Don Parcher is a retired Navy pilot, who tells me with a wink that he only landed on the wrong ship once. Don is a climate leader, and he came to the climate movement in part out of his concern for the impacts the climate crisis will have on the military, the personnel, the mission and National security. Don has been a member of Citizen’s Climate Lobby for 6 years, and he created a checklist for helping to save life on our planet Earth (see below). Don lives in Colorado and has lived through the Boulder Floods in 2013 and recently experienced the traumatic Marshal Fire of December 2021. While somewhat stoic in appearance and a self-professed introvert, Don shares his feelings about the climate crisis and how they motivate him in his leadership, volunteer work, and activism.
Here’s a link to the list that Don maintains that serves as a guide for actions that you can take to address the climate crisis: https://checklists.com/at-home/saving-the-earth
Here are links to learn more about Don and the various organizations he works with: Citizens’ Climate Lobby: https://citizensclimatelobby.org/
CCL Colorado Springs Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ColoradoSpringsCCL
The following environment/sustainability organizations in the Pikes Peak region collaborate to produce the Peak Environment podcast about environmental stewardship, sustainable living and enlightened public policy in the Pikes Peak Region.
Colorado Springs Office of Innovation & Sustainability: https://coloradosprings.gov/office-innovation-and-sustainability
Peak Alliance for a Sustainable Future: http://www.peakalliance.org/
Pikes Peak Environmental Forum: https://www.facebook.com/PikesPeakEnvironmentalForum/
#Climate #MarshallFire #Leadership #EQ #EmotionalIntelligence
[Transcript]
Matt Schlegel:
Thanks for joining me in conversations with leaders who are engaging with their feelings as a leadership tool and a tool for inspiration and motivation. Today, I’m speaking with Don Parcher, a Navy pilot veteran who’s become a thoughtful climate leader. He shares how he’s channeled his feelings about climate, to volunteering and lobbying with Citizens’ Climate Lobby. And now for our conversation.
Matt Schlegel:
Don Parcher is a retired Navy pilot who tells me he only landed on the wrong ship once. He came to the climate movement in part, out of his concern for the impacts the climate crisis will have on the military personnel, mission and national security. Don’s been a member of Citizens’ Climate Lobby for six years, and he created a checklist to help save life on our planet Earth. I’ll provide a link to that list in our notes. Don lives in Colorado and recently experienced the traumatic Marshall fire. So Don, thank you so much for joining me today and I hope everything’s okay with you and your family.
Don Parcher:
Yeah, we’re doing fine. We evacuated for four days, but this was December 30th. We didn’t have much notice and it ended up with almost a 1100 homes being destroyed. And I volunteer with the Red Cross. I did intake for like 55 families that were affected, mostly they had lost everything.
Matt Schlegel:
Geez. Well, thank you so much for doing that work. And it is really a tragedy that everybody had to go through that. Well, so poignantly, I wanted to start off with how you are feeling about the climate and what is your current feeling right now about the climate?
Don Parcher:
Well, I have a lot of feelings. I’m frustrated that more people aren’t talking about climate change and I’m perplexed that media, TV stations, magazines, radio, they don’t mention climate change very much. I mean, I think they should be talking about the things we can do to deal with climate change, to fight it. I’m kind of pessimistic about the consequences. I’m not taking aggressive actions sooner. But I’m somewhat optimistic that there are enough people working very seriously on this issue, that we can avoid ending life on earth. Which would take a while. But species are dying as we speak. I’m also mad at politicians who deny climate change and block aggressive actions. They seem to want to get reelected and gain power by telling their voters what they think their voters want to hear. And also as a veteran, I’m kind of terrified for military folks who are going to have to deal with this increased danger.
Don Parcher:
There’ll be an increase to conflicts and humanitarian crises due to climate migration. And these military folks are going have to do that with their capabilities reduced by climate change. There’ll be flooding and there already is flooding of military bases and equipment and the heat and stuff is going to affect their family and their equipment.
Don Parcher:
Also, I’m sad for our kids and we have a grandson due in April. So, I’m thinking about that. I’m also horrified for those families in our community who lost everything to that Marshall fire. And in this area, we’ve actually seen several wildfires in the last 10 years that we’ve been here. Plus, we had extreme flooding in 2013, like 15 inches in half a day. And I helped with that.
Don Parcher:
So, I’m worried about the future of life on earth. Also I feel guilty that I haven’t done more. I didn’t recognize the dangers of climate change sooner and haven’t done more to fight it, but I’m also determined to do more to fight climate change, like improve my checklist and publicize it more. So I have a lot of feelings.
Matt Schlegel:
I can see that. Well. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. It’s interesting, I think a lot of people who have been working on the climate movement for a while now have cycled through a lot of different feelings. There is a cycle that we go through, grief, anxiety, rage and you touched on all of those. And so how would you, just out of curiosity, where do you think you sit mostly within the three biggies, fear, grief and rage?
Don Parcher:
Oh, well just a little bit of each of those. Yeah, a little bit of each.
Matt Schlegel:
Yeah, okay. I mean, that’s fascinating, because you’re kind of moving around in all of those areas. And so how would you say that those feelings are influencing your behaviors and your direction as a climate leader?
Don Parcher:
Well, they give me motivation to take action. So, I’ve done quite a few of the things on my checklist to reduce our family’s carbon footprint. I’ve been a vegetarian for over 20 years. And after the flooding in 2013, I started volunteering for Citizens’ Climate Lobby and we’re trying to get a fee on carbon with the proceeds going to families on [inaudible 00:06:14] bases. Been a liaison with our Senator Bennett, met with him several times. I’ve done some letters to the editor. I’ve done tabling at festivals. I’m a leader in our local time bank where we share things, resources and skills. We got an electric vehicle. I’d like to share that to drive people around so that’s helping it little bit. We did have climate friendly shingles put on our roof. We had a bad hailstorm a few years ago and we opted for climate friendly sink shingles.
Don Parcher:
And that electric vehicle by the way, is a lot of fun to drive. And now we’re arranged to get solar panels on our roof here in a few months. And plan to get an electric heat pump, an electric furnace so we don’t have to rely on fossil fuels. But probably most importantly, I’m kind of an introvert, but all these feelings have helped me overcome being introvert to speak out and ask others to take action. And as a veteran I participated in a podcast about the importance of fighting climate change for conservatives and I’m doing this interview.
Matt Schlegel:
Oh, wow. What’s the name of the podcast that you’re doing?
Don Parcher:
Well, it’s done by Peak Environment, someone down in Colorado Springs, which is a conservative area.
Matt Schlegel:
Oh, okay. Okay. Wow. Yeah. Thanks for doing that. And then you mentioned that there was a flood in 2013, which flood was that and where?
Don Parcher:
Well it was in Boulder, Colorado, and it was mostly in the hills above Boulder. And all this water came down, into the streams and small rivers and did very, very extensive damage, either directly in some of the mountain communities or indirectly where the water table raised up and flooded a lot of basements and so forth. But there’s very extensive.
Matt Schlegel:
Wow. So you’re living in the middle of the country and you seem to be experiencing a lot of the effects of climate change and then taking action on that. And it’s really admirable. Thank you for doing it. So, the final question I’d like to ask you is what advice would you give to leaders who are having strong feelings about climate right now, or aspiring leaders?
Don Parcher:
Yeah, I’d recommend they do some research to see how serious a threat climate change is and whether it’s droughts or extreme rainfall or extreme snowfall. The thing about climate change is it’s not just a warming, it actually causes extremes cold and heat. And, actually mostly it increases rainfall. There’s more moisture in the air. And I think people need to be aware that fighting climate change requires action by governments, businesses, and individuals or consumers.
Don Parcher:
So for individuals it’s like eating an elephant, you’d have to take one bite at a time, one step, one small action at a time. And I would ask people to talk and email with others about your concerns and suggested actions. And, of course I recommend checking out my checklist and I’d appreciate any suggestions for improving it and doing as many of those as you can and sharing it with people you know.
Matt Schlegel:
Well, thank you so much, Don. I really appreciate you sharing your thoughts on this and the feelings that you’re having and the stories that you’re experiencing and the actual climate impacts that are occurring in your area. And I really appreciate the efforts that you’re putting into helping us all be able to address this crisis, that we’re all going to increasingly start to feel. So thanks again, Don. I appreciate it.
Don Parcher:
And thanks for what you’re doing.
Matt Schlegel:
It’s my pleasure. Thank you.
Matt Schlegel:
Thanks for watching. Don’s been engaged in the climate movement for a number of years now and is directly experiencing the impacts of the climate crisis in his state of Colorado, with the Boulder flooding in 2013 and more recently, the Marshall fire in December of 2021. Don doesn’t have one super strong feeling about the climate, but cycles through a number of feelings depending on his focus. And he puts those feelings into action as a volunteer and as a leader. Don advises leaders to become more educated on the climate crisis and network with others who are like-minded, which sounds like great advice to me. If you like this, please click on the thumbs up and subscribe to the channel for notifications of future episodes. And if you have any questions, please leave them in the comment section, and I’ll respond as soon as I can. Thanks again.
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