BCAG February Newsletter 🌱

February 2023 Newsletter

Hello climate-concerned friends,

This month, we want to share events, a BCAG update, and inspiration to think about:

Legislative Update on climate-related bills by Climate Smart Montana March 2nd
High School student presentations on climate impacts to the Bitterroot Valley Wednesday, March 15, 7:00 - 8:15 pm
Update on what BCAG is up to in 2023
Reminder: MT Climate Stories
Winning popular opinion: Imagining Stories for a Livable Future

Climate Smart Montana is holding a meeting on Thursday, March 2, 2023, at 12:30 pm (MT Time – NOTE THE NEW START TIME) to discuss the bills related to and affecting climate change. Anne Hedges, Director of Policy and Legislative Affairs at Montana Environmental Information Center is the featured speaker.

Anne will discuss current and pending bills before the current session of the Montana Legislature. To attend, log on at https://montana.webex.com/meet/commdev or call (415) 655-0002. Access code: 920 642 787.

Local Students to Address Climate Science

What: High School student presentations on Bitterroot Valley climate impacts

When: Wednesday, March 15, 7:00 - 8:15 pm

Where: Hamilton High School Library

BCAG is excited to showcase Hamilton High School’s (HHS) Envirothon Team on Wednesday, March 15, at 7:00 pm in the high school library as a runup to the state competition. HHS’s two teams will give poster presentations of their findings on the challenge question, “How will persistent drought affect the Bitterroot Valley and what should we do about it?” The students will have had a limited time to research and prepare their presentations per the Envirothon rules. This will be a showcase, or a “trial run”, before competing at the state Envirothon competition.

Hamilton High School’s Envirothon Teams have won the state championship for the last two years in a row, and in 2022 the two HHS teams took both 1st and 2nd place. HHS Science teacher and Envirothon coach Marie Antonioli feels optimistic that the 2023 team has a good chance to win at the state level again this year.

The 2023 Envirothon competition nationwide focuses on challenge questions around climate science. In recognition of the student's hard work, BCAG will donate $1,000 to support team travel to the state and hopefully the national competitions. The national competition will be held in New Brunswick, Canada.

Buzz buzz - BCAG Busy Bees in 2023!

At our February 5th planning meeting, the BCAG Board considered our plans and budgets.

Here’s a list of our projects for this year - we’re busy!

Resilience MT

Our ResilienceMT Coordinator, Cheyenna Burrows is at work making contacts in the community for our planning Community Resilience Forums in October 2023. Resilience MT will bring together decision-makers and experts from our valley to deliberate and make recommendations in the areas of Drought/Flooding, Sustainable Agriculture, Fire and Smoke, and Excessive Heat.

Wildfire Smoke Adaptation Program

BCAG is teaming up with Fire in the Root to grant approximately $4,000-6,000 to purchase and distribute HEPA filters to disadvantaged residents this summer. Details of the program are being worked out to distribute filters at several locations up and down the valley.

MT Climate Stories

Set for early September, this project will showcase the experience of everyday Montanans impacted by climate change, accompanied by an exhibit by local artists.

Victor Community Garden

BCAG operates the VCG as a community resource for food and carbon sequestration. Come on out and take a plot in 2023!

Hamilton High School Envirothon Team

Student presentations on Bitterroot Valley climate impacts, Wednesday, March 15, 7:00 - 8:15 pm at the Hamilton High School Library.

HHS's Envirothon Team will participate at the national competition, and BCAG will help cover the team's expenses.

Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP)

Laura Jackson and Frank Pelfrey bring climate concerns to the Fire in the Root committees working on updating the CWPP and rolling out a series of public meetings for input.

BCAG Book Club

The BCAG Book Club, in conjunction with Chapter One Bookstore, takes up the title “Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change and Changing Worlds” by Adrienne Maree Brown. Find out more here.

Green Home Tour

Jointly with the Bitterroot Public Library, this summer BCAG will present a tour of several innovative, high-tech homes that creatively address climate issues in their construction.

Pint Night at Higher Ground Brewery

Fundraiser for BCAG and opportunity in April and October to swap ideas and energy. Come on out and meet the BCAG board!

Highway 93 Cleanup

A day of clearing the trash along 93 near Wally Crawford Fishing Access south of Hamilton. Contact BCAG if you would like to join this year.

The deadline for submitting a story for Montana Climate Stories is coming up: February 27th.

Hamilton Event & Exhibit

BITTERROOT STORIES WANTED
$100 Stipend for Selected Stories

This year, the Bitterroot Climate Action Group is hosting an event and exhibit sponsored by Families for a Livable Climate and Stories for Action.

Montana Climate Stories will feature stories of Montanans who have felt the impact of climate change. We would like voices and stories from the Bitterroot to be included. Do you have a story you would consider sharing? We would be glad to work with you.

How are your loved ones, your health, recreational activities, or your favorite Montana places, plants, or animals experiencing the changes in our climate? Have you experienced or noticed others being impacted by rising temperatures, persistent drought, wildfires, or floods? What are coping strategies on your radar?

Submit your story to the Montana Climate Stories project in an original essay, narrative, poem, photo essay, photography, or artwork.

Your story might tell how climate change has affected
- Your health
- Home
- Your farm/livestock
- Your land
- Children
- Recreation
- A job
- Or any other impact?
What solutions inspire you?
How do you want to be part of creating a more just and livable future?
Positive Stories are welcome and important! (See below about using positive stories to change popular imagination.)

Selected stories will be shared on the Montana Climate Stories website and may be included in a traveling exhibit of stories in 2023. Final submissions deadline: February 27, 2023.

The first 30 selected storytellers will receive $100 for their submission. For this round of submissions, Indigenous voices are a priority. Limit one submission per person.

Learn more and submit your story here. Bitterroot Climate Action Group members would happily help you with a submission. If you are interested, please contact us here.

Our local event will be held in Hamilton in September. We will announce the venue and exact date as soon as it is confirmed.

“If you win the popular imagination,
you change the game”:
Why we need new stories on climate

This last month, we have noticed two independent articles published that stress the critical role of story and the power of imagination to influence public opinion about climate change. We are not talking about “positive thinking”. We are talking about the concrete action of positive communications firmly rooted in reality.

This first is an article published in The Guardian by Rebecca Solnit discussing the role of “stories of popular power”.

Solnit says that to “motivate people to do what it takes”, and to take action as the “climate crisis demands of us,” we need new stories. We climate advocates are (rightly) focused on action, but effective discourse with the public is critical to our activism.

So what is effective? Solnit argues that advances are being made and the fact that it is possible to change the course of our future dramatically.

Twenty years ago, we did not have constructive ways to leave the age of fossil fuel behind. Now we do. And the solutions keep getting better. In 2021, the organization Carbon Tracker put out a report that showed current technology could produce 100 times as much electricity from solar and wind than current global demand. The report concludes: “The technical and economic barriers have been crossed and the only impediment to change is political.”

There is no doubt that we have witnessed frustrating disappointments in national and international commitments to address climate change. We must remember that the measurement of climate action is not expressed in media headlines.

“...the change that matters is often happening at local and regional and other levels. A university divests; a state sets a date for ending the sale of new petrol cars; a city passes a measure mandating all-electric new buildings; ground is broken on a major solar installation; a state or country sets a new record for percentage of wind power in its energy mix; a pipeline or gas terminal or drilling site gets cancelled; a carbon-sequestering forest or peat bog gets protected status; a coal plant closes.

It seems like every day, there is an onslaught of bad news about the viability of a livable future. It is a fair point that the doomsday narrative does not inspire action or change minds. Solnit argues that advocacy discourse should focus on the fact that humanity can respond to these crises if we choose to.

So much is happening, both wonderful and terrible, and it adds up to more stories than almost anyone can take in. But the overarching frameworks in which we receive them matter, and so do the critical skills to recognize, choose, and change stories.”

There is a saying: “great minds think alike.” Winter Wildlands Alliance published this second article about climate advocacy communication.

The Future We Could Have: David Page, Executive Director, Winter Wildlands Alliance

The Future We Could Have is a brief and beautiful article. David Page tells a story about hearing a marine biologist, Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, say that we all know that something is terribly wrong. Climate advocates have a lot of power in communicating what is possible.

“We don’t spend enough time talking about the future we could have, engaging our imaginations and envisioning a world where we actually implement all these climate solutions we already have.”

As Solnit outlined above, we have the means, and we must get the will. The public’s will to change will only emerge if climate advocates include an inspiration of what is possible.

D. Page concludes that there is so much work to be done, but if we stay “stoked” and on track, “we can turn our best and wildest visions into a thriving planet…”

Let’s do this. Together.

Your Board of Directors,
The Bitterroot Climate Action Group

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Bitterroot Climate Action Group

PO Box 825, Hamilton
Montana 59840 United States

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