Sabrina Fu, an Ellicott City resident, volunteers to fight climate change with a group called Citizens’ Climate Lobby. “We don’t care about who you voted for in the last election, what you look like, what you wear...If you want to be part of the solution, come and help us,” Fu said. Photo courtesy of Sabrina Fu

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After more than a decade as a volunteer with Citizens’ Climate Lobby, Sabrina Fu has some advice for would-be environmental activists: Keep an open mind. 

“We should advocate for solutions, but we need to use the logical part of our ourselves,” she said in an interview with the Beacon. “Being curious and open-minded is so important. Go out and talk to people and meet on common ground.” 

Fu, an Ellicott City resident, speaks from experience. She estimates she has spoken with about 4,000 people through her work with Citizens’ Climate Lobby, primarily through “tabling” events, in which volunteers set up a table at events like reggae concerts and farmers markets to speak with the public about climate change. 

Fu also believes we need to work together to create change. “We’re just not going to be able to address something this big as individuals. We have to have the voice of strong groups,” she said. 

Earth-conscious from youth 

Growing up in Burma, Fu was conscious of humans’ impact on the environment. She cringed at the thought of trash ending up in landfills.  

“I didn’t realize this was unusual until I met other people who had the mindset ‘out of sight, out of mind,’” she said. 

Fu earned her Ph.D. in chemistry from UC Berkeley in 1991, focusing on the development of alternative fuels.  

While doing the research for her degree, Fu realized that part of the problem wasn’t the science, but whether there was societal will to invest in change.  

“If we really wanted alternative energy, we would have policies that encourage more people to buy into it because [that means a] lower cost per person,” she said. 

This realization led Fu to decide to work on practical solutions. After completing her degree, she moved with her husband to the D.C. area, where she got a job in the remediation of nuclear and hazardous waste.  

Now Fu teaches at the University of Maryland Global Campus, where she has been a science professor for 23 years. In August, she became the program director of Environmental Science & Management, overseeing the undergraduate and graduate programs in environmental science, as well as managing faculty.  

Fu believes higher education is important in cultivating critical thinking skills in the next generation of leaders.  

“The ability to look underneath the surface and ask relevant questions is what I aim to do with the programs that I have there,” she said.  

Citizens’ Climate Lobby 

In 2013, Fu attended the presentation of a friend who had graduated from Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project. That program promises to recruit, train and mobilize people to work toward climate solutions.  

Fu wanted to support her friend, but she felt the solutions proposed by Gore’s program weren’t enough. 

“The presentation was about how awful climate change is going to be. And by the way, go change your light bulb. So the solution did not fit the scale of the problem,” she said. 

After the presentation, someone stood up and said, “Have you heard about Citizens’ Climate Lobby?” Fu hadn’t. 

Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) is a grassroots nonprofit that works with Congress in a non-partisan, inclusive way to advocate for policies to address climate change.  

One of the primary goals of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby, the person explained, was to work with the U.S. government to put a price on fossil fuel extraction and pay dividends to the American people to help them transition to clean energy.  

CCL thinks this policy would have several benefits, including putting pressure on businesses to develop and use clean energy, supporting low-income households and creating jobs.  

“I thought, ‘Wow, that is a system change,’” Fu said. She was impressed that Citizens’ Climate Lobby was working to change laws.  

“Its approach was to actually work on solutions together with Congress. And it would have a global impact. It was a solution that built upon our present economic system,” she said. 

“The other solutions were non-solutions, like, ‘Let’s get rid of capitalism,’ which doesn’t address climate change anyway,” Fu said. 

The group’s open-minded, solutions-oriented approach also convinced her to volunteer, she said.  

Finding common ground 

As a volunteer with CCL, Fu has worked in a variety of roles. She has served as group leader of the Howard County chapter and state coordinator, among other positions. 

She has also done regional work in the D.C. area. Currently, she is the Mid-Atlantic regional co-director, a role she shares with Thaddeus Waterman, a materials engineer. 

Although both Fu and Waterman have science backgrounds, it’s not essential for the job. “It can help or hurt, depending on how you use it,” she said.  

“When I put on my volunteer hat…I have to be careful that I don’t act as I would for academia, where my job is to correct misinformation. I try to remember that I’m there to listen, meet on common ground, and find solutions together.” 

In her role at CCL, Fu’s primary responsibility is education and grassroots organizing. She planned an event in October called “Find Your Fit,” which helped volunteers find the best role in the group for them. 

“We don’t care about who you voted for in the last election, what you look like, what you wear…if you want to be part of the solution, come and help us be part of the solution,” Fu said.  

Working with Congress 

Fu keeps in touch with the nearby D.C. team to stay in the loop about the nonprofit’s policy goals.  

One current project is to reform the permitting process to make it easier for clean-energy companies to get permits to develop infrastructure.  

Currently, CCL is supporting the Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024, a bill now being considered by Congress. 

Another policy goal is the carbon dividends plan mentioned above. This plan actually became a bill, but it has died in four different Congresses so far.  

“One thing that people don’t understand is how difficult it is to pass legislation,” Fu said.  

She hopes there will be more momentum for passing a carbon fee and dividend-like bill in the future, but for now, Fu is energized by the fact that CCL’s ideas have made it to the legislature.  

“The great part of CCL is we’re not set on being right. We’re always asking questions to say, ‘Well, what do the experts think? And what do these various sectors and groups think about it’ This is government for the people, by the people, and that means us, right?” 

To volunteer for Citizens’ Climate Lobby, visit citizensclimatelobby.org or email Sabrina Fu at sabrina.fu@citizensclimate.org.