Climate Stories Driving Change

CHARLOTTE’S STORY

My name is Charlotte Binns and I grew up in Normandy France, NYC, Chicago and London, in that order. I came to Hudson Valley because I felt it was A progressive and creative community in a beautiful location. I met Joule when I was questing for a way to make a living while working on big impact climate solutions. A friend told me about them and then I basically volunteered for 8 months as I dedicated myself to setting up CCA for NYC. As it happens, the bill I had introduced in 2016 passed in September, requiring the city to do a study on and create an implementation plan for how CCA would work in the big apple.

I see CCA and Community Solar as the only way for New York to make its aggressive clean energy goals. We don’t have enough time to convince every household to buy clean energy. CCA enables us to do it for them while saving them money and ensuring protective contracts.

It’s beautiful. And I love Getting to meet municipal and environmental leaders across the state. And empowering them with these tools.

You could call me a complete doomsayer with kids. I am not in any way in denial about the coming transition. So, I am compelled to do everything I can to mitigate the damage. That’s also why I drive an electric car, have solar panels, buy only organic, compost, and have a pollinator garden. I could go on. But we cannot obsess over every individual action as that can be destructive and distracting. It is much more impactful to channel our energy into organizing at scale.

To help battle the climate crisis I would like an enforceable global carbon tax. And affordable carbon capture. When I’m not battling the climate crisis, I’m dancing, hiking or going to costume parties.