What we’re about
Subject: new guy at climate change collective
Greetings. I signed up to administer this group when I saw it was soon to get unplugged by Meetup.
I'm Jeff Bailey, in Denver for 1 year. A former newspaper reporter and editor (New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times etc.), including years spent covering environmental issues, I now edit a faculty research publication (working remotely) at UCLA's business school.
https://anderson-review.ucla.edu/
My suggested (subject to your input) goals for the group:
--Enlist members to drive change in Colorado to make real progress against global warming, focusing on one issue at a time to maximize voice and impact.
--Align with other groups to maximize impact and avoid duplication of effort.
--Serve as a clearing house of resources and ideas.
--Meet each other in person! I'll be scheduling monthly (for now) meet-ups that I hope will encourage real connection. So, rather than gathering in a mob, where people tend to hang with their existing contacts, I'm going to suggest walk-and-talk meet-ups, where we gather, quickly make introductions, then set off walking in pairs, changing partners every 10 minutes. In a two-hour walk, for instance, one meets a dozen potential new friends this way and the one-on-one nature of it is highly inclusive. I learned it here, at my favorite Meetup to date: https://www.meetup.com/walk-and-talk-hamburg/
I'll be looking for a good walking route (the walk around a lake, Aussen-Alster, in Central Hamburg, is both beautiful and a perfect 2 hours).
So, a potential first thing for this group to consider tackling: Colorado has lots of sunshine, not nearly enough solar power generation, and too much coal power. Widespread adoption of residential solar in sunny Australia (where it's cheaper; something for us to noodle on), is forcing coal plants to shut earlier that expected. A good write-up here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-10/rise-of-solar-rooftops-to-accelerate-coal-s-exit-in-australia?sref=9hErqd9u
OK. I'll be back with a meetup schedule soon and look forward to hearing from any and all with questions, suggestions, complaints, non-negotiable demands. You can message me here or at bailey1739 at gmail.com.
All best,
Jeff Bailey
