Florida seniors have a lifetime of experience, well-developed skills and the financial resources to make an impact. Join us in putting our skills and experiences towards advocating for the changes that our grandchildren deserve.

About this event

We will be working on:

  • Expanding opportunities and capability to vote and participate in our democracy for all people so we are not shutout from electing people of our choice.
  • Influencing the Public Service Commission, and other agencies, to plan and implement non-fossil fuel energy alternatives in Florida, such as, the conversion of solar and wind power to generate electricity for our homes
  • Mitigating the damage and incongruences caused by recent legislation (i.e. HB-3) to restrict investment opportunities in non-fossil fuel alternatives.
  • Persuading Banks and Insurance companies to disinvest in fossil-fuel extraction and production projects to bring alternative options on equal footing with traditional options that they have supported for far too long.
  • Raise awareness of climate change effects, such the impact of climate change on homeowners’ insurance costs, and what we can do now to mitigate the predicted damage with facts and common sense solutions.
  • Pressure government representatives to make the policy changes now that help sustain our environment and support of democratic ideals.
  • Partner with and support other organizations of like-minded individuals.

We were inspired to create this Working Group because:
We witnessed the effects of climate change on the Florida environment and by our concerns that our fragile democracy was being damaged from within our borders.

We became energized to do something now, after the 2022 Florida legislative session in which ‘culture war’ dominated the agenda, including doing further damage to our environment and our democratic ideals.

We got inspired by the people we have met, both locally and nationwide, associated with Third Act that have similar concerns and the will to try to do something about it so our grand kids have a better place to live.

We are driven by the following ancient Greek philosophy:
“A society grows great when old men (people) plant trees whose shade they know they will never sit in.”

Melanie Griffin

Melanie Griffin is a writer and social justice activist who spent nearly thirty years lobbying for the Sierra Club in Washington, D.C. Her major campaigns included public lands and wildlife and air and energy policy. She was the founder and director of the Club’s first National Partnerships Program. Melanie holds a Masters in Creative Nonfiction and is a certified Spiritual Director. She served for three years as a pastor at a progressive Christian church in suburban Maryland and taught at a Quaker school. She leads writing workshops and contemplative retreats and loves to garden, read, and travel.

Bill McKibben

Bill McKibben is a founder of Third Act, which organizes people over the age of 60 to work on climate and racial justice. He founded the first global grassroots climate campaign, 350.org, and serves as the Schumann Distinguished Professor in Residence at Middlebury College in Vermont. In 2014 he was awarded the Right Livelihood Prize, sometimes called the ‘alternative Nobel,’ in the Swedish Parliament. He’s also won the Gandhi Peace Award, and honorary degrees from 19 colleges and universities. He has written over a dozen books about the environment, including his first, The End of Nature, published in 1989, and The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon: A Graying American Looks Back at his Suburban Boyhood and Wonders What the Hell Happened, published last year.