5th Podcast: Talking Climate with Conservatives
We’ve just released the fifth episode of our podcast “Your Planet, Your Health”, titled Talking Climate with Conservatives.
We have a conversation with our guest, Michael Jefferies, who is the Regional Conservative Outreach Coordinator for the Citizens' Climate Lobby. Michael is based in Indiana. It was a pleasure and quite educational, at times even inspirational, to have this conversation with him!
Being willing to listen and have honest conversations is important. And fun! This is not about convincing climate deniers, but keep in mind that there are millions of republicans and conservatives who are concerned with climate change and protecting the environment.
I am not faith-based nor am I a conservative but I find comfort and hope in the common ground of some core values I have discovered in this conversation and others I have had with faith-based conservatives.
It need not always be confrontational or a knives out debate. That doesn’t mean I embrace their point of view in all things. For example, in the podcast episode we discussed the shift Gingrich, McCain, Romney and others in the republican party made in 2008, from accepting climate science to denying it vehemently. There was no new science to explain why they changed their tune. The science was stronger than ever. If as Bob Ingliss says in the clip we use, it was the recession, then it looks to me like it was the ideologues like Rush Limbaugh, the right wing and libertarian front groups, the fossil fuel companies and their lobbyists, exploiting the economic crisis. That was the tail of partisanship wagging the dog of the republican party.
I will continue to vote and advocate as I have before, and I expect so will Michael. Changing that is not what these conversations are likely to achieve. Some "gaps" in our points of view, like the role of government in climate solutions, are chasms that are difficult to bridge. But I do favor bipartisan approaches wherever possible. Our guest brought up several recent examples of bipartisan legislation, but acknowledged that the largest, most comprehensive bill, the Inflation Reduction Act, was not among them.
I think we need to listen, engage, and encourage those we don’t always see eye to eye with, like at one golden moment Pelosi and Gingrich did, as our guest tries to do, whenever possible.
It isn't often possible, but it is win-win, and personally rewarding, mind-expanding even, when we can find common ground, common values, common actions and legislation we can put out together.
You can find more on communication, as well as faith-based (not just Christian), nonpartisan, Republican/conservative books and groups on this website. We highly recommend Kathryn Hayhoe’s book Saving Us. She is a climate scientist, chief scientist for the Nature Conservancy and Distinguished Professor, Texas Tech (and an evangelical Christian). She has been very kind in sharing this podcast episode on her LinkedIn and Bluesky pages.
You can listen at yourplanetyourhealth.com/5 or right here:
Shownotes:
We chat with Michael Jefferies, Regional Conservative Outreach Coordinator for the Citizens' Climate Lobby. Together, we get out of our filter bubbles and find some common ground.
We discuss Michael's faith-based journey on climate issues, bipartisan proposals on issues ranging from a carbon tax ("Carbon Fees and Dividends") and import tariffs, along with strategies to communicate about the environment to conservatives.
We also listen to excerpts from former Senator Bob Inglis talking about his experience as a pro-climate Republican.
We hear a political advertisement recorded by Newt Gingrich and Nancy Pelosi together on a couch back in 2008.
We read excerpts of:
• Dorothy Sayers' "Why Work?" speech from 1942 and
• Pope Francis' "Laudato si'" encyclical from 2015.
If you'd like to connect with the Citizens' Climate Lobby, you can find them at:
https://cclusa.org/join