September 2026 Newsletter

Happy Back-to-School NNOCCI Members and Friends!

This may be the most packed newsletter we have ever had—filled with resources and opportunities to help start this new learning year right. We have been hard at work tying up months to years long projects that we’re thrilled to finally be able to share with you. From the unveiling of our long-awaited Climate Action Toolkit, to the release of updated documents to help Members facilitate their own Changing the Conversation presentations, we want our Network to feel empowered going into this new school season—we hope the tools and resources included in this edition will help do just that!

In This Issue

• • Unveiling the Climate Action Toolkit & An Accompanying Webinar to Learn More
  • New Resources for Members and Trainers
  • Science Corner: Let's Talk Volcanoes (and not the Science Fair kind)
  • Explore Planned Meet Ups at Upcoming Conferences
  • Upcoming Resources for Spanish Speakers
  • What's Next!

IT'S OFFICIAL!!! 

Next month, we’ll celebrate NNOCCI’s 16th birthday. All these years, we have shared the importance of sharing community-level climate solutions with our audiences, and while we have also provided examples of organizations and places we could turn to when seeking a solution, we knew we could do more as a social-science-based organization. This is where our new Climate Action Toolkit comes into play! This beautiful, live-linked new resource showcases six examples of climate solutions that are equitable and inclusive, highlighting information on what type of action it is, why each action is powerful, which sector of emissions it’s addressing, and how to implement it in your hometown. And this is just the beginning!

Want to learn more about this powerful toolkit? We’ve got great news for you…

Don't miss NNOCCI Presents: Cutting Through the Tension on September 15!

Please join us this Tuesday, September 15 from 3-4PM ET/ 12-1PM PT for a deep-dive into the toolkit! In this interactive and engaging session, Bailey Robbins will walk us through the Climate Action Toolkit that she designed aligned with NNOCCI Strategic Framing best practices for collective, existing, and local solutions that are formed through an environmental justice lens. 

This session is open to NNOCCI Members and the public. We encourage participants to join with a webcam and mic to participate in the Q&A, but this is not required.

Want to help grow our toolkit? We hope so! 

From e-bike libraries, to regenerative farming and Indigenized energy, our toolkit is starting with a few tools, but we hope it will grow into a robust collection of unique and awesome solutions from around the world with the help of our Network! 

We encourage you to share a great climate action with us that we can add to the toolkit! 

Looking too dive a little deeper into the toolkit before the webinar? Explore the document, then learn more about Bailey and how she used her masters program's final project to bring this resource to fruition in our latest editorial.

We've got new supplies, just in time for school!

Back to school means gathering supplies to start the year off right. While we encourage re-using materials year after year, sometimes it’s nice to have something new, and in this case, it’s also free.

We have your ‘backpack’ of facilitation supplies ready to go and it's a one-stop resource to lead our introductory presentation, ‘Changing the Conversation: An Introduction to Effective Climate Change Communications’!

These newly reimagined tools are available to all NNOCCI Members*, free of charge. You’ll have everything you need to start changing hearts and minds on climate in your community. If you’ve been leading these presentations for a while, we encourage you to lovingly retire your old materials, and brake out these new ones in their place.

Crafted by our Training Committee, the up-to-date facilitation ‘backpack’ includes:

• A Facilitation Guide

• A Slide Deck with:

  • • Step-by-step instructions to help you prepare for, lead, and wrap your presentation

    • Facilitation notes accompanying each slide

    • Built-in Evaluation materials

    • Live links to updated framing toolkit resources & cited references

    • Pre- and Post-Reading PDFs to share with your audience

    • A Share Your Work form to help us log our reach and impact

How do you access these new facilitation materials? Follow these steps:

1. Log in to your Member or Trainer level NNOCCI.org account. If you don’t already have one, they’re free and easy to make - just visit the website and click ‘ 

    

   1. 1. Only Member* or Trainer** level accounts can access these materials.

         1. 1. If after one-week of registering your Member or Trainer account, you still do not have appropriate access to login, please email us at ContactNNOCCI@gmail.com.

            2. Please note: ClimateInterpreter accounts are not the same as accounts on NNOCCI.org.

          

2. Once logged in, hover over the ‘Resources’ tab at the top of the page.

3. Select ‘Member Resources’.

4. Click on ‘Changing the Convo’!

What do these tools cost?

Nothing! They're free to use. We just need two things from you when you’re done. They take five minutes, and they’re built into the slide deck so they’re hard to forget!

1. Share the ‘Changing the Conversation’ survey with your audience

2. Fill out the ‘Report Your Work’ form!

It may not be a Snoopy lunchbox, Furby pencil case, or Lisa Frank trapper keeper, but we hope the conversations you have using these tools make you the coolest kid in school.

*A NNOCCI Member is defined as someone who has completed a multi-month course with us, including the submission of a final climate story product that falls in the Skillful to Masterful range of our Framing Fluency Rubric. If, after taking a multi-month course with us, you would like to use these tools but are not sure if you meet the ‘Member’ qualifications, please contact us at ContactNNOCCI@gmail.com.

**A NNOCCI Trainer is defined as someone who has completed a Study Circle, Leadership Camp, Trainer Course, or has some equivalent training. Trainers are also Members, but not all Members are Trainers.

Science Corner: Let's Talk Volcanoes 

This month’s Science Corner is dedicated to a Hard-to-Answer Science Question. Back to school can mean the return of the classic vinegar and baking soda volcano, but what about real ones? How are they affecting Earth?

Audience Asks: What about volcanoes? Don’t they warm the planet? It isn’t just us that’s contributing to heat-trapping gases!

Evidence-Based Answer: We are able to track the source of heat-trapping gases, like carbon dioxide, in our atmosphere. Carbon dioxide released by the burning of fossil fuels for energy, such as oil, coal, and gas, leave a distinct “fingerprint” that we can identify when we are measuring changes in our atmosphere. Volcanic emissions can also be identified and measured. The amount of carbon dioxide emitted from volcanic activity, including both eruptions and underground magma, is many times less than the amount emitted from human activity and even large eruptions only release carbon dioxide for a limited time.  In contrast, carbon dioxide from human activities goes on day after day and year after year.

It is also important to note that carbon dioxide isn’t the only thing emitted when volcanos erupt. Volcanos also emitted sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere, where it forms tiny particles that reflect some of the sun’s energy back into space. As a result, large eruptions may have an overall cooling effect on the planet for several years.

By looking at all these pieces of evidence together, we can separate the effects of volcanoes from the changes caused by human activities and see that climate change is primarily driven by the release of heat-trapping gases from human activities. Understanding what is driving this change is important because it also helps us identify solutions that can make a difference. 

Sources:

• Gerlach, T. (2011). Volcanic versus anthropogenic carbon dioxide. EOS, Transactions, American Geophysical Union, 92(24), 201-202. https://doi.org/10.1029/2011EO240001

• U.S. Geological Survey. (n.d.). Volcanoes can affect climate. U.S. Geological Survey

Fall Conference Roll Call

Going to any conferences in 2026? Let us know by filling out this 2-minute survey! 

We know many members attend annual events with organizations like NAAEE, NAI, AZA, and beyond. If there’s a quorum of NNOCCI Members at any conference (AKA more than two), we’d love to see if we can get a couple of informal meetups going and promote each other’s presentations. So far, we know there will be meetups at:

• Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA)

• Thank you to long-time framer and past Board member, Nette Pletcher, for planning a convening on Wednesday, October 2, from 3:30-4PM, during the Refreshment Break

• North American Association of Environmental Educators (NAAEE)

• Join NNOCCI President, Kait Birghenthal, and Fiscal Sponsor Representative Adam Ratner, on the evening of Wednesday, October 9, for some appetizers over drinks (more details to come)

• National Association of Interpretation (NAI)

• Thank you to Central and Northern California Regional Leader, Laura Drath, for setting up a happy hour meetup on Thursday, November 12 (more details to come)

Sign up at the survey link above to learn more. If you’ve already signed up, keep an eye on your email for more info and a digest of presentations!

Get Ready for Hispanic Heritage Month!

Get ready to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month! For our Spanish-speaking Framers, or Framers who work with a Spanish-speaking audience, keep an eye out for newly translated resources coming your way in the next few weeks! 

Join our virtual course for climate communicators!

Our next Framing the Conversation course takes place from October 7 through November 18 on Wednesdays from 1–2PM ET / 10–11AM PT. This 7-week, 25-hour course provides strategic framing skills to inspire hope and action; teaches participants how to use researched values, metaphors, and solutions in their communications; creates networking opportunities with climate scientists, educators, and communicators; and much more!

Want more information? Check out our Course Information & FAQs!

Register Soon! We are limited to 25 participants per cohort—first come, first served!

Check These Out!

NYC Climate Week Event: Re-Writing the Climate Story; 10 Years of Solutions
Change-makers, story-telling, solutions—what’s not to love about this sold-out event being hosted by Grist? Why are we telling you about it if it's sold out? Because a.) you can sign up here to get the recording and b.) this special session will include a live Science Friday Podcast recording with Flora Lichtman and Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, and live storytelling from Steph Speirs, Jerome Foster II, and Jessie Bluedorn. This looks to be an all-star, inspiring session with change makers, doers and dreamers who have made significant progress and contribution toward reshaping industries and policy.

Burnout in Informal Education, A CAMZIE Workshop
September 22 | 4-5PM 
Working in informal education is a deeply rewarding career, but it can also be emotionally and physically demanding, leading to educator burnout. During this webinar we will explore the symptoms and causes of burnout as well as the unique challenges informal educators face. We’ll also discuss prevention and recovery strategies and how to build resilience as educators. Learn more and register here.

A Look at What's Next!

If the training offerings, webinars, new tools, stellar editorial, and interesting info on volcanoes left you wanting more, keep an eye out for what’s coming the rest of 2026!:

• Join us in celebrating NNOCCI’s Sweet 16

• Coming Soon: Reframe cards with Spanish translations to share during National Hispanic Heritage Month

• Join us for an amazing webinar with our partners at Polar Bears International (mark your calendars for Tuesday, October 27, time TBD)

• Learn the newest findings on the efficacy of our Framer Course in building hope, understanding, and action on climate change

• Celebrate Indigenous North Americans with us and learn with and from some of our Friends and Members

• Navigate the holidays with us - from learning how to engage with ‘that relative’ who doesn’t listen, to a webinar with eco-influencer Alyssa Barber on how we can make our days more jolly by favoring climate over consumption (Thursday, November 19th, 4-5PM ET / 1-2PM PT)

• More surprises to come!