Resource Type: Evaluation & Measuring Progress

Provides an overview of the actors, and their roles and interconnections, that fuel the denial machine that constitutes a climate change countermovement (CCCM). Notes that these actors are typically motivated by two core concerns: economic and ideological.

From June 2018-May 2019, PennEnvironment conducted a test on how personal phone contact (when layered on top of email and SMS contact) affects volunteer recruitment rates with the goal of maximizing staff time efficiency. In particular, they were interested in finding their organization’s break-even point in which their traditional model of personal phone contacts (which is effective, though time-consuming) is matched by digital-only contact (which yields participation, though at lower rates). With a subject pool of 37794 individuals drawn from inactive past supporters and newly recruited volunteers, which were then randomly selected into one of the two experimental groups, PennEnvironment found that the base rate for volunteer sign-ups from electronic contact was 0.002 shifts per contact sent. Layering in phone contact increased this rate to 0.3 additional shifts per call.

In November 2018, residents of Portland, Oregon, made history by passing The Portland Clean Energy Fund (PCEF), a breakthrough initiative that will raise an estimated $44-$61 million annually to support local clean energy and economic justice initiatives. The fund passed with 65 percent of the vote and support from a long list of local businesses and community organizations, including faith leaders, labor unions, and more. This Executive Summary captures toplines on what the campaign learned about what it takes to win.

82% of respondents said that the US government should do at least a moderate amount about global warming—an all-time high for public opinion on the issue. 70% of respondents (across all categories) believe that the US government, governments in other countries, businesses, or average people should do more to deal with climate change. 75% of respondents said they had personally observed effects of global warming. 64% of respondents said that world temperatures had been higher during the past three years than before—an all-time high and a 10 percentage point increase from 2018. 43% of respondents said that weather patterns in the county where they lived were more unstable during the last three years than before that.

The environmental movement must find ways of representing the hopes and aspirations not only of our traditional base, not only of our actual, quite diverse electoral base, but also of Indigenous and Black diaspora communities and communities of color already on our side, whom we have so far been unable to serve effectively.  In this spirit, the Green Leadership Trust offers the following guidance to align the performance of our leader towards equity and inclusion aimed at building the power we need to win.