January 12, 2020 (Sunday) - Citizens’ Climate Lobby meeting in Hartford, CT. We’ve been holding a lot of meetings on meaningful climate actions and legislation. Many with Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) volunteers in Connecticut - we have over 2,300 volunteers state wide, and I am the CT State Coordinator for CCL. But also with youth in Sunrise CT and others in RiseUpMystic for community and state actions.
January 20, 2020 (Monday) - BAD NEWS - The CDC is confirming cases of the Novel Coronavirus in the U.S. (suspected in a 2019 case). The Emergency Operations Center is activating emergency protocols.
January 26, 2020 (Sunday) - more BAD NEWS - CDC confirms additional travel-related infections of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in Arizona and California, bringing the total number of cases in the U.S. to five.
February 5, 2020 (Wednesday) - Anne and I are cautiously in Hartford again (because of this creeping Covid thing; there have been about 20 deaths from it in the U.S.). We are working on Connecticut State climate legislation, but getting a lot of pushback from the State Representatives and Senators in the General Assembly. Governor Lamont is on-board, but we need to pass it through the legislature as law. He’ll sign it.
February 20, 2020 (Thursday) - up in Ellison Bay, WI at The Clearing. I’m teaching a workshop on climate change and our living habits.
February 21, 2020 (Friday) - continuing at The Clearing - a discussion workshop on climate, and then I do my one-man show / monologue on “Adventures in Mass Extinctions” that addresses what’s going on now with mass extinctions and climate, but also looking at the geologic past.
February 28, 2020 (Friday) - COVID!!! CDC says, “CDC reports four additional presumptive positive cases of COVID-19 in California, Oregon, and Washington: one case is likely travel-related, but three are likely due to community spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the U.S.”
March 3, 2020 (Tuesday) - COVID!!! CDC says, “CDC reports 60 cases of COVID-19 across Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin. Of the 60 COVID cases -19 infections detected, 21 are travel-related, 11 are from person-to-person spread, and 27 are unknown.”
March 6-7, 2020 (Friday-Saturday) - We were supposed to go to this year’s Northeast Regional Citizens’ Climate Lobby conference in upstate New York - but, Anne and I bowed out because of this increasing COVID thing. No one really knows how bad this could be, or what might happen to us if we catch it. But, reports are that it is really, really hard on young and old people.
March 15, 2020 (Sunday) - COVID!!! CDC says, “States begin to implement shutdowns in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The New York City public school system— the largest school system in the U.S., with 1.1 million students— shuts down, while Ohio calls for restaurants and bars to close.” On-line COVID tracking indicates about 80 deaths to date from this disease.
March 26-31, 2020 (Thursday-Tuesday, and beyond to April 12) - Paul Regnier and I were to lead a natural history field trip through the western national parks. But a bus full of people - one person gets COVID, and then we’ll have to isolate somewhere out west for a couple weeks. Paul and I decided that would be unmanageable, and perhaps very, very expensive. This was not a hard decision . . . there have been over 4,000 deaths from COVID since the first ones reported in February. So, the trip - cancelled.
April 10, 2020 (Friday) - COVID!!! CDC says, “With over 18,600 confirmed deaths and more than 500,000 confirmed cases in under four months, the U.S. is the country with the most reported COVID-19 cases and deaths, surpassing Italy and Spain as a global hot-spot for the virus.”
Everything is moving to lockdown. I’ve had to cancel my 2020 monologue shows and ESCARPMENT movie showings, as well as a number of climate events. We are doing more and more on-line Zoom meetings, but people are not quite used to that yet. That being said, we are getting more and more high school students to Zoom with us. This is a shining light amid the pandemic darkness. But, we’ll see how this goes.
April 21, 2020 (Tuesday) - Well, I had my first ever on-line Zoom doctor’s appointment. I hope this isn’t a sign of the future times! COVID is deadly.
April 23, 2020 (Thursday) - COVID!!! Oh no!!! President Trump said, “A question that probably some of you are thinking of if you’re totally into that world, which I find to be very interesting. So, supposedly we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light, and I think you said that hasn’t been checked, but you’re going to test it. And then I said supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way. (To Bryan) And I think you said you’re going to test that, too. Sounds interesting, right? . . . And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning, because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it’d be interesting to check that, so that you’re going to have to use medical doctors with, but it sounds interesting to me. So, we’ll see, but the whole concept of the light, the way it kills it in one minute. That’s pretty powerful.”
He said this - crazy. There have been over 46,000 deaths to date from COVID.
April 25, 2020 (Saturday) - Today we had our first totally virtual Earth Day event - a Citizens’ Climate Lobby conference. Kathryn Hayhoe, climate scientist, was the guest speaker. We’ve talked to her some in the past, and she’s been a part of the U.S. and International groups working on climate. Optimism is low right now for progress in Congress on climate legislation, knowing that President Trump will veto anything we get through the House and Senate.
May 1, 2020 (Friday) - I’ve been working with a land conservation neighborhood group on trying to preserve an abandoned quarry on the Niagara Escarpment in Door County Wisconsin. I made a short film for them, here’s the link: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwohA9QwJOc]
May 28, 2020 (Thursday) - The month has been a blur. Anne & I have been holding our normally-in-person meetings on climate issues as on-line Zoom calls. We are getting more young people on these calls (they couldn’t easily come to meetings in person because of transportation challenges or school), so this is a positive thing. The U.S. is approaching 100,000 COVID deaths. We are taking everything to protect everyone very seriously, but the full understanding of the disease - the pandemic - is still happening.
June 1, 2020 (Monday) - No gigs. No shows. I’ve been thinking about how to move forward with my stories. The “Carbon Copy" stage play/musical, and then the one-man show version “Continuing Adventures of Carbon Man” . . . I’m working on a movie screenplay. I sent the stage play to Mark Moede, my incredible acting friend in Jacksonport, Door County, WI. I said, “Let’s make a movie!” He read the script (he’d seen my one-man show), and said, “It’s a great stage play, but not a movie yet.” So - these past couple of months I’ve been working on the screenplay version. Great fun, tons of work, and a big challenge. Stay tuned.
June 16-17, 2020 (Tuesday & Wednesday) - We are doing our national Citizens’ Climate Lobby meeting and lobby day entirely on-line for the first time. Anne and I organized Zoom meetings with Senator Murphy and Blumenthal’s offices, and Representatives Courtney, Larson and Hayes with our other Connecticut CCL volunteers. Our elected officials are trying to get their arms around the impact of COVID to our communities, states and nation. Climate is taking a backseat, especially with the 116th Congress . . . Republicans control the Senate, and Democrats control the House. Senator Mitch McConnell (R, KY) is stopping any forward progress on climate (or anything progressive), no matter the efforts of Chuck Schumer (D, NY) and in the House Nancy Pelosi (D, CA). In all of this, the pandemic continues. There have been over 112,000 COVID deaths.
July 20, 2020 (Monday) - This month remains quarantine / isolation COVID cautions in the on-going pandemic. We are getting a lot of high schoolers on our Zoom calls - our bright light in all of this. We’ve been doing a lot of phone calls to new Citizens’ Climate Lobby volunteers, but many talk about their pessimism because of the obstructionism in the U.S. Senate. Very tough to address. But CCL has such great approaches (and optimistic, people-oriented, non-partisan and respectful approaches) to moving forward with climate actions for, as their motto says, “A livable world”. Elli Sparks is leading a “Braver Angels” approach to communication and support. And there are many workshops. It’s been six years since Anne and I joined this exceptional group - and I know we’ll get through this pandemic and on with the business of climate legislation. That, and our work with RiseUpMystic, and touching base with other groups is helping us deal with all of this.
August 11, 2020 (Tuesday) - Meetings with young people. One very promising climate activist, a high school student Karishma, really is working on state issues. She’s presenting to the Rocky Hill town council and asked me to help prep her talk. It is uplifting to see these young people getting involved in the existential crisis of climate change and seeking meaningful actions and solutions.
August 28, 2020 (Friday) - I had a long talk with climate activist Sena Wazer, she is a high school activist - soon off to university - and looking to work with Al Gore on the Climate Reality Project (that’s the program Anne and I attended in Atlanta Georgia a couple years ago). Sena is very good at public speaking, and certainly knows her climate stuff. She’s in my 2019 short film “The Climate Crisis - Young People Demand Action” [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9WVlo27WSo].
September 2, 2020 (Wednesday) - 2020 Virtual Town Hall on the Environment with U.S. Representative Jim Himes. I was part of the on-line panel organized by Citizens’ Climate Lobby group leader for Fairfield, Marc Favreau. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ1vD9lv8Yo]
September 9, 2020 (Wednesday) - My brilliant son, Matthew, has invented a lunar regolith ice water extraction method using rocket engines. It is brilliant, and today we had another meeting with other rocketeers (I’m on the team as a geologist to calculate resources and recoveries and other details) to move the project forward. Very exciting to be working with space folk - especially on a lunar ice project in Shackleton Crater at the Moon’s south pole.
September 21, 2020 (Monday) - I was in touch with members of Connecticut Governor’s Council on Climate Change (GC3), and recorded some of their statements [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98rCDBMQQiI]. Also today, high schooler Karishma presented her proposal for climate actions to her home town of Rocky Hill, CT. She did a really good job, but I am worried the council will do little. The town is in flood zones, and with more intense storms due to climate change - this is a problem.
October 8, 2020 (Thursday) - We had a good state-wide chat via Zoom with our regional coordinator for the northeast, Iona Lutey, and our executive director Mark Reynolds on progress and optimism for meaningful climate action by Citizens’ Climate Lobby. These people are some of my climate heroes.
October 27, 2020 (Tuesday) - I had a long call with Loomis Chaffee high schoolers in Windsor, CT: Jordan, Karishma, Mattie and Ray, about climate actions that young people can do. These young people can’t vote yet, but I bring them into meetings with our Senators and Representatives - and the elected officials do listen to them; after all it is their future.
November 3, 2020 (Tuesday) - Today is the general election, perhaps the most consequential election in modern history for our country. All the votes have not been counted. Apprentice TV star and standing President Donald Trump and running mate VP Mike Pence are facing a serious challenge by former Vice President Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris (CA senator and former CA Attorney General). The COVID pandemic remains in full force…over 240,000 Americans have died from the disease, and many more sick and hospitalized. The country is in trauma and Trump has created a divisiveness unlike any thing we’ve seen in modern history. For the election, voter turnout is at record numbers. The pandemic is trashing our economy (my one-time brisk sustainability business has suffered considerably under Trump, and now even more with the pandemic impacting our economy. As of tonight…we do not know who our next president is; there are delays in ballot counting in swing states. Nerve-wracking!
November 7, 2020 (Saturday) - Votes are in and counted and much to our relief Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are our next President and Vice President. Trump refuses to concede to Biden, and has launched legal challenges against states like Georgia. But Biden won 306 electoral college votes, and Trump lost with 232 electoral votes. Biden won 46 electoral votes from key states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin - states Trump won in 2016. Biden also won Georgia by only 12,000 votes, and Arizona. This was a close and decisive race to the White House. Record turnout . . . Biden won the popular vote, receiving 81,283,501 votes for 51.3% of the votes. Trump lost, but still received 74,223,975 votes for 46.8% of the vote. No sign of voter fraud, but Trump and his team of lawyers are going full tilt on that claim.
November 17, 2020 (Tuesday) - We have all these task forces in the state and our communities. The Stonington Climate Task Force, for which I’ve attended October and November meetings - but not much gets done, and the GC3 - Governor Lamont’s “Governor’s Climate Change Committee”, they’ve made lots of recommendations, but they leave it up to the politicians to write and pass laws addressing them . . . which the politicians are not doing a great job on. So, Anne and I have decided to write a bill: The Connecticut Climate Emergency Act of 2021. This will be a foundational bill, loaded with actions (but more carrot than stick), and could push Connecticut back into a leadership role in America. There is also the group CIRCA - Connecticut Institute for Resilience & Climate Adaptation, associated with the University of Connecticut (UCONN). This group has lots of good science wrapped into it, but as we talk to state elected officials, very few use much of it - let alone understand it. Some city council members are a little more clued in . . . but education and applications are key to meaningful climate change actions. That’s where Citizens’ Climate Lobby can help, especially with The League of Women Voters, League of Conservation Voters, the youth-led Sunrise Connecticut, and other groups. We are very busy - even as we still are isolating. The pandemic continues full force, in fact over a quarter million people in the United States have died from this horrible illness. Anne reports Pfizer is working like crazy to get a vaccine.
December 8, 2020 (Tuesday) - Our second national Citizens’ Climate Lobby conference - all on Zoom! We hold our lobby meetings with our Senators and Representatives again over the Internet. This time around I am in meetings with Senators Murphy and Blumenthal, and Representatives Jim Himes, Jahana Hayes, John Larson and Joe Courtney. The main worry by these folk is the U.S. economy and the emergency COVID aid to citizens.
December 31, 2020 (Thursday) - New Years Eve . . . and the COVID pandemic has taken over 335,000 lives in the U.S. . . . and the obstructionists in the U.S. Senate continue to block major climate and community reforms . . . and 2020 is the second warmest year (after 2016) on record for the 141 years of data on hand; the global temperature average is 1.2oC and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels topped 412.2 parts per million. NOAA reports: “The decadal global land and ocean surface average temperature anomaly for 2011–2020 was the warmest decade on record for the globe, with a surface global temperature of +0.82°C (+1.48°F) above the 20th century average. This surpassed the previous decadal record (2001–2010) value of +0.62°C (+1.12°F)” [https://covidtracking.com/data/national/deaths]. The ten warmest years on record are all between 2005 and 2020. We have a lot of work to do to for a “livable world”.
