STEP ONE: Do a lot of thinking and reading. (Hopefully that is Do-Able or maybe you’ve already done it?)

Here are the others, most of which I bought used:

The Strategy of Nonviolent Defense: A Gandhian Approach by my friend Robert J. Burrows

Fulcrum: Generational World Transformation by my friend and DTN member David Pinto 

Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television by Jerry Mander

Creating a Climate for Change: Communicating Climate Change and Facilitating Social Change edited by Susanne C. Moser and Lisa Dilling (expensive, new, was a gift)

The Theory of the Leisure Class by Thorstein Veblen 

The END of the Suburbs: Where the American Dream is Moving by Leigh Gallagher

The Language of Trees: A Rewilding of Literature and Landscape by Katie Holten

The End of Night: Searching for Natural Darkness in an Age of Artificial Light by Paul Bogard

Pay It Forward by Catherine Ryan Hyde (I also watched the movie, sad, but this is what I’m hoping people who attend the Climate Cafes will do.)

Because I have not had a TV for about 40 years, I do a lot of reading instead.  I was going to ask the library to buy a copy of each book for our work but they’re so formal that I changed my mind. I will be my own library and loan these out to people who show up, despite the risk of losing them. Once they have done their job of hopefully getting people to read serious things, these books can go out into the world; they do no good sitting in my bookcase. I notice on Zoom meetings that most people whose homes are visible, have enormous collections of books. Why not send them out to do some good if you’re done with them?

Here are the others, most of which I bought used:

The Strategy of Nonviolent Defense: A Gandhian Approach by my friend Robert J. Burrows

Fulcrum: Generational World Transformation by my friend and DTN member David Pinto 

Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television by Jerry Mander (It’s not letting me italicize this.)

Creating a Climate for Change: Communicating Climate Change and Facilitating Social Change edited by Susanne C. Moser and Lisa Dilling (expensive, new, was a gift)

The Theory of the Leisure Class by Thorstein Veblen 

The END of the Suburbs: Where the American Dream is Moving by Leigh Gallagher

The Language of Trees: A Rewilding of Literature and Landscape by Katie Holten

The End of Night: Searching for Natural Darkness in an Age of Artificial Light by Paul Bogard

Pay It Forward by Catherine Ryan Hyde (I also watched the movie, sad, but this is what I’m hoping people who attend the Climate Cafes will do.)

I forgot Adbusters. I discovered them long ago and subscribed recently. I love them!

STEP TWO: Get to know who in your local government is working on environmental issues. Get to know them. Go to their meetings and listen. Find out what’s going on. 

Oh, gosh, this is more like four steps but they’re all related so I’m not going to pull them apart.

STEP THREE: Ditto environmental groups and people who care about the Earth in your hometown. Call or email them and tell they what you’re doing and would they like to help you get started.

STEP THREE continued: Focus entirely on your hometown. For the start-up, ignore regional, state, national, and international groups/people. Stick with your town folks. As we grow, we can extend our reach and make partnerships but for now, we need to work hard to get this idea off the ground. 

STEP FOUR: Make a decision to use “nature-based solutions” to the climate crisis, not technology which continues to destroy the Earth. Learn about Deep Ecology if you’re unfamiliar with it.

STEP FIVE: Think about your own goal, strategy, tactics even though you realize that when the group has formed, this may change slightly but hopefully not drastically. Be clear and concise.

STEP SIX: Meet with the Mayor. She or he will probably suggest good people to contact; mine did so I have contacted each one and they are all supportive.

STEP SEVEN: Establish a place to meet which is central and well-known, and large enough for your group. I may have made a mistake by filling in the “Equipment” part of the local library application by only asking for 4 tables and 16 chairs but the way I’m talking about it and the responses make me think our launch will be better attended than that.

STEP EIGHT: Write a press release and send it to the local papers about a week prior to the event or earlier if it’s a weekly paper.

STEP NINE: Create attractive flyers you can post everywhere with a coffee cup, some art about the Earth, and the basic information. Then print out as many as you think you need and try getting a friend to help you post them around town, chatting it up everywhere.

STEP TEN: Create the initial Agenda and make copies for everyone.

STEP ELEVEN: Order or arrange coffee and donuts or “whatever.”

SIGNING OFF: This is as far as I’ve gotten and I’m going to be busy running the first meeting and finding others to coordinate the activities we choose to start with so I won’t be posting these anymore. I’m making a unilateral decision to focus on trees first, the river second. There is an entire website about Climate Cafes — you can use their experience and ideas to lead you on your way to success: www.climate.cafe. Wish me luck and I wish you luck, too!