Ann Arbor’s snowman protest on Jan. 30, 2024

CCL snowmen take to the streets

By Flannery Winchester

Nobody stands to lose quite as much in a warming world as snowmen. Lawmakers need to hear from them, too! With fun, eye-catching protests in recent weeks, CCL chapters have been helping snowmen call for climate action. 

When snow started falling in January, CCL’s Northland chapter in Minnesota kicked things off with the year’s first — and so far, biggest — snowman protest. On Jan. 9, eight chapter members mobilized to Duluth City Hall and built more than 100 miniature snow people. 

The mini-protesters held signs saying, “Snow folk support winter joy and climate policy,” “Act on climate,” and more. 

Chapter member Harmony Fisher, who spearheaded the effort, says, “It was a rush to grab supplies and organize enough people to get a great turnout, but it turned out fantastically.” You can see all the chapter’s photos in this slideshow.

Highlights hit the news

CCL Northland’s protest caught the attention of the local news. The Duluth News Tribune ran a story headlined “Let it snow! Climate activists stage ‘snowpeople protest.’” The story reads, in part:

Activists elicited the help of more than 100 snowpeople Tuesday afternoon to advocate carbon pricing so they could save their “species” from the impacts of climate change.

The Duluth / MN Northland chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby erected miniature snowpeople — complete with mini carrot noses and mini protest signs — in front of the Civic Center to draw attention to the unseasonably warm December.

CCL’s very first snowman protest back in 2021, aimed at getting the attention of Sen. Mitt Romney, also got some great media coverage: 

Protests march across the north

Another organized snowman protest broke out in Ann Arbor, Michigan earlier this week. Community members attending a talk on societal change on Tuesday, Jan. 30, were greeted by 10 snow people outside the event!

They carried signs with messages such as, “Snowpeople for climate action,” “Help me, I’m melting!,” “Save the snow,” and “Call Congress on Climate.”  CCLers from the Ann Arbor chapter “handed out fliers encouraging people to contact their representatives in Washington, D.C., about addressing planet-warming carbon pollution,” says group leader Ginny Rogers.

Nancy Lincoln Stoll, one of the coordinators of the event, said, “The protest is lighthearted, but we hope that people get the message to act on the serious problem of our planet heating up.”

And across the north, protesters have also popped up in New Jersey, Wisconsin, and Delaware (pictured below) with more on the way, like this advance news coverage of a snowman protest our volunteers are planning in Montana.

We hope there’s more snow on the way so our senators and representatives can hear more from these frosty constituents!

Want to host your own snowman protest? Check out our toolkit and watch for flurries in your forecast.

Learn more about why our winters are warming