A Remembrance:

Dr. Doug Craig

Doug first became aware of the global warming crisis in May 2004.  However, it wasn’t until March 2006, when Time magazine put a polar bear on the cover that he became an environmental activist.  Along with a polar bear, were the words, “Be worried.  Be very worried.  Climate change isn’t some vague future problem – it’s already damaging the planet at an alarming pace.  Here’s how it affects you, your kids and their kids as well.”

While reading the magazine, Doug learned about the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, a movement initiated by Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels to encourage the mayors of American cities to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change.  Eventually, over a thousand cities would sign the agreement but then there were only about 250.  Doug thought Redding should be one of them and went before the City Council to make this request.  Redding’s Mayor and a Councilwoman met with Doug, Doug Bennett and Melinda Brown, to hear their proposal but turned them down, insisting that this issue was not a serious concern.  Doug went before the Council again the following year and was again turned down.

Later that year, Doug contacted Lorraine Dechter, the host of a call-in talk show on KCHO called I-5 Live and asked to come on the air and talk about human-caused climate change.  Lorraine agreed, but insisted on presenting a “balanced” program by inviting a CSU Chico Professor to serve as the scientific expert who was skeptical that humans were warming the planet.  During the show, a velvet voiced Corning high school science teacher called in to agree with Doug.  He was so good with his arguments, that he was kept on the line for the whole show and by the end of the program he had convinced Doug’s opponent to switch sides and accept the scientific validity of human-caused climate change.  That caller’s name was Dave Schlom and within weeks of that program, he began hosting North State Public Radio’s Blue Dot Report, which years later, is still on the air.

It was during this time that Doug developed his own PowerPoint presentation on the science of climate change. He gave talks throughout the community to churches, Shasta College, Citizens for Responsible Government, American Association of University Women, Shasta County Democratic Women’s Club, and other groups.

From 2009 to 2016, Doug posted over 2200 blogs, over one million words, on his Climate of Change page on the Record Searchlight website. These posts were later lost when the Searchlight shut down all site blogs.

A few years ago, Doug established Redding Climate Coalition (RCC), a Facebook group open to residents of Redding, Shasta County or Northern California who understand and accept the basic science behind the present process of human-caused climate change and its contribution to global warming and climate disruption.  These are folks interested in joining with others who are committed to climate education, literacy, activism and facilitating the rapid shift to a clean energy future.  RCC currently has 141 members.  Along with others, Doug also helped establish the Redding Chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby.

From 2010 to 2015 Doug attended climate science training around the country, including the American Academy for the Advancement of Science in San Diego and the American Geophysical Union’s Communicating Climate Science conference in Granby, Colorado. Here he had conversations with some of his climate science heroes John Cook, Richard Alley, Michael Mann and Gavin Schmidt.  He also joined Al Gore and a thousand others at a Climate Reality Leadership Corps training in Miami.

Doug eventually accumulated a library of over 200 books, science journals and magazines, all devoted to the climate crisis, along with file cabinets filled with research. Sadly, all of this burned in the CARR fire.

In September of 2018, Doug and a fellow climate advocate, met with the Shasta County Interfaith Forum to speak about the climate crisis and solutions. When preparing to leave, Doug and his friend heard one of the members ask whether the Forum had made a statement on climate change. Upon entering the Forum’s Thanksgiving service that year, attendees were to read this statement on the cover of the program:

We, the Shasta County Interfaith Forum, believe climate change is a faith and moral issue. For the sake of our children, future generations and the planet, we believe the climate change crisis requires urgent and ongoing action by individuals and local, state, national and global leaders.

In 2022, Doug became a “Faith Advocacy Captain” for Interfaith Power and Light.  In March of that year, he delivered information packets regarding Faith Climate Action Week to 16 different congregations in Redding, encouraging the community’s faith leaders to discuss climate change in their worship services and “to connect religious beliefs with action…pushing for greater support from local and national policymakers.”

A few years ago, Doug resurrected his Wake-Up Call radio show, this time on KKRN where he interviewed climate scientists and authors.  Doug, forever seeking common ground, could also be heard monthly on KCNR with Carl Bott discussing a variety of issues including human-caused climate change. He frequently wrote about the climate crisis in his online column at A News Café.

Doug received Shasta Environmental Alliance’s Environmental Champion award in 2018. He would say that he was most proud of being a member of a stellar group of environmental champions here in Redding called North State Climate Action, formed just before the Carr Fire, and that, for the first time ever, he saw a group of committed advocates, fighting to identify and promote solutions to the climate crisis right here at home. From the beginning, this is what he had wanted most of all.

Doug’s prophetic voice and courageous dedication to educating and raising awareness about the seriousness of climate change for our community and our planet will be sorely missed. The torch he lit is now in each of our hands. He’s counting on us to do our part to ensure a livable planet for his and humanity’s children and their children and their children.