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Planet Now
Blog on Effective Environmental Communication
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Not many teenagers get to meet members of the U.S. Congress. Before she even began college, Caitlin Flanagan used her voice to encourage federal policymakers to fight climate change. Some of the policymakers included Rep. Ted Budd (NC-13), former Rep. Mark Meadows (NC-11), Rep. David Price (NC-04), and Sen. Thom Tillis (NC). For this week’s blog post, I spoke with Flanagan to learn about her climate work and advice for climate advocacy. Now a sophomore at UNC-Chapel Hill, Flanagan is involved in many efforts to slow climate change at and beyond her college campus. She is president of the UNC chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL), a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that pushes for federal policies to reduce carbon emissions and slow climate change. She is leading the chapter to involve more people in grassroots efforts like text banking to encourage President Biden to include a carbon price in budget reconciliation. Plus, Flanagan’s organization is attempting to collaborate with a conservative group on campus to promote climate policies. Flanagan is a great example for other people who want to lead change through their institutions. Flanagan’s Background Growing up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Flanagan valued environmental preservation since her dad is a wetland ecologist. When she reached middle school, she learned more about climate change and felt strongly that it was a problem caused by humans. Flanagan got involved in climate advocacy her junior year of high school. Feeling nervous about climate impacts, like heat and hurricanes, she attended a Project Drawdown climate summit that brought together students who were passionate about creating environmental change. At the event, she learned about CCL and decided to jump into lobbying because it sounded fun. Through CCL, she traveled to Washington, D.C., to speak with Congresspeople. “I had a really great time immersing myself and getting to know the ins and outs of interacting with Congresspeople and communicating about climate in a bipartisan way that builds relationships,” Flanagan shared. At UNC, she became the vice president for the UNC CCL chapter as a first-year student. She helped lead the chapter in building relationships with UNC faculty to get endorsements for the university to pass a climate plan. Recommendations for Climate Advocacy Through her climate leadership, Flanagan has learned key lessons that can benefit people who are beginning their climate advocacy journeys.
Flanagan said that no matter a person’s career focus, they can find ways to use their interests and skills in climate advocacy. As a student majoring in environmental studies and public policy, she said she is thinking about being a legislative director or researcher for a climate advocacy organization. She is also interested in doing policy work for clean energy companies. I am thankful for Flanagan’s efforts to fight climate change and look forward to seeing what she does next. Who inspires you to advocate for the environment? Look for people in your community who are climate leaders, and reach out to see what you can learn from them!
1 Comment
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Welcome to my blog! It is a combination of posts from my strategic writing (spring 2022) and personal branding (spring 2023) courses at UNC. I hope you will enjoy reading the posts and learning about the environment and communication.
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