The Advocacy Working Group’s initial objective was to lobby the Biden Administration to pass meaningful climate policy.

We made a lot of progress on this objective through the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, and to a lesser extent the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill and the CHIPS Act which all included the strongest climate legislation in history. We played our part in this effort by lobbying almost every House Representative and both Senators, some several times.

The group is now more focused on New York State legislation and is advocating for the implementation of the CLCPA, New York’s historic climate law. This law is just a framework, and now we are lobbying to get the NY government to pass the necessary laws to enact this landmark law.

The Advocacy working group chair meets Fridays from 1:30 – 2:30 p.m. The link to their Reality Hub site is here. If you are interested in joining, please contact Suzie Ross @ suzie.e.ross@gmail.com.

The Education Coalition seeks to mobilize students, teachers, parents and administrators to address climate change.  The Education Coalition welcomes interested volunteers from across New York State to get involved in our 3 focus areas:

1. Teacher Professional Development - supporting a network of teachers across NY state interested in embedding climate into their curriculum.  Volunteers from the committee hold teacher development programs through Mid-Hudson Teacher Center, Duchess BOCES, and a global collaboration with Bard College.  Support and resources are also provided to these teachers post training.

2. Promoting Sustainable Schools - provide resources and funding programs to School Boards for improving energy efficiency, siting renewable energy installations, reducing waste, and acquiring electric school buses.

3. Advocating for Climate Education Legislation - work with state education and environmental authorities as well as legislators to promote climate education bills.

The Education Coalition maintains links to resources for climate education and the "greening" of schools on our Reality Hub Site.  Volunteers can sign up on the site to see the resources available.  Volunteers do not have to be involved in education but should be interested in seeing climate incorporated into classroom curriculum and in getting schools to adopt more sustainable practices. Meetings are held approximately once per quarter based upon the interests of the group. The link to the Reality Hub site is here.

The Our Climate Moment Working Group has developed and periodically updates presentation and tabling resources for Climate Reality leaders to use when helping individuals electrify their home and transport and get renewable electricity with the help of federal, state and utility incentives. If you are interested in joining, please contact Maura McNulty @ mcnultymaura49@gmail.com .

The Puerto Rico Working Group was set up with the purpose to connect members from the Diaspora and others across New York State for joint action related with the actual situation of the Island.

This Group will be a bridge to advocate and educate people on how to help Puerto Rico to improve Resilience and Adaption for climate change.

Also this group will contact other grassroots organizations to help change the grid to solar Community Grids and to overseeing that all the Biden Harris Administration Bills will be fair for Puerto Rico, who don't have representation in Congress.

Some recent activities include attending the Houston Power Up Training on Advocacy in Action, getting CRP resources translated into Spanish and advocacy for the Farm Bill to include Puerto Rico in the SNAP Program.

The Puerto Rico working group chair meets on an ad hoc basis so it is best to check in at the Reality Hub site here or contact Deanee Rios @ deaneer@hotmail.com.

The Social Media working group develops content for social media platforms that amplifies Climate Reality Project’s messages based in education, inspiration and action to fight climate change. The working group works closely with the other working groups to form relevant content based in CRP’s mission. They also work to ensure a consistent and relevant voice and look on social media through the various campaigns.

The working group is searching for new members and a leader that can continue this invaluable work. If you are interested in joining, please contact Eve Morgenstern @ evemorgenstern@gmail.com.

The Written Communications Group's responsibilities include but are not limited to writing op-eds, letters to the editors, public comments, memoranda of support, etc. 

While we take our responsibilities seriously, we are also the self-proclaimed most fun working group of the New York State coalition.  Writing opinion pieces allows us the creativity of using humor and sarcasm to make our points. And in some of our biweekly meetings, we just gossip! 

The Working Group meets biweekly on Wednesdays from 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. If you are interested in joining, please contact Anshul Gupta @ l_nino@yahoo.com.