In an important article on environmental outrage and human rights 1 my colleague, Tom Kerns wrote that a Latina student in his course on environmental toxins had been enduring serious health problems since she was born. One day in class, she put two and two together – as students so beautifully do. “Do you think my health problems might be because my mother, when she was pregnant, was a spotter?”
Okay, folks, the people at the IPCC tell us that the world has twelve years to cut carbon emissions in half. Sounds like you and I need a plan. So, here’s a Climate Defender’s Calendar. Of course, we have to do all these things, all the time, forever – but this might help get us organized.
The morning after Donald Trump pulled the US out of the Paris Climate Accords, this old climate warrior climbed out of bed feeling better about the chances of the sizzling, souring world than I have for months. Not just feeling better, feeling positively energized. The worst climate policy news had broken, and suddenly the sense of possibility and power was overwhelming.