbon tax: Guest opinion.”

This was now my seventh published op-ed for the year, two in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and now five in Oregon newspapers. It felt like I was still surfing a good wave, and I was not ready to quit yet. After I returned to St. Louis for the winter, I decided to email another Oregon newspaper, the Eugene Register-Guard, to submit an op-ed. The Register-Guard published my guest opinion on October 23, 2013, “Crater Lake snowpack shows climate change.”

This was now my eighth published op-ed for the year, two in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and six in Oregon newspapers. I felt like I was on a winning streak and I did not want it to end. Over the next month, I was busy working full time for the Missouri Sierra Club. However, as I wrote about in my previous blog, that job was not a good fit for me. I decided to resign from that job at the end of November to devote myself to my writing and organizing. On December 3, 2013, another Oregon newspaper, The Ashland Daily-Tidings, published my op-ed, “Smaller Crater Lake snowpack calls for climate change action.” Unfortunately, there is no online link to that guest opinion. I have friends in Ashland, Oregon, but they were not able to get a hard copy for me.

‘But, that’s not all!’ as they say on bad TV infomercials, I was not finished for 2013. On December 13, 2013, the Salem Statesman Journal published my op-ed, “Carbon tax an act to stem climate change.” This is my tenth op-ed for 2013 that I got published: two in the St. Louis Post Dispatch and eight in Oregon newspapers. Ten was a nice round number. I felt like I had done my part getting published in newspaper op-eds in 2013.

To my surprise, my newspaper writings continued. On December 22nd, the Statesman Journal published a very dismissive letter to the editor (LTE) by Mr. Ray Woodworth of Salem, Oregon, “Climate change consensus is not scientific proof.”

Ray Woodworth directly attacked my op-ed by writing, “In his Dec. 14 guest opinion, Brian Ettling wrote that more than 97 percent of climate scientists and the Catholic Church agree that climate change is caused by humans. What he failed to point out is that this agreement is a consensus, not a scientific proof.”

Woodworth went on to argue: “What makes these scientists so sure that human beings are responsible now? Can they scientifically prove it? So far, they have not.”

To my delight, the Statesman Journal published my 200-word LTE response to Ray Woodworth on January 5, 2014, “Isotope signature proves carbon footprint of man.”

My LTE response and my blog “Explaining Climate Change in 200 Words or Less” inspired some Facebook friends to try to explain climate change in their own words or even in French. I then wrote a blog about that, “Explaining Climate Change briefly in French or your own words.”

St. Louis Post-Dispatch publishes two more of my op-eds calling for climate action.

After the Salem Statesman Journal op-ed, I decided to take a break from writing op-eds for a few months. The inch hit me to start writing again as Earth Day approached in April 2014. It would be one year anniversary of my first published op-ed that was in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch just a couple of days before the 2013 Earth Day.

I wrote and submitted a new op-ed to the Post-Dispatch for Earth Day, April 22, 2014. To my joy, they published my op-ed, “For Earth Day: Asking our elected officials to be climate heroes.”

With this op-ed, the Post-Dispatch included a beautiful color photo of Crater Lake National Park. The words “For Earth Day” were also printed in green. The layout for this article looked stunningly beautiful. The way that the Post-Dispatch printed my op-ed, I should have mounted and framed it. I still might one of these days.

For Earth Day 2015, I wrote and tried to submit an op-ed to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, but this time they decided not to publish my submission. I got a bit spoiled getting op-eds published in the Post-Dispatch for the previous two Earth Days. I figured that I would wait for the right time when I felt inspired to submit an op-ed to the Post-Dispatch again.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial from November 27, 2015, “Climate Consensus” inspired me to write and submit an op-ed. To my excitement, the Post-Dispatch decided to publish it two days before Christmas, on December 23, 2015. “A GOP market-friendly alternative to Obama’s Clean Power Plan”. I advocated that CCL’s carbon fee and dividend proposal would effectively reduce the threat of climate change. At the same time, carbon fee and dividend would grow the economy while reducing greenhouse emissions much more effectively than President Obama’s EPA regulations, which the Republicans deeply opposed.

At our Christmas family gathering, my older sister asked me about this op-ed. It was great to have an engaging conversation about climate change this family get together for Christmas. I hope my op-ed inspired other family conversations during the 2015 holidays. This op-ed inspired me to write and submit more op-eds in 2016.

For Earth Day 2016, I decided to write and submit an op-ed to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Unlike April 2015, they chose to publish my op-ed for April 22, 2016, “Earth Day and our national parks calls for GOP climate action.” I was very fortunate when the Post-Dispatch published my 2014 Earth Day op-ed with the brightly colored picture of Crater Lake National Park. There were no colored photographs attached to my op-ed this time, which was slightly disappointing. At the same time, it still felt glorious to have an op-ed published on climate change in my hometown newspaper, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. It was great to have my picture and words in the newspaper that I grew up reading as a child.

5 Oregon Newspapers publish my 2016 op-eds promoting climate action

2016 marked the Centennial or the 100th anniversary celebration of the National Park Service (NPS). Many media articles were written and published that year focusing on the significance of the NPS Centennial. That brought a lot of media attention to the national parks and NPS sites in 2016. With all this local and national spotlight attention on the national parks with the 2016 centennial, I thought this would be a good hook to submit climate change op-eds.

In early May 2016, I returned to work at Crater Lake National Park for my summer ranger job. I worked many years there as a park ranger, plus I saw climate change while working in the national parks. Even more, climate change is one of the biggest threats facing the national parks as we reflected upon the centennial and the future of American national parks. In May 2016, my first submission was in the Medford Mail Tribune. It was published on May 6, 2016, with the “Crater Lake threatened at centennial.”

Since there is no line link available as of this writing: here is a screenshot of the hard copy of my Mail Tribune op-ed:

Over one week later, the Klamath Falls Herald and News published my guest opinion, “Legislation offers hope dealing with climate change.” Oddly, no online link exists for this op-ed. Somehow, I managed to get a hard copy to save.

This Herald and News commentary did not mention the centennial. On May 6, 2016, the Herald and News, The Bend Bulletin, and other Oregon newspapers reported “Climate change could alter Crater Lake’s clarity.” That article spurred me to write and submit my guest opinion to the Herald and News to acknowledge the problem of climate change on Crater Lake. I then pivoted to offer a great policy solution of urging Congress to pass CCL’s carbon fee and dividend.

That same month that I submitted op-eds to the Mail Tribune and the Herald and News, I thought it was a good opportunity to submit a guest opinion to Oregon’s largest newspaper, The Oregonian. I wrote this op-ed with similar wording as my Herald and News guest commentary. The Oregonian published my opinion piece on May 12, 2016 with the headline: “Climate change: Protect Crater Lake National Park.”

The Oregonian printed my op-ed with a beautiful color photo of Crater Lake above what I had written. Just like my Earth Day, April 22, 2014 op-ed in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch which showed a beautiful photo of Crater Lake along with my writing, this layout in the Oregonian looking stunning and splendid. I asked a friend of mine who lives in Portland, Jamie Scott Campbell, to mail a copy of my Oregonian op-ed to me. Jamie and I worked together at Crater Lake in my first summers there in 1992 and 1993. It was very kind of Jamie to mail this to me.

I will never forget opening the large vanilla envelope that Jamie sent it to me. I carefully opened it up at the Crater Lake interpretive ranger office. My ranger colleagues were very excited and impressed. One my ranger friends, Lise Walls, wanted to get a picture of her and me holding the Oregonian page that had the picture of Crater Lake and my op-ed. I will never forget what she said as she wanted pictures for the occasion. She said, “Brian, this is a big deal!”

This was very memorable sharing this experience with my fellow Crater Lake ranger friends. I was not finished submitted op-eds in 2016. On June 11, 2016, The Bend Bulletin published my guest view “Climate change action needed to protect our national parks.” The CCL Bend Chapter Leader happened to be visiting Crater Lake several days later. I was disappointed that I was unable to meet up with her. She very thoughtfully brought a hard copy of that Bend Bulletin op-ed. She gave it to a fellow Crater Lake park ranger to give to me.

The NPS centennial was officially observed on August 25, 2016. That was the date that President Woodrow Wilson signed the Organic Act into law. Around that time, it seemed appropriate to submit a guest opinion for the Ashland Daily Tidings. This newspaper printed my fifth and final 2016 op-ed on August 24th, “Park centennial calls for action.”

Getting my name and a cartoon about me printed in Missouri newspapers in 2017

In November 2016, my friend, Brian Kahn, wrote an article for the website, Climatecentral.org, that featured me. Brian worked as a seasonal park ranger at Crater Lake National Park during the summers of 2006, 2008, and 2010. He then became a journalist covering climate change for Climate Central. Since my writings and focus for years was seeing climate change in the national parks, I was pleased when Brian wrote the article, “National Parks Are At the Front Lines of Climate Communications: More and More Park Rangers Are talking about Climate change.”

Brian had several quotes from me and quoted some of my friends for the article. We chatted by phone a couple of months before Climate Central published the article. I urged Brian to use several sources that he ended up using in the article. Brian Kahn’s article was a turning point for me from when I was writing less op-eds and appearing more in newspaper articles.

In late 2016, my friend George Laur, who is the Missouri Coordinator for CCL, decided that I should do a speaking tour in Missouri to promote CCL sometime in 2017. In February 2017, my wife Tanya and I moved to Portland Oregon when she was recruited for a job there. When I told George this in January 2017, his response was: ‘We are still doing this tour, Brian. You might just have to fly back from Oregon so you can speak at the events.’

I ended up flying to Missouri during the last week of March for this speaking tour in Missouri. George made all the arrangements for me to speak at two different locations. First, I spoke to over a crowd of 100 people in Jefferson City at the Runge Conservation Nature Center on March 29, 2017. I spoke on the impacts of climate change in our national parks. The Jefferson City News Tribune wrote an article about my talk, “Climate change threatens park, ranger says.”

That talk must have made quite an impression. Besides their article, the News Tribune printed a cartoon from their conservative cartoonist aimed at me. He had the wrong colors for the ranger uniform, and it did not look much like me. The statements in the cartoon looked like a real head scratcher that did not make any scientific sense. Having said that, I was very flattered and honored to have inspired this political cartoon. The cartoonist tried to mock me. However, I thought the joke was on him since he seemed to have a lack of scientific understanding.

Two days later, on March 31, 2017, I spoke to over 60 people at Truman State University in, Kirksville, Missouri. When George and I arrived in Kirksville that morning, I met with a newspaper reporter Jason Hunsicker from the Kirksville Daily Express. Jason wrote an article profiling me included a lovely picture of me at Crater Lake. The article printed in the newspaper on April 10, 2017. It was titled, “Citizens’ Climate Lobby tries to make a difference.” The bad news is that there is no online link available. The good news is that my CCL friend that lives near Kirksville, Sharon Bagatell, mailed a hard copy of the newspaper to me.

Getting my name in Oregon newspapers in 2017 to promote climate action

After this short Missouri speaking tour, I wanted to do a speaking tour across Oregon. I had this vision to travel around central, southern, and eastern Oregon to inspire and organize Oregonians in those areas to organize for climate action and join CCL.

The CCL volunteers and I who organized this tour called it The Oregon Stewardship Tour. We thought that taking climate action, especially with urging Congress to pass a carbon fee and dividend, is one of the best ways to be good stewards of Oregon’s precious air, and and water.

It was also one of the bravest and boldest feats I have done driving 1,600 miles myself in my car to 11 cities for this 12-day tour from October 24 to November 4, 2017. I traveled to give presentations in La Grande, Baker City, John Day, Burns, Prineville Redmond, Lakeview, Klamath Falls, and Grants Pass to talk to rural and conservative Oregonians about climate change.

This tour was a huge undertaking for me. For a recap, I had
• 9 public outreach events
• 2 lobby meetings with district offices of Rep. Greg Walden
• 2 newspaper editorial board meetings
• 2 live radio interviews
• 4 published articles in Oregon newspapers featuring the tour
• 4 press releases published announcing local tour events.

The morning that I left Portland to start driving across Oregon to La Grande for the tour, I had a phone interview with Lee Juillerat of the Klamath Falls Herald and News. The newspaper had their article about me and The Oregon Stewardship Tour as the headline story on the front page of the newspaper on October 29, 2017. This was the first time I had a headline front page newspaper article about me. Underneath the frontpage headline, “Forum to discuss climate change at Crater Lake,” was a bright color picture of me at Crater Lake.

When I spoke in Klamath Falls on November 2, 2017, I spoke to 25 citizens at a downtown Klamath Falls location, we ended up filling the room. That Herald and News lead article probably helped motivate some of the area residents to attend the event.

After that October 24th morning interview with Lee Juillerat of the Herald and News, I jumped in my car and started the long drive from Portland to Baker City, Oregon. It was a 234-miles and over 4-hour drive to this city in eastern Oregon. When I arrived in Baker City, I met up with two Portland CCL volunteers, Barry Daigle and Jason Lewis. They drove separately from Portland to meet up with me to help me during the first two days of the tour since they were from that area. The first thing that Barry and Jason pointed out to me was the press release printed on the front right column of the Baker City Herald announcing our event in Baker City that evening. The headline was “Group to discuss climate change Tuesday at the Library.”

That same day, the newspaper for La Grande, The Observer, announced our event for Wednesday, October 25th, “Forum to discuss climate solutions.” With these newspapers announcing the tour events for the first two days, the tour felt like it was off to a great start. Because of the press releases in the newspaper as well as the word of mouth, we were able to fill the room with local residents during the first two days of the tour.

Before the tour started, The Blue Mountain Eagle, the newspaper for the city of John Day, printed an October 18th press release. It was for the third event for our tour on Thursday, October 26th, “Climate forum coming up.”

During my presentation at John Day on October 26th, a writer for The Blue Mountain Eagle, Richard Hanners, came to report on the event. On October 31st, he wrote an article for the newspaper. “Climate change group presents its case.” I remember this event for having a tough audience of mostly high school students who did not have much of a response to the presentation. I was very happy that Richard Hanner’s article strictly reported on the facts of my presentation and the conversation with the audience how the weather in John Day has changed over the years. I was relieved he did not share that the audience was very subdued and hard to energize. I sure hope my presentation had some kind of impact on these students.

On the same day The Blue Mountain Eagle published their press October 18th release, The Burns Times-Herald printed a press release “Oregon Stewardship Tour Offers Forum” for the fourth day of the tour on Friday, October 27th. We had 14 people fill the small room at the Hines City Hall to hear my presentation. Unlike the teenagers in John Day the previous day, the residents of Burns-Hines were very engaged and asked lots of questions during this presentation.

The audience was concerned because it could be quite expensive to live in Burns if a carbon fee and dividend was passed in Congress. They informed me that residents often must drive 130 miles one-way to get supplies and run errands in Bend.

This group gave us lots of homework to find out more details of this policy and exactly how it would impact low-income people. We promised we would respond to their questions quickly as and e-mail the answers back to them. We loved their enthusiasm and keen interest to learn all they could about our solution, even if they were asking very tough questions at times.

On October 28, 2017, the Bend Bulletin had a front page article announcing the events for the fifth and sixth days of our tour. On Saturday, October 28th, I was scheduled to give a talk in Prineville at the Crook County Fire and Rescue Building. On Sunday, October 29th, my talk was at the Roundtable Pizza in Redmond, Oregon. The Bend Bulletin article was called, “Climate Tour goes to unlikely locations.”

This part of the tour had mixed results. No local residents showed up for the Prineville event, just three local CCL volunteers from the Bend area. Thankfully, we had a 15 people show up for our event in Redmond. Thus, the Bend Bulletin article did not stir up much interest in the nearby cities of Prineville and Redmond. At the same time, it was still a morale boost to be on the front page of this newspaper as I was winding my way through Oregon during this tour.

These were all the newspaper articles that I recall from The Oregon Stewardship Tour. I was exhausted and had a cold by the tour that covered 11 cities over 12 days. It was an adventure to travel and meet Oregonians across the state. Yet, a few times felt it was a like a grind. Overall, it was rewarding to get publicity for Citizens’ Climate Lobby, carbon fee and dividend, and the tour in the local newspapers as I traveled to eastern, central and southern Oregon.

Writing 2 op-eds to promote Oregon’s cap and invest bill in 2018

For the first half of 2018, I worked for Tesla Energy in a job selling solar panels. This was my first sales job. It quite an adjust for me. I had grown very comfortable having seasonal jobs as a park ranger working the national parks for the previous 25 years. I got used to nearly everyone loving me as a park ranger. In sales, it seems like nearly everyone hates you for bothering them and occasionally you find someone who likes you. It took all my energy to succeed in this job. There was no time, interest or desire to write op-ed, especially for climate action.

Because of my support wife Tanya and a very supportive boss Mike, I did end up succeeding in the job. I exceeded the company required sales goals for March and April. By the end of May, my supervisor informed me that I was ranked 50th out of 350 employees for the number of home solar appointments booked. I hit a positive strive of booking Tesla Energy Advisors scheduled to come to customers’ homes in the Portland OR and Vancouver WA area to chat with them about creating a custom solar system for their home.

Sadly, Tesla laid off my supervisor, the advisor manager, their regional boss and 9% of Tesla’s staff, mostly in the Tesla Energy Division, on June 12th. My job transferred to Tesla Motors, located just south of downtown Portland. Sadly, the new job was not a good fit for me with the hours, commute, work environment, work culture, so I decided to leave that job on July 9, 2018.

The day I resigned from Tesla, I was in a fog that day not sure what to do. The Tesla store was located in the south waterfront district just south of downtown. I decided to go to the Powell’s Books downtown store to restore my soul. Powell’s Books is a big landmark, institution, and tourist destination in Oregon. It claims to be “the largest used and new bookstore in the world, occupying an entire city block and housing approximately one million books.” After spending an hour or two there to cheer myself up after quitting a very stressful job, I walked towards a MAX commuter train stop to start taking public transportation home.

On this walk to catch public transit, I ran into Sonny Mehta, an organizing Field Director for Renew Oregon. I met Sonny the previous October just a couple of days before I departed Portland to start The Oregon Stewardship Tour. Renew Oregon was organizing a campaign to lobby Oregon legislators to pass cap and trade legislation in Oregon Legislature during the upcoming 2019 session. When I led The Oregon Stewardship Tour during the previous October, Oregon CCL leadership wanted me to included information in my talks on Renew Oregon’s cap and trade policy. Two days before I left for the 2017 tour, I stopped by the Renew Oregon office in downtown Portland. I met Sonny for the first time, and he gave me handouts from Renew Oregon to share with Oregonians during my tour.

When I ran into Sonny on July 9, 2018, he asked what I was doing. I shared that I just quit my Tesla job. Sonny and I agreed to meet for coffee in a couple of days. He encouraged me to volunteer for Renew Oregon in their organizing efforts to get the Oregon Legislature to pass a cap and trade bill in the 2019 Oregon Legislative session. Looking to do the most effective climate action, I jumped at the opportunity to get involved with Renew Oregon. I soon joined in on their weekly organizing calls. Sonny encouraged me to write op-eds and letters to the editor (LTE) in newspapers in Oregon. I was quite familiar with writing many op-eds and LTEs from experience over the years. It looked like a fun challenge from Sonny.

Because of other commitments, it took me awhile to write op-eds for Renew Oregon’s cap and trade bill for Sonny Mehta for Oregon newspapers. In late August, I was a breakout speaker for a co-presentation with another Climate Reality Leader for the Climate Reality Training in Los Angeles. That took time to prepare that presentation and schedule time with the co-presenter Itzel Morales to get our talk ready for the training. In September, I devoted some time to canvass in Washington state for their 1631 ballot initiative to put a price on carbon.

In mid-October, I organized a climate change speaking tour across my home state of Missouri. I gave presentations at my alma mater William Jewell College, Missouri University in Columbia, my alma mater Oakville High School, St. Louis University, and teaching a Climate Change 101 continuing education class at the Meramec campus of St. Louis Community College. It was a very successful tour with the presentations I gave across Missouri. The student newspaper for William Jewell College, The Hilltop Monitor, published an article on October 26, 2018 about my talk on the campus, “Brian Ettling presents the conservative case for a carbon tax at the 2018 Truex Economic Lecture.” It took time in September to create all those presentations. Even with all those commitments, I found time to write op-eds for Renew Oregon and Sonny.

September 25, 2018, Klamath Falls Herald and News published a guest opinion that I wrote. “To reduce wildlife smoke, let’s act on climate change.” At that time, I was an active volunteer with Citizens’ Climate Lobby and Renew Oregon. Thus, it was fun for me to promote CCL’s carbon fee and dividend proposal and Renew Oregon’s Clean Energy Jobs Bill in one op-ed.

On October 6, 2018, the Bend Bulletin printed my guest column, “2018 drought and smoke should push us to act on climate change.” My op-eds for the Herald and News and The Bend Bulletin both referenced recent articles about the intense heat and smoked happening in Oregon that summer. In writing those op-eds, I then pivoted to the solution of supporting CCL’s carbon fee and dividend and Renew Oregon’s Clean Energy Jobs bill. These op-eds were published just days before I left for my October speaking tour in Missouri. It was a relief to get these published before my trip since I knew I would be focused on that for several weeks.

Writing a climate change guest opinion for the Portland Tribune in June 2021

For the next year and a half, I was very busy volunteering with Renew Oregon to urge legislators to pass the Clean Energy Jobs Bill. This was a cap and invest bill known as HB 2020 in the 2019 Oregon Legislative session. This was a very empowering endeavor to attend legislative hearings at the Oregon state Capitol in Salem, lobby legislators, testify at hearings, participate in weekly phone meetings, assist in organizing rallies, and organize large events. In addition, I wrote two LTEs to the Portland Tribune, one in January 2019 and the other in February 2020 urging legislators to pass the Clean Energy Jobs Bill.

As I attended numerous legislative hearings on the Joint Committee for Carbon Reduction, I enjoyed having a great front row seat to watch the HB 2020 take shape in committee, successfully pass out of committees, and even pass on the House floor on June 18, 2019.

The victories felt huge to watch the bills progress towards passage. At the same time, it was a devastating and heartbreaking loss when the Republicans fled Oregon in the last week of June 2019 to prevent a Senate floor vote, which killed HB 2020. In late February 2020, Republicans in both the House and the Senate fled Oregon fled Oregon to kill that cap and invest bill. After the first defeat in the summer of 2019, I felt so low I did not want to get off the couch for weeks.

At the same time, I found ways to bounce back from these setbacks. During the summer of 2020 while the COVID pandemic was still raging, I met with numerous Oregon legislators by phone and Zoom. I led the efforts with Oregon CCL volunteers for over 30 Oregon legislators to endorse the CCL federal bill, The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (EICDA). During one of these meetings, Oregon Rep. Tiffiny Mitchell asked if she could introduce a state resolution endorsing the EICDA. Representative Mitchell did not run for re-election. Thus, Senator Michael Dembrow proudly introduced the resolution on the Oregon Senate floor February 4, 2021, when it officially became known as Senate Joint Memorial 5 or SJM 5.

SJM 5 passed the Oregon Senate on April 7th by a vote of 23 to 5, with 6 Republican Senators, half of the Oregon GOP Senate caucus, joined all the Democratic Senators present to vote to support it. Unfortunately, SJM 5 fell short of receiving a floor vote in the Oregon House in June 2021. It was exciting was that 30 House members, including 7 Republicans, signed on to co-sponsor it. The Oregon House has 60 members. Half the chamber were SJM 5 co-sponsors.

The worst part of this defeat was Oregon CCL leadership becoming very angry when the OR House Democratic Leadership refused to give SJM 5 a floor vote. After I experienced two dreadful GOP walkouts that defeated the 2019 and 2020 cap and invest bills, I never believed SJM 5 would pass until I saw it with my own eyes. The Oregonian published an opinion editorial from Oregon CCL leadership and I disagreed with the tone. Former Rep. Tiffiny Mitchell advised us not to publish it since it seemed to attack OR House Democratic Leadership.

I pleaded with the Oregonian and Oregon CCL leadership to re-edit the op-ed to be more gracious, but they ignored my input. Thus, I wrote my own op-ed. and I submitted it to the Portland Tribune. Unlike the Oregonian, the Portland Tribune is a weekly newspaper in Portland, Oregon. It is owned by the Pamplin Media Group, which publishes several community newspapers in the Portland metropolitan area. On June 11, 2011, the Portland Tribune printed my op-ed, “Federal legislation holds hope of steering U.S. toward net zero carbon emissions.”

I was very proud of my Portland Tribune op-ed. I talked about the problem of climate change and then the federal solution of CCL’s Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (HR 2307). I then wrote about the Oregon Legislative Resolution, SJM 5. I listed by name all 36 Republican and Democratic legislators who sponsored SJM 5. I stated that “Oregon Citizens’ Climate Lobby volunteers applaud each of these legislators for co-sponsoring SJM 5 to support a national bipartisan approach for climate action.”

I ended this guest opinion by writing: “These legislators listed above are making a bold statement that a federal market-based carbon pricing bill is a way forward for Oregon and the U.S. to reduce the threat of climate change.

We hope our Oregon Congressional delegation, Reps. Cliff Bentz, Suzanne Bonamici, Earl Blumenauer, Peter DeFazio, and Kurt Schrader, and Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, will see this message and support HR 2307.”

Because of the animosity over the June 2021 Oregonian op-ed, I no longer felt like a valued volunteer and climate organizer within Oregon CCL. I dropped out of CCL several months later.

My June 11, 2011, the Portland Tribune op-ed was my last published op-ed. My frustration with Oregon CCL nearly caused me to quit the climate movement. However, I am still active in the climate movement as of this writing on June 8, 2023. The threat of dangerous climate change is too great of a burden to just walk away. I decided in May 2023 to attend the CCL June Conference and Lobby Day in Washington D.C. happening June 10-13 in Washington, D.C. On June 13, 2013, I will be joining hundreds of CCL volunteers in lobby meetings at Congressional offices at the U.S. Capitol to urge Congressional offices to pass effective climate legislation.

In the past two years, I have submitted two op-ed to the Oregonian, but the newspaper decided not to publish them. I still love to get more op-eds printed in newspapers in the future for climate action. In a sense, I am still living my dream of getting my name in the newspaper to try to make a positive difference in the world.

My tips how to get a climate opinion editorial (op-ed) published in a newspaper

1. Go to the newspaper’s website to the opinion or editorial section and look for a tab for “Submitting a commentary piece or letter to the editor (LTE).”
   
   In that section, such as this link to the Oregonian, it will note the email address to submit the op-ed or letter to the editor (LTE). Most importantly, it will state the maximum word count for LTEs (up to 250 words for The Oregonian) and a maximum for an oped (up to 500 to 600 words for the The Oregonian). For submitting an LTE or op-ed, keep a close limit on your word count. Don’t go over the word count or the newspaper will reject it.
   

2. Keep the op-ed relevant to a recent editorial in the newspaper, a news story reported in the newspaper within the last couple of days, or a major event getting a lot of coverage in the media.
   
   Newspaper editorial staff are more likely to publish your op-ed if your op-ed is in response to a recent editorial or news article in the newspaper.
   
   
3. If you are urging local members of Congress or state legislators to pass a specific bill, mention their names in your op-ed.
   
   Members of Congress and their staff have Google alerts to when the Senators or Representatives’ names are printed in published media. Thus, if you weave in the elected official’s name in your op-ed, they are more likely to read it if their name in mentioned.
   
   
4. Don’t get discouraged! It can be hard to get an op-ed or even a LTE published in major city newspapers due the volume of op-eds submitted by many people.
   
   Thus, don’t be too disappointed if your op-ed is not published due to possible high number op-ed submissions. Getting published can require multiple submissions of different op-eds to a newspaper over a period before one gets published. Be patient!
   
   
5. Due to the smaller number of op-ed submissions in local and neighborhood newspapers, try submitting an op-ed to your local neighborhood newspaper.
   
   You can increase your chances of getting published submitted your op-eds and LTEs to local and neighborhood newspapers since they tend to receive less guest opinion submissions. Even more, these newspapers might be more eager to fill space in their pages due slow news periods or lack of other op-ed submissions.
   
   
6. To increase your chance to get published, submit op-eds to multiple newspapers.
   
   At the same time, try to vary the wording to each newspaper that you submit. Look at their website at the maximum word limit and try to tie your op-ed submission a news story or editorial of that specific newspaper. Newspapers generally don’t like to run generic op-eds from citizen writers that appear in other area newspapers.
   
   
7. Have fun! It is very rewarding to get an op-ed or a LTE published in a newspaper.
   
   I loved submitting op-eds and getting published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and various Oregon newspapers over the years. It was very exciting seeing my name in print urging for climate action to hopefully reach many readers and online subscribers of these newspapers. I hope it created more awareness and inspiration for climate action. Maybe it helped others to find their voice to write to newspapers and their elected officials to act on climate. You just never know when you plant seeds when and where they are going to spout.
   

Final Thoughts

As nearly all my blogs, this is a very long as I shared my complete story on a given topic. I also wrote this so I could share all my published op-eds in one blog with my thoughts on each individual one that was published. Even with the very immense length of this blog, I could not find a way to highlight other peak moments for me.

One of my biggest achievements as a climate organizer was when Yale Climate Connections (YCC) published an article I wrote: “Communicating Climate Change in a National Park” on April 26, 2012. YCC defines itself as “a nonpartisan, multimedia service providing daily broadcast radio programming and original web-based reporting, commentary, and analysis on the issue of climate change.” For years, I listened to their daily minute and a half podcasts/radio stories on “how people are responding to the changing climate.” YCC featured my friend Larry Lazar on their podcast in 2015. They featured me on their podcast in November 2017, “Park ranger witnesses climate change firsthand.”

I met Bud Ward, Editor of Yale Climate Connections, at the American Geophysical Union Conference in San Francisco in December 2011. We exchanged business cards at a social event. Months later, I emailed Bud to network for a career in climate communications and advice for attending grad school for climate communications. We chatting by phone in March 2012. I will never forget when Bud said: ‘I can’t help you with either of those, but I admit I have something a little more self-serving. Would you want to write a short article for Yale Climate Connections?’

I jumped at that opportunity. We agreed that I should write about my experience about communicating about climate change as a park ranger in the national parks. Bud offered to pay me for writing that article, which turned out to be a similar amount to a paycheck I was receiving as a park ranger at that time. Bud was very gracious with his edits after I submitted my writing to him. Before I had written and submitted any op-ed, this experience writing for Bud and Yale Climate Communications really hooked me on writing about climate change.

In addition, Clare Foran, former associate editor at The Atlantic, reached out to me for a phone interview in November 2014. She was writing an article about park rangers in the national parks discussing climate change with park visitors. Somehow, she found me, possibly from my Crater Lake climate change evening program that is on YouTube. Our phone conversation went well. She then wrote this article featuring me for The Atlantic, “Next Time You Visit a National Park, You Might Get a Lecture on Climate Change” that was published on December 12, 2014.

This was another high point for me, among many, as a climate organizer. It was another dream come true for me to get my name in newspaper and magazine publications promoting climate action. I hope my story and successes will inspire you and others to write and to act on climate. I look forward to seeing your name in a newspaper or magazine for climate action.

“It sounded really loud, he said it really loud
On the radio, whoa-oh-oh-oh”
From the 1979 song “On the Radio” by Donna Summer

When I was a kid growing up in Oakville, Missouri, a suburb at the southern end of the St. Louis metropolitan area, I was fascinated by FM radio stations that played pop music. In some of my earliest memories around the age of 5 to 7 years old in the mid 1970s, I loved listening to Elton John and Paul McCartney on the radio. Every time my parents’ car drove past a very tall radio tower in St. Louis, typically painted in subdue red and white colors with a blinking light on top, I thought Elton John, Paul McCartney and other singers were performing their songs live somewhere from within that tower. It seemed magical and mystical in my young child’s imaginative brain. I didn’t understand how they would perform their hit songs repeatedly inside those towers. It did not occur to me until I was older that the singers recorded the songs just once on records and the radio stations were just playing the records.

I watched way too much TV growing up, but my favorite memories were listening to pop music on the radio. Someday I wanted to be “On the Radio” as that memorable 1979 song by Disco singer Donna Summer sang. As I grew up, other dreams took over my life. In the 1980s, I wanted to be a successful businessman like billionaire Donald Trump who I saw on TV as oozing with confidence and success. I loved his 1987 book The Art of the Deal. I wanted to be building skyscrapers and closing big money real estate deals like he was. In addition, my dad thought I should major in Business Administration in college to get what he called “a practical education.”

From 1988 to 1992, I attended William Jewell College in Kansas City, Missouri to major in Business Administration. I enjoyed my business classes, but I quickly discovered that I did not want to spend my life working in an office cubical. I just too ecliptic to be the practical adult that my dad wanted me to be. In 1991, Donald Trump went bankrupt. So much for that stellar businessman image that he projected. Even wore, he cheated on his first wife with the mistress who would eventually his second wife, bragging to the media that his extra martial affair was “the best sex he ever had.” Thus, I wanted no part of Donald Trump’s sleazy world and lifestyle. I stopped liking him then and wanted nothing to do with him ever since then.

Working in the national parks and discovering climate change

When I graduated from William Jewell College with my business degree in May 1992. I was unsure what to do with my life. I took a summer job at the gift store at Crater Lake National Park to help me find my own life’s path. When the train arrived in southern Oregon, on May 20, 1992. I found my spiritual home in Oregon at Crater Lake National Park. From that point on, I wanted to live close to snowcapped mountains and to nature. The odd thing was that Crater Lake was just a summer job. I had to find a different job for the winter.

In the winter of 1992-93, I worked at the front desk at the Flamingo Lodge in Everglades National Park, Florida. It was about as far away from Crater Lake as you could get in the United States. I could not wait to return to Crater Lake in May 1993. At the same time, I enjoyed my winter in the Everglades canoeing and seeing all the wildlife. It was fascinating to see alligators, crocodiles, dolphins, manatees, and the wide variety of wading birds in the Everglades.

From 1992 to 2008, I fell into this habit of spending my summers at Crater Lake National Park in Oregon and my winters in Everglades National Park, Florida. The national parks had little to no TV reception. Thus, I continued my lifelong love of listening to popular music on the radio. The FM radio became my companion during those cross-country drives across the United States, traveling from Crater Lake to the Everglades in the fall and the reverse trip every spring. In 2002, I switched to listening to local National Public Radio (NPR) stations in southern Oregon and Florida to stay up to date with the national news.

In 1998, I started giving ranger talks in Everglades National Park. Visitors then asked me about this global warming thing. Visitors hate when park rangers tell you, “I don’t know.” Soon afterwards, I rushed to the nearest Miami bookstore and to the park library to read all I the scientific books I could find on climate change.

The information I learned really scared me, specifically sea level rise along our mangrove coastline in Everglades National Park. Sea level rose 8 inches in the 20th century, four times more than it had risen in previous centuries for the past three thousand years. Because of climate change, sea level is now expected to rise at least three feet in Everglades National Park by the end of the 21st century. The sea would swallow up most of the park and nearby Miami since the highest point of the park road less than three feet above sea level.

It shocked me that crocodiles, alligators, and beautiful Flamingos I saw in the Everglades could all lose this ideal coastal habitat because of sea level rinse enhanced by climate change.

Organizing for climate action in my hometown of St. Louis, Missouri

I became so worried about climate change that I quit my winter job in Everglades National Park the year in 2008. I started spending my winters in St. Louis Missouri to find some way to organize for climate action. I started giving climate change talks at my nieces and nephews grade schools in the spring of 2010. In the winter of 2011, I joined South County Toastmasters to become a better climate change communicator. That same winter, I worked at the St. Louis Science Center at their temporary climate change exhibit from March to May 2011.

While attending a St. Louis Science Center lecture about how climate change is impacting the weather in April 2011, I met and became friends with St. Louis businessman Larry Lazar. We had a mutual longing to do something about climate change. Thus, Larry and I co-founded the St. Louis Climate Reality Meet Up group in November 2011 (now called Climate Meetup-St. Louis) to organize regular meetings and promote events to create more awareness about climate change in the St. Louis area.

Up until 2017, I still worked my summer job Crater Lake National Park. While working at Crater Lake for many years, the impacts of climate change became apparent with the average annual snowpack diminishing. I noticed more mild winters with below average snowpacks. The summer wildfire seasons became more longer, hotter, dryer and more intense. By August 2011, I had gathered enough information to start giving a climate change ranger evening program at the campground amphitheater to the park visitors.

Larry Lazar and I organized some informative meetings about climate change through our St. Louis Climate Reality Meet Up group during the winter of 2012-13. In June 2012, the Climate Reality Project, founded in 2007 by former Vice President Al Gore, invited Larry and I to attend their three-day training in San Francisco, California on August 21-23. As trained Climate Reality Leaders, Larry and I started giving climate change presentations in the St. Louis area that winter. Larry and I gave several joint presentations with Lucas Sabalka, a mathematics professor at St. Louis University who had also attended the Climate Reality San Francisco Training.

Learning about the unhealthy and deadly coal pollution in the St. Louis area

With the climate organizing that Larry, Lucas, and I did during the winter of 2012-13, I met Sara Edgar, an organizer with the Missouri Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign. It was through Sara at the Beyond Coal Campaign and a news article I stumbled across that I learned how dependent St. Louis was on burning coal for electricity.

On December 31, 2012, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, my hometown newspaper, had this headline that grabbed my attention: One in five kids in parts of St. Louis area struggles with asthma. Underneath the headline was an 8-year-old African American boy, Xavier Miles, with a big smile on his face before receiving his spirometry test, which shows the function of the lungs, at his school. The caption stated that “Xavier has asthma and met with various educators who reminded him how to take of himself during an asthma attack.”

The article then mentioned that St. Louis has twice the national average of children suffering with asthma. What causes asthma?

According to the Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine, environmental factors are one of the top causes of Asthma:
“Pollution, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, ozone, cold temperatures, and high humidity have all been shown to trigger asthma in some individuals.”

During periods of heavy air pollution, there tend to be increases in asthma symptoms and hospital admissions. Smoggy conditions release the destructive ingredient known as ozone, causing coughing, shortness of breath, and even chest pain. These same conditions emit sulfur dioxide, which also results in asthma attacks by constricting airways.”

Sara then shared with me statistics how deadly and unhealth it is to burn coal for energy. According to the Environmental Integrity Project, 1,000 asthma attacks and 57 to 100 premature deaths occurred each year because of the Meramec Coal Plant. Even more, according to the EPA, over 95% of our fixed source greenhouse emissions for St. Louis County came from the Meramec Coal plant at that time.

Volunteering and taking action for the Missouri Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign

Sara invited me to be the moderator of the Coal, Climate and Clean Energy Forum at the Cliff Cave Library in Oakville, MO on March 28, 2013. Around 50 people attended this event. Sara encouraged me to write letters to the editor, which were published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and neighborhood newspapers urging Ameren to retire the Meramec Coal Power Plant.

From the awareness I learned how bad it is to burn coal, especially in my hometown St. Louis, I gave a speech at the April 17, 2013, St. Louis South County Toastmasters meeting called What Keeps Me Up Late at Night. The goal of that speech was to urge my fellow Toastmasters to request the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to require Ameren, the local electric utility which operates Meramec Plant, to lower its sulfur dioxide emissions to levels that are safe for our families according to the Clean Air Act.

On April 25, 2013, Sara invited me to be one of the speakers at a Beyond Coal rally in front of the Ameren headquarters. All the speakers at this rally, including me, spoke to the attendees and the local TV & radio media about stopping coal ash pollution from Ameren’s four coal plants in the St. Louis metro region. We wanted Ameren to stop dumping coal ash from our coal power plants in our ground water, rivers, and local community.

Those volunteer actions I took for the Missouri Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign then led me to write an opinion editorial published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on July 10, 2013. Just like my Toastmaster’s speech, the title of this op-ed was called, “What Keeps me Up Late At Night.” This op-ed asked St. Louis area residents to urge Ameren to retire the local coal plants because of the health risks from the polluted air.

Briefly working for the Missouri Sierra Club and the Beyond Coal Campaign

All these volunteer action led to the Missouri Sierra Club hiring me in October 2013 to be an organizer primarily for the Beyond Coal campaign. At the time, it felt like a dream come true to work full time as a climate and environmental organizer.

The job soon felt like it was not an ideal fit for me just days after I started. Besides the Sierra Club, I organized for Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL), the Climate Reality Project and I was the co-leader of the St. Louis Climate Reality Meet Up group, along with Larry Lazar. I took this job hoping to still coordinate with these other climate organizations. However, the job turned out to be all consuming with no time to interact with those organizations.

The St. Louis Climate Reality Meet Up had an event with a large attendance in November 2013. I hoped to go to recruit volunteers for the Sierra Club and the Beyond Coal campaign, as well as coordinate with those climate activists attending for future coalition organizing events. Sadly, my boss at the Sierra Club did not want me to attend because of a small gathering of Sierra Club volunteers scheduled to meet at the Sierra Club office that evening. I found his decision to be rather short sighted. It felt like we were just not seeing eye to eye on climate organizing.

Even more troubling, I learned that my job was an “exempt” position, not subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act’s overtime regulations and, therefore, not entitled to overtime pay. It felt like I was working morning, afternoons, and evenings with very little free time. It felt stifling and confining compared to my other climate organizing and my summer job as a park ranger at Crater Lake National Park. Around Thanksgiving 2013, I did not want to do that job anymore, so I gave my two weeks notice.  

In agreement with my supervisor to leave on good terms, we agreed I would attend the Missouri Health Foundation Annual Retreat in Columbia, MO in early December. The goal of sending me there was to network with the conference organizers and attendees to coordinate more with the Sierra Club. My supervisor wanted to me to make connections with conference organizers and attendees to work on a shared goal to improve the health of Missourians by reducing pollution, especially from Missouri’s coal plants. It turned out to be a grueling conference with a lot of information and dry lectures. Many of the breakout sessions were about Medicaid expansion for Missouri, an issue that I do support. However, the breakout sessions about Medicaid expansion did not hold much interest for me.

Hearing two of my Climate Reality friends interviewed on a St. Louis area radio station

As I drove to the conference, I had a gut feeling it would be a very wonky conference on medical policy. Thus, I was not looking forward to attending. On the drive to this conference on Monday, December 9, 2013, two fellow St. Louis Climate Reality Leaders, my friend Larry Lazar and Chris Laughman, were featured on a radio interview on the environmental themed Earthworms radio show on independent community supported radio station KDHX 88.1 FM.

I was driving on the I-70 interstate towards Columbia, MO leaving the St. Louis metro area when the interview started. Sadly, the radio signal in my car was not strong since I was heading away from St. Louis. I became very angry turning the car around at the nearest exit to try to get a better radio signal. I was not thrilled about going to this health conference, so this radio show was to be my driving companion for this very dark and lonely December evening.

It was exciting when Larry Lazar mentioned me during this broadcast, which was totally unexpected. He said, “Brian Ettling has given 100s of climate change presentations. He is a national park ranger, and he has a very funny, compelling, and interesting presentation. He is one of our best.”

This was a huge honor for Larry to say this. Larry was recommending me to give climate change talks in the St. Louis area. Unfortunately, no online link is available to share a recording of this radio interview now. However, this was a moral boost for me that night in December 2013 because I felt down that the Sierra Club job did not work out for me. I drove to this health conference to complete a work obligation, not to fulfill a passion for me. To be honest, I was jealous at that moment that Larry and Chris were on the radio. I was excited for them, but I wanted to be that person on the radio talking about climate organizing.

With a new year approaching, I made it a high priority if not a 2014 resolution to be interviewed on the radio for climate action. If Larry Lazar and Chris Laughman could do it, I could do it!

Success! Landing my first live radio interview for climate action!

The host of that Earthworms radio show on KDHX 88.1 FM is Jean Ponzi. She is a great host. Jean is very engaging, funny, gregarious, and passionate about environment. Jean is the Green Resources Manager for EarthWays Center of the Missouri Botanical Garden. In addition, she hosts Growing Green St. Louis on the Big 550-KTRS AM, a weekly showcase for local sustainability achievements. On top of that, Jean is in demand as a public speaker promoting Green living options in business and public settings. I think it would be very safe to call Jean a very inspiring and positive “Force of Nature” in the St. Louis area.

Just like Larry Lazar and Chris Laughman had accomplished in December 2013, I really wanted to be on her radio show. At the same time, since she just had Larry and Chris on her show, I knew I was going to have to wait my turn to hang low for several months before I could reach out to her to request to be a guest on her show.

Going through my old emails and Facebook posts, I don’t know how I connected with Jean Ponzi. Somehow, it just happened. It might be because both of us gave presentations at the Webster University Sustainability Conference that took place the previous Friday. Maybe we had a conversation during that conference. I don’t remember now. Anyway, I did something right because Jean invited me into the KDHX studio in midtown St. Louis for a live interview on Monday evening, April 14 , 2014. My first radio interview was fun and exciting. I had finally made it, like the Donna Summer song, I was going to be “On the Radio.”

The bad news is that there’s no longer an online link from this radio interview. The good news is that I got a picture of myself in the radio studio with Jean Ponzi. If I remember correctly, Jean had another guest booked, but that guest cancelled so she booked me to go on the air. That is one of the keys to getting on the air for climate action or other issues that you want to promote: being available if a booked guest suddenly cancels.

One of the things I loved about doing radio interviews is there is no eye contact with the audience. The listeners can’t see you. Thus, I brought in notecards of my favorite quotes, my short personal mantras for climate organizing such as “Think Globally and Act Daily,” and information on the events that I was promoting.

Yes, I did give Jean good eye contact during the interview to be fully engaged with her. At the same time, she did not mind at all when I glanced at my notes. There were times during the interview where she had to introduce the show, make announcements, station identification, promote upcoming broadcasts, etc. Thus, I had plenty of time to look at my notes and notecards to make sure I knew the talking points I wanted to emphasize during this radio interview.

The ultimate key to getting a radio interview is promoting an upcoming event you are leading in the community. For this interview, I promoted an event happening a few days later. On Thursday April 17th 7 pm, Climate Reality Leaders Larry Lazar, Corinne McAfee, Dr. Johann Bruhn, and I were presenting on climate change at Eastern Central College in Union, Missouri.

My parents, some of my friends, and my then girlfriend now wife Tanya Couture heard the live radio interview. They were all very pleased and proud to hear me on the radio.

The good news is that Jean Ponzi and I did stay in contact. She did invite me back as a guest for her radio shows six additional times in the five years after that. Larry Lazar and I were guests for her Growing Green St. Louis show on KTRS 550 AM on November 21, 2014. Larry and I talked with Jean about our efforts giving climate change talks in the St. Louis area as Climate Reality Leaders. It’s a shame that there is no recorded link from that interview.

The Earthworms archive recordings of their past podcast episodes goes back as far as February 3, 2015. Thus, you can listen to recordings of the other 5 times Jean invited me to be a guest on her Earthworms radio program/podcast:

1. Brian Ettling On Climate Change Activism, recorded on April 7, 2015.
   
2. Climate Change Tales – from a National Park Ranger, recorded on April 27, 2016.
   
3. Citizens’ Climate Lobby – the Power of One, Many Times Over, December 7, 2016.
   
4. Brian Ettling: Climate Change Advocacy Marches On!, recorded on October 2, 2018.
   
5. Brian Ettling: A Climate Leader’s Update, recorded on November 27, 2019.

Starting in 2015, Jean did not even have me come into the radio studio to record these radio interviews/podcasts. We would agree upon a time, and she would call me on my cell phone. One of those calls on April 27 2016, I spoke to her from inside my car in a rest area in Colorado during my cross country drive from St. Louis to my summer job at Crater Lake national park. Those phone calls made it even easier to spread out my notecards and notes to share the exact quotes, talking points, and upcoming events that I wanted to emphasize during our interview.

My 2014 live radio interview on St. Louis NPR radio program KWMU “St. Louis On the Air”

In April 2014, staff at Eastern Central College in Union coordinated with Larry Lazar and me to promote our Thursday April 17th event. Climate Reality Leaders Larry Lazar, Corinne McAfee, Dr. Johann Bruhn, and I presented on climate change at Eastern Central College that evening.

The staff at Eastern Central College made a successful connection with the St. Louis National Public Radio (NPR) station, KWMU 90.7 FM for their daily show, St. Louis On the Air about “the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region.”

The show invited Larry Lazar, Dr. Jack Fishman, and me to be interviewed live on the air on April 15, 2014. Since 2011, Dr. Jack Fishman is a Professor of Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and the Director of The Center for Environmental Sciences at St. Louis University (SLU). Before arriving at SLU, he worked at the NASA Langley Research Center for 31 years, where his research focused on the area of tropospheric chemistry. Larry, Jack, and I were invited to appear on St. Louis On the Air “to discuss the impact of climate change on the Midwest, ways to reduce your carbon footprint, and local efforts to get the word out about global warming.”

We were primarily there to promote our event, The Panel Discussion on Climate Disruption on Thursday, April 17, 2014 at 7:00 p.m. at East Central College in Union, Missouri. During my winters in St. Louis, I regularly listened to KWMU for news. I especially enjoyed listening to St. Louis On the Air daily. In Florida, Oregon, and Missouri, I was a loyal listener to NPR for over ten years. It was so exciting to go to the radio studio to see where the show was broadcast live.

When I appeared on KDHX’s Earthworms with host Jean Ponzi, it was a thrill for me to be interviewed solo to have the challenge to think on my feet to answer all her questions by myself. At the same time, I loved the chance to share this experience to be interviewed on the St. Louis NPR station with my friends Larry Lazar and Dr. Jack Fishman.

Since 2011, Larry and I had given a lot of joint climate change presentations in the St. Louis area and had organized some climate events. Larry introduced me to Dr. Jack Fishman who really has a deep understanding of the science of climate change. I loved the challenge of answering questions in live radio interviews. At the same time, I don’t have all the answers. Sometimes I don’t think on my feet as well as I should. I don’t remember certain words when I am put on the spot and some answers to questions can allude me in the moment. Thus, I was very happy to have Larry there to share his perspective as a businessman and Dr. Fishman to share his knowledge and expertise as an atmospheric scientist.

It was fun to meet the host of St. Louis On the Air, Don Marsh, since I had heard his voice on my radio many times over the years. Even more, I remembered him years ago when I would see him on TV in St. Louis on stations KDNL and KTVI. I found him to be polite, reserved, and made us feel welcome in the radio station. He asked us great questions and he gave us the freedom to answer them in our own manner without interrupting us. It was great to get a picture of Don, Jack, Larry and I in the studio.

Of course, my parents, Tanya, and many other friends heard us on the radio live. I got to hear the daily re-broadcast at 9 pm and I was very happy how all of us sounded. A day later, KWMU, posted a link, description and recording of our interview, Encounters With Climate Change: A Discussion With Three St. Louisans. Even more, a picture of me at Crater Lake National Park in my ranger uniform included with the online post.

This felt like my biggest accomplishment as a radio interview up to that point. I still dreamed though of getting a radio interview on KMOX 1120 am, the news and talk radio station, which has the biggest number of listeners by far in the St. Louis area. In April 2014, I did not know how I was going to make that happen. It took a couple of years while I pursued other opportunities, but this dream did eventually come true.

My October 2017 radio interviews for two southern Oregon radio stations

After that April 2014 appearance on the St. Louis KWMU NPR radio show St. Louis On the Air, I hoped to have other opportunities to be interviewed on the radio. As I mentioned before, Jean Ponzi did invite me several times to appear on Earthworms on KDHX. However, it took a couple of years before I had more opportunities to be on the radio.

In February 2017, my wife Tanya and I moved to Portland, Oregon. After we moved there, I became very active as a volunteer in the Portland, Oregon Chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL). I immediately loved living in Portland, but it felt like ‘a blue bubble’ with many people living there who are passionate about climate change and taking climate action. Thus, I had this mission to travel around central, southern, and eastern Oregon to inspire and organize Oregonians in those areas to organize for climate action and join CCL.

The CCL volunteers and I who organized this tour called it The Oregon Stewardship Tour. We thought that taking climate action, especially with urging Congress to pass a carbon fee and dividend, is one of the best ways to be good stewards of Oregon’s precious air, and and water.

It was also one of the bravest and boldest feats I have done driving 1,600 miles myself in my car to 11 cities for this 12-day tour from October 24 to November 4, 2017. I traveled to give presentations in La Grande, Baker City, John Day, Burns, Prineville Redmond, Lakeview, Klamath Falls, and Grants Pass to talk to rural and conservative Oregonians about climate change.

This tour was a huge undertaking for me. For a recap, I had

• 9 public outreach events
• 2 lobby meetings with district offices of Rep. Greg Walden
• 2 newspaper editorial board meetings
• 2 live radio interviews
• 4 published articles in Oregon newspapers featuring the tour
• 4 press releases published announcing local tour events.

Looking back, I wish we could have booked more radio interviews. The organizers of the tour and I did not plan that part of the tour as well as we could. I wish we would have reached out to Oregon Public Radio (OPB) to their Think Out Loud program, a daily conversation covering local Oregon news, politics, culture, and the arts. This show reminded me of St. Louis On the Air, the local NPR show in St. Louis that covered local news and cultural topics. I was interviewed live on St. Louis On the Air on April 15, 2014. Since OPB’s Think Out Loud broadcasted in most of Oregon, this was a lost opportunity that we did not approach the show’s producers and contributors to let them know about my tour.

On the third day of the tour, I arrived in John Day and met up with Eric Means, another Portland CCL volunteer. Eric took advantage of the perfect fall weather to ride his motorcycle from his home to John Day. Eric and I then met up with Logan Bajett at the local John Day radio station KJDY to do a 10-minute radio interview about CCL and the Oregon Stewardship Tour. It was a taped interview that was scheduled to play Monday morning on Logan’s Coffee Talk radio show. Unfortunately, a couple days later, Eric received an email from Logan that the station management decided not to air the interview. That felt like a disappointment since the interview went well and we took time out of the busy schedule that day to complete this radio interview.

On November 1, 2017, on the tenth day of the tour in Lakeview Oregon, I had a radio interview conducted over the phone with Jefferson Public Radio (JPR) on their daily morning show The Jefferson Exchange. JPR was the local NPR station that had a broadcast area that included Ashland, Medford, Klamath Falls and much of southwestern Oregon. When I worked at Crater Lake National Park from 1992 to 2017, this was the local NPR station where I was a regular listener. Thus, I was very excited to be interviewed by this radio station.

The Jefferson Exchange’s Host Geoffrey Riley had a joint interview with me and Jim Walls, a resident of Lakeview who successfully led Lake County to be a net exporter of clean energy. Jim was my host while visiting Lakeview. Jim Walls was Executive Director for the Lake County Resources Initiative (LCRI), a non-profit working on natural resource projects to promote local clean energy projects to reduce the threat of climate change. With Jim’s leadership at LCRI, Lake County had become one of the first counties in the U.S. to be a net exporter of clean energy.

Jim Walls wore a cowboy hat, cowboy boots, and a western belt buckle. He spoke with a down home twang like someone that you would hope to meet visiting a western wide open spaces landscape. Lakeview is about 14 miles north of the northeast California border. It was one of the highlights of my trip to visit Lakeview and meet Jim Walls. Lakeview is in one of the least densely populated areas of the United States. After I arrived in Lakeview, one of the first things Jim told me:

“Son, this is not rural out here. This is frontier country. You could drive over 100 miles in any
direction leaving Lakeview and not see another human being.”

Jim was so unique and a fantastic host, plus a big local leader in clean energy. Thus, it was an honor to meet him and participate in this joint radio interview with him on JPR. I remembered this as another great radio interview that I enjoyed doing. We were on the phone in two different rooms at the office building where Jim worked in Lakeview. We tried to be as far apart in the office so we would not get a weird audio feedback on the phone while we were interviewed live on the air. After the interview, the only downside was that I had to rush to leave Jim’s office to head to Klamath Falls for more scheduled activities happening during the tour.

On day later on the eleventh day of the tour, I traveled to Ashland, Oregon. An Ashland independent radio station KSKQ 89.5 FM scheduled me for a live radio afternoon interview. I shared my background how I first discovered and got involved with CCL. The radio hosts reacted very positively to my background information about myself, CCL’s carbon fee and dividend solution, and how that solution would help dramatically less air pollution.

At the end of the interview, the radio host wanted me or another local CCL volunteer back in three months for another interview. Even more, he offered to do public service announcements for future Southern Oregon CCL monthly meetings held in Ashland. The KSKQ radio staff’s positive enthusiasm for CCL was a wonderful way to wrap up the day. It felt like high note as the Oregon Stewardship Tour was wrapping up the next day in Grants Pass, Oregon.

My climate change radio interviews for KMOX 1120 AM, known as “The Voice of St. Louis”

The summer of 2017 was my last year working as a seasonal park ranger at Crater Lake National Park. During that summer, I was planning and focusing on CCL The Oregon Stewardship Tour that I would be taking that fall. In my job as a seasonal park ranger, I would sometimes lead “step on” bus narration tours where a private motorcoach bus filled with passengers on an organized company tour of the western U.S. would come to Crater Lake. It just happened that this tour company, Sunrise Tours, and the passengers all the passengers on board were from my hometown of St. Louis, Missouri.

Among the group of St. Louisans on this tour bus was Debbie Monterrey, Co-host/co-anchor or Total Information AM, 5 to 9 a.m. weekdays on KMOX 1120 AM radio station in St. Louis. Debbie traveled on this bus tour with her family. It appeared that Debbie and her family were on this tour so she could promote Sunrise Tours for an on the air advertisement for KMOX.

Let me emphasize that KMOX is not any radio station in St. Louis. KMOX prides itself on being “The Voice of St. Louis.” This news, information, and talk radio station is the most dominating of all radio stations in the St. Louis region. It is the flagship station of the St. Louis Cardinals Major League Baseball team. At that time, the flagship station of the St. Louis Blues NHL hockey team. It carried the Rush Limbaugh Show from 11 am to 2 pm daily.

The station boasts of running on 50,000 watts and having a broadcast coverage area of nearly all of eastern Missouri and most of Illinois. On October 29, 2013, The New York Times profiled KMOX in article, Trying to Outrun the Cardinals’ Long Reach. The article states: “With a 50,000-watt signal originating from a transmitter across the Mississippi River, in Illinois, KMOX is said to be heard in 44 states and as far away as the Netherlands, East Africa and Guam.”

Since I was a child growing up in St. Louis, I knew about of the broadcast reach of KMOX in St. Louis and much surrounding Missouri and Illinois area, plus areas beyond. As an adult, I knew that KMOX has a large number of conservative listeners who loyally tuned in daily to the Rush Limbaugh Show. Thus, when I started organizing for climate action in St. Louis around 2010, this was my dream to somehow be interviewed on KMOX inspire listeners to act on climate.

With this in mind I did not know who Debbie Monterrey was before I led this “step on” ranger tour at Crater Lake National Park in August 2017. However, everyone on the tour knew who Debbie was, so it became apparent to me very quickly who she was. It’s one thing to meet a well- known news reporter and radio host. It’s another thing when they are genuinely friendly and easy to get to know. Anyone would want to be friends with Debbie. She is very interested in people, traveling, life, her family, and sincerely focuses on you in a conversation.

Debbie was very appreciative of everything I did leading this step on tour around Crater Lake. She especially liked how I interacted with her children. As a ranger, I always tried to go out of my way to interact with children during my ranger talks and make them feel important. Debbie generously complimented me about my tour.

I told her my parents were big listeners and fans of KMOX. I shared about my background as a native St. Louisan who graduated from high school there. I let her know that I come back during the winters to give public presentations about climate change and organize events in the area. At the end of the tour, we exchanged business cards. Debbie encouraged me to contact her next time I was coming to St. Louis so she could do a “profile interview” about me.

One week later, on August 24, 2017, Debbie enjoyed my Crater Lake ranger tour so much that she briefly talked about me live on KMOX that morning. My Dad happened to hear her remarks on the radio live. This is what Debbie said live on the air:

“Oregon is absolutely beautiful if you have never been there…When we went to Crater Lake, which is phenomenal, we had a guide come on board, Ranger Brian Ettling and he is from Oakville. He went to Oakville High School. He would do 6 months of the year at Crater Lake and 6 months coming back to St. Louis and he was so hilarious. He did a great job. My husband asked him: ‘Do you ever do stand-up comedy?’ And (Brian) responded, ‘Actually, I do YouTube videos about climate change. I try to make them funny. They are kind of silly.’ And Tosh.o on Comedy Central had Brian on for a Web Redemption, which you can find on YouTube, which I thought was pretty amazing.”

That December during the week around Christmas, Tanya and I traveled to St. Louis to visit with her parents and brother, and my parents, sisters and their families for Christmas. A few weeks before Christmas, I emailed Debbie to see if I could get a Profile Interview with her. We exchanged emails and scheduled a date for the day after Christmas, December 26, 2017, for me to come down to the KMOX radio studio in downtown St. Louis to be interviewed by Debbie.

I asked Debbie if my parents come join me in the studio, since they are lifelong regular listeners of KMOX. Debbie generously agreed they could join us. It felt like this was the best Christmas gift I could have given my parents. They loved every minute of being in the KMOX offices and studio. Debbie was very happy to meet them and to get a picture of all of us together. My parents were very proud to be in the studio when Debbie recorded our radio interview.

The profile interview aired on Saturday, January 6, 2018. Fortunately, here is the link where you can listen to this interview. After it aired, my mother-in-law commented that I sounded “Very impressive and smooth.”

When I just listened to the recording afterwards, overall, I was very happy with it. Since KMOX has a lot of listeners who regularly listen to Rush Limbaugh on this radio station, I was striving for a message to reach moderates and conservatives. Debbie told me that the interview recording would probably air several times. That was good news since I was trying to reach moderates, conservatives, and their families who regularly listen to KMOX.

I am a little critical of myself that I did talk way too fast in some of my answers. When I do a future radio interview, I should have a piece of paper in front of that says: “Talk slowly! Relax.” I did not catch any ‘ahs’ or ‘umms,’ so my delivery was good. However, I definitely had pregnant pauses and I did use “And so” as crutch words.

Debbie was a very friendly and kind interviewer. As a news reporter, she still wanted my reaction to people who do not accept climate change, the Trump Administration, and people who think it is too late. Listening to the interview recording on January 6, 2018, I was very happy I was able to keep my answers positive and hopeful.

Overall, getting interviewed by Debbie Monterrey on KMOX was a highlight of my life and an incredible experience. It was a dream come true to talk about climate change for the biggest radio station in the St. Louis region. My interview went so well that KMOX did invite me to return for short interviews for couple of short news segments in the following years.

In October 2018, I organized a climate change speaking tour across Missouri to speak at my alma mater William Jewell College in Kansas City, Missouri University in Columbia, MO, my alma mater Oakville High School, St. Louis University, and teaching a climate change 101 continuing adult education class at the Meramec Campus of St. Louis Community College. KMOX did a short three-minute segment highlighting my speaking events in St. Louis that included a very short, recorded interview with me. Sadly, there is no online link to that radio promotion.

Debbie asked me to do a recorded phone interview with her for a short news segment for KMOX for telling the difference between ‘Weather vs. Climate.’ This two-and-a-half-minute segment aired on February 12, 2019. Fortunately, I gave a Toastmasters speech about this subject in January 2013. I turned the text of that speech into a blog, You Can See Clearly Now. Thus, it was very easy for me to provide Debbie with short sticky sound bite quotes that she could insert into this recorded news segment.

The COVID pandemic in 2020 grinded all of my climate change organizing to a halt for a couple of years. Thus, my most recent radio interview is my Earthworms interview with Jean Ponzi recorded on November 27, 2019.

I love public speaking and giving radio interviews. Thus, I hope to give more radio interviews in the future, if the opportunity presents itself.

Until then, here are my tips to give successful radio interviews:

1. Get the contact information for the radio host and/or the producers for the radio program where you hope to be interviewed.
   This was how I got all of my radio interviews, I reached out by email and called the radio station and the host of the radio show where I wanted to be interviewed.
   
   The only exceptions were my local NPR radio interviews. For the April 15, 2014 interview on the local NPR show St. Louis On the Air, a staff person at Eastern Central College in Union, Missouri booked that interview. For my November 3, 2017 interview on the local NPR Southern Oregon show The Jefferson Exchange, someone from the local Citizens Climate Lobby Chapter in Ashland, Oregon reached out to Jefferson Public Radio to book that interview. Thus, if you have contacts that can make connections with a radio station to schedule an interview, utilize them.

2. Radio hosts and shows are always looking for guests.
   Sometimes guests cancel. If someone suddenly cancels, a radio host or show might be eagerly looking to book someone for the next day or week, etc. Thus, be prepared that they might call you in on a very short notice if a guest cancels. Even more, climate change could be a breaking ‘hot topic’ news story where they need almost an immediate comment. Be ready to jump on those opportunities if they arise!

3. It helps if you have an event you are promoting.
   Local radio hosts and shows like to tie their interviews to upcoming community events that are open to the public. Therefore, if you are leading or participating in a team organizing a nearby event, do let your local radio stations know. Radio stations are always looking to fill airtime. Thus, they might read a short press release about your event. Even more, they might be interested in a radio interview with you.

4. Giving a radio interview can seem like a pop quiz since you don’t know what the radio host will ask you.
   If you can’t answer a question, don’t feel bad or panic. Just pivot to what you know. Talk about the event you are promoting or share the talking point you want to emphasize to the listening audience hearing you on the radio.

5. It’s the radio! In most cases, you can have your notes or notecards with you.
   For most of my radio interviews, I had notecards and a page of notes with my favorite quotes, my short mantra statements like ‘Think Globally, Act Locally!’ and information on the event I was promoting. The radio hosts never objected that I had notes to glance over. I would still give the radio host good eye contact during the interview. However, they never complained about me glancing my notes during the interview to make sure I said exactly what I wanted to say.

6. Speak slowly and enunciate well.
   In any public speaking situation, including a radio interview, I tend to speak fast and run my words together that makes it hard for others to understand me. Before the interview, take some relaxing breaths, meditate, or even write on a notecard “Talk slowly! Relax.”
   
   Remind yourself that the audience can’t see you. They will only hear your voice. Thus, make sure they can hear you clearly by speaking slowly and pronouncing your words so that they can understand you and your message.

7. Have Fun! It is a very enjoyable experience to be interviewed on the radio.
   All the radio hosts who interviewed me, such as Jean Ponzi, Debbie Monterrey and Don Marsh, loved their job. They wanted their guests, such as me to have a great and enjoyable experience. Each radio host I encountered were genuinely happy to see me, meet me, and wanted to do a great interview with me. They appreciated me being there. Their personalities, mannerisms, and the way they interacted with me put me at ease and I felt honored to be there.

Final Thoughts

As you can tell by this blog post, I had great memories getting interviewed for climate action on the radio over the years. As a child growing up listening to FM rock music stations, this was a dream come true to be on the radio. As a climate organizer during the past 13 years, it was a life goal for me to be on the radio to reach a wider audience to try to inspire them to act on climate. I hope this blog post will inspire you to go “on the radio” for climate action.

Over the past four years, I had the opportunity to give oral testimony to Oregon Legislative committees five times to urge them to support strong and effective climate legislation. In this blog, I include the text from those testimonies.

Even more, I will provide my tips for giving oral testimonies to legislative committees, such as:

1. Practice and prepare giving testimony for less than two minutes.
   
   Every Oregon legislative committee that I testified required testimony of a maximum of no more than two minutes. If the time went over two minutes, the committee chair would cut of the person giving testimony even if they were in mid-sentence trying to complete their final talking points.
   
   To avoid going over the time limit, find out in advance on the legislative committee website page how long you will be allowed to speak. If it is not spelled out on the website, assume that you will only have about two minutes to speak.
   
   To keep your testimony under two minutes, type it out and keep the testimony to one page at 200 to 300 words at the most. Practice with a stop watch to become comfortable reading the text. If you are stumbling over the words, that will take time and possibly cause you to go over your allowed time.

2. If comfortable, use humor.
   
   The oral testimony given by many private citizens tends to be very serious, factual, and finely messaged bullet points. After hearing many testimonies from professional lobbyists and private citizens, the oral testimonies can start to sound monotone and unappealing to the legislators and the audience in the hearing room.
   
   If you feel comfortable, try to inject appropriate humor to get the legislators’ attention and break the tension in the room with a good laugh. I did this by acknowledging the previous speaker or speakers and responding with what they said with a funny quip.
   
   As you will see from my oral testimony from February 20, 2020, I brought and briefly wore my park ranger hat to try to lighten up the situation. It felt like by using some humor that it made my oral testimony more memorable to the legislators at the committee hearing.

3. Share a compelling story about yourself.
   
   Most of the times I testified, I shared how I was a seasonal park ranger at Crater Lake National Park for 25 years. While working there, I talked about how I witnessed climate change with a diminishing annual snowpack and more intense wildfire seasons.
   
   At my February 6, 2020, oral testimony, I shared that my dad has stage 4 bladder cancer and currently is in hospice care. I then tied that personal information with the fact that our family lived for about 33 years a couple of miles from a coal fired power plant in St. Louis that had no modern pollution controls, increasing the risk of my dad’s cancer.
   
   I once heard climate communicator George Marshall say, “Science (or facts) is not what persuades people. It’s the stories they hear from the people they trust.”
   
   Therefore, briefly share a story that will get the attention of the legislators and the citizens seated in the back of the room to make your oral testimony more memorable.

4. If you coordinate with a group to oppose or support a bill, use their talking points .
   
   At the same time, put the talking points into your own words. Again, monotony causes people to tune out from oral testimony. Say the talking points in your own way of speaking to make it sound more interesting to the ears of the legislators and the audience.
   
   In 2019 and 2020, when I testified to the OR Legislative Joint Carbon Reduction Committee, Renew Oregon asked me and others to give oral and written testimony. Often, Renew Oregon staff provided talking points for us how the cap and invest bill, known in 2019 as the Clean Energy Jobs Bill or HB 2020, would create a lot of jobs in Oregon while reducing pollution. They frequently had slips of paper with helpful facts they gave us to encourage to say in our oral testimony. However, they advised us to not sound like the repeating parrots or robots when we testified. They urged us to weave their talking point facts into our oral testimony in our own words so that we wold not sound monotonous.

5. If possible, mention something you have in common with the legislators.
   
   For two of my testimonies, I told the legislators that I used to be a conservative Republican. With my background of having some understanding of GOP principles and values, I would then share how it is in their conservative interests to support this climate bill.

6. Don’t forget to mention the bill name and/or bill # that you support or oppose.
   
   Sometimes you can feel nervous or rushed to get as much information as possible during the timed two-minute deadline. Thus, it is possible to forget to emphasize the bill name and bill number that you want the legislator to support or oppose. Elected officials often talk about lobby meetings they previously had with constituents who forgot to urge the lawmaker to support or oppose as specific bill or an amendment to a bill.

7. If your legislators are not on the committee you are testifying, let the legislator know about your testimony.
   
   Our legislators are extremely busy. However, they want to know when constituents give oral testimonies to support or oppose a bill. If constituents show up in person or sign up on Zoom for a legislative hearing to share their thoughts on a bill, legislators appreciate when constituents want a bill on the legislator’s radar to support or oppose.

8. Have fun!
   
   Use humor, a compelling story, tie your testimony to a previous testimony, bring friends and family to hear you testify or try other ideas to make your time testifying fun, especially in that tight two-minute time frame. The two-minute time frame will fly away very quickly like a bird. Find a way to have fun to make the experience more memorable, for the legislators, audience members, and you.

The rest of this blog with be the text from the five times I testified, plus the videos of my testimony that I downloaded from the Oregon Legislative website so you could see my testimony. I hope this will provide some inspiration and ideas if you decide to give oral testimony to a legislative committee to support or oppose a climate bill.

February 15, 2019

Co-chairs and members of the Joint Carbon Reduction Committee:

My name is Brian Ettling and that’s a tough act to follow (laughter from the audience from the compelling and humorous testimony from the previous person testifying, KB Mercer)

I was a seasonal park ranger at Crater Lake National Park for 25 years from 1992 to 2017. Hopefully, everyone here has been there. It’s one of the most beautiful places on the planet.

I loved my job as a park ranger interpreting the scenery for park visitors who come from around the world to visit Oregon.

Sadly, I have seen climate change while working at Crater Lake National Park. With a diminishing annual snowpack, a more intense fire season and more smoke in the summertime, to the extent now that visitors are cancelling their vacations. The Oregonian recently reported about this. Visitors are now shifting their visits to the shoulder seasons and less in the summer.

I actually worked the phones at Crater Lake helping people plan their vacations. And I saw that I had to tell people that if they had asthma or breathing difficulties that it was probably was not a good time to visit (when it was smoky). When people cancel their vacations, they don’t visit Oregon. They are not staying in our hotels, and they are not visiting our restaurants. It has a bad impact on our Oregon economy.

I actually grew up as a conservative Republican. When climate change is having a bad impact on our economy, it is just not good for us. So, we should be doing so much more. I really highly encourage you to pass the strongest Clean Energy Jobs Bill possible.

I submitted written testimony yesterday. I fully support what Renew Oregon and 350PDX recommends to strengthen this bill. Please pass the strongest bill possible to protect Crater Lake National Park, our incredible scenery in Oregon for our children and for all of us.

Thank you so much.

March 1, 2019

Co-chairs and members of the Joint Carbon Reduction committee:

My name is Brian Ettling. I came here today strictly as a volunteer. I am not getting paid, but I will be glad to receive a check or a job if anyone wants to help me be active for climate change.

I was a seasonal park ranger at Crater Lake National Park for 25 years. I saw firsthand as a park ranger a diminishing snowpack and a more intense wildfire season.

My wife and I got to move to Portland Oregon two years ago. I love living in Portland, but it is a kind of a blue bubble. There are many people living there who are passionate about climate change. So, what I did in October 2017 was to travel around central, southern, and eastern Oregon to La Grande, Baker City, John Day, Burns, Redmond, Lakeview, Klamath Falls, and Grants Pass to talk to folks in rural and conservative parts of Oregon about climate change.

What I learned blew me away. There’s a county, Lake County, that’s been able to invest in so much solar. They are now a net exporter of clean energy. They have been able to hire teachers and hospital workers because of that.

We have 36 counties in Oregon, including Wasco (where the hearing was held that day in The Dalles, Oregon). We need to ask ourselves in each county: Do we want to be leaders on this issue or do we want to keep falling further behind.

The clean energy revolution is happening in front of us. 20% of the world’s carbon emissions now has a price on carbon, according to the World Bank’s (Carbon Pricing Dashboard). So, it is happening in front of us. China is putting together a price on carbon, as well as South Africa, Europe, and Mexico. So, we need to decide as Oregonians to be at the engine or caboose of this train.

I just want to say that I love the Clean Energy Jobs bill. I strongly support it. There are currently 50,000 clean energy jobs in Oregon. There are 11,000 clean energy workers in rural Oregon. 36 counties, including Wasco have clean energy workers. So this will be a big benefit to our state.

Thank you so much.

February 6, 2020

Senator Dembrow and members of the Senate Environmental & Natural Resources Committee:

My name is Brian Ettling and I live in NE Portland.

I am here today because of my dad, LeRoy Ettling, pictured here with my Mom.

My dad has stage 4 bladder cancer and currently is in hospice care.
Literally, I could get a phone call any time urging me to go back to St. Louis MO to be with him

7 years ago, my Dad had a huge tumor and kidney removed. The doctors all thought my Dad was a smoker since his cancer is consistent with a life-long smoker. My dad was always a non-smoker.

However, we lived for about 33 years a couple of miles from a coal fired power plant in St. Louis that had no modern pollution controls, increasing the risk of his cancer.

It’s well known that burning diesel, oil, natural gas, and coal, which is the leading cause of air pollution, causes an estimated 100,000 U.S. deaths each year, according to a 2019 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Thus, Message to you today is “Less Pollution = Saved Lives!”

A 2019 non-partisan study by Berkeley Economic Advising and Research (BEAR) shows that reducing carbon pollution will create 50,000 Oregon jobs in construction and clean energy.

Senator Olson and Senator Findley: I grew up as a conservative Republican. I ask you to pass a strong and effective climate bill this session for my Dad, all of our families and our grandkids.

Thank you!

February 20, 2020

Members of the House Rules committee:

My name is Brian Ettling and I live in NE Portland.

This is my fourth time in the past year testifying to urge you to pass a strong and effective climate bill.

Recent events, such as record warm temperatures Antarctica, huge catastrophic fires in Australia and recent very smoky summers in Oregon tells that we are in a climate emergency. Every day we delay, we deny our kids a livable future. Enough is enough.

For 25 years, I worked as a seasonal park ranger at Crater Lake National Park. I had a dream job giving various tours of this international scenic treasure. I even brought my hat today so you could see how good I looked as a ranger.

Sadly, I saw climate change working there with a more intense wildfire season. In the summers from 2015-2017, the smoke was so bad that I saw the park become a ghost town at times. Visitors would cancel their vacations to Crater Lake not wanting to breath the smoke or worried about family members who suffer from asthma triggering negative health consequences if they visited.

When visitation would drop, I saw the bad impact it had on the rural economy surrounding Crater Lake to the mom & pop campgrounds, restaurants, hotels, and businesses dependent on the summer tourist season. Seeing the negative impacts of climate change at Crater Lake is why I have volunteered full time for the last 2 years now trying to get a climate bill passed in the Oregon legislature.

Since then, I attended probably over a hundred hearings. I applaud the legislators who did the research, working groups, studies, debate, and allowed thousands of pages of testimony to carefully craft this bill with massive public input.

To protect the beauty of Oregon, our economy, our rural residents and our children, I urge you to please pass SB 1530 and HB 4167 now.

Thank you.

My April 8, 2023
Oral Testimony to the Oregon Legislature Joint Ways and Means Committee

Members of the committee.

My name is Brian Ettling. My wife Tanya and I live in northeast Portland. While living here for the past 6 years, we experienced the extreme weather, such as heat domes in the summer, extreme smoke making it hard to breath, and even extreme cold temperatures in the winter.

Because of climate change, scientists tell us the extreme weather in Oregon is getting worse. This extreme weather adversely impacts all Oregonians, but especially seniors, children, low income, BIPOC communities, and rural communities.

Thus, I urge you to fund and support these bills help Oregonians become more energy efficient, improve our buildings resilience, and naturally drawdown the greenhouse gas pollution:

First, please support and fund SB 530, the Natural Climate Solutions Bill. It allows financial incentives for voluntarily managing Oregon’s farms, forests, ranches, and natural lands for carbon sequestration.

Second, please support and fund the Building Resilience Senate Bills 868, 869, 870, and 871. These bills align energy efficiency programs and building codes with state climate goals for rapid deployment of heat pumps, weatherization, and building retrofits for Oregonians. Even more, these bills will improve energy efficiency of existing large commercial buildings and state government buildings, including schools.

I am here today asking to make sure that Oregon doesn’t miss the historic opportunity of billions of dollars in federal investments for individuals, state and local government, and the private sector from the Inflation Reduction Act.

These bills fight climate change while creating local clean energy jobs that can’t be exported and strengthens our economy. Now it’s time to get some help from the federal government.

Thank you for your time.

And that’s not all! My Most Recent Oral Testimony to the Oregon Legislature

On April 24, 2023, I attended a meeting of the Metro Climate Action Team (MCAT) Transportation Committee bi-monthly meeting. MCAT is a volunteer group that is part of the Oregon League of Conservation Voters (OLCV). The MCAT Transportation Committee Chair, Rich Peppers, and I agree to meet during the week to help him with his oral testimony to be given on Thursday, April 27 at a hearing for Oregon Legislative Joint Transportation Committee. MCAT Transportation Committee would be submitting their official testimony for their feedback for the proposed legislation replacing the I-5 bridge which connects the cities of Portland, Oregon to Vancouver, Washington.

MCAT is part of the coalition for the Just Crossing Alliance, a partnership of environmental, environmental justice and sustainable transportation organizations from across Oregon and Washington. This coalition recently organized the I-5 Bridge Right Size. Right Now campaign. The goal of this campaign to replace the outdated I-5 bridge with an earthquake-safe bridge that is “not sprawling boondoggle that will increase air pollution and drive up costs for working commuters.”

The Right Size. Right Now campaign wants a new bridge that includes funding for mass transit, a separate bike & pedestrian lane while staying within the footprint of the existing I-5 bridge. I helped Rich practice his oral testimony on Wednesday, April 26th. I asked Rich if I should sign up to give oral testimony, in addition to his testimony. He encouraged me to do that. Just after midnight on April 27th, I signed up on the Oregon Legislative website to give oral testimony virtually on the Transportation Committee Hearing held that evening.

Late that night, I quickly typed up my testimony with the talking points from the Right Size. Right Now campaign email blast that was sent to me earlier that day. On the morning and early afternoon of April 27th, I practiced the script of my oral testimony to make sure I kept it under the 2 minute required limit to give oral testimony. Rich decided to testify virtually on the Joint Transportation Committee’s Microsoft Teams video link, and I decided to do the same.

This would be my first time testifying virtually since I normally get rides with other climate organizers to attend hearings at the Capitol in Salem. You can definitely tell this by the image and video included below that my first time giving oral testimony virtually. Unfortunately, I did not position myself to be fully seen by my video camera on my I-pad. At the same time, I was excited to testify because the gridlock of rush hour traffic on the I-205 and I-5 bridges is my biggest pet peeve living in Portland. Vancouver and Portland needs to replace the I-5 bridge for one that includes public transit and peak congestion tolling to reduce traffic that presently comes to a near standstill during the afternoon rush hour in Portland.

April 27, 2023

Oral Testimony to the Transportation Committee aboutthe I-5 Replacement Bridge.

Dear Co-Chairs and committee members,

My name is Brian Ettling. When my wife and I moved to northeast Portland six years ago, in February 2017, we learned two things:

1. The daily rush hour grid lock traffic that jams our roads leading to the I-205 and the I-5 bridges horrified us. Let’s rethink how we do our traffic infrastructure in the north Portland area.
2. A friend told me that she drives very fast across the I-5 bridge. She is scared the bridge is structurally unsafe, especially when that big earthquake eventually happens.

Thus, I strongly support replacing the I-5 bridge, but oppose HB 2098 -2 and -4 amendments. This current bill with those amendments jeopardizes a right-sized Bridge Replacement, right now.

I support the -3 amendment that ensures this replacement bridge project moves forward smoothly with explicit pro-labor and community benefits provisions, financial guardrails, and major investments in mass transit.

o Please No Blank Check for ODOT for $1B general fund bonds. We want Phase project funding.
o We want to build our communities while building this bridge, No to Section 7: Please ensure this project invests in good local and union jobs, apprenticeships, and environmental justice, while secures community benefits for North Portland.
o No Freeway Expansions: Direct IBR to explore smaller bridge design options and choose a plan that is less polluting and more financially responsible.
o No Fiscal Free-for-all: Refresh and recommit to financial safeguards and accountability measures in existing law.

I urge the committee to please consider the -3 amendment from Representative Khanh Pham’s office that addresses all these concerns.

Thank you for your consideration.

Final Thoughts

As a climate organizer, giving oral testimony to Oregon Legislative committee to urge them to support strong climate bills is one of the most empowering actions I have accomplished. It feels very impactful to speak truth to power encouraging legislators to support or even modify climate legislation.

It can feel stressful to speak publicly to these elected officials in a packed hearing room with only two minutes to make vital points. At the same time, it can be a lot of fun to try to use some humor, share compelling stories, note common ground, and give important information why they should support, oppose, or modify a high priority climate bill that is in their committee.

From numerous times giving oral testimony to a legislative committee, I can testify with full confidence that you if have an opportunity to give oral testimony to a legislative committee about a climate bill, you should do it!

Below is the text of the speech I gave to the South County Toastmasters Club, where I was a member from 2011-2017. South County Toastmasters meets weekly at the Sunset Hills Community Center, located in south St. Louis County, Missouri.

“How many people here have a dream, a goal, a target that you want to accomplish? Raise your hand.

Here’s my story how I did that as an entertaining and inspiring public speaker.

‘Fine!’ I said, ‘If I could be anything, I would like to be the “Climate Change Comedian”!’

My friend Naomi nearly fell out of her hear laughing and responded: ‘That great! I would like you to go home and grab that website domain right now!’ I went home immediately and bought the domain, www.climatechangecomedian.com.

This event happened in Ashland, Oregon in the fall of 2009. At that time, I was housesitting for a friend and unsure what to do with my life. At that point, for seventeen years, I worked as a seasonal park ranger at Crater Lake National Park, Oregon in the summers and Everglades National Park, Florida in the winters. I absolutely loved every minute of standing in front of an audience giving ranger talks in these iconic places sharing about nature.

In 1998, I started giving ranger talks in Everglades National Park. Visitors then asked me about this global warming thing. Visitors hate when park rangers tell you, “I don’t know.” Visitors expect park rangers to know everything. Don’t you?

Soon afterwards, I rushed to the nearest Miami bookstore and to the park library to read all I the scientific books I could find on climate change.

The information I learned really scared me, specifically sea level rise along our mangrove coastline in Everglades National Park. Sea level rose 8 inches in the 20th century, four times more than it had risen in previous centuries for the past three thousand years. Because of climate change, sea level is now expected to rise at least three feet in Everglades National Park by the end of the 21st century. The sea would swallow up most of the park and nearby Miami since the highest point of the park road less than three feet above sea level.

It really shocked me that crocodiles, alligators, and beautiful Flamingos I enjoyed seeing in the Everglades could all lose this ideal coastal habitat because of sea level rinse enhanced by climate change.

However, climate change is not just bad for wildlife. It’s also bad for people.

Over the past 10 years, the evidence is mounting for what is now called ‘sunny day flooding.’ This is flooding from ocean water showing up on Miami streets during the highest tides or what’s called ‘king tides’ of the year.

I shared this image in my last South County Toastmasters speech in January 2017. Highlighted in yellow are all the coastal counties in the United States. On the west coast, you can see the coastal counties of Washington state, Oregon, including Multnomah County where my wife Tanya and I live. You also have the coastal counties of Texas and Louisiana, which is highlighted in red because of a very high danger there. Then you have Florida. And on the east coast, just to name a couple of states you have North Carolina, New York, and Maine. National Geographic projects up to a 6-foot sea level rise by the end of this century. I am only 5 feet and 8 inches tall, so this would be higher than me. A 6-foot sea level rise would displace up to tens of millions of Americans who live in these coastal counties.

I became so worried about climate change that I quit my winter job in Everglades National Park in 2008. I moved back to St. Louis in the winters to give speeches and organized about climate change. However, up until 2017, I still worked my summer job Crater Lake National Park. I loved the incredible beauty there and wearing the ranger uniform with pride while engaging with park visitors.

As I was in the process of making the transition from park ranger to climate change organizer, I leaned upon my experience as a park ranger. As a park ranger, I learned two lessons with engaging with audiences.

First, as I shared before, people expect park rangers to know everything.

The second lesson I learned is that visitors want a sense of humor. They don’t want rangers to take ourselves too seriously. They want us to have fun.

As a result, I had to create some of my own jokes as a park ranger, such as:

‘What did one continental plate say to the other after the Earthquake?’

Any guesses?

‘It’s not my fault!’

Yes, I will admit that joke is a bad dad joke groaner.

So, recently my friend and fellow Toastmaster Susan McConnell asked me: ‘Brian, why the title of “Climate Change Comedian?”’

The answer, Susan, honestly comes from Toastmasters.

I once heard a story in Toastmasters that one Toastmaster turned to another Toastmaster to ask: ‘Do I need to be funny to be a professional speaker?’

And the answer is: ‘Only if you want to get paid!’

Seriously, does anyone know where this picture was taken?

This photo was taken on January 1, 2016, New Year’s Day, at Creve Coeur Park, less than two miles from where my in-laws live. It is where my wife, my in-laws, and I like to go hiking a lot, but not that day.

Does anyone know where this picture was taken?

This was taken just west of Lambert International Airport (in the St. Louis area) on June 7, 2019, when the St. Louis Blues hockey team were in the Stanley Cup Finals. Believe it or not, I was not visiting St. Louis at that time. I was flying across country from Portland, Oregon to Washington D.C. and I just had a layover in St. Louis. As we were coming into Lambert, I could not believe the water everywhere from the flooding that was happening at the time. The white dots you are seeing in the picture is actually farmhouses. It really shocked me to see this.

From my experience of seeing climate change in the Florida Everglades, my hometown of St. Louis Missouri, and in my adopted home of Crater Lake, Oregon, I wanted to educate people about the threat and solutions to climate change using my plethora of experience as a park ranger to educate, entertain, and inspire an audience.

In the spring of 2010, a family friend named John helped me create the website, www.climatechangecomedian.com, which is still an active website to this day.

I started giving climate change talks locally in my hometown St. Louis area in 2011 when I joined South County Toastmasters. However, I felt I was not getting notoriety to make a name for myself nationally. To up my exposure, I created a YouTube video in February 2014, with my mom, Fran Ettling, titled, “Climate Change Comedian and the Pianist!”

In April 2016, Comedy Central’s TV show Tosh.o noticed this YouTube video. They flew my mom and me out to Los Angeles to appear on a videotaping to be interviewed by the host Daniel Tosh. The TV show aired nationally on the Comedy Channel on August 2, 2016. Do some of you Toastmasters remember that?

To this day, appearing on Comedy Central’s Tosh.o was one of the highlights of my life. It was a dream come true for me to talk about climate change using humor on national TV to be seen by millions of people.

As the Climate Change Comedian, I did not know how I would top that appearance on the show, nor did I have ambition to top that appearance. The Tosh.o appearance and the title of Climate Change comedian felt like it opened some doors for me. As a with my background as a park ranger, Toastmaster, and Climate Change Comedian, I was was able to reach my dreams to give over 200 climate change talks in 12 U.S. states, Ottawa Canada and Washington D.C. over the past 12 years. Tosh.o even invited me to be back on this show on November 10, 2020.

However, during 2020-21 COVID Pandemic, I did not feel like doing Climate Change Comedy. It was heavy times we were living in. So, the last three years, I switched to political organizing.

However, Robin Riddlebarger, Park Superintendent of Hanging Rock State Park, North Carolina sent me an email in May 2022.

Robin wrote: “Howdy! Stumbled upon your (ClimateChangeComedian.com) website as I was searching for inspiration about a guest for our annual conference of superintendents for North Carolina State Parks. I am organizing this year’s conference.…We want this conference to be inspiring and refreshing instead of depressing like it usually is. I’d love to find out (if you could give) an in-person presentation to a bunch of crusty superintendents.”

This looked like a good opportunity to jump on, so I immediately emailed Robin back. I expressed an interest to speak to her group. In that email, I asked why they were interested in me as a speaker. Why me?

Robin’s response: “Myself and three other superintendents are brainstorming guest speakers that will inspire us. We found that we usually leave the conference feeling more burnt out than we were when we arrived. (We) are determined that this year will be different. We will at least learn something. Instead of listening to boring HR polices that could have been handled in an email.”

As a professional speaker and former park ranger, it seemed like a perfect fit for me. I then spent the next five months preparing for this talk. I flew out to North Carolina in November 2022.

The North Carolina State Parks Superintendents Conference scheduled me to speak on November 14, 2022. My title for this talk: Our Parks: Places of fun, healing, and inspiration to change the world.

With her approval, I included Robin’s email to me in my PowerPoint why she thought I would be ideal to speak at this conference, ‘Instead of listening to boring HR polices that could have been handled in an email.’

When I shared Robin’s HR comment, it received the biggest laugh from the audience. The organizers of this conference joked about that line afterwards. They were still making jokes about dry HR presentations the next day.

It felt like I got my groove back with this talk. I was back to my old self before the pandemic of traveling to other states once or twice a year to give educational, entertaining, and inspiring climate change talks. I hope I will get more invitations like this in the future since I am a big step up from talks on “boring HR policies.”

I hope my story of how I became “The Climate Change Comedian” will inspire you to have fun saving the planet.

My involvement with South County Toastmasters from 2011-17, with help from folks in this room, enabled me to become a coast-to-coast paid speaker, giving talks from the Oregon Coast to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. In closing, there’s a classic expression in this club that ‘If Steve Winheim can do it …………anybody can do it.‘

Well, I’m here to say that if Brian Ettling can get paid to be a climate change comedian, you can reach your dreams.”

Want to get the attention of your member of Congress to prioritize effective climate legislation? Then attend one of their town halls. According to Congressional staff and members of Congress, they pay very close attention to the issues and pending legislation that constituents engage with them at their town halls.

In February 2017, my wife Tanya Couture and I moved from St. Louis, Missouri to Portland, Oregon. At that point, I was involved in the climate movement for several years as a volunteer for Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) and a Climate Reality Leader. For several years, I was the CCL volunteer liaison for GOP Congresswoman Ann Wagner (MO-02).

This CCL liaison role involved organizing meetings with Congressional staff twice a year for the CCL lobby days in the Washington D.C. Plus, organizing a spring in district lobby meeting with Congressional staff. As CCL Congressional liaisons, we would let the Congressional staff know if a CCL member had a published letter to the editor or opinion editorial mentioning the member of Congress. We would alert the Congressional staff periodically on legislation we were supporting. In addition, we were available to answer any questions the members of Congress or the staff had about CCL’s policies or other ways we could be beneficial to them.

When Tanya and I moved to Oregon, I gave up my CCL volunteer role as liaison to Republican Rep. Ann Wagner. This liaison role was very challenging because climate change was not a high priority for Rep. Wagner. She co-sponsored Rep. Steve Scalise’s anti-carbon tax resolution and she bitterly opposed the Obama Administration’s EPA Clean Power Plan. It was going to be a huge lift for her to support any legislation supporting clean energy and CCL’s carbon fee and dividend proposal. At the same time, I love an impossible task. Even though I did not shift her position at all when I was her CCL liaison from 2013 to 2017, I still developed a positive rapport with her Washington D.C. and local Ballwin MO Office Congressional staff. I enjoyed that volunteer position and I did not give it up until several months after I moved to Portland.

Once I moved to Oregon, I wanted to new challenge. When Tanya and I moved to Portland, we became the constituents of Democratic U.S. Representative Earl Blumeneaur. At that time, Blumenauer did not seem like much of a challenge for me as a climate organizer. Climate action was a strong priority for him. He introduced his own carbon pricing bill in Congress in 2017. Even more, he joined the bipartisan House Climate Solutions Caucus, a safe space for Democratic and Republican members of the House to exchange ideas for climate policies and possible legislation. Oregon CCL already had a well-seasoned CCL liaison and even an assistant liaison for Rep. Blumenauer. Thus, I was going to need a new challenge.

Attending and asking a question at a town hall for Congressman Greg Walden

For 25 years, I worked as a seasonal park ranger at Crater Lake National Park during the summers. Crater Lake resided in Oregon Congressional District 2, represented by Republican Congressman Greg Walden. Oregon Congressional District two encompassed all eastern Oregon to the city of Bend and southern Oregon to the town of Grants Pass. Rep. Greg Walden accepted the science of climate change and proudly drove a Toyota Prius. At that time, he was the Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. That is a powerful committee in Congress overseeing our energy supply, electrical utilities, and business policies. It was a likely committee that a carbon fee and dividend policy or other vital policies to address climate change might end up being considered. I was part of a CCL lobby meeting with his Congressional staff in Medford, Oregon in 2013. I decided to focus my efforts on Rep. Walden to see if I could shift his position to support a carbon fee and dividend and other climate policies.

From looking at his Congressional website, I saw Rep. Walden had scheduled a town hall in The Dalles, Oregon late morning on April 12, 2017. The Dalles is a one-hour drive east of Portland, so I figured I could easily drive there and back during the day. I put out the word within Portland CCL to see if anyone would be interested in joining me. Retired NASA scientist and Portland CCL volunteer Kathy Moyd rode in my car with me to the event.

It was a dreary overcast Oregon winter day with light rain showers in Portland on the drive all the way out to The Dalles. It was a good day for an indoor event like a Congressional town hall. When Kathy and I arrived, there was several hundred people there to attend this town hall. I recognized one of Rep. Greg Walden’s staff from the Washington D.C. office from lobbying the previous November at his Washington D.C Congressional office as part of the CCL lobby day. She was friendly, as she was with all the constituents attending. She seemed to remember me.

If we wanted to ask Rep. Walden a question, the staff member greeting folks at the welcome desk said that we needed to take a raffle ticket. I drove a long way to try to ask a question, so I did not want to miss out on that opportunity. I held onto that ticket tightly during the event. I stared at it frequently so I would not miss a chance to ask a question if my number was called.

The very large crowd was very agitated because Donarld Trump was elected President just a few months before and they really wanted to let Rep. Walden feel their rage. Walden gave the impression that he was not enamored with Trump. On immigration, he told the audience that he tried to explain to Trump that many farmers in his eastern Oregon district rely upon migrant undocumented workers. Thus, a guest worker program at the very least was vital for Oregon. Many members of the audience were very worried about losing Obamacare. There was a lot of booing from the audience over his positions, which made him nervous and uncomfortable.

The audience was very irritated with him overall. I could have asked him: ‘What do you think of rye bread? When was the last time that you ate it?’ If he would have responded like most of us: ‘Hmm…When I the last time I had rye bread? Trying to think here. I am not sure…”

The audience would have yelled, “Answer the question! Don’t deflect!”

That is how angry people were that day. A part of me did have compassion for Rep. Walden as I wanted to engage him on climate change.

Towards the end of the town hall, my number was called. I walked up to the microphone in my part of this huge auditorium to ask this question:

“Thank you for coming today to this town hall meeting Rep. Greg Walden. We really do appreciate you holding this event. For the past 20 years, I have been a seasonal park ranger at Crater Lake National Park Oregon, where I have seen the impact of climate change with more intense wildfires and I know you care very deeply about Oregon’s forests, and a reducing snowpack which then provides less water for cities in Oregon. With climate change such a serious threat, are you familiar with Citizens Climate Lobby?”

Rep. Greg Walden: “Yes, I have met with them.”

Me: “Citizens Climate Lobby worked very hard to bring your fellow House members together for the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus. It now has 36 members, 18 Democrats and 18 Republicans, meeting to discuss climate change solutions. Would you consider joining this caucus?”

Rep. Greg Walden: “I have never heard of this caucus.”

Me: “I can get you information on this caucus. Even more, would you please consider co-sponsoring the House Republican Resolution 195 calling for climate action for House Republicans?”

Walden sighed and rolled his eyes at me. They then shared how Oregon has done a lot to reduce emissions. He then had a weird answer that according to the IPCC forest fires give off a big percentage of annual carbon emissions.

The audience booed when he made that last comment, causing him to walk it back a tad. Surprisingly, some of the audience then turned on him yelling: “Why won’t you join the caucus?”

I bet nobody in the audience had heard of the House Climate Solutions Caucus (CSC) before that town hall. It was fascinating to see them boo and shout back at Walden when he seemed very resistant to joining the CSC.

When it was over, a small crowd gathered around him to engage with him individually. I gave Kathy my camera to take pictures of me before I positioned myself to shake hands with him. Kathy got a good photo of us shaking hands.

Overall, this was a fabulous experience. Rep. Walden had town halls in Bend and Medford, Oregon on the following days. I conferred with CCL friends in Bend and the Medford area to encourage them to attend. I gave them my reconnaissance of what the crowd was like and how to position oneself to try to get your question asked during the town hall. Even more, I wanted to share the questions I asked and how he responded. I hoped that they would ask similar questions so Rep. Walden would find courage to make climate legislation a priority. Unfortunately, the crowds were extremely large. That reduced the chance of my friends getting a winning raffle ticket number to ask Rep. Walden similar questions to urge him to support climate legislation.

From that experience, I wanted to attend more Congressional town halls in the future. Even more, I hoped to inspire other climate advocates to attend Congressional town halls. It is a great way to urge members of Congress to support climate legislation and to bring attention to the issue to members of the community.

Asking U.S. Senator Ron Wyden a question during his town on February 15, 2019

Unfortunately, I would not have another opportunity to attend a Congressional town hall until 2019. After the Congressman Greg Walden town hall in The Dalles in April 2017, I became busy with other aspects of my climate organizing. I returned to work as a seasonal park ranger at Crater Lake National Park from May to October 2017. Several weeks later, I was the lead organizer and speaker for the CCL Oregon Stewardship Tour traveling for 12 days across eastern and southern Oregon at the end of October and beginning of November 2017. In June 2017 and November 2017, I traveled to Washington D.C. for the CCL Lobby Conferences and Lobby Days.

February 2018 to July 2018, I worked for Tesla Energy selling solar panels. In June 2017 and August 2018, I was a breakout speaker for Climate Reality Trainings in Bellevue, Washington and Los Angeles, California. July 2018, I started volunteering for Renew Oregon full time to help their efforts to try to pass their cap and invest bill, known as the Clean Energy Jobs Bill or HB 2020 in the 2019 Oregon Legislative session.

In October 2018, I embarked on a speaking tour across his home state of Missouri from October 8 to 17, 2018. During his tour, I spoke at My alma mater William Jewell College (class of 1992), University of Missouri in Columbia MO, St. Louis Community College, Oakville High School in St. Louis (I graduated from Oakville in 1987), and St. Louis University. In June 2018 and November 2018, I traveled to Washington D.C. for the CCL Lobby Conferences and Lobby Days. In addition, in the fall of 2018, I took on the volunteer role as the Program Manager to invite guest speakers and organize the monthly meetings of the Portland Climate Reality Chapter.

While taking all those climate actions, I signed up for the email newsletters for U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley of Oregon to see when I could attend one of their town halls. Since he became a U.S. Senator in 1996, Ron Wyden pledged open-to-all town meetings in each county in Oregon each year he serves in the Senate. As of April 2023, Wyden has held 970 meetings “where he refrains from speeches, listens to the concerns of Oregonians, and answers questions.” Since taking office in 2009, Senator Merkley has kept a similar promise to hold an open town hall for every Oregon county each year.

On November 27, 2018, the bipartisan Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives (H.R. 7173). CCL lobbied for years for a carbon fee and dividend policy bill to be introduced into Congress. On December 19, 2018, Republican Senator Jeff Flake and Democratic Senator Chris Coons introduced bipartisan U.S Senate companion bill to H.R. 7173. These bills died once the new Congress went into session on January 3, 2019. However, it felt vital to urge more U.S. Senators, such as Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, to support these bills in the next Congress. Attending one of their upcoming town halls was one of the best ways to get their attention to make a carbon fee and dividend bill a priority for them.

While receiving their email newsletters, I noticed Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden had nearby town halls at the beginning of January 2019. On January 2, 2019, I attended a town hall for Senator Merkley at the East Portland Community Center, located less than 4 miles from where I lived. Two days later, Senator Wyden had a town hall scheduled in Sherwood, Oregon at their Center for the Performing Arts. The town hall in Sherwood was about 34 miles away and close to a 45-minute drive from where I live in Portland, Oregon. I went both town halls.

Each town hall was packed with people. In fact, many people show up to ask questions or give comments to the Senators. As a result, each of these town halls had raffle tickets that were handed out by one of the Senator’s staff at the front door if one wanted to ask the Senator a question. During the town hall, individual ticket numbers were announced by a local elected official or VIP on the stage with the Senator. If an attendee had that exact ticket number, they would raise their hand to be seen by all. One of the Senator’s staff would then come to that audience member for them to speak into a portable microphone to ask the Senator a question.

I received a raffle ticket each time. However, my ticket number was not called for either of those town halls. I enjoyed attending to hear what each Senator had to say. I prepared questions that I wrote out urging each Senator to support the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (EICDA). I showed the questions in advance to Oregon CCL friends for their input and approval. My heart raced a bit each time a number was called hoping it would be my ticket, but I had no such luck at those town halls. Overall, I enjoyed attending. After attending those town halls, I kept an eye out for future town halls for Senators Wyden and Merkley in my area. I was determined to go to a future town hall to urge one of them to support the EICDA.

Even more, I was a bit disappointed that there were few climate advocates there, especially CCL volunteers. My goal was to motivate other CCL and Climate Reality advocates to attend Congressional town halls to increase the possibility that Senators Wyden, Merkley, or even the local members of Congress would support the EICDA.

The next local town hall that I noticed was for Senator Ron Wyden at the Portland Community College (PCC)) Sylvania campus Performing Arts Center on February 15, 2019. This was going to be a full day for me. I planned to spend the day at the state Capitol in Salem, Oregon. The Oregon Legislative Joint Committee on Carbon Reduction (JCCR) scheduled a public hearing for OR citizens to give oral testimony for their comments about the Clean Energy Jobs Bill (HB 2020). I signed up to give two minutes of oral testimony to the JCCR. This was the first time that I gave oral testimony to a legislative committee. To stay under the maximum allowed time of two minutes for oral testimony, I typed up my oral testimony before carpooling to Salem on Friday morning. My oral testimony before the Committee went well. It felt amazing to participate in our democracy as a climate advocate to testify before a legislative committee to urge legislators to support a strong and effective bill for climate action, such as the Clean Energy Jobs Bill.

My friend and fellow CCL volunteer KB Mercer gave me a ride to and from Salem that day. She did a wonderful job of testifying before the JCCR. After she completed her oral testimony, I began my testimony, joking, “Wow! That’s a tough act to follow!”

KB was very enthusiastic and helpful carpooling with me from Salem to the Senator Wyden town hall that evening in southwest Portland at the Sylvania Performing Arts Center on that PCC campus. Because it was a Friday evening, I talked my wife Tanya into attending this town hall and then giving me a ride back to our home.

When KB and I showed up to this town hall, it was an audience of mostly young people with the progressive climate group, Sunrise Movement. This grassroots organization advocated for The Green New Deal Resolution in Congress that was just introduced in Congress on February 7, 2019, by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Edward Markey. Many of these climate advocates attended with bright yellow signs that read, “WORK FOR A GREEN NEW DEAL.” The other side of their placard read, “WHAT IS YOUR PLAN?”

Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley were co-sponsors of the Green New Deal. The Green New Deal caused division among climate and environmental groups. On January 10, 2019, a letter signed by 626 organizations that supported a Green New Deal was sent to all members of Congress. The letter contained a statement that the signatories would “vigorously oppose…market-based mechanisms and technology options such as carbon and emissions trading and offsets, carbon capture and storage, nuclear power, waste-to-energy, and biomass energy.”

Statements like that caused six major environmental groups to not sign on the letter, such as the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Environmental Defense Fund, Mom’s Clean Air Force, Environment America, and the Audubon Society. It was noted that “Two green groups founded by deep-pocketed Democratic celebrities are also absent: Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project and Tom Steyer’s NextGen America.” In addition, CCL did not sign onto this letter since they were clearly advocating for a market-based solution. The EICDA was a carbon fee and dividend, market-based policy, to address climate change.

KB and I were clearly outnumbered by the Sunrise Movement volunteers dominating this event. My wife Tanya showed up before the town hall started to rendezvous with us. The three of us sat in the front row with a sea of yellow Sunrise Movement Green New Deal signs held up by a very enthusiastic audience behind us. When Senator Ron Wyden started the town hall acknowledging all the folks from the Sunrise Movement there and their support for the Green New Deal (GND). He acknowledged that he did sign as a co-sponsor to the resolution. However, he admitted to this audience that the resolution was unlikely to pass in this Congress. He referred to it as ‘a resolution with goals.’

Even more, the GND did not have the support of many Congressional Democrats. Senator Wyden tried to be realistic where the GND stood in Congress. The audience booed a bit and felt a bit frustrated with Senator Wyden. I understood though that Senator Wyden was walking a fine line of supporting what these constituents wanted with the Green New Deal and realizing what was possible to pass Congress with a Republican controlled Senate.

Like the previous town halls I attended, Senator Wyden’s staff issued raffle tickets to audience members interested in asking questions. My wife Tanya is the opposite of me. She does not like public speaking at a large event like that. Thus, she handed me her ticket, which doubled my chance of a question getting asked. Right before the event started, another audience member changed their mind about asking a question. They asked me if I wanted their ticket and I jumped at the opportunity to say, ‘yes!’

Like the Congressional town halls I attended, I had a question typed out and prepared to read. As the town hall progressed, I nervously kept staring at my three tickets to see if I one of my numbers was going to be possibly called this time. Senator Ron Wyden then announced, ‘Looks like our time is just about over and I have time for just one last question.’

The VIP at the front of the room announced the ticket number, which happened to be the same number as one of the tickets I held in my hand. I then raised my hand to say, ‘That’s me!’

A member of Senator Ron Wyden walked up to where I was sitting and held a microphone just a few inches from my mouth. I tried to grab the microphone, but he was not going to let me have control of the microphone. Looking back, I totally understood afterwards why he did not want me to have possession of the microphone. Some of the people at these town halls would never give back the microphone. They would want to keep sharing their point of view with the Senator. When I understood afterwards what the staff member’s action, we laughed about it immediately after the town hall.

Once I could speak into the microphone, this is what I said:

“My name is Brian Ettling. I live in northeast Portland. For 25 years I was a park ranger at Crater Lake National Park, one of the most beautiful places on the planet. Sadly, I saw climate change while working there with a lower snowpack and more intense wildfire season. Because I am very worried about climate change, I now volunteer with Citizens’ Climate Lobby. Have you heard of them?

Senator Wyden responded that he had heard of CCL

I then continued: “They are a grassroots volunteer led organization lobbying Congress to pass the Energy Innovation & Carbon Dividend Act (HR 763). This bipartisan bill would lower climate pollution by 40% over 12 years, while growing the economy, creating jobs, and improving people’s health. Could you work with your colleagues, especially Senator Chris Coons to create a Senate companion bill for the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act?”

Senator Ron Wyden paused for a moment and then responded, “I have not heard about that bill. I will think about it. Please send me an email and talk to my staff that’s here this evening.”

Then Senator Wyden wrapped up the town hall. Afterwards, a couple of the Sunrise Movement folks approached to thank me for my question and briefly chat. A couple of members of Senator Wyden’s staff also approached me to briefly chat. I asked for one of their business cards. I did send a follow up email to the Field Representative of Senator Wyden two days later. I briefly explained about CCL and the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (EICDA). The Field Representative thanked me for my email and said she had a meeting on February 28th with Portland area CCL volunteers to discuss the bill.

Although I did not successfully persuade Senator Wyden to support, introduce a Senate companion bill, or co-sponsor the EICDA, it still felt very empowering to ask him to support specific effective legislation to address climate change. It was my third town hall I had attended for U.S. Senator from Oregon in the first six weeks of 2019. It felt like the third time was the charm to promote the EICDA with a U.S. Senator and the local town hall audience.

Co-presenting about town halls as a Breakout Speaker at a CCL Conference

Directly asking Senator Ron Wyden to support a climate change bill at his February 2019 town hall felt like a glorious moment for me. Two days later, I emailed senior staff at Citizens’ Climate Lobby to pitch the idea of having a breakout session on being effective at attending local Congressional town halls for the upcoming June 2019 CCL Conference. They immediately said yes to my idea. The only suggestion they had for me was to in the interest of meeting their diversity goals, they wanted me to add a woman or a person of color as a co-presenter.

I thought that was a great idea since I had a wonderful time co-presenting over the years at Climate Reality Trainings with Maddie Adkins, Itzel Morales, and Maria Santiago-Valentín. Plus, I had co-presented over the years in St. Louis with other Climate Reality Leaders. I loved co-presenting because it is fun to have a partner to collaborate on a presentation. Even more, when I am giving a presentation, I sometimes find I am stumped by audience questions. Thus, it can be a relief to I have a co-presenter bail me out when there’s a question from an audience member that I don’t know an answer. Even more, I am all about diversity, equity, and inclusion. The speakers on the stage should reflect the audience and the audience should be able to relate to the speakers on the stage.

It was going to be up to me to find a co-presenter. It took over a month, but I found someone that I barely knew from Climate Reality Project and CCL, Eve Simmons. We chatted on the phone in late March. She had some great ideas and we started brainstorming some ideas to make this session a success.

Eve and I met many times over Zoom during the spring of 2019 working very hard trying to stitch our presentations together. We gave our presentation Mastering Town Halls on Sunday, June 9th during the CCL Conference in Washington D.C.

For my portion of the presentation, I began with the question: “Why town halls?”

I defined town halls as “A face to face meeting with your members of Congress (and/or your state and local elected officials, but the whole town is involved.”

I stressed that town halls are “a great way to promote CCL to your members of Congress and your community.”

I warned that if you don’t attend town halls, others will be there to promote their ideas. I included an image on this slide of the February 2019 town hall with Senator Ron Wyden where it was basically a sea of Sunrise Movement supporters promoting the Green New Deal. In the front row, my wife Tanya was seated off to the side. Thus, I advised to “if you can, try to bring your spouse, family and CCL friends to attend.”

For our tips for mastering town halls:

1. Go to Townhallproject.com or subscribe to the e-mail list of your members of Congress to see when their next town hall is located conveniently to you.
2. Get there early! If you can, one hour in advance.
   a. To get a good seat close to the front.
   b. Network with the Congressional staff & community members.
   c. Find out how they are going to do the audience questions.
   *Don’t forget to wear your CCL buttons, t-shirts, hats, etc.
3. If you get a chance to ask a question, keep your question brief, positive, and to the point.
   a. Start with your name and the area where you live.
   b. Show gratitude.
   c. Share your elevator climate story.
   d. Ask the member of Congress if they have heard of CCL.*
   • I put as asterisk there to ask the question quickly, if comfortable to get a quick yes or no response from the elected leader. Don’t let them take over and not give you a chance to ask the rest of your question.
   e. Briefly explain about CCL & our bill (HR 763) to the member of Congress and to the audience.
   f. Ask them to co-sponsor the Energy Innovation & Carbon Dividend Act

I then broke this down with my question for Senator Ron Wyden from his February 2019 town hall:

1. My name is Brian Ettling. I live in NE Portland.
2. Thank you for hard work in Congress and holding this event today to hear from your constituents.
3. For 25 years I was a park ranger at Crater Lake National Park, one of the most beautiful places on the planet. (pause for effect)
   Sadly, I saw climate change while working there with a lower snowpack and more intense wildfire season.
4. Because I am very worried about climate change, I now volunteer with Citizens’ Climate Lobby. Have you heard of them?*
5. They are a grassroots volunteer led organization lobbying Congress to pass the Energy Innovation & Carbon Dividend Act (HR 763).
   This bipartisan bill would lower climate pollution by 40% over 12 years, while growing the economy, creating jobs, and improving people’s health.
6. Could you work with your colleagues, especially Senator Chris Coons to create a Senate companion bill for the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act?”

I then shared types of bad town hall questions:
• Attacks the member of Congress
• Long winded
• Alienates the audience
• No specific ask
• Makes everyone feel uncomfortable.
• Makes CCL look bad to the community.

I then concluded by talking about how Speaking Up at a Town Hall might be out of your comfort zone. I showed a picture of the audience looking very serious before Senator Ron Wyden’s February 2019 town hall that I attended.

I then ended with one of my favorite quotes by Maggie Kuhn, American activist & founder
of the Gray Panthers movement: “Speak Your Mind, even if your voice shakes.”

Eve Simmons had some good advice in her portion of our talk, such as

Practical tips…
• Register for the town hall. Some MOC’s won’t let you in if you are not on their attending list.
• When checking in, ask if stationary audience mics will be used. Sit as near to one as possible.
• Bring a brightly colored pen in case you’ll be given question cards to write on and turn in.
• Write out your concise question ahead of time and practice it.
• Have a secondary question prepared in case someone else asks your question first.
• Bring friends! They can applaud your question, reinforce it, and ask follow up climate questions of their own.
• Be ready to seize the opportune moment, tying in good points that have been made earlier.
• Speak slowly and clearly for dramatic effect.

Eve advised the audience to FRONTLOAD your question with…
• Thank you
• Emotion/feeling, a personal story
• Current or recent event
• Locally relevant connection
• Compelling point
• Credible source
• Memorable or catchy phrase

Like me, Eve shared example town hall questions. She then ended with a very inspiring thought:

Eve and I did not get a big audience for this breakout session. I remember us having less than 20 people in a room that could have probably held around 40 people. Except for a couple of people who had questions for us and gave us feedback that it was helpful, we did not seem to get much of a response from the audience.

One older audience member seemed skeptical that my sample question would be effective for his member of Congress. Senator Ron Wyden is a very progressive Democratic U.S. Senator. His member of Congress was more conservative and possibly a Republican. I acknowledged that when I was a constituent of Rep. Ann Wagner in St. Louis, who is a conservative Republican, I would probably be asking a different kind of question than I did for Senator Ron Wyden. The point of my talk was to help my audience think creativity how to pose a question to their member of Congress at a town hall, not necessarily mimic and copy my style of town hall questions.

Eve and I struggled at times to get our ideas and messaging in our talk in sync. As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, the audience response seemed to be subdued. However, I was very proud to give this talk on the importance of Mastering Town Halls. In my experience in Oregon, I had not seen much climate advocates, especially CCL volunteers, at town halls. I hoped to raise awareness about that in some way that I could.

Attending a town hall for Senator Ron Wyden at the end of August 2019.

After asking a climate change question directly to Senator Ron Wyden at his February 2019 town hall and giving the Mastering Town Halls presentation with Eve Simmons, I was eager to attend more Congressional town halls. I especially hoped to attend another town hall in the future with a chance to engage with Senator Wyden or Senator Merkley. Over the next four months, I mostly focused on Renew Oregon’s efforts to pass the Clean Energy Jobs Bill. After I went to the CCL Conference and Lobby Day in Washington D.C. and presented with Eve, I had climate change commitments back in Oregon.

A week after the early June CCL conference, my wife Tanya and I traveled to Crater Lake National Park, where I worked as a seasonal park ranger from 1992 to 2017. I returned there as a guest speaker during the park ranger seasonal training to give a talk how to talk with park visitors about climate change. During the last part of June, I traveled to the state capitol in Salem almost daily to rally support for the Clean Energy Jobs Bill, HB 2020. Unfortunately, the Republican Senators fled Oregon during the last ten days of June to deny the 2/3 quorum rule for a floor vote. Sadly, their walk out killed the Clean Energy Jobs Bill.

For the first half of July, I was very depressed over the defeat of the Clean Energy Jobs Bill. To find a sense of renewal, I became the interim Chair of the Climate Reality Portland Chapter. I took this role to specifically organize Climate Reality events in partnership with other climate groups to pass Renew Oregon’s cap and invest bill in the 2020 Oregon Legislative session. With all the ups and downs with my climate organizing in 2019, Tanya and I were able to take a short vacation in the second week of August to visit North Cascades National Park, Washington.

After I returned from vacation, I noticed that Senator Ron Wyden had a town hall scheduled for the East Portland Community Center on August 29, 2019. This was the same location that Senator Jeff Merkley held his town hall on January 2nd. I had determination to get other CCL volunteers to join me for this town hall. I had at least four CCL friends join me for this town hall, plus Tanya joined me. I conferred with others in CCL to try to put together a great question to see if Senator Wyden would support carbon pricing, returning the revenue to households vs. investing it in solutions, while acting to solve climate change in a timely manner.

Like all the previous town halls I attended for Senators Wyden and Merkley, Wyden’s staff gave out raffle tickets before the start for anyone interested in asking a question. Unfortunately, even with six of us there in this big audience connected with CCL, none of our ticket numbers were called to ask a question. That’s how it goes sometimes. However, we still had a better chance of directly asking Senator Ron Wyden a question by attending his town hall that if we had stayed home.

Giving a climate presentation at Senator Jeff Merkley’s Portland office in November 2019

In the fall of 2019, I was very busy as the interim Chair of the Climate Reality Portland Chapter. I was planning the monthly meetings, creating agendas for the monthly Leadership Team meetings, and organizing large events, such as one that was held at a local theatre in Milwaukie, OR on September 16, 2019. We filled this theatre with over 80 local climate advocates and Climate Reality Leaders. Our event was called: Climate Legislation: Where do we go from here in Oregon? We had a panel of three speakers: Milwaukie Mayor Mark Gamba, Dylan Kruse from Sustainable Northwest and Shilpa Joshi from Renew Oregon. They talked about what we needed to do to pass strong cap and invest legislation in the 2020 Oregon legislative session.

While I was focused on leading the Climate Reality Portland Chapter, Climate Reality Project announced their 24 Hours of Action campaign scheduled for November 20-21, 2019. In past years, Climate Reality Project hosted a 24-hour webinar called 24 Hours of Reality. That was a live internet broadcast they had hosted for several years each November. Each hour of those previous live webinars focused on how climate changed impacted a country or region in a different time zone on planet Earth. For 2019, Climate Reality wanted as many Climate Leaders as possible giving presentations over a 24-hour period from Tuesday to Wednesday, November 20-21.

To participate, I immediately reached out to a local Portland organization where I previously spoke earlier that year called Thirsters. I asked if I could speak at their weekly meeting, Thursday, November 21st, 7pm- 8 pm. Always looking for weekly speakers, they immediately accepted my offer. I hoped this would inspire other Climate Reality Leaders in the Chapter to reach out to local organizations and schools to give climate change talks. Climate Reality really wanted to make this 24 Hours of Action a success. Thus, the organization reached out to members of Congress, Congressional staff and other organizations to see if they would want a Climate Reality Leader to come speak to them on November 20th or 21st. Senator Jeff Merkley’s Portland Congressional office said yes to this invitation.

Climate Reality Project reached out to me if I would be interested in speaking at Senator Jeff Merkley’s office on Thursday afternoon, November 21st. I immediately agreed to lead this talk. I participated in CCL lobby meetings at Senator Jeff Merkley’s Portland office in March 2018 and 2019. Thus, I knew the exact location of his office in downtown Portland. I met his Portland office staff previously from attending town halls and lobby meetings in the Portland and Washington D.C. offices. On November 21st, I gave this talk to six of Senator Jeff Merkley’s Portland Office staff in a beautiful conference room at their office. Their office is in a downtown Portland high rise building. The conference room has large windows that looks out into downtown, with distant views of Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams, and Mt. St. Helens on a clear day.

Senator Merkley’s staff really seemed to like my presentation for them, titled My Solutions for Climate Action. They especially liked one of my solutions to “Regularly call, write and lobby your members of Congress!” As I wrapped up my visit to Senator Merkley’s office, one staff member told me that Senator Merkley and his staff especially pay attention to the issues that constituents urge him to support during their town halls. I then asked Senator Merkley’s Portland Field Representative if he would introduce me to Senator Merkley at his next town hall in the Portland area. This staff person told me he would be happy to do that.

Attending two of U.S. Senator Ron Wyden’s town hall meetings in January 2020

After my two talks for Climate Reality’s Day of Action on November 21, 2019, I next focused on the December Climate Reality Portland holiday meeting. In mid-December, Tanya and I traveled to our hometown of St. Louis, Missouri for over a week to visit family. While we were in St. Louis, I gave two climate change talks for the St. Louis Zoo, plus a Climate Reality talk at Carpenter’s Library in south St. Louis. This was a renovated library that my parents used as children growing up in the 1940s and 1950s in St. Louis.

2020 started as a new year for me for climate organizing and to attend Congressional town halls. My first event I attended for 2020 was a town hall for Senator Ron Wyden held at Roosevelt High School auditorium in northwest Portland on January 5, 2020. Tanya came with me. Thus, I had two raffle tickets to double my chances to double my chances of my raffle number getting called to ask Senator Wyden a question. I talked a couple of CCL volunteers into attending with Tanya and me. Unfortunately, my raffle numbers were not called, neither were the raffle numbers of the other CCL volunteers in attendance. Thus, we were not able to ask Senator Wyden about carbon pricing, supporting the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act, or what he would do to act to solve climate change in a timely manner.

I do want to give Senator Ron Wyden credit that in each of his town halls he talks about his solutions to climate change. He always focuses on what he can do as the ranking member or Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. He primarily wants to get rid of the 44 fossil fuel subsidies that keeps the U.S. hooks on dirty energy and replacing those subsidies with 3 subsides to incentivize investments in clean energy. Yes, I do applaud everything he wants to do for climate action. He does take the issue very seriously. At the same time, I wish he would listen to climate scientists, like Dr. Michael Mann, who say a price on carbon is needed so we can reach the IPCC goal of reducing global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in half by 2030 and reaching net zero GHG by 2050. In fact, Canada discovered this when they implemented their climate change solutions. They could not reduce their emissions to the IPCC goals without a price on carbon.

Urging Oregon’s U.S. Senators to put a price on carbon kept motivating me to return to their town halls to urge them to support that policy. Thus, Tanya and I went to Senator Ron Wyden’s town hall in Wilsonville, Oregon, less than 30 minutes south of Portland, to attend his town hall on January 18, 2020. Again, I got two raffle tickets for Tanya and me hoping to urge him to support the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act. This was another town hall where I struck out. My raffle ticket numbers were not called, and I was not able to ask him a question. Even if I don’t ask him a question, I still fill out a card at the welcome table stating why I am there. Furthermore, I always re-introduce myself to the staff and try to develop a good rapport with them.

Briefly chatting with Senator Jeff Merkley at his March 2020 Clackamas County Town Hall

Like the Energizer Bunny, I will never give up. Like Sisyphus in Greek mythology, I will continue to try to roll the giant boulder uphill. In January 2020, I went to town hall events for members of Congress from Oregon, Reps. Suzanne Bonamici, Kurt Schrader, and Earl Blumenauer, whom I am a constituent. I was not able to ask a question at their events. However, the most important thing for me is to show up and try. You just never know when you might be able to have a conversation with a member of Congress and ask them to support carbon pricing.

On March 7, 2020, I attended a town hall for Senator Jeff Merkley at the auditorium at the National Guard Recruiting at Camp Withycombe, Clackamas, Oregon. It was located about 10 miles south or a 20 minute drive from where I live. I found out about it on www.townhallproject.com the day before. Tanya could not make it nor could anyone else make it from CCL. It was just me.

The rumored threat of Covid-19 or coronavirus was starting to hang over everything. People were a little leery to shake hands, stand close together, and the seats at this town hall were spaced a few feet apart from each other. People were advised that if they had symptoms of any kind of cold to not come to an event like this. Like all the previous town hall events I attended, there were probably over 100 people or more at this event. I did receive a raffle ticket from Senator Merkley’s staff at the welcome table before the event. However, my raffle ticket number was not called, and I was not able to ask a question.

At this town hall, I had a breakthrough moment. I recognized Senator Merkley’s Field Representative from the Climate Reality 24 Hours of Action that I gave at Senator Merkley’s Portland Office last November. He recognized me when he saw me before the town hall. He was friendly and glad to see me. I asked him if he could introduce me to Senator Merkley after the town hall. He responded that he was happy to do that.

I waited patiently after the town hall to chat with Senator Merkley. Lots of other people were gathered around him to ask him to informally chat with him. Some of the individuals looked like Senator Merkley knew them for years and he was thrilled to see them. I enjoyed watching the Senator interact with people. He is shy and reserved, but he enjoys being around people. Those sticking around after the event were excited to have a chance to interact with him.

The Field Representative waited patiently for a chance to introduce me to Senator Merkley. While we were waiting, I gave the Field Representative my iPhone to get a picture of us. The staff person was happy to help me with this. Finally, there was a break in line of people wanting to talk with Senator Merkley that the Field Representative walked up to Senator Merkley to introduce him to me. I remember he was hesitant to shake hands or stand too close because of the possible threat of coronavirus. At the same time, Senator Merkley was very kind and generous with his time with me. He allowed me to get several pictures with him. I was able to urge him to support CCL’s Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (EICDA).

The Senator looked exhausted from chatting with all the people one on one, thinking on his feet for over an hour with this town hall, plus the town hall he did in Marion County earlier that day. He did not have a response to my request to urge him to support Citizens’ Climate Lobby’s EICDA. He did look at me very sympathetically though like he really did appreciate what I am doing and the very steep uphill climb to get anything passed on climate in the Senate right now.

I did not have a problem with this interaction with the Senator at all. I know that tired look after I have given presentations and chatted with audience members one on one afterwards. I could relate to his facial expression how hard it is to get anything passed on climate in Congress right now. Still, I wanted to get this idea on his radar and hopefully other CCL friends are doing the same thing. Even more, I wanted to be an example of reaching out to our members of Congress to support climate legislation.

This was probably Senator Merkley’s last in person town hall before the full shutdown of the covid-19 pandemic happened in March 2020. Thus, this was the last opportunity to speak with him directly until the pandemic subsided. On October 15, 2020, I went to an outdoor campaign event when my Oregon Senator Shemia Fagan ran for Oregon Secretary of State. U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley were in attendance. However, they were leery to have anyone stand close to them and we all had masks on at this outdoor event due to the pandemic. It was hard to ask questions or engage with them on policy issues because of that.

I left that March 2020 town hall feeling great. After our conversation, Senator Merkley did not shift his position supporting carbon fee and dividend or the EICDA. I did the best thing you can do in a democracy: petition and speak directly with an elected official to urge them to support climate legislation. I did my part.

Now it is up to others, especially anyone reading this (you), to call, write, email, and attend town halls to directly urge members of Congress to support effective climate legislation. Even more, I challenge you to be even more effective than me. If you are more effective than me, we will have even a better chance of success of reducing the threat of climate change.

Now that the pandemic is over and in person Congressional town halls are happening. I encourage you to attend Congressional town halls if your members of Congress or U.S. Senators are holding them. It is a great way to learn about the issues impacting your fellow citizens in your community and to hear the perspective of your member of Congress.

Maybe, if you are just lucky, you might be able to ask them a question or even urge them to support effective climate legislation.

Brian Ettling April 2023 ©

Since I became involved in the climate movement around 13 years ago, my aim was to be a top climate organizer and speaker. I wanted to inspire others to take action to reduce the threat of climate change. One place that helped me be a more effective climate advocate was attending a Climate Reality Training in San Francisco in August 2012. After attending that training, I was very proud to become a Climate Reality Leader and become active in the Climate Reality Project. 

I was honored when Climate Reality selected me to be a mentor to assist the new trainees at seven Climate Reality Trainings: Chicago, IL 2013, Cedar Rapids, IA 2015, Houston, TX 2016, Denver, CO ­2017, Bellevue, WA 2017, Los Angeles, CA 2018, Atlanta, GA 2019, and a virtual training in 2020. On top of that, the peak experience for me was the three trainings that Climate Reality invited me to be a breakout speaker, Bellevue 2017, Los Angeles 2018, and Atlanta 2019. I will always be grateful to Climate Reality Project for those opportunities. 

Taking Climate Action to be Noticed by the Climate Reality Project 

To grab an opportunity, you have got to get your foot in the door. To get your foot in the door, you have got to get yourself noticed somehow. After I became a Climate Reality Leader in 2012, I was determined to be one of the best Climate Reality Leaders. 

Former Vice President Al Gore founded the Climate Reality Project in 2007 from the proceeds he received from the 2006 Academy Award winning documentary film An Inconvenient Truth and other sources. To this day, Al Gore actively oversees Climate Reality and leads their annual U.S. and international Trainings. Thus, one incentive for me to be recognized as a top Climate Reality Leader was the possibility to meet Al Gore. Fortunately, I had a chance to do that at the May 2015 Cedar Rapids Trainings. Even more, I asked him directly how to respond to his critics. 

Besides meeting Al Gore, another motivation for me to strive to be a great Climate Reality Leader was the chance to be a breakout speaker at one of the Climate Reality trainings. These Trainings typically had the attendance of over 1,000 people who come from across the U.S. and internationally. The Trainings were an outstanding place to network among other top Climate Reality Leaders and advocates. Even more, it was a great place to be seen “on the stage” giving a breakout talk to advise the attendees how they could give impactful climate presentations and inspire others in their community to join them in the climate movement. 

After we are trained as Climate Reality Leaders, the Climate Reality staff urged us to log our “Acts of Leadership,” on the Climate Reality Project hub website, the resource access website for Climate Reality Leaders. Thus, I logged various actions to get myself noticed. I recorded each time I presented my ranger climate change evening program that I performed at Crater Lake National Park during the summer from 2011-2017. I submitted each of the climate change speeches I gave during the winter in St. Louis as a member South County Toastmasters. 

In Addition, I logged all my climate change talks, as well as the opinion editorials I wrote that were published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and newspapers across Oregon. I recorded each of my blogs from my climatechangecomedian.com website and my writing contributions for the climatebites.org website. I submitted each time I taught a continuing adult education class for St. Louis Community College and the Oasis Continuing Education Center in St. Louis. I logged each time I lobbied a member of Congress, wrote a letter to them, emailed them, and called their office. I recorded each time I attended climate related meetings and organized climate events. Because of all the times I submitted climate actions, I became known from 2014-2020 as one of the top Climate Reality Leaders for my recorded Acts of Leadership. 

Another type of Leadership Action I did was recording the four YouTube videos with my wife Tanya Couture, my mom Fran Ettling, and my dad, LeRoy Ettling. My YouTube videos inspired Climate Reality to invite me to speak as part of a webinar panel with fellow Climate Reality Leaders Dr. Cara Augustenborg and Stian Rasmussen. Cara was a assistant professor at the University College in Dublin and the Trinity School of Business in Ireland. Stian was a videographer, photographer, and music producer. This webinar was called Inspiring Action through Video. It streamed internally on the Climate Reality Hub website on July, 29, 2016. This brief training encouraged Climate Reality Leaders to create short videos to promote climate action and a build up for Climate Reality’s 10 Year Anniversary Project they were planning for 2017.  

On the Climate Reality website Hub, the organization encouraged Climate Reality Leaders to log their Acts of Leadership. Climate Reality urged us to log these Acts to keep track of the actions of their volunteers to determine how they could best support us. Even more, they wanted us to log our Acts of Leadership as a metric to show their large donors the effectiveness of funding Climate Reality. Thus, I gladly logged all my Acts of Leadership to see how many I could post and to be supportive in supporting the metrics tracking of the volunteers. This did not go unnoticed by Climate Reality. In August 2016, they acknowledged me on their website as one of “THE TOP TEN CLIMATE REALITY LEADERS HELPING US REACH 10,000 ACTS OF LEADERSHIP.”

In February 2017, it felt like I was really on a roll with Climate Reality. They featured me in their February 2017 online newsletter report in their Climate Reality Leader Spotlight section. At his opening remarks of the February 2017 Climate Reality Training in Denver, Climate Reality President Ken Berlin mentioned me and two others as good examples of Climate Reality Leaders. As Ken briefly spoke about me, he showed this image to the screen to the audience: 

During the Denver training on March 2-4, 2017, Al Gore led a panel discussion called CLIMATE REALITY LEADERS: WHO WE ARE. Climate Reality selected three Climate Reality Mentors join him on the stage to discuss their experiences as Climate Reality Leaders and their advice to the new Climate Reality Leaders. Al Gore asked the mentors on the panel how they stay motivated to take climate action. Totally unexpected to me, one of the mentors, Lucia Whalen remarked: “I don’t know if you ever Facebook stalk your friends, but the same thing can happen on the Climate Reality Hub website. Go on Brian Ettling’s page and it will be like, ‘What am I doing with my life?’” 

Lucia was very kind to say that in front of an audience of over 1,000 people at the training. Immediately afterwards, I thanked Lucia for her very gracious extemporaneous comment. When I took various climate actions and reported my Acts of Leadership, I always hoped that I could have been selected for the CLIMATE REALITY LEADERS: WHO WE ARE discussions led by Al Gore at one of the trainings I attended as a mentor. Lucia Whalen is a great Climate Reality Leader and a stand-up comedian in Chicago, Illinois. Therefore, when she mentioned me from the stage to Al Gore and to a huge audience of Climate Reality Leaders, that was a big thrill for me. 

Presenting as a breakout speaker at the March 2017 Climate Reality’s Denver Day of Action 

Because of all the climate change talks I gave beforehand in Oregon, Missouri, Illinois, Virginia, Arizona, and Ottawa, Canada, the Climate Reality staff invited me to be a guest speaker at their March 5th Denver Day of Action. This event took place after the March 2017 Climate Reality Training in Denver, Colorado March 2-4. The staff asked me to speak about Spreading the Word: Mastering Presentations. 

In that talk, I shared my 6 tips for Mastering Presentations such as: 

1. Sharing your story.
I told my story I how saw climate change working as a park ranger in the national parks. 

2. What common values do you share with your audience.
I shared how I related to my audiences with their love of the national parks. When I lived in St. Louis, I would stress that I was born and raised in St. Louis. For conservatives, I shared that I was the President of my College Republicans in my sophomore year of college. In addition, I shared my love of nature and quoted Ann Frank from her book, The Diary of a Young Girl:

“The best remedy for for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature, and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be…amidst the simple beauty of nature.”

3. Include the mission statement for the group that invited you.
When I spoke at Second Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, Missouri in January 2017, I included their website statement that they are “a certified ‘Earth Care Congregation.’” 

From Rotary Clubs, I included their Four Way Test: 

From working in the national parks for 25 years, I included their mission statement in my evening climate change program: “to conserve the natural scenery, historic objects and the wildlife and to provide for the enjoyment that leaves them unimpaired for future generations.” 

When I spoke at the Shepherd’s Center in St. Louis, I shared their motto of “where neighbors help neighbors.” I then wove it into the title of my talk How to be a Good Neighbor for Our Planet.

4. Include your audience in your talk.
I then talked about how I would show up at meetings of an organization before my talk to get permission of individual club members to weave them into my talk. The audience loved seeing their friends and themselves in my PowerPoint images. In the training presentations I gave to the Crater Lake rangers how to chat with park visitors about climate change, I would include a picture of my friend and fellow Crater Lake ranger David Grimes. In that picture, Dave is shrugging his shoulders with the Dan Miller TED talk quote above him, “Talking about climate change is like flatulence at a cocktail party.” 

5. If possible, Include some humor.
I would share the viral image Positive proof of global warming that shows the changes in underwear fashion over the years. I also included the Bloomberg Business article that I had the unfortunate experience to wake up to the day after my wedding on November 2, 2015, “Climate Change Kills the Mood: Economists Warn of Less Sex on a Warmer Planet.” 

6. Share local stories of the problem and solutions to climate change.
I showed the image of the extreme flood that I saw in St. Louis on January 1, 2016. I then shared the story in the St. Louis South County Times, “Living Green With Solar Energy,” from December 14, 2012. The article highlighted St. Louis residents Jim and Judy Stroup. They installed solar panels on their house the year before and saved around 87% on their electric bill. I included the quote from Jim Stroup: 

“This past month, I spent more beer & pistachios than I did on gas & electric.  And I am not a big drinker. It’s amazing how much (solar) cuts down on your bills and how economical it is to install.” 

I then wrapped up my presenting by listing my 6 tips for mastering the presentation for the audience to see it one last time.  

This presentation was well received by the audience of primary Climate Reality Leaders and staff. I remember seeing fellow Climate Reality Mentors there such as Harriet Shugarman, Jill MacIntyre Witt and Maria Rotunda. They gave me positive feedback about my talk. Maria’s son, Ian Marchegiani, took a great picture of me speaking. 

Co-presenting with Maddie Adkins at the June 2017 Climate Reality Bellevue, WA Training 

After this Denver presentation, Climate Reality staff kept in contact with me. They invited me to be a breakout speaker for an April 2017 webinar for Climate Reality Leaders, called Settled Science: Speaking to Climate Deniers. Like the August 2016 Climate Reality webinar that I participated, this was a panel presentation of Climate Reality Leaders that included Greg Jones, Dr. Joe Silverman, Laura Schmidt, and me. Greg Jones was a Climate Science Advisor at Climate Reality. Joe Silverman had a PdD in school and counseling psychology. Laura Schmidt founded the Good Grief Network.  Sadly, this was internal Climate Reality training, so I don’t have access to share any video from that webinar. However, participating in that webinar inspired me to write my own blog in April 2017, My 9 tips to Respond to Climate Denial when giving a Climate Change Talk.

The Climate Reality staff was very pleased with my volunteer actions. As a result, they invited me to be a co-breakout speaker with Maddie Adkins at the Climate Reality Training in Bellevue, Washington on June 27-29, 2017. This was very exciting because I was Maddie’s mentor at the Climate Reality Training in Houston, Texas in August 2016. She was 17 years old when I met her in 2016. I helped her with her mentor application for the February 2017 Denver training. I was so happy for her when Climate Reality invited her to be a mentor. Even more, it was very exciting when she was selected as one of the panelists, along with Lucia Whalen, David Ellenberger, and Nana Firman CLIMATE REALITY LEADERS: WHO WE ARE panel discussions led by Al Gore at the Denver Training. From meeting her at the Houston Training, we developed a great rapport. 

Maddie Adkins is the name she is known by her family, friends and Climate Reality. She writes and promotes herself professionally under her given name of Madison Adkins. As a teenager, she created a lot of buzz when she lived in Carmel, Indiana. She worked with her mayor and city council on a climate change resolution. She gave speeches at schools and universities to educate young people about climate change and their power as citizens. In 2017, she worked at iMatter, an international youth-led organization that empowers youth to join the climate movement. Before I left for the training in Houston, I received messages from friends telling me how excited they were that I was her mentor and the great things she was doing for climate action. 

It happened to be very beneficial that my wife Tanya and I moved to Portland, Oregon in February 2017. Maddie lived in Portland with her parents at that time. Thus, we met in person to prepare and practice our presentation in early June. We were scheduled to give this talk in Bellevue at the Climate Reality Training at the end of June. I really did appreciate her bubbly, joyous youthful enthusiasm, and excitement to give this joint presentation with me. Her playful and exuberant personality helps bring out the fun and creativity in those around her, especially me. I fed off her playful teen energy and she enjoyed my goofy and wacky personality. We practiced hard to do a great job giving this presentation at the training. 

We enjoyed weaving together our presentations together in a cohesive talk. Maddie focused on how to speak to youth and schools. I focused on how to speak to adults. I shared the six tips for mastering the presentation and finding an audience that was from the Climate Reality Day of Action talk I gave in Denver just a few months before this June talk. I added a new original quote I created that I have used in the conclusions of my climate change talks since then: 

“The most important person who can make the biggest impact reducing the threat of climate change is the person sitting in your chair.” – Brian Ettling

Maddie had great tips for our talk that she later wrote about for an August 7, 2020 article for Medium.com, “How I Grew My Public Speaking Audiences from 10 to 1,000.” In her 2020 article, her helpful tips included practice, invite your friends to your presentation, expect tech issues, tell your story, follow up, and your authenticity is what makes your presentation powerful.

As we practiced our talk in Bellevue the day the day before we gave it, I mentioned to Maddie one of my all-time favorite quotes associated with the poet and author Maya Angelou:* 

“People will forget what you said…but people will never forget how you made them feel.” 

Maddie loved hearing that quote. She decided on the spot that would be the conclusion of our talk. She ended her 2020 Medium article with that same quote. With the busyness of our lives, Maddie and I lost contact after that talk. It seemed we were two energetic atoms bouncing off each other. We each received an inspirational boost in our climate advocacy since that collaboration and giving this talk in Bellevue together in 2017. I will always be grateful for Climate Reality Project pairing me up with Maddie to give this talk. 

The large audience of Climate Reality Leaders who attended our breakout talk gave us a very positive response. Even more, the Climate Reality staff seemed very pleased with our talk. It felt like the organization really appreciated all my climate advocacy. 

I loved contributing to Climate Reality Project in their efforts to create publicity for climate action, Al Gore, and the organization. In the spring of 2017, Climate Reality asked for my permission to use a 2015 photo of me giving a climate change presentation in St. Louis for their companion book to the 2017 documentary about Al Gore, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power. Local bookstores started selling the published book in mid-July 2017. I rushed to the nearest bookstore when it was available. It was so exciting to see my picture as part of a photo collage of Climate Reality Leaders in action on page 314. The picture showed me giving a climate change presentation at at John Knox Presbyterian Church in Florissant, Missouri on April 26, 2015.

The documentary film about Al Gore, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, was released in theaters nationwide on August 4, 2017. Tanya and I went to see the film in Portland, Oregon on August 5, 2017. The scenes with Al Gore presenting his climate change talk to a live audience were filmed at the Climate Reality Training in Houston, Texas in August 16-18, 2016. I happened to be seated in the front row of the audience on the left side of the stage. When Tanya and I watched the film, we were able to spot me for a very brief second smiling in reaction to something Al Gore said to the audience. This felt like a celebration for Tanya and me since it might be the only time that I will be seen in a Hollywood film. 

Climate Reality Project continued to utilize me to promote their organization. The Climate Reality staff asked for my permission to use images of me for a fundraising promotion at the end of July 2018. I was very honored to be a face representing Climate Reality in their 2017 fundraising campaign. That same month for my 50^th birthday, I raised over $1000 as a Facebook birthday fundraiser for Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL), the other climate organization that I volunteered. Even though I raised money for CCL that month among friends and family. I hope my picture spurred someone open their checkbook to give money to the Climate Reality Project. 

Co-presenting with Itzel Morales at the August 2018 Climate Reality Los Angeles, CA Training 

Climate Reality thought my 2017 presentation with Maddie Adkins was very successful. Their next step was to invite me to be a breakout speaker for the 2018 Climate Reality Training in Los Angeles, California in August 2018. 

For this training, Climate Reality had me co-present with Itzel Morales Lagunes. She was a blessing and a joy to partner with on this presentation. Itzel was from Mexico. She was originally trained as a Climate Reality Leader in Chicago in 2013. Since May 2018, Itzel is the Climate Reality Engagement Coordinator for Mexico and Latin America. She had an impressive background as a biochemical engineer who received a master’s degree from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland. In 2016, the U.S. Department of State awarded her the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship at UC Davis for the 2016-17 academic year. During her fellowship year, she had a professional affiliation with the United States Forest Service and the international Center for the Environment at UC Davis. 

Itzel was extremely intelligent, poised with self-confidence, and very focused on what she precisely wanted to share in our joint presentation. Like Maddie, Itzel has a great and generous heart, giving a warm and caring vibe making one feel great to be around her. We first met briefly when we were mentors at the 2017 Denver Training. We enjoyed briefly chatting at the end of the training. Like many mentors who struck up friendships with each other during the training, we got a picture with each other. I was honored at the chance to co-present with her. 

A few weeks before the August 2018 Los Angeles Training, we met on Zoom to practice our talk. Itzel was very dedicated to make our talk a success. She was very professional, detailed oriented, and well centered. Her calm and mature demeanor helps project confidence to those around her, including me. She knew exactly what she wanted. She did not need any advice from me. She was generous with her time to practice with me often before and during the evenings of the conference so we had confidence our talk would go smoothly. 

Because of Itzel’s steady and optimistic confidence, our presentation was a success. I don’t really remember any glitches except I struggled pronouncing the names of a couple of Climate Reality friends that I mentioned in that talk. I shared the same information from my 2017 Climate Reality Training breakout talks in Denver and Bellevue. However, for this 2018 Los Angeles talk, I included information on the October 2017 speaking tour I led across Oregon for CCL. In addition, I showed an image of my friend and fellow Climate Reality mentor Rachel Molloy and her daughters standing in front of her house with the solar panels on her roof. I then shared how Rachel saved a lot of money on her electric bill by installing solar panels on her home. 

Itzel and I gave this presentation along with Tim Ryder, who was the Associate Project Manager at The Climate Reality Project. Tim shared with the audience how the new Climate Reality Leaders could find, access, and utilize Al Gore’s presentation on the Climate Reality Hub website. In my presentation slides, one of my tips advised new Climate Reality Leaders to join and partner with local climate and environmental groups. After Itzel, Tim and I practiced our breakout session before giving it live, Tim urged me to encourage the Climate Reality Leaders attending this talk to join or even create a local Climate Reality Chapter in their community. I was happy to include that in my portion of the presentation. 

In her portion of our talk for creating your story to share in a presentation, ltzel had great advice learning about who is your audience before your climate talk to create a talk that will appeal to them. She advised the Climate Reality Leaders to determine the aspects of your background and personality that best connects with an audience. Itzel nailed the conclusion of this talk with a very inspiring quote that I heard for the first time: 

According to Itzel’s notes in her PowerPoint: “Ijeoma Umebinyuo is a Nigerian author. She was born in Lagos, Nigeria. She is the author of Questions for Ada, her first published collection of prose poems and poems. Her writings have been translated to Portuguese, Turkish, Spanish, Russian and French. In 2016, Ijeoma Umebinyuo was named one of the top ten contemporary poets from sub-sharan Africa by wrtivism.org.” 

Itzel had a beautiful and stunning dark milky way night sky background behind that quote that made the quote look even more captivating. I took a screen shot of that quote on the day of our presentation and shared it on social media. After that quote, Itzel had a great audience interaction directing the audience to stand and clap with her in unison to motivate them to give their own climate change talks. She would even pretend she was putting her hands together to see if she could trick the audience into clapping before she was ready to clap. The audience loved that moment of deception and that burst of interactive energy at the end of her talk that basically gave the message: You got this! You can do it! 

Climate Reality staff gave very positive feedback they received from the Climate Reality Leaders who attended this joint presentation with Itzel. During this Los Angeles Training, I wanted to promote Climate Reality Project and CCL. I loved volunteering for both organizations and encouraging climate advocates to get involved with one or both amazing organizations. Thus, Steph Zhu a blogger for CCL wrote a blog about me, “One person’s journey to Climate Change Activist” for the Red, Green, and Blue website on September 12, 2018.

Co-presenting with Maria Santiago-Valentín at March 2019 Atlanta, GA Training 

In the fall and winter of 2019, I stayed in touch with Climate Reality staff. They invited me to be a co-presenter with Maria Santiago-Valentín for their March 2019 Training in Atlanta, Georgia. Maria is from Clark, New Jersey, and she was originally from Puerto Rico. She had a very impressive background as a doctoral student in education, a learning disabilities consultant. She is the author of a 2019 book that is available in English and Spanish, Bipolar Disorder: Etiology and Treatment Overview: Mindfulness, Medication, Digital Psychiatry and Classroom Accommodations.   

Maria attended the Climate Reality Training in Chicago in 2013. Climate Reality noticed her activism as a co-leader of the New Jersey People’s Climate Rally in 2017 and 2018, and a steering committee member of the 2018 New Jersey March for Science. In July 2018, Maria presented at the Global Mental Health Congress in Paris, where she presented her research entitled “An Overview of the Neurological Base of Bipolar Disorder” published by the Journal of Childhood and Development Disorders. She was the treasurer of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, New Jersey Chapter and vice chair of the New Sierra Club Environmental Justice Committee. 

Maria was very humble and shy. She was worried about giving our joint presentation to a huge group of Climate Reality Leaders during the Atlanta Training. She was very modest about her accomplishments and background. She seemed to have limited experience with public speaking and speaking in front of large audiences. Unlike Itzel or Maddie, Maria relied much more on me to create and edit our presentation. Maria had a very kind heart and gentle spirit. I was happy to help her feel comfortable giving this presentation. She was very appreciative of everything I did to help us prepare for this Atlanta presentation. Speaking to hundreds of Climate Reality Leaders at this training seemed quite daunting to her. I did my best to be her rock of support. I had someone take a picture of both of us in Atlanta with our fists pumped, with the attitude of “WE GOT THIS!” 

In fact, that became our theme for the new Climate Reality Leaders attending this talk, “YOU GOT THIS!” Maria even had a picture of herself in the talk not smiling with the text: “OMG!!! I am freaking out! The content and my accent!!!” 

I used that phrase “YOU GOT THIS!” several times in this presentation. I started this talk borrowing from Tim Ryder’s presentation that he gave with Itzel Morales and me at the Los Angeles Training in 2018. I showed an overview of images of Al Gore’s 518 slides from his long presentation. Al Gore gave his nearly three-hour climate presentation using most of those slides the day before. In our breakout presentation, I walked through how they could find Al Gore’s slide decks on the Climate Reality Hub. I then encouraged them to use the 59 slides of Al Gore’s Truth in 10 slide deck that is available to everyone, not just Climate Reality Leaders. It is accessable on the public Climate Reality website. The Truth in 10 slides do not have any copyright limitations. They can be shown to anyone anywhere, especially if the climate presentation is being livestreamed, video recorded, or uploaded to YouTube. 

I then used a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr quote: 
“Everyone can be great. Because anybody can serve.
You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. 
You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve.
You don’t have know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. 
You don’t have to know Einstein’s theory of relativity to serve. 
You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics to serve. 
You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”

This seemed very appropriate to use a Dr. King quote since this presentation was given in his hometown of Atlanta, GA. After I used that quote, I repeated the theme: “YOU GOT THIS!” 

I might have even had Maria say it out loud for effect. I then gave my 6 tips for Mastering Presentations that I which I had been sharing since my Denver breakout talk. 

When I shared my story as my first tip, I then turned to Maria and asked her to share her story. 

She talked about her background with Organizing for Action (OFA) and her involvement with the Climate Change State Team at OFA in New Jersey. She then told the audience how her and her family were impacted by Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey in 2012. Even worse, her relatives were devastated by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico in September 2017. 

In my second tip, Finding Your Audience, I gave my examples of forming a Climate Reality Meet Up Group in St. Louis, then getting involved with the Climate Reality Chapter, joining a Toastmasters Club in St. Lous, and leading the CCL tour across Oregon in October 2017. Maria gave her examples speaking to OFA, lobbying her New Jersey Assemblyman, and speaking at Columbia University. Maria also shared how she organized and spoke at environmental marches People’s Climate Movement, NJ Sierra Club, Food & Water Watch, NJ March for Science and as a panelist for a public screening of the 2017 National Geographic documentary From the Ashes. 

Maria and I then tag teamed for the rest of this presentation with me providing tips and examples and then Maria responding with her own examples. She was lovely to co-present with as a team.  She really gave it her all, stepping out of her comfort zone to speak to this large group of Climate Reality Leaders. 

I started the conclusion with my standard quote: “The most important person who can make the biggest impact reducing the threat of climate change is the person sitting in your chair.” 

For the final slide, I showed a quote from former President Barack Obama, “We are the ones we have been waiting for!” Then Maria once more proclaimed, “YOU GOT THIS!” 

Like Maddie Adkins and Itzel Morales, it was a huge honor and pleasure to present with Maria. 

From the conversations and email exchanges with Climate Reality staff afterwards, they seemed very pleased with this presentation. Sadly, Atlanta was the last Climate Reality Training I attended in person. I hoped to participate as a breakout speaker in trainings after that, but I was not even invited to attend the trainings. 

The crushing defeat of the Clean Energy Jobs Bill in Oregon in 2019

After Atlanta, the next Climate Reality Training was in Minneapolis, Minnesota in August 2019. 

In May, I applied to attend this training as a mentor. Even more, I hoped to participate in this training in roles such as a breakout speaker, master of ceremonies for one of the training days, or a mentor for the VIP table. Because it’s Al Gore and Climate Reality has earned a stellar reputation for training climate advocates, there are celebrities, prominent individuals, major donors, and prestigious scientists who are typically seated in a table at the front of the room. Climate Reality assigns a mentor to their table to answer their questions and assist their needs. 

My biggest dream was to be selected as one of the CLIMATE REALITY LEADERS: WHO WE ARE panel discussion led by Al Gore. Two of the Climate Reality Leaders that I mentored at previous trainings, Maddie Adkins and Sara Vargas, were panelists for this discussion. As their former mentor, I was so proud of them. At the same time, I always hoped to be part of that panel. I logged hundreds of Acts of Leadership hoping to be selected for that panel, but it was not meant to be.  

After Atlanta, I became very involved volunteering to Renew Oregon to urge Oregon legislators to pass a cap and invest bill. It was known as the Clean Energy Jobs Bill or HB 2020. Renew Oregon and their many volunteers, including me, lobbied the legislators extensively before and during the session to build good relationships with them. Therefore, we were confident we had the votes among the Democratic legislators in the Oregon House and Senate to pass this bill before the end of the legislative session. One of the highest moments of my climate organizing and for all the Renew Oregon climate organizers was the moment HB 2020 passed on the Oregon House floor on Tuesday, June 18, 2019. 

The Clean Energy Jobs Bill moved on to the Senate floor where we had the Democratic votes to pass this bill.  On June 20, 2019, it was very disheartening when Oregon Senate Republicans fled the state to deny the required 2/3 quorum for a floor vote for HB 2020. Over the next ten days, it felt more depressing as Republicans Senators refused to return to work until the Democrats agreed to kill HB 2020. It felt like a year of effort for me of numerous lobby meetings with legislators, attending organizing meetings, testifying at hearings, helping to organize events and rallies, encouraging residents across Oregon to contact their legislators, and countless trips to the Capitol in Salem was all going down the drain. It was that helpless feeling that a bitter defeat was about to happen and there was nothing we could do about it.  

The bill had to pass the legislative before the Sunday, June 30, 2019, the last day of the session or it would die. The last day of the session is known on the Oregon Legislative calendar as Sine Die. According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary Sine Die means, “without any future date being designated (as for resumption): indefinitely. the meeting (or legislative session) is adjourned.” We hoped for a miracle that the GOP Senators would come to their senses and return to Oregon. However, it was looking bleaker each day.

On Tuesday, June 25^th, Oregon Senate President Peter Courtney announced that he did not have the Democratic votes to pass HB 2020. Therefore, the bill was dead. On Friday, June 28^th the Republican Senators returned to Salem to vote on the remaining legislative bills before the Sine Die happened. A friend talked me into going to the Capitol to at least look at the weak-kneed Democratic Senators in the eye. I felt so numb that a major bill on climate action failed. I just needed some good news. Any good news!  

I hoped to hear if I had been accepted to the Climate Reality Minneapolis Training in August. Unfortunately, this email arrived from Climate Reality on that ride to Salem on Friday, June 28th: 

“Dear Brian: 

Thank you for applying to serve as a mentor at the upcoming Climate Reality Leadership Corps training in Minneapolis. Due to overwhelming interest from many exceptional Leaders, we regret to inform you that we are not able to invite you as a mentor to this training.

Several key factors are considered in the review process, including geographic need (matching registered attendees to mentors from their area), travel budget, carbon footprint, application responses, and logged Acts of Leadership. The selection process can be extremely difficult with so many qualified applicants, and this training was no exception.

Please know we value your important work as a Climate Reality Leader and are honored to count you among our volunteers. Though the criteria for putting you on the mentor list did not align this time around, it is possible that another mentor might have to cancel and we would need someone to step in on short notice. Would you be willing to serve as a back-up mentor for the Minneapolis training? If so, we would contact you in the event of a last-minute cancellation to see if you’re available to fill in. Let us know soon if you’d like to be a back-up mentor.

These decisions are never easy, and we greatly appreciate your understanding in the application review process. Thank you for your incredible work and dedication to the Climate Reality Leadership Corps.” 

Climate Reality had no idea what was happening with the timing. However, receiving this email on the car ride to Salem that morning felt like a kick in the stomach when I was already feeling so numb. I always considered the Climate Reality Trainings, even more the honor of being a breakout speaker for three of the trainings, as jet fuel for me to help me with my climate organizing. I could have really used that good news on a day where the Republicans had officially killed the climate change legislation. 

No matter how hard one works as a Climate Reality Leader, you don’t get recognition from Climate Reality Project for climate legislation that does not pass. You don’t get to be on a CLIMATE REALITY LEADERS: WHO WE ARE panel discussion led by Al Gore when you help pass major climate legislation in only one legislative chamber. You don’t get to be a Breakout Speaker or a Master of Ceremonies if you are unable to stop a Republican walkout that kills climate legislation. You don’t even get to be a mentor of the VIPs or even just a mentor if you spend many months lobbying Oregon legislators, encouraging many Oregonians to contact their legislators, attending many legislative hearings at the Capitol, testifying numerous times for climate legislation, and organizing events to urge legislators to support strong climate bills. Sadly, you get nothing. 

I understood that Climate Reality wanted to offer their trainings to other exceptional mentors besides me. Just like Climate Reality, I believe it’s important that we grow the movement. As we grow the movement, it’s vital that we provide support for new Climate Reality Leaders a chance to be mentors. Even though I felt very disappointed, I emailed a gracious response: 

“Thank you for letting me know about the status of my mentor application for the Minneapolis Training. Understandably, I am sad I was not selected as a mentor. However, I totally understand the selection process is extremely difficult with so many qualified applicants. 

Yes! I would absolutely love to be willing to serve as a back-up mentor for the Minneapolis training.
Yes, please do keep me in mind and do contact me immediately if any mentor positions become available. (my emphasis) 

Stay in touch.

Give my best to everyone on the Climate Reality staff.” 

Unfortunately, I was not selected as a backup mentor for that training. 

After the Clean Energy Jobs Bill failed, I spent weeks on the couch at home with no energy to do anything. However, I had to pull myself back up to help Renew Oregon pass a cap and invest bill in the 2020 short session. 

My success and heartbreak as the Chapter Chair of the Portland Climate Reality Chapter

When Tanya and I moved to Portland, Oregon in February, 2017, I became very involved in the Climate Reality Portland Chapter. In the fall of 2018, I joined the Leadership Team for the Chapter. In June 2019, Deb Lev, the Chapter Chair at that time, announced to the Leadership Team that she intended to step down to work full time for another environmental organization. She quickly needed an interim Chair for our Chapter to replace her. I liked Deb a lot. I was her mentor at the 2016 Climate Reality Training in Houston. However, I wanted to take the chapter up to the next level so I asked The Leadership Team if I could take on the role as an interim Chapter Chair. At that time, I served as the Program Manager on the Leadership Team. My role was organizing the monthly meetings, so I would then be performing two roles as the Chapter Chair. 

As Chapter Chair, I wanted to organize two big events over the next six months to urge legislators to take another shot at a cap and invest bill. With these two big events, my goal was for the Climate Reality Portland Chapter to become well known in Portland, Oregon. I hoped that more recognition would help us attract more members and energize our membership. Even more, I intended that we partner more closely with other climate and environmental groups in the Portland area to help get climate legislation passed in the 2020 Oregon legislative session. 

Unfortunately, I had three people on the Leadership Team questioning and nitpicking everything I was doing. They did not have any constructive ideas of their own, just criticizing every decision that I made. They were relentless. Half of the leadership team were supporting me, and half were not. The friction grew worse as the summer turned to fall. I contacted a local Climate Reality staff person for advice. Her only feedback was basically, ‘In the organizing world, volunteers can be brutal and vicious and even make you cry hard on some days.’ 

Even though the chemistry on the Leadership Team was bad, I organized two very successful events. The first was held at a local theatre in Milwaukie, OR on September 16, 2019. We filled this theatre with over 80 local climate advocates and Climate Reality Leaders for an event called: “Climate Legislation: Where do we go from here in Oregon?” We had a panel of three speakers: Milwaukie Mayor Mark Gamba, Dylan Kruse from Sustainable Northwest and Shilpa Joshi from Renew Oregon. We encouraged folks to fill out post cards to their legislators. We ended up with 50 postcards and 11 letters. I took the train to Salem and delivered them to legislators. They just happened to be having a workday in Salem two days after our event. 

We had another large Climate Reality Portland Chapter event on January 21, 2020, attended by over 100 people. We packed the meeting space at the Hollywood Senior Center in northeast Portland. The speakers were Oregon Senator Michael Dembrow and Oregon Representative Karin Power, the chief sponsors of the 2019 Clean Energy Jobs Bill. At this gathering, I encouraged attendees to fill out postcards to their legislators urging them to support the cap and invest bill for the 2020 legislative session. I had another huge stack of filled out postcards to take to the Oregon Capitol. I was exhausted from organizing these events. 

At both events, I shot 4 second videos with the packed audience hold up pieces of paper that read, “CLIMATE ACTION NOW!” I then had the audience shout in unison with their fists pumped: “CLIMCATE ACTION NOW!” I sent these videos to Climate Reality staff to use these videos as they see fit, but I did not get much of a response.

Yet, some members of the Leadership Team endlessly criticized me while offering few ideas of their own. When I incorporated their ideas, it was never enough. They wanted to be in charge, but they said they did not have time to be in charge. We desperately needed to recruit new Climate Leaders in the chapter who would be team players and great at collaborating. Thus, I applied in December 2019 to attend the Climate Reality Training in Las Vegas March 8-10, 2020.  

On February 10, 2020, I received this message from Climate Reality: 

“Dear Brian: 

Thank you for applying to serve as a mentor at the upcoming Climate Reality Leadership Corps training in Las Vegas. Due to overwhelming interest from many exceptional Leaders, we regret to inform you that we are not able to invite you as a mentor to this training.

Several key factors are considered in the review process including geographic need (matching registered attendees to mentors from their area), travel budget, carbon footprint, application responses, and logged Acts of Leadership. Additionally, if you’ve served as a mentor as a recent training, we may have offered the spot to a first-time mentor or someone who has not mentored recently. The selection process can be extremely difficult with so many qualified applicants, and this training was no exception. 

These decisions are never easy, and we greatly appreciate your understanding in the application review process. Please know we value your important work as a Climate Reality Leader and are honored to count you among our volunteers.

Thank you for your incredible work and dedication to the Climate Reality Leadership Corps.” 

That letter looked the same as the first letter in June 2019 that rejected me for the August 2019 Minneapolis Training. 

My feeling of being letdown and pushed aside by the Climate Reality Project 

At that point, I felt done with the Climate Reality Project and the Climate Reality Portland Chapter. I was burned out of putting a tremendous amount of work into organizing meetings and events, plus logging my Acts of Leadership. Yet, I felt no reward. 

I put so many hours into Climate Reality’s Pricing Pollution campaign to turn out CCL volunteers and Climate Reality Leaders for the cap and invest rallies in 2019 and 2020 at the Oregon Capitol in Salem. On February 6, 2019, Renew Oregon had a huge rally and lobby day in Salem. Al Gore even sent in a video message endorsing the Clean Energy Jobs Bill. 

The next day Sonny Mehta, Field Director for Renew Oregon, called me to say over 700 people turned out for that event at the capitol and he wanted to thank me for all my efforts. Numerous attendees told him they came because they were involved with CCL and the Climate Reality Project. Along with others, I went through long spreadsheets of calling CCL volunteers and Climate Reality Leaders to get them at that rally. With his phone call, Sonny thought that I had played a key role. Whenever I showed up at any Renew Oregon planning meeting, I would always say: ‘I am here as a volunteer with Citizens Climate Lobby and the Climate Reality Project.’ 

I became a liaison between Renew Oregon and CCL and Climate Reality to make sure both of those organizations were fully coordinating with Renew Oregon during the efforts to get the Oregon Legislature to pass the cap and invest bills. Climate Reality looked at Renew Oregon’s efforts to pass the Clean Energy Jobs Bill to advance their Pricing Pollution campaign. 

I became interim Chapter Chair of the Portland Climate Reality Chapter in July 2019 to specifically organize Climate Reality events in partnership with other climate groups to pass Renew Oregon’s cap and invest bill. Some of the members of the Leadership Team were lukewarm about these efforts, which created tremendous friction within our Leadership Team. I felt like I received very minimal support from Climate Reality when I was receiving a very hard pushback about this in the fall of 2019. 

I came extremely close to resigning as the Chapter Chair in October 2019 because of all the fighting. However, Oregon Senator Michael Dembrow and Representative Karin Power said yes to a big event where I planned to have them speak on January 21, 2020. We needed this event to be a success and to work closely with other groups in the Renew Oregon coalition. The leading climate champions in the Oregon Legislator were Senator Dembrow and Representative Power. They needed to see that the Renew Oregon coalition, including Climate Reality, had their full support as they attempted another very difficult push to pass a cap and invest bill in the 2020 Oregon legislative session. This was a time for concentrated and coordinated action for Oregon Climate Reality Leaders. 

In November 2019, I attended the Citizens Climate Lobby Conference and Lobby Day in Washington, D.C. On the day that CCL volunteers had scheduled lobby meetings with Congressional Offices on Capitol Hill, I organized a breakfast meeting of CCL volunteers who are also Climate Reality Leaders to meet with Climate Reality Project staff. We met for a breakfast meeting at a coffee shop located just blocks from the U.S. Capitol. During that meeting, Climate Reality staff person thanked me for leading the chapter. She then told me how sorry she was how I had been treated by some of the Portland Chapter Leadership Team. Those were comforting words that I heard, but that was the minimal support I received from Climate Reality. 

Sadly, we have members of our Leadership Team that did not have their own vision for the chapter. They just wanted to attack my vision. However, my vision for the Climate Reality Portland Chapter was aligned with Climate Reality Project’s Pricing Pollution Campaign. Their Pricing Pollution Campaign Toolkit had a picture that included me on Page 20. We needed new Climate Reality Leaders within the Chapter and Leadership Team that could see the big picture and had great team building skills. It was important for me to attend the Climate Reality Trainings in Minneapolis in August 2020 and Las Vegas in March 2020 to try to recruit some new Climate Reality Leaders from the Portland area into the chapter. Or at the very least, I hoped to receive some ideas how we could make our chapter more effective. 

Thus, I felt crushed when I received that letter on February 10, 2020. For all I did over the years of being loyal and dedicated to Climate Reality, it did not feel like Climate Reality was supportive to me. No matter how many large events I organized. No matter how many speaking tours I led. No matter how many elected officials I lobbied. No matter what I did to try to guide the Portland Chapter. No matter how many people I helped turn out for rallies to try to pass climate legislation. No matter how many letters to the editor and opinion editorials I wrote to my local newspapers.  It did not feel like Climate Reality was there for me anymore. 

The part that hurt the most is that they said nothing after the Atlanta Training about the possibility to be a breakout speaker at a future training. It felt like all of that was forgotten. I would have understood if they would have said, ‘We want to go in a different direction with the NOW PRESENTING: THE MASTERING THE PRESENTATION breakout session. Is there any way you could help us with another role instead at the training?’ 

Part of me would have been thrilled because it took a lot of work to put together these joint presentations for the Climate Reality Trainings. I would have been so honored to be a mentor for the VIPs who attend the trainings, a Master of Ceremonies, or other roles. Even more, I pushed myself so hard to do so many acts of leadership with giving presentations, lobbying elected officials, organizing events, writing letters to the editor, meeting with fellow Climate Reality Leaders, etc. It was my dream to be on the CLIMATE REALITY LEADERS: WHO WE ARE panel that was led by Al Gore or to receive some acknowledge that I was positively contributing to Climate Reality. It just did not seem like no matter how hard I pushed myself or what actions I did that I was going to achieve those things.

My depths of despair and a beginning sense of renewal as a climate organizer and writer 

When I resigned as Chapter Chair of Climate Reality in March 2020, it was around the time that the COVID-19 pandemic started. Global and American society went into extreme social isolation to try to contain the spread of the virus. That same month, the 2020 Oregon Legislative session ended with the GOP legislators of both chambers fleeing the state over a week before. That action killed all the legislation scheduled for votes in both chambers, especially Renew Oregon’s cap and invest bill. Just like 2019, the Republicans succeeded in killing climate legislation. After all the work that I and so many others put into that effort, that was a heartbreaking defeat. 

The 2020 defeat of Oregon’s cap and invest bill, my disappointment with Climate Reality, and the pandemic triggered a very bad depression for me. For many years before, I received joy and purpose from giving climate change presentations, lobby elected officials, organizing events, and attending meeting. All of that was suspended indefinitely and I felt like I lost my purpose. 

Climate Reality decided to cancel all their in-person trainings for 2020, including Las Vegas. That provided no solace for me. It just made me sad. I really loved attending those trainings as a mentor and breakout speaker. I was selected as a mentor for their virtual July 2020 training, but that was it. They did not seem interested in offering me additional roles for their trainings. 

Before the pandemic, if I felt like I had suffered a defeat or setback, I would just jump to another project. If I got thrown off the horse, I would just jump back onto another horse and ride away. However, I felt like I could not do that during the pandemic. 

The good news is that I did not give up. I started lobbying Oregon Legislators in the summer of 2020 to endorse a bill in Congress, The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (EICDA). Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) asked their volunteers to meet with grass top leaders such as state legislators to endorse the EICDA. CCL figured that more local endorsements would motivate members of Congress to support the EICDA. Working with other CCL volunteers, I led the efforts to get over 30 Oregon Legislators to endorse the EICDA. 

During our meeting in September 2020, Oregon Rep. Tiffiny Mitchell asked if she could introduce a state resolution endorsing the EICDA. Representative Mitchell did not run for re-election. Thus, Senator Michael Dembrow proudly introduced the resolution on the Oregon Senate floor February 4, 2021, when it officially became known as Senate Joint Memorial 5 or SJM 5.

SJM 5 passed the Oregon Senate on April 7th by a vote of 23 to 5, with 6 Republican Senators, half of the Oregon GOP Senate caucus, joined all the Democratic Senators present to vote to support it. Unfortunately, SJM 5 fell short of receiving a floor vote in the Oregon House in June 2021. It was exciting was that 30 House members, including 7 Republicans, signed on to co-sponsor it. The Oregon House has 60 members. Half the chamber was SJM 5 co-sponsors.

Even though SJM 5 fell short from passing in the Oregon Legislature, it was one of my best experiences as a climate organizer. At the same time, I struggled to find a new sense of purpose after that happened. In August 2020, I reached out to Climate Reality Leader and Mentor Jill MacIntyre Witt for her advice for my next steps forward. Jill responded in an email: “I am getting certified to be a wellness coach, focusing on climate action coaching. Would you be willing to participate in my practice coaching sessions (Zoom calls)?” 

Jill and I spoke regularly for the next couple of months. In her advice as a wellness coach to me, she urged me to start writing again. I had blogged for over 10 years, but I had completely stopped writing for the previous two years. I was not motivated to write during the pandemic. 

Thus, I took Jill’s advice and started writing in the fall of 2021. I began to write a blog which turned into over 82 pages of writing. It looked like a possible book with the title Why I Quit the Climate Movement. However, that title and those writings felt too pessimistic. I set those writings aside in 2022 to work on political campaigns for state legislators. 

I focused on trying to elect local Democratic candidates who would protect our democracy. The violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C. on January 6, 2021 really scared me that we came close to losing our democracy. Former Vice President Al Gore said it best years ago, ‘In order to fix the climate crisis, we first must fix the democracy crisis.‘

As a climate organizer, I devoted my energy in 2022 to elect local Democratic candidates who would be strong on enacting climate policies and protecting our democracy. However, Robin Riddlebarger, Park Superintendent of Hanging Rock State Park, North Carolina sent me an email in May 2022. She asked me if I would speak to a group of crusty park superintendents at their annual conference of North Carolina State Parks Superintendents on November 14, 2022.

I jumped at this opportunity to travel to North Carolina to give a climate change talk to these state park superintendents. I had a great time speaking at this conference on November 14, 2022. It felt like I had my groove back giving an in-person climate change talk for the first time since before the COVID pandemic started in March 2020. It reminded me of the days when I was a very active Climate Reality Leader. 

In January 2023, I signed up for a Writing Your Story Continuing Education Class at my local community college. This class really sparked my interest and focus on writing again. I decided to go back to write and blog about my highest and lowest moments as a climate organizer. Like the title of this blog suggests, one of my highlights was the three times Climate Reality invited me to be a co-presenter at three of their Trainings. It was such an honor to co-present in the breakout sessions with Maddie Adkins, Itzel Morales, and Maria Santiago-Valentín. 

It was extremely painful to write about my low times as a climate organizer. In this blog, I talked about how incredibly difficult it was to lead the Climate Reality Portland Chapter in the fall of 2019. Even more, it felt very demoralizing for me when Climate Reality stopped inviting me to be a mentor and breakout speaker at their trainings in 2019 and 2020. 

Writing about my high and low points as a climate organizer helped me with some much-needed healing. I can now see that I did accomplish a lot as a climate organizer, especially as a Climate Reality Leader. Even more, I had so much fun! It was a grand adventure along the way.

 My final thoughts 

In 2023, I decided to regularly write and blog to account for the missing chapters of my life’s story. I hope to take these writings and turn it into a memoir to publish as a book. I hope it can be a historical account of what I witnessed in the climate movement. Even more, I hope that the ups and downs of my story can provide helpful lessons for other climate organizers.

To be honest, writing about the low points has been incredibly painful, but cathartic. At the same time, it is a relief to document my peak experiences into writing. 

Looking back over my past 13 years as a climate organizer, I am very proud to receive a beautiful award for giving a climate change lecture at my alma mater William Jewell College in October 2018. At the May 2015 Climate Reality Training in Cedar Rapids, I chatted with Al Gore and asked him a vital question of how to respond to his critics. I appeared on national TV Comedy Central’s Tosh.o as The Climate Change Comedian on August 2, 2016. As I wrote this blog, I recalled the occasions where Climate Reality acknowledged all my hard work as a Climate Reality Leader several times over the years.  

Finally, I had the honor to be a breakout speaker for three Climate Reality Trainings. For each of those occasions, I co-presented with fantastic Climate Reality Leaders: Maddie Adkins, Itzel Morales, and Maria Santiago-Valentin. Each of them taught be valuable lessons in the joy, confidence, and teamwork in giving a great climate change presentation. 

Thank you, Maddie Adkins, Itzel Morales, Maria Santiago-Valentín and Climate Reality Project, for those fantastic opportunities to be a breakout co-presenter at three of your Trainings. 

* Correction: In writing this blog, I discovered that quote is misattributed to Maya Angelou. According to the Quote Investigator website (QI), which “records the investigatory work of Garson O’Toole who diligently seeks the truth about quotations.” According to QI, the quote actually originates from “1971 collection titled “Richard Evans’ Quote Book”. The statement was ascribed to Carl W. Buehner who was a high-level official in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.”

Brian Ettling April 2023 ©

Is anyone willing to buy and learn about my journey organizing for climate action?

Country singer Willie Nelson wrote a song years ago, “Who’ll Buy My Memories?” It’s a track on his 1984 Music From Songwriter, an album he co-created with his friend, songwriter and musician Kris Kristofferson. The song became the title track from Willie’s 1991 album, The IRS Tapes: Who’ll Buy My Memories? Willie released that album as an agreement with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for the album’s sales to pay off his large tax liability he owed the IRS.

It is a beautiful song and one of my many favorites by Willie Nelson. These days, the lyrics reminds me about how I feel about my life currently as a climate organizer:

“A past that’s sprinkled with the blues
A few old dreams that I can’t use
Who’ll buy my memories
Of things that used to be?

There were the smiles before the tears
And with the smiles some better years
Who’ll buy my memories
Of things that used to be?”

With my life, I feel like I have had many peak experiences, as well as low times, as a climate organizer. I hope to share it all in a book. It is a thrilling ride so far, with hopefully more adventures to come. I hope people would be as interested in reading it as I enjoyed living it.

On a deeper level, I want to be in command of telling my life story. A year ago, I listened to a NPR Fresh Air podcast interview guest host Dave Davies conducted with Washington Post reporters Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa. They wrote a book His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life, and the Struggle for Racial Justice.

It struck me during that interview how one of the tragedies about George Floyd is that he never got to share his life story. His death at the hands of Minneapolis Police was such a shocking and totally preventable loss of life due to systemic racism. Like so many people, the video of his death shocked me beyond words. George Floyd never had a chance to tell us his story. The authors pieced together his life story with “hundreds of interviews and countless public and private records to reconstruct the course of Floyd’s often-troubled life.”

It’s too bad we don’t have a firsthand autobiographical account how George Floyd interacted with the world around him. We might have liked him if we had met him. The Fresh Air synopsis of the interview says that he was “A gentle man who sometimes worried that his size intimidated people, George Floyd grew up in poverty, and had big aspirations.” Unfortunately, “the authors argue his opportunities were limited time and again by the effects of systemic racism.”

A lesson from George Floyd’s life is that tomorrow is not guaranteed. Death can cruel to the least deserving of it. If I am struck down tomorrow, God forbid, I intend to leave behind lots of writings. My hope is that writers and researchers putting together my life’s story would have plenty of firsthand material to best portray who I am. In no way do I want to compare myself with George Floyd and his heartbreaking death that awakened a social movement across the U.S. in 2020. I want to honor him with my life energy to somehow making the world a less cruel place. In my life, climate change really scares me. I hope that my writings and life experiences can inspire someone to take climate action so we can have a livable planet.

Hopefully, someone will want to “Buy my Memories.” I had so many fantastic life experiences so far, which I try to summarize in this blog.

Is anyone willing to “Buy My Memories”?

I grew up exploring nature and forests by my childhood home in Oakville, Missouri. I worked and lived 25 years as a summer seasonal park ranger in Crater Lake National Park, Oregon. In addition, I worked and lived in Everglades National Park, Florida off and on for about 16 years. I saw climate change while working in those national parks. I became so worried about climate change that I stopped working at my winter seasonal job in Everglades National Park in 2008.

I was unsure what to do with that climate change life purpose. However, I took on the title of The Climate Change Comedian from a dare from a friend in Ashland, Oregon in the fall of 2009. A family friend helped me create the www.climatechangecomedian.com website in the spring of 2010. Around that same time, I developed my own PowerPoint, Let’s Have Fun Getting Serious about Climate Change. I showed that Powerpoint to a couple of friends that spring and to my fellow park rangers during the summer of 2010.

While spending the winters in my hometown of St. Louis, I joined South County Toastmasters in February 2011 to improve my public speaking skills and to enhance my abilities as a climate change communicator. Over the next five years, I gave 20 climate change speeches to this local Toastmasters Club. My fellow Toastmasters voted for me as “The Best Speaker” for 8 of these speeches. Some of these members were climate change deniers. They ended up giving me great tips how to reach folks like them who disagree strongly with the science and reality of climate change. A few of the deniers despise me to this day. On the other hand, I helped sway some of the members who were uncertain and doubtful about climate change to be more open to accepting vital facts about the climate crisis.

In March 2011, I had the fortuitous luck to work at the Climate Change exhibit at the St. Louis Science Center, one of the few climate change museum exhibits in the United States at that time. While working there, I met St. Louis businessman Larry Lazar. We decided to co-found the St. Louis Climate Reality Meet Up in December 2011 (now known as Climate Meetup-St. Louis). While co-organizing this group, I met Tanya Couture, while she attended the events. Tanya and I started dating. We got married on November 1, 2015. As I joke in my climate presentations, ‘If you get involved in the climate movement, who knows, you might meet the person of your dreams.’

In August 2011, I gave my first climate change ranger evening program at Crater Lake National Park, called The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Over the past 13 years, I ended up giving over 200 climate change talks in 12 U.S. states, Washington D.C, and Ottawa, Canada.

One of those speeches was at the Shrine of the Ages Auditorium at Grand Canyon National Park to an audience of over 200 park visitors and park staff in May 2013. Due to my ranger connections of working in the national parks for 25 years, my friend Pete invited me to give this talk. This opportunity meant a lot since the Grand Canyon held a special place in my heart. Another ranger friend, Steve, arranged for me to solo hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon five days before Christmas in 2009. One year later, Steve and his wife Melissa made all the arrangements for me to hike from the north rim to the south rim on a three-day solo backpacking trip.

Besides speaking and hiking to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, I had many other adventures and exciting moments as a climate change organizer. In 2012, I attended a Climate Reality Project Training led by former Vice President Al Gore to become a Climate Reality Leader. I loved attending that training and was honored to be a mentor for 8 addition trainings to guide others become effective Climate Reality leaders. At the May 2015 Cedar Rapids Training in front of the group of my fellow mentors, I personally asked Al Gore the elephant in the room question. I wanted to know how to respond to his climate denial critics who don’t like him. Those critics use Al Gore as an excuse not to accept the science of climate change. Al Gore was very generous with his time and response to help me answer his critics.

After I became The Climate Change Comedian, I created four YouTube videos with Tanya, my mom Fran Ettling and my dad LeRoy Ettling. Comedy Central’s Tosh.o noticed these videos. This TV show flew my mom and I to Los Angeles in April 2016 to appear on their episode airing on August 2, 2016. I never dreamed that when I gave myself that title that it would be on a TV show seen by millions of people. My 2016 guest appearance met the satisfaction of Tosh.o because they invited me back for a second time for their November 10, 2020 episode.

In April 2012, Carol Braford, the St. Louis Chapter Leader for Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) recruited me to volunteer for CCL. I immediately became deeply committed to CCL. While working as a park ranger at Crater Lake National Park during the summer of 2012, I reached out to various climate and environmental advocates in the Ashland, Oregon area. As a result of these interactions, I co-founded the Southern Oregon CCL chapter in 2013 that still regularly meets in Ashland. In 2013, CCL inspired me to write 10 published editorial opinions, two in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and eight in newspapers throughout Oregon.

CCL inspired me to attend 8 of their Washington D.C. conferences from 2015-19 to lobby Congressional offices on Capitol Hill. I loved attending lobby meetings with fellow CCL volunteers to urge Congressional offices to support federal climate legislation. A highlight and odd moment was my conversation with U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri. I spoke to her just a week after the November 2016 Presidential election, which elected Donald Trump as President. During our chat, she made sure I knew she was gleeful the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline would pass with Donald Trump as President and with her support. To pour salt on the wound, she bitterly added, ‘Good luck getting anything done on climate change for the next four years!’

Sen. McCaskill’s intellect impressed me when she engaged with everyone during the meet and greet in her office. Sadly, I felt like she was not much of a climate ally or champion when I left her office. On the other hand, I participated in a very successful CCL lobby meeting with the Congressional staff of Rep. Frederica Wilson of Florida District 24 in June 2019. I was part of a team of CCL volunteers that successfully urged her to co-sponsor the climate bill we advocated then, The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act. In my numerous lobby meetings with Congressional staff, that was the only time I persuaded a member of Congress to co-sponsor a bill. It might have been my one and only time so far, but it still tasted like a very sweet victory.

My CCL involvement led me to three climate change speaking road tours. My first road tour in Missouri in March 2017, I spoke to large audiences of 100 people in Jefferson City and over 60 people at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri. In October 2017, I led a speaking tour across eastern and southern Oregon. I ended up driving over 1,600 miles to speak over 11 talks in 9 different Oregon cities.

In October 2018, I gave my third climate change speaking tour. I traveled across Missouri from one end of the state to the other. My first stop was speaking at my alma mater, William Jewell College, where I graduated in 1992. I spoke to an audience of over 200 people including students, faculty, and friends. The next stop was a climate talk at the University of Missouri in Columbia MO. I then returned to my hometown of St. Louis, Missouri. I spoke to around 1,000 students and teachers at my alma mater Oakville High School, where I graduated in 1987. I then gave a talk at St. Louis University. My final stop was teaching a three-hour continuing adult education class, Climate change 101, at the St. Louis Community College Meramac campus.

During the 2017 Missouri tour, It felt like a badge of honor when a local newspaper cartoonist with the Jefferson City News Tribune created political cartoon about me. This cartoonist was a climate denier who seemed clueless about science. In the cartoon, I was wearing a ranger uniform explaining how ‘Missouri was covered by a shallow sea about 500 million years ago.’ A boy responds, ‘”Man” wasn’t around 500 million years ago, so who got blamed for the change in climate?”

The cartoon made no sense to me as this cartoonist was clearly aiming to lampoon me. I never had the chance to ask him directly to explain it because it was a real head scratcher. Anyway, I thought it was funny and I was honored I had been depicted in a cartoon for the first time. It reminded me of the Victor Hugo quote that is often misattributed to Winston Churchill: “You have enemies? Why, it is the story of every man who has done a great deed or created a new idea.”

After I returned from the October 2018 Missouri tour, I spent the rest of 2018 to March 2020 volunteering for Renew Oregon. Their campaign was to urge Oregon Legislators to pass a cap and invest bill, known as the Clean Energy Jobs Bill or HB 2020 during the 2019 Oregon legislative session. This was a very empowering endeavor to attend legislative hearings at the Oregon state Capitol in Salem, lobby legislators, testify at hearings, participate in weekly phone meetings, assist in organizing rallies, and organize large events. As I attended numerous legislative hearings on the Joint Committee for Carbon Reduction, I enjoyed having a great front row seat to watch the HB 2020 take shape in committee, successfully pass out of committees, and even pass on the House floor on June 18, 2019.

The victories felt huge to watch the bills progress towards passage. At the same time, it was a devastating and heartbreaking loss when the Republicans fled Oregon in the last week of June 2019 to prevent a Senate floor vote, which killed HB 2020. In late February 2020, Republicans in both the House and the Senate fled Oregon fled Oregon to kill that cap and invest bill. After the first defeat in the summer of 2019, I felt so low I did not want to get off the couch for weeks.

I pulled myself out of that depression by climate organizing a large event attended by over 80 people on September 16, 2019 and another large event on January 21, 2020 attended by over 100 people. The theme of those events was urging Oregon legislators to pass cap and invest bills. Obviously, Renew Oregon’s campaign and all of my organizing efforts failed when Oregon GOP legislators fled Oregon in February 2020 to kill the cap and invest bills. All of us wish we had the wisdom we have now to possibly prevent a conservative legislative walkout. At the same time, it was an honor and thrill to be part of Renew Oregon’s efforts.

Sadly, the second failure of a cap and invest bill by the Oregon Legislature happened just days before the gloom of the COVID pandemic happened. Renew Oregon and all of us organizing for climate action received good news on March 10, 2020. Oregon Governor Kate Brown signed strong climate executive orders directing state agencies to reduce their carbon emissions and to consider carbon reduction in all their decision making. She did that in response to the Oregon Legislature’s failure to pass the cap and invest bills in the 2019 and 2020 legislative sessions. That did provide a momentary solace.

The arrival of the COVID pandemic brought a very dark cloud over everything. Personally, it brought all my climate organizing to a halt. Before the pandemic, I was always on the go with attending meetings, giving speeches, lobbying legislators, and organizing climate events. All of that ended in mid-March 2020. As a result, I slipped into an overwhelming depression. It took me many months to reclaim my life and to return a sense of normalcy years later.

On top of the defeat of the cap and invest bills, I encountered months of bitter internal fighting within the Leadership Committee of the Portland Chapter of the Climate Reality Project. This happened in the latter half of 2019 when I served as the interim Chair. The social isolation of the COVID pandemic on top of the burnout I felt from leading the chapter, it was too much for me to handle emotionally in the spring of 2020. I had writer’s block for a couple of years. I had no energy to write about anything. My sense of life purpose, especially as a climate organizer, disappeared during the first several months of the COVID pandemic in 2020.

Reflecting on my involvement in the climate movement looks like moments of triumph and very bitter low points. Since 2012, I loved volunteering for Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) and the Climate Reality Project. Even more, I tried to be a bridge between both organizations. I had moments of splendor, such as Climate Reality inviting me to be a breakout speaker for three of their national trainings. CCL invited me to be a breakout speaker for several of their lobby day conferences. At the same time, it felt like these groups and individuals within the climate movement wanted to keep me at arm’s length.

I asked influential people within CCL to mentor me to be an even more effective climate organizer. However, they turned me down and were not interested. Climate Reality and CCL seemed to have labeled me as ‘just a volunteer.’ They were not interested in mentoring me to develop a stable career as a climate organizer. No matter how many large events I organized, road speaking tours that I gave, lobby meetings where I led, and published newspaper opinion editorials that I wrote, none of my efforts were seen as worthy enough to help me on my journey.

No matter what I contributed as a volunteer, it never seemed like it was enough. Even worse, the President of CCL discouraged me in November 2017 for my plan to lead a CCL promotional tour across Missouri. I did not let it stop me, but the discouragement stung. I gave so much of myself to the climate movement that I suffered a physical injury in November 2015. The emotional toll was brutal when the defense attorneys subpoenaed me for a court deposition in January 2016 when I was a plaintiff in a Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal lawsuit suing a local major polluter. By the time the defense attorney finished grilling me over two and a half hours, my brain felt like I had been in a bar fight and got my ass kicked. I remember the deposition happened on a Friday and I spent the whole weekend in bed not feeling up to doing anything.

At the same time, I found ways to bounce back from the lowest times. During the summer of 2020 while the COVID pandemic was still raging, I met with numerous Oregon legislators by phone and Zoom. I led the efforts with Oregon CCL volunteers for over 30 Oregon legislators to endorse the CCL federal bill, The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (EICDA). During one of these meetings, Oregon Rep. Tiffiny Mitchell asked if she could introduce a state resolution endorsing the EICDA. Representative Mitchell did not run for re-election. Thus, Senator Michael Dembrow proudly introduced the resolution on the Oregon Senate floor February 4, 2021, when it officially became known as Senate Joint Memorial 5 or SJM 5.

SJM 5 passed the Oregon Senate on April 7th by a vote of 23 to 5, with 6 Republican Senators, half of the Oregon GOP Senate caucus, joined all the Democratic Senators present to vote to support it. Unfortunately, SJM 5 fell short of receiving a floor vote in the Oregon House in June 2021. It was exciting was that 30 House members, including 7 Republicans, signed on to co-sponsor it. The Oregon House has 60 members. Half the chamber were SJM 5 co-sponsors.

The worst part of this defeat was Oregon CCL leadership becoming very angry when the OR House Democratic Leadership refused to give SJM 5 a floor vote. After I experienced two dreadful GOP walkouts that defeated the 2019 and 2020 cap and invest bills, I never believed SJM 5 would pass until I saw it with my own eyes. The Oregonian published an opinion editorial (op-ed) from Oregon CCL leadership and I disagreed with the tone. Former Rep. Tiffiny Mitchell advised us not to publish it since it seemed to attack OR House Democratic Leadership.

I pleaded with the Oregonian and Oregon CCL leadership to re-edit the op-ed to be more gracious, but they ignored my input. Oregon CCL leadership then organized a protest at the Capitol that I did not want to participate. It looked pointless. OR House Leadership conveyed to me in a clear message that SJM 5 would not receive a vote. The reactions of the CCL Leadership Team after SJM 5 died left me feeling very disenchanted with CCL and the climate movement.

In the fall, I started to write a blog which turned into over 82 pages of writing. It looked like a possible book with the title Why I Quit the Climate Movement. However that title and those writings felt too pessimistic. I set those writings aside in 2022 to work on political campaigns for state legislators. I focused on trying to elect local Democratic candidates who would protect our democracy. The violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C. on January 6, 2021 really scared me that we came close to losing our democracy. Former Vice President Al Gore said it best years ago, ‘In order to fix the climate crisis, we first must fix the democracy crisis.‘

As a climate organizer, I devoted my energy in 2022 to elect local Democratic candidates who would be strong on enacting climate policies and protecting our democracy. However, Robin Riddlebarger, Park Superintendent of Hanging Rock State Park, North Carolina sent me an email in May 2022. She asked me if I would speak to a group of crusty park superintendents at their annual conference of North Carolina State Parks Superintendents in November 2022.

I jumped at this opportunity to travel to North Carolina to give a climate change talk to these state park superintendents. I had a great time speaking at this conference on November 14, 2022. It felt like I had my groove back giving an in-person climate change talk for the first time since before the COVID pandemic started in March 2020.

In the summer of 2022, my South County Toastmasters group, where I was a member from 2011-17, invited me to be a guest speaker. I will be giving a short climate change talk to them on April 19th when I travel to St. Louis to visit with family for over a week.

In the past several months, I decided to give the working title of my autobiography, From Park Ranger to Climate Activist: My Peaks and Valleys on this Journey. I hope someone would be interested in reading about the stories I included here. I am writing about this blog as a precursor to an introductory chapter of a memoir about me.

The question still must be asked:
Would anyone be interested in reading about my life’s story in a book?

Like the Willie Nelson song, would anyone be interested in ‘buying my memories’?

Would anyone be interested in a firsthand account of my life?

I hope someone is interested because I am determined to put together a memoir of my life so far especially as a climate organizer. I think my life is one hell of an amazing adventure so far. I hope my story with inspire others, possibly you, to take climate action. Even more, my wish is that it motivates you to be the hero of your story to act on climate so that someone will want to ‘buy your memories.’

Brian Ettling March 2023 ©