Callie Hancock (second from left) with husband Robert Cerutti, daughter Marian Hancock-Cerutti and son William Hancock-Cerutti in France, March 2013.
Pamela McPartland-Fairman, Huck Fairman and their daughter, Princeton Day School junior Lexie Fairman, on a recent trip to Greece.
Seven out of ten Americans believe global warming is a reality, but seven out of ten aren’t necessarily convinced that the time has come to do something about it, and even those who are often have no idea how to proceed.
So even though Yale University reports that 58 percent of Americans are at least somewhat worried about the threat posed by climate change, environmental groups are finding they have to work hard to get an audience with members of Congress, without whose support there will be little change in the energy policies some believe contribute directly to the problem of global warming.
In the wake of last year’s damaging Superstorm Sandy, Huck Fairman and Callie Hancock had seen enough: enough extreme weather, and enough governmental inertia. In January, the Princeton residents and neighbors began setting up the Princeton chapter of Citizens Climate Lobby, a fledgling organization “committed to empowering citizens to solve the climate crisis.”
One might imagine that a group like CCL would have been formed by a concerned climatologist or as a offshoot of one of the many environmental organizations already on the scene. But the Coronado, Calif.-based group was founded in 2007 by Marshall Saunders, a real estate broker by trade.
Saunders, an experienced lobbyist on behalf of that profession, began lecturing to schools and civic organizations in 2006 about the perils of climate change. His motivation, he has said, was simply that he was concerned about the planet’s future.
He came to the conclusion that most Americans—even if they believed climate change was a phenomenon that they wanted to help reverse—felt overwhelmed by public policies that were at odds with such beliefs. He began the CCL for the purpose of education people on how to lobby Congress, with the goal of helping shape public policy.
“Ordinary people were not asking their members of Congress for anything regarding climate change, not in an organized and effective way,” reads Saunders’s statement on the CCL website, citizensclimatelobby.org. “Furthermore, they didn’t know what to do or how to do it, nor did they have self-confidence and support they needed. Citizens Climate Lobby’s purpose is to change all that.”
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Huck Fairman isn’t a scientist either. A free-lance writer and novelist (his most recent book, Noah’s Children, has global warming as a theme), Fairman says he’s been convinced by the evidence that climate change is a real phenomenon and that the government needs to respond with changes to public policy.
Fairman sees recent examples of extreme weather, such as October 2012’s Superstorm Sandy or the recent tornadoes in Oklahoma, as calls to action for people around the world.
“We joined (CCL) to try to develop some political awareness, and also the political will to do something,” he said.
Born in New York City, Fairman grew up partly in Princeton. After graduating from Middlebury College in the late 1960s, he entertained the idea of becoming a lawyer, even working for a time with the Philadelphia Bar Association, before going into the film business instead.
There he says he did pretty much everything, starting on the ground floor as a production assistant and eventually working his way up to directing a feature film. His wife, Pamela McPartland-Fairman, is director of ESL at St. John’s University, and together they made a film for WGBH, out of Boston.
He cites books and articles by environmental journalist Bill McKibben as being particularly influential on his thinking.
“The politicians who lead us aren’t leading us,” Fairman said. “Whether it’s (New Jersey Gov. Chris) Christie or (President Barack) Obama. Look what European nations have done—we’re in two different worlds. Europe seems so much more accepting of the science, and is actually doing something.”
Fairman said he’s met Rep. Rush Holt at various public events in recent years, but hasn’t succeeded in getting a meeting directly with Holt to discuss his concerns about global warming, only with one of Holt’s assistants.
“They both have said legislators are only going to follow political will,” Fairman said. “If it’s not the public’s interest, they’re not going to be able to do anything.”
Callie Hancock is also a New York native. The Harvard graduate got her master’s degree in architecture from Princeton University in 1982, and it was here that she met her husband, Robert Cerutti.
In her day job, she is a communications professional at HDR Architecture, a firm that designs buildings with environmental sustainability in mind. Recently, Hancock said, HRD designed the award-winning Carbon-Neutral Energy Solutions Laboratory at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, which is itself a carbon-neutral building, meaning it’s designed to minimize pollution generated by the burning of fossil fuels.
“If they’re not done right, buildings contribute 40 percent of our energy usage,” Hancock said. “It’s great to be part of the solution instead of being part of the problem.”
Fairman and Hancock might not have got hooked up with CCL if not for the woman they describe as their mentor, Ellie Whitney, a Hightstown resident and retired biologist who helped them get involved.
Since starting up the local chapter, Fairman says they’ve been amazed to meet fellow concerned citizens who have the backgrounds to actually help make a difference.
“We’ve got one oceanographer, one engineer, a biologist—they’re interested in using their skills to deal with this,” Fairman said.
“And they’re worried they won’t see a solution fast enough,” Hancock added.
Hancock admitted she was never an environmentalist before recent times.
“I didn’t know about birds like Huck does, I don’t even like to walk in the woods. I came to this from the point of view of pure self interest. This is unpleasant, living through hotter and hotter summers, not having anything stable to look forward to,” she said.
She said her son William recently made a trip to Glacier National Park because he feared if he didn’t go soon, it might be too late.
“If you know that 97 percent of scientists are on board (in believing that climate change is real), you start to worry about not only your own family but everyone you know,” she said.
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Fairman and Hancock participate in regular conference calls, open to CCL members across the country, each Wednesday. On the scheduled June 1 call, Dr. Lauren Rafelski from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography will explain the Keeling Curve and the 400 parts-per-million (of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere) milestone that was passed last month.
The call will also cover the topic of practicing public speaking, with the goal of making members better communicators fluent in the issues they feel are critical to CCL’s success as climate advocates.
Today there are 91 CCL chapters on North America. Going into June, the Princeton chapter has 20 members on its email list, most of whom, Hancock reports, regularly attend monthly meetings or actively work on behalf of the organization.
There are no dues for members, but voluntary contributions to the nonprofit organization are welcome. In addition to the core group, others have registered on the CCL website as endorsers of CCL’s aims.
On June 9 from 1–5 p.m., Fairman, Hancock and some of the other local members plan to participate in the CCL Tristate Potluck Meetup and IdeaFest at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Princeton, 50 Cherry Hill Road. The event will serve as the formal launch of the Princeton chapter.
On the agenda are a seminar on climate science, a brainstorming session and a question-and-answer session with Joe Robertson, one of CCL’s national leaders.
Then on June 23, members of the group be off to Washington for the 2013 CCL International Conference. In addition to a variety of seminars and workshops about climate change that are on the agenda, attendees will also have the chance to participate in Lobby Day, during which CCL members intend to attempt to lobby all 535 members of Congress to start changing public policy when it comes to global warming.
Hancock said about a quarter of the group has so far signed up to go to Washington on June 23. It costs $99 to register for the conference, plus the cost of accommodations
Anyone interested in attending the next regular Princeton chapter meeting, scheduled for June 1, should send an email to Callie Hancock, climatecallie@gmail.com.
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