Our second meeting was held at Charlie’s house. Many returned from our last meeting and we had several new members from the Unitarian Church. We introduced ourselves and reviewed the outcome of the last meeting.
Our first agenda item involved brainstorming some of the topics that we would like to address. They included: individual lifestyle changes, driving less, home energy efficiency, fuel subsidies, carbon taxes, coal production and transport, fracking, collaboration with other groups, education, consumer culture, economics of energy, alternative energy, politics, etc.
Next we discussed current 350.org campaigns. These can be found at the 350.org website. Starting a divestment campaign at OSU might be a good way to involve students. We also discussed ways to involve faith based groups and other organizations through outreach and education. We decided to pursue this further at our next meeting and look for ways this can be achieved. Leonard spoke about 350.orgs Global Power Shift conference that will be held in June in Istanbul. The application is due soon and he would like to apply to send himself or someone else to this event. There is also a mass protest being held on President’s Day in Feb in DC to protest the Keystone XL pipeline. Claudia and several others from the U.U. church plan on attending. We discussed possible ways to transport a large group from the area there. Charlie is interested in having a local showing of the film, “Chasing Ice” and will work on contacting the film makers to get permission.
We watched the following video and started writing our own letters to the president. This was inspired by CCL’s (Citizens Climate Lobby) December action.
Our next meeting will be Thurs. Jan. 3rd from 7-8:30pm. Location will be determined. The main focus of the meeting will be how to involve large organizations such as churches and businesses.
