October 5, 2012

Event: Climate Change’s Sleeper Role in Election 2012

Tim McDonnell/Mother Jones

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WHAT: Climate Change 2012: Political Albatross or Winning Issue?

WHEN: 9:30a.m.-10:30a.m. Wednesday, October 10

WHERE: The Mott House, 122 Maryland Avenue NE, Washington, DC.

Everybody in Washington knows that climate change is a political dog. But what if everybody is wrong? New polling indicates that Americans are very concerned about heat waves and freak storms, and candidates who advocate meaningful action on climate change can turn it into a winning issue.

That’s the subject for what promises to be a lively debate among pollsters, analysts, campaign operatives, and journalists at the first “Climate Desk Live” breakfast briefing in Washington, DC, hosted by award-wining science journalist Chris Mooney. “Not only do most likely but undecided voters think global warming is happening and caused by humans,” Mooney writes of the poll results, “but 61 percent say it will be an important issue in determining who they vote for.”

The author of four books, including Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future, Mooney has joined forces with the Climate Desk—a journalistic consortium of news organizations—to bring a provocative series of speakers on climate and energy before Washington’s policy makers and journalists.

This first event in the series—“Climate Change 2012: Political Albatross or Winning Issue?”—will take place from 9:30a.m.-10:30a.m., next Wednesday, October 10, at the Mott House on Capitol Hill, 122 Maryland Avenue NE, Washington, DC.

Confirmed speakers include Joe Romm of Climate Progress, analyst Betsy Taylor of Breakthrough Strategies and Solutions, and Paul Bledsoe, a Washington-based consultant who was the chief staffer on climate change communications in the Clinton White House.

To RSVP for this space-limited event, email CDL@climatedesk.org (breakfast and coffee provided).

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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