Growing up, I knew I needed to work in climate change. And getting a job working in the Climate Change Division at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was a dream come true. I felt like I was making an impact – I was working on exciting, groundbreaking Obama-era projects, such as the Paris Climate Agreement. This was the kind of work that could give vulnerable communities – like the ones I’m from – a fighting chance to adapt and thrive.
I thought it was bad when the Trump Administration came in for the first time. I watched the work my colleagues had worked on (some for a decade) just disappear. I would walk the hallways and hear sobbing from cubicles. I didn’t last three months before I left federal service for good.
But things somehow seem to have gotten worse this second time around. Dismantling of infrastructure, disregard of rules, destroying historical knowledge – taking explicit action to future-proof the destruction and slow down any recovery. The climate work I’m doing at the local level has also been impacted: lost grants, layoffs, lawsuits, fear of retaliation for speaking out or continuing to take action.
And yet through it all, I have hope. For the first time in U.S. history, renewable energy provided more electricity than natural gas for an entire month. Solar makes up the majority of new energy added to the grid across the nation. Red states are defending the Trump Administration’s attacks on offshore wind. And communities across the country are taking local action: public transit, dense housing, community solar, bike infrastructure, local plant-forward food. Young people are activated on this issue more than I’ve ever experienced, giving me hope for the future.
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