Resource Type: Tips & How-Tos

Results from the latest run of our Climate & Clean Energy Tracking Poll are out! The survey of 2,662 (self-reported) registered voters in Colorado, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Ohio found concern about climate around all-time highs, polarization of confidence in federal climate action, and remarkably steady Republican attitudes. Check out the deck*, or watch the webinar recording*.
This wave of the Tracking Poll was fielded from July 30-Aug. 2, 2018 in cooperation with the Climate and Clean Energy Polling Consortium (CCEPC) and Climate Nexus; it is the latest in the semi-annual surveys going back to November 2014. The goal has been to monitor shifts in beliefs and attitudes over time across five key states where the climate advocacy community is focusing substantial public engagement work.

In 2016, Donald Trump received 62% of the “rural vote” (more than any other recent Republican candidate) prompting debate over the rural-urban divide and how it had created both a distinct “rural consciousness” and “politics of resentment” in rural communities.
These divisions have carried over to attitudes about climate change and clean energy, where rural areas are less likely to see climate change as a threat* or support action to address it* than are voters in urban and suburban areas. And yet, rural communities have long been the birthplace of rad, progressive organizing efforts, and a number of recent initiatives aim to bridge some of these divisions*, better understand the needs of rural communities, and marshal sorely-needed resources* to build civil infrastructure.*
What are we learning? What are the implications for our climate and clean energy work? Grab some sweet tea because in this week’s alert, we are doing a deep dive into it all!

While Rudy Giuliani’s “truth isn’t truth” comment might go down as one of the worst legal defense lines, it may include a small (probably unintentional) nugget of truth in terms of how people process political information.
Communicating on climate change and clean energy can be a juggling act of different facts, figures, messages, and messengers. But what information is likely to stick, and why? This week’s alert reviews the social science literature on “political cognition” – i.e., how people think about politics – and examines how organizations can apply those insights when engaging supporters and external audiences.

In just under a month, the Rise for Climate, Jobs & Justice march, the Global Climate Action Summit, and the Solidarity-to-Solutions Week (Sol2Sol) are coming to the Bay Area (!!!). In this week’s alert, we review recommendations from other major climate moments, mobilizations, and marches to encourage Lab members to proactively implement best practices for public engagement around these events. We’re also including a special spin on our events section to highlight a (not at all exhaustive) list of events that members of the Lab community are involved in or may find of particular interest in and around the Global Climate Action Summit.

Moments can lead to movements. We’ve seen as much from #MeToo, #MarchForOurLives and #KeepFamiliesTogether, all of which began with or were drastically accelerated by an event or series of events. And while the next IPCC report won’t instantaneously capture as much of the nation’s attention as those movements had, we too have our climate moments. This week’s alert walks through how we can best seize those moments and turn them into something bigger.

Crazy days! Between Scott Pruitt seeing the door, and Brett Kavanaugh and concerns about his climate jurisprudence entering the national conversation, there’s a lot to follow. Take some time to unplug from it all as you take the Lab’s annual member survey. And apropos of that, we thought this week we’d also share best practices on how  your  organization can survey your members. (First off, feel free to use and modify this basic template member survey* developed by the Lab. You’re welcome!)

We are in election season, and on Tuesday the Lab convened a Peer Learning Exchange to share the latest tips and best practices to optimize Get Out the Vote (GOTV) programs. Watch the recording* and read the highlights below (or go retro with our 2016 GOTV webinar* and alert*).
Two key takeaways: 1) Most GOTV programs leave votes on the table by not fully implementing established best practices; 2) the single best GOTV return on investment in most cases comes from a simple ‘social pressure’ mailer (see below).

Members of the Climate Advocacy Lab, along with experts from the Analyst Institute, held a (strictly C3!) conversation on GOTV best practices and GOTV learnings from members of the Lab community. 
Key takeaways:
1) Most GOTV programs leave votes on the table by not fully implementing established best practices
2) the single best GOTV return on investment in most cases comes from a simple ‘social pressure’ mailer (see below).

Presenter slide decks:
• Karuna Koppula, Analyst Institute (slide deck here)
• Brandyn Keating, United Citizen Power (slide deck here)
• Emily Kreiger & Lennon Bronsema, Washington Environmental Council (slide deck here)
• Marcus Starr, Conservation MN (PDFs found here)

For climate advocates to produce the wins we need in the long run and take advantage of the surge of enthusiasm we have at the moment, we need to move beyond single-click, transactional models of building power. While distributed and relational organizing that fosters sustained engagement from supporters may well be the oldest and most effective form of activism, new technologies and techniques never hurt. Today’s alert is the second part of the Lab’s readout from last month’s Campaign and Advocacy Tech conferences (see our overview of new tools and tech* from the events).