June 2015
Maine CATs: To Change Everything, It Takes Everyone
By Miriam Rubin, Maine Climate Action Team Advisory Committee Chair
Climate Action Teams (CATs) hit the ground running, cruising on the momentum generated by the People’s Climate March last September. This concept, applying classic community action methods to climate activism, has proven itself to be a very effective motivating and organizing tool. In just its first six months, the campaign has already provided training, technical support and networking to a dozen participating communities. The campaign offers a complete package: organizing templates, guidance for achieving success with local projects, even funding through a mini-grant program – just add people! In addition to being a useful way to stimulate and facilitate local projects, Climate Action Teams hold the potential to plant seeds for long-term change. This is where CATs can be more than just another “green project” campaign.
On the surface, the program resonates well as a vehicle to help communities meet local goals. However, it also exemplifies the “Think globally, act locally” mantra. Communities in which CATs are working will soon be reaping very real benefits. Community gardens, weatherized homes, community solar installations, are all tangible and valuable enhancements. The question is how to take the next step, getting people to connect these local efforts with the bigger picture of climate disruption and our role in the planet’s future.
To change everything, it takes everyone. Locally defined and selected projects connect like-minded individuals within and between communities. It’s a lot easier to get people to pay attention when the subject is close to home; herein lies CATs’ untapped potential. To be most effective, Climate Action Team members need to see themselves as activists and take their extended communities on a journey, connecting local action to the global problem and then circling back again to further local actions.
Everyone engaging in this campaign becomes linked through his/her common CAT experience. This is the foundation for a new grassroots network of climate activists, folks who are increasingly fluent in the language of climate disruption and small, local-scale mitigations. These ambassadors need to articulate the problem and communicate solutions through their communities and personal networks. This corps of volunteer leaders is crucial if citizen activism is to create a ripple of local climate mitigation projects that raise awareness to support fundamental state and national policy changes.
Climate Action Teams offer a supremely effective means to galvanize action since the entire modus operandi is so very real. CATs are successfully rallying support because their projects are completely driven by local needs and interests, and the benefits will first and foremost be realized within the community. However, the challenge – and the critical need – lies in connecting these local actions to the global picture. Without that key extension, the full potential for Climate Action Teams to truly affect climate disruption cannot be realized. We need to rise to the challenge and take responsibility for being more than Climate Action Team members; we need to see ourselves as Climate Action Team activists.