EP 385 Climate Change Takes a Backseat to Other Crises and a Backhand From the Federal Government

A recent headline in the New York Times indicates that the Trump Administration is reversing nearly one hundred environmental rules on issues relating to air pollution and emissions, drilling and extraction, water pollution, toxic substances and more. And this is after pulling out of the Paris Climate Accords and appointing a former coal industry lobbyist to head the Environmental Protection Agency. And while all of this has happened and climate change has been swept from view by other more immediate crises, like COVID-19 and racial inequities, still certain signs are positive. State and local governments, major businesses, and consumers are adapting life to the changing, and threatened, planet. Harriet Shugarman, executive director of ClimateMama and author of ‘How to Talk to Your Kids About Climate Change’ is hopeful that progress can be made, but urges that we bring children to a greater awareness of the issue now. Through her book and activism she’s attempting to do just that. We had a conversation with her about the challenges getting adults and children to focus on the fact that what is happening is not normal and is within our control to address in the age of the Anthropocene, when humans are responsible for the general health of the flora and fauna on this one planet. It’s a wake-up call that while this issue has receded in some people’s minds, it has not gone away.

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