1Sky Announces New Campaign Director Liz Butler, Outlines Upcoming Plans for October 10 Day of Action and Movement Building

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 13, 2010

Contact: Adi Nochur, 301-270-4550 ext 224 or adi@1sky.org

TAKOMA PARK, MD – This week the 1Sky Campaign, the nation’s largest collaborative campaign for bold climate solutions, announced that Liz Butler will take over as the Campaign Director for the organization. Butler, who previously served as 1Sky’s Deputy Campaign Director and Field and Outreach Director for nearly three years, replaces outgoing Campaign Director Gillian Caldwell at a moment when the climate movement finds itself at a crossroads.

“As I step into this new role, I recognize that we face major challenges to solve the climate crisis,” said Butler, 38, a recent recipient of the New Leaders Council 40 Under 40 Award in recognition of her advocacy work. “Extreme weather events like the record worldwide heatwave and the floods in Pakistan show that we're running out of time to act. Disasters like the BP oil spill and the West Virginia mine explosion remind us that dirty energy is as dangerous as ever.

“At the same time, the Senate has failed to enact comprehensive climate legislation; Congress is drowning in dirty energy money and crawling with lobbyists; and our president hasn't been the fierce advocate we hoped for on climate,” Butler continued. “But this isn't the time to give up – it's time to fight back.”

Butler proceeded to outline three priority areas of work for the 1Sky Campaign in the upcoming year: Fighting Dirty Coal; Pushing the President; and Growing the Climate Movement. “We won't stop fighting for the changes we need to make our planet safe and build a clean energy future,” Butler said. “And we will not lie down and let Big Oil, Dirty Coal and their allies in Congress hijack our democracy and our future with their dirty money.”

Butler also outlined 1Sky’s plans to participate in an international day of climate action in October. “We’re excited to renew our push for climate action by partnering with 350.org for a ‘Global Work Party’ on October 10,” Butler said. “On this day hundreds of communities across the U.S. and the world will ‘Get to Work’ enacting local climate and clean energy solutions. Together we will build the climate movement, while challenging elected officials to follow our lead and also ‘Get to Work’ by moving forward on strong climate and clean energy policies.”

Butler has more than 17 years of experience organizing and campaigning on environmental issues, with a focus on both market and legislative campaigns. Prior to joining the 1Sky team, Butler was a co-founder of ForestEthics, where she spent 10 years as the Organizing Director. She designed and implemented ForestEthics’ overall organizing strategy and built the organizing team. During that time, ForestEthics’ work resulted in the protection of over 50 million acres of forests in the U.S., Canada, and Chile. Butler also served as the National Organizing Director for American Lands Alliance, the Director of Missouri Public Interest Research Group, and graduated from Green Corps' Environmental Leadership Training Program, where she received the third Alumni Achievement Award ever given by Green Corps.