these digital volunteers use the “zooniverse” forum to click through aerial photographs and count the number of iguanas in order to inform future conservation practices. such conservation practices matter for marine iguanas, who can lose anywhere from 10 to 90% of their population to starvation during warm-water el niño years. in this story, naturalists explain how “imps of darkness,”  in spite of their extreme boom-and-bust population cycles, offer crucial insights into adaptation, resilience, and evolution.

to continue reading, click on the full story below!

editor’s note: lindblad expeditions, our planet forward storyfest competition partner, made this series possible by providing winners with an experiential learning opportunity aboard one of their ships. we thank lindblad expeditions for their support of our project.

atop the ford motor company’s rouge factory in dearborn, michigan, a vibrant 10.4-acre “living roof” stretches across an otherwise cloudy horizon, made up of thousands of tiny succulents. birds, insects, and pollinators flock to the rooftop, while hundreds of factory workers assemble trucks in the building below. 

the size of eight football fields, ford’s green roof is one of the largest in the world. every year, it collects and filters rainfall and, according to the henry ford museum, improves air quality in the building’s vicinity by up to 40%. notably, the museum reports the rooftop also reduces the building’s energy footprint by 7%, inching the company closer to its carbon neutrality goal.

installed more than 20 years ago now, company leaders at the time were quoted in press releases as saying the project was “not environmental philanthropy” but “sound business,” and, in the press & guide, “living proof of ford’s ongoing commitment to being an environmentally conscious corporate citizen.” the major project has since been acknowledged for helping kick off the green roof industry in north america.their living roof is just one project in ford’s efforts to decarbonize, which are part of a larger national movement toward carbon responsibility and environmental and social governance, or “esg,” in corporate spheres. ford is currently pursuing a goal of sourcing 100% carbon-free electricity for their global manufacturing operations by 2035.

a large rooftop with a small footprint?

ford employs over 177,000 workers globally and operates facilities in more than a dozen countries around the world. according to a ford 2024 integrated sustainability and financial report, about 1% of ford’s total co2 emissions come from operations whereas the vast majority of them result from tailpipe emissions as well as “energy production and consumption during vehicle use.”

tailpipe and energy production during use fall under the definition of scope 3 emissions, which are the kind that are indirectly linked to a company’s activities, such as those that result from a company’s product after it is purchased.

according to the 2024 ford report, in 2023 ford’s scope 3 emissions totaled 384,119,775 metric tons. given that total, a green roof would redress a fraction of a percent of ford’s total emissions.

the living rooftop’s meadow was installed at a cost of $15 million. “it was a risk. and it paid off,” added douglas plond, senior manager of the ford rouge factory tour. in his view, the rooftop’s value comes from its ample community benefits. 

“i think we see over 100,000 people come through this facility per year. so, we’ve sparked the interest of someone — at least one person — to see all the green initiatives that have gone on here at ford motor company. […] somebody may have gone home and said ‘well, i’m gonna try doing this at home,” plond said.

looking at the whole picture

ford, in addition to its emissions goals, aims to use only locally sourced clean energy in its manufacturing plants by 2035. other automakers like bmw and general motors have also announced sustainability ambitions, including carbon neutrality goals. automakers like subaru have focused on greening their plants, such as indiana’s subaru sia factory which produces zero landfill waste and is the only u.s. auto factory to be declared a natural habitat. 

still, back in dearborn, critics remain skeptical toward greening a plant that produces f-150s. among them is daniel becker, director of the sierra club’s climate change program. “whatever they did to the plant is marvelous, but if they’re producing pickup trucks that pollute too much, what are they accomplishing?” becker asked, as quoted in index project.

while the emissions of ford vehicles per kilometer driven have decreased 6% since 2019, according to ford’s 2024 integrated sustainability and financial report, “slower than expected demand,” in ev’s will require flexibility on ford’s part as they reach for carbon neutrality. recent market setbacks have curbed ev demand and prompted ford to shut down an f-150 lightning production shift at the dearborn factory. 

slowing growth of ev sales across ca, weakened carbon reporting rules from the sec, and difficulties decarbonizing ev supply chains raise ongoing questions about the future picture of sustainability. 

on the other hand, there are other initiatives at ford worthy of public attention: 

in 2022, for example, ford made the largest clean power purchase agreement in history, right in michigan. the contract with dte energy exceeds any other renewable energy purchase from a utility in the united states— including those by large tech companies. a press release by the energy company details that by 2025, all of ford’s purchased electricity for vehicle manufacturing in michigan will be carbon-free, and ford will avoid close to 600,000 metric tons of carbon emissions annually.  

“i think one of the things that we’ve focused on in the last few years, in particular, is the sourcing of the energy to run the plant. that’s been the biggest thing — trying to make contracts with [electricity suppliers] where our clients are located. […] and i think that that’s probably moving the needle the most,” said alyssa werthman, ford’s environmental sustainability manager.

essentially, whenever a company like ford buys more renewable power than they need, they can supply not only their factories but several of their major suppliers, and millions of homes. artealia gilliard, environmental leadership & sustainability at ford, notes that these agreements both strengthen the grid and “create that push and pull in the market.”

as a symbol of sustainable commitments, ford’s living rooftop is in many ways intended to compliment the company’s even more concrete strategies to leverage its corporate power for good: buying into power purchase agreements, persistently improving the accessibility and recyclability of electric vehicles, and directing all suppliers towards sustainability. 

“we also write the requirement for our suppliers to establish science-based greenhouse gas reduction targets and action plans to support carbon neutrality no later than 2050 globally into our supplier code of conduct,” werthman said.

according to gilliard, it is these initiatives that “[drive] the suppliers to do exactly as we’re doing, which is purchase carbon-free electricity. it drives them to invest in the grid where they’re pulling from — or create their own.”

the bottom line

the living rooftop could have valuable signaling power as a “living pledge” toward more robust scope 3 decarbonization at ford.

even amid ev sales challenges, recent progress is promising. ford motor company received an “a” rating in a 2023 carbon disclosure project report and is reportedly on track to meet its 2050 carbon neutrality goal.

though the direct impact of the roof may be small, the greenery above the production lines may continue to be a useful living reminder of this commitment.

in the middle of a solar panel array in north carolina, the grass rustles with movement. a raccoon wanders between the panels. a fox wriggles through the permeable fencing and darts around the site. a cluster of turkeys stare accusingly into the wildlife camera. eventually, a curious bobcat prowls outside the fence, slinking inside and outside of the site boundary. 

the animal sightings were made possible by a carefully-placed camera trap used for conservation research. the project is part of efforts from the nature conservancy to investigate how solar development influences animal movement and work with solar developers to preserve the small corridors — or wildlife passageways — that allow for that movement. 

the sight of wildlife lingering at a solar facility between crystalline panels is an unusual one. but in north carolina, a state that ranks fourth in the nation for solar energy production and ninth for biodiversity, scientists and developers are realizing that the choice between renewables and biodiversity doesn’t have to be a trade-off.  

solar energy in the energy transition and climate crisis

amid national efforts to decarbonize the u.s. energy sector and achieve current emissions reductions goals, the u.s. is increasing its buildout of renewable energy. in the last decade, the solar industry saw an average annual growth rate of 24%, according to the solar energy industries association. 

as more and more renewables projects gain traction in states like north carolina, biologists have raised concerns over potential impacts on wildlife populations, especially amid overdevelopment and fragmentation. scientists have begun to research those impacts, but many studies have focused narrowly on bird deaths, habitat conversion,  pollinator habitat, or soil ecosystems, with fewer insights on migration and movement specifically. with climate change exacerbating the need and scale of future migrations, this research gap is a pressing one. 

while people often think of climate change as the biggest threat to biodiversity, the answer is actually habitat loss. liz kalies, the lead renewable energy scientist at the nature conservancy, spreads this message in her conservation work. “we can’t justify poor siting of renewable energy in the name of biodiversity,” said kalies. 

“but similarly, if we ignore climate change, that will also have severe consequences for biodiversity. so, we just really need to keep the two in our mind simultaneously, and not sacrifice one for the other,” she said.

strategies for building wildlife-friendly solar

fortunately, solar developers haves several options to avoid making those sacrifices: selecting sites responsibly (including repurposed mine land), building in wildlife passageways (small corridors to allow animals to pass through)—which could mean splitting a site down the middle—and letting nature reclaim parts of the facility by growing wildflowers, planting native species, or building pollinator habitats. a simple change, such as mowing the lawn in september or october instead of august, after breeding season, can make a difference, according to a research team in new york. 

one of the most promising strategies so far is permeable fencing: swapping out traditional chain-link fencing for larger-holed fencing, which is meshy enough to allow small-to-medium sized mammals to slip through. animal monitoring reports show the early promise of this fencing, as camera traps capture foxes, birds, and coyotes navigating around the fencing. in one study, wildlife-permeable fencing increased the probability that ungulates (hoofed mammals) successfully crossed through the fence by 33% — and they were able to do so in 54% less time.

camera trapping and bobcat tracking: the research behind wildlife-friendly solar

kalies and her team have launched several projects to study solar-wildlife interactions, including the camera trap project, direct site visits with developers, and even a bobcat-specific project. kalies and her team are currently working on the latter, which involves locating, sedating, radio collaring, and tracking bobcats to generate visual maps of their meanderings. bobcats are secretive, elusive animals who prefer uninterrupted vegetation, making them good candidates to study the challenges that animals may face in in solar landscapes. 

surprisingly, bobcats are interacting with the solar facilities. from the videos kalies played, it appears some of them are even drawn to the facilities for unknown reasons. in their preliminary data, one bobcat appeared to cut through a solar facility that didn’t even have a permeable fence. the team hopes to increase their sample size of bobcats in order to predict impacts of solar buildout on their populations through simulation alone.

do developers really want foxes and bobcats roaming through their facilities?

sometimes, the answer is yes, according to developers. medium-sized predators may help quell rodent populations, and rodents have been known to gnaw through the panels’ wiring, breaking the solar array.  

wildlife passageways offer other benefits to developers. at face value, building wildlife-friendly infrastructure is great for a company’s brand image and public relations — especially when local opposition to renewable projects is so prevalent, and sometimes stems from animal conservation concerns. additionally, installing wildlife-friendly fencing is economical, according to kalies. it costs roughly the same as a chain-link fence and holds up just as well structurally, based on her reports from developers. 

“i love the idea of wildlife friendly fencing,”  said scott starr, co-founder of highline renewables. 

“you’re going to be a partner with the community for 30 plus years. so, you want to do things like screen it with evergreens or use wildlife friendly fencing […] and even if it’s a small upcharge, you are looking for things to make the project work that don’t just show up in the pro forma but are also a benefit to the community.” 

as a developer who specializes in small-scale distributed generation,  starr notes that it’s common to screen for endangered species early on as part of choosing a site. “we are very careful as developers towards critical species, critical habitat, wetlands, things like that. that is part of the process.” 

but, when it comes to sharing land with wildlife, the territory is more unfamiliar. starr elaborates on the policy gaps in how governments incentivize wildlife-friendly buildout. 

“the only things that i’ve really seen are ‘we’ll give you adders to put it on this rooftop!’ and ‘we’ll give you adders if  you put it on a brownfield or co-locate with some kind of agricultural operations!’ said starr. “there never is really anything about wildlife corridors—we just don’t know.” 

while developers can’t claim that solar sites are equivalent to wildlife refuges, they do share some compelling similarities: they’re quiet, isolated, fenced off, and relatively low-disturbance on the landscape. whether or not a site is wildlife-friendly often comes down to what’s adjacent to the facility, says kalies, meaning rural sites typically have better luck than urban, overdeveloped, already-degraded plots of land. 

challenges and limitations of building wildlife passageways

some of the biggest research-specific challenges for kalies’s team include accessing sites in the first place, finding partners willing to collaborate, and hours of challenging fieldwork. another difficulty lies in data interpretation. even with data from camera traps, for example, seeing an animal onsite doesn’t mean it’s necessarily benefitting. the animal could be migrating, breeding or nesting, foraging, lost, or simply hanging out. 

starr adds that, from a developer’s perspective, even if you support wildlife-friendly fencing,  you may get a ‘no’ from the county, from financiers, or from any long-term owners of the project who might consider wildlife a risk to their multi-million dollar asset. (some developers are even concerned about bird droppings reducing the efficiency of their solar panels.)

overall, the solar industry’s ability to become “wildlife-friendly” may depend on the level of discussion happening in government. “we need clear guidance and policymaking that incentivizes these kinds of considerations,” said starr.

the future of wildlife-friendly solar 

despite these challenges, pursuing wildlife-friendly solar in north carolina may be a promising step toward preserving biodiversity. the state ranks the 13th highest in the nation for risk of species loss. while wildlife movement patterns are being studied in the western u.s. (such as pronghorn migration), more research is needed on patterns in eastern states.

the first step to preserving biodiverse populations is ensuring that animals can continue to move freely across landscapes. through siting adjustments, permeable fencing, planting wildflower pollinator habitat, and actively collaborating with scientists, the solar industry has a chance to protect wildlife. energy developers and biologists alike can take part in this initiative, giving a new meaning to “energy conservation.” 

it’s hard to imagine a modern neighborhood without cars. or a city without parking lots. instead of rolling through a starbucks drive-thru on a 45-minute commute to work, imagine walking 50 feet to the neighborhood café while wearing pajamas. in a community without roads or garages, neighbors connect through shared walking spaces and european-style plazas. 

in tempe, arizona, a team of developers envisioned exactly this as they built culdesac. the six-acre residential community is filled with coworking spaces, local shops, backyard parks and plazas, small businesses, and transit alternatives such as electric bikes and ride shares. promoted as the “five-minute city,” the neighborhood houses over 100 residents in a 760-apartment complex with no residential parking. culdesac offers one-to three-bedroom apartments costing $1400 to $3200 per month. the neighborhood formally opened in may 2023.

culdesac may be the first of many car-free neighborhoods. its construction is timely, its developers say, as the united states grapples with road congestion and carbon emissions from the transportation sector. the transportation sector alone is a major source of greenhouse gas emission in the us and accounts for more than half of nitrogen oxides in our air, according to epa data. amid high costs of living driven up by parking lot construction, the question of whether to own a car at all has become a prominent dilemma for new city-dwellers. in three weeks, nearly 2,000 people signed up for culdesac’s interest list.

culdesac: a new housing model

the culdesac team is building what members call “missing middle housing.” missing middle housing entails neither single-family homes nor tall apartment buildings – it’s somewhere in between. this semi-dense, walkable urban living is “missing” since there’s not a lot of it on the market. “we’re building the kind of housing most americans are looking for,” said ryan johnson, co-founder and ceo of culdesac.

but is the united states ready for missing middle housing? 

the culdesac team would like to see more of it. however, the answer depends on each city’s level of readiness to ensure a comfortable transition. key factors include whether a neighborhood is close to a light rail or other public transit, as well as ensuring a robust selection of backup transit options such as discounted lyft rides, free e-bikes, and diverse micro-retailers to choose from. 

“zero residential parking” has a daunting ring to many policymakers. the culdesac team had to work closely with local government officials in tempe to achieve that goal while also planning to prevent congestion and navigating zoning regulations. the careful planning process was a time-consuming but not insurmountable challenge for tempe, and local officials were cooperative. (according to johnson, tempe’s mayor now dines at culdesac’s cocina chiwas restaurant nearly every week.)

a shift away from cars?

a growing number of americans are receptive to a car-free lifestyle. over 53% of americans want to live in walkable neighborhoods – but only 8% do. walkability is an important factor in community living – a 2020 survey from the national association of realtors found that people with a place to walk in their community continue to be the most satisfied with their quality of life. many americans instead satiate their walkability cravings by vacationing to the cobblestone streets and greenery of european villages, only to return a week later to a starkly individualistic lifestyle centered around highway commuting. 

the very luxuries americans seek out on vacations can be built into our working lives; for example, green space. when developers don’t have to plan (or pay) for parking lots, roads, and driveways, budgets for gardens, walkways, and patches of green space can rise in priority.

tempe’s car-free community offers three times the average amount of green space seen in typical developments, according to culdesac. this model of living is speaking to some people loudly in the wake of the pandemic, when work-life expectations have shifted dramatically toward remote work.

in addition to the cultural elements of walkability and green space, price is a factor that heavily influences tenants’ decision to go car-free.  not only are cars and gasoline expensive but, providing parking drives up costs for developers. even a surface parking space costs $20,000 to $30,000, said david king, an associate professor of urban planning at arizona state university. these lots accumulate financial, social, and aesthetic costs. “essentially, we require cities to build ample parking in these places where people want to go, and it diminishes the built environment – it makes it dry,” king explains. “if you have to cross the parking lot, that lot separates you from everything you want to do.”

the future of car-free neighborhoods

culdesac is evaluating new site locations across the country. the claim that tempe, arizona is home to the first car-free community of its kind in the united states is a stimulating one — but is more complicated when we consider urban design historically, said king.

 “certainly, it’s very unique now,” said king, noting culdesac is “harking back closer to the way we used to build things 100 years ago. i think we need more of this.” 

geographically, the culdesac model of living is much more popular outside of the united states. founders of culdesac were inspired by walkable neighborhoods in europe, africa, and latin america. some intentional car-free projects have had positive impacts on air quality—including a 40% reduction in no2 levels on car-free days—and getting people moving, which is good for health. a rising number of cities are trying their hand at the car-free model. in freiburg, germany, for example, a ban on cars in the center city increased bike use and decreased traffic and air pollution, while other projects, like google’s sidewalk labs in toronto, have fallen short with an overload of sustainability requirements.

johnson and his team consider culdesac a “reference project” for cities built for people in the 2020s. “to be honest, we’re not sure if future cities will ever be completely car-free,” said johnson. “we’re not necessarily ‘anti-car’ but rather, we’re against our cities’ dependency on private cars.” 

whether or not the 21st century will be defined as a post-car era, culdesac could be one of the first communities to break the cultural mold of car dependency. if successful, the united states may see an upsurge in neighborhoods seeking mobility, community, and the symbolic quietude of a car-free cul-de-sac.

what if the future of air quality justice rested in the threads of a spider web?

in this original hand-drawn comic, climate cartoonist joy reeves explores a recent initiative in north carolina to use spider webs to monitor air pollution. spearheaded by the north carolina environmental justice network and a team of volunteer “funnel web finders,” the “spidey sens-r” project aims to measure heavy metal pollution on funnel weaver spider webs in greenville and goldsboro communities. the team hopes to use the metals collected on the webs to identify air pollution hotspots near polluting industries—especially in areas that lack government air quality monitors — in order to prioritize future testing in those areas and uphold environmental justice principles through community science. 

this structure is not a playground but a science experiment. each archway creates an artificial drought environment designed to restrict rainfall to simulate dust bowl conditions. colorado state university professor of biology and senior ecologist alan knapp and his team set up these structures in kansas and wyoming starting in 2012.

by controlling the amount of rainfall each patch of grass received over a four-year period, the team was able to observe how native grassland plants respond to extreme drought. in doing so, they tackled an 80-year mystery for what has been called the “dust bowl paradox.” during the 1930s, plagued by little rain, “cool-temperature plants” mysteriously encroached into the hottest and most drought-stricken regions of the plains, overtaking the warm-temperature plants we’d expect to survive.

the artificial drought experiment is a timely one, as climate change produces more drought and extreme heat in grasslands today. farmers globally, especially ranchers, depend on what grows on temperate grasslands, which also have value as natural carbon sinks. even though they are rich in biodiversity, temperate grasslands are the least protected and most endangered biome in the world, according to a 2010 article published in the great plains research journal.

ranchers need predictable rainfall 

because ranchers rely on a single crop to sustain their livestock, unpredictable rainfall patterns—and the invasion of non-native grasses—can compromise the success of an entire ranch. 

“if you’re trying to make a living off of grass on the great plains, you might as well have a drought plan,” said barth crouch, state coordinator of the kansas grazing lands coalition (kglc). “because it’s gonna happen.” 

knapp’s research offers insights into patterns to expect during droughts—particularly “megadrought” growing seasons. in the united states, the great plains currently teeters on the brink of what scientists call an “emerging megadrought,” according to a 2020 study in science. 

the dust bowl of nearly a century ago is a key case study in understanding contemporary drought science. in the 1930s, a decade of extreme drought and heat waves ravaged the great plains, which span approximately 1,125,000 square miles, or one-third of the united states. destructive farming techniques across the region worsened the dust bowl crisis by causing widespread erosion and howling dust storms that buried entire farms, leading to an estimated $1.9 billion just in agricultural losses. farm devastation wasn’t the only result: the drought’s continued effect on plant communities was evident for 20 years, knapp said.

against all odds, cool-temperature plants began to overtake warm-temperature plants and take their place in grasslands, raising an important question: why do some plants survive after drought and others don’t? more specifically, what caused cool-temperature plants to abruptly spread into 135,000 miles of arid land in the southern-central united states? the dust bowl paradox revolves around that question. 

solving the dust bowl mystery

knapp said he didn’t start his studies to “solve” the dust bowl paradox. “we studied how [plants] respond to drought in general,” knapp said, “as a potential mechanism rather than the solution.” 

in doing so, his team confirmed the importance of the seasonal regularity of rainfall. it’s not the temperature or amount of rainfall a grassland receives that influences what grows, they found. it’s the timing of rainfall that dictates which plants prosper—and which don’t—during and after a drought.

“cool-temperature plants” are plants adapted to thrive during a wider time span of rainfall (meaning rainfall happens earlier, in cool months, as well as during summer months). during droughts, that’s exactly what happens: rain falls proportionately more often early in the season. this perfect matchup explains why “cool-temperature plants” paradoxically thrived during the dust bowl, according to the 2020 proceedings of the national academy of sciences article by knapp and collaborators. 

“the great plains have always been dealing with long term changes, and drought is one of them. it’s actually more of the norm – the wet years are the strange things. it’s the timing that’s changed; off and on,” crouch said. through his work with the kansas grazing lands coalition, crouch works with ranchers on a daily basis to help them respond to unpredictable drought conditions.  in this era of climate change and increasing major weather events, many ranchers are preparing for (and experiencing) major vegetation shifts. 

why do warm-temperature plants matter?

when it comes to soaking up rainfall and fixing co2 in high temperatures, warm-temperature native grasses simply do the job better. cool-temperature invaders, and woody plants, produce more runoff and add unpredictability to ranchers’ seasonal schedules. 

knapp’s findings suggest that grassland managers will have to adjust to the erratic growth seasons and decreased water efficiency that come with the invasion of cool-temperature grasses. the shift to cool-temperature grasses could even result in hotter summers, knapp said.

the path forward

knapp and his team are now gathering data on another chapter of the dust bowl: recovery. for the next 20 years, knapp intends to take his team on several “road trips” to check on their artificially drought-stricken plots. if the dust bowl vegetation took 20 years to recover, one of the next mysteries to solve is the timespan of recovery for knapp’s drought. how long will it take for his plots to bounce back? 

maintaining an artificial drought is no easy feat. his team faced setbacks from natural drought, long commutes, and even onsite vandalism at the arches. but the hard-won research serves an important purpose: foresight. 

when it comes to facing a future of emerging megadrought in the united states, every pattern and paradox matters—even mysteries dating back to the dust bowl. 

among the growing network of ecologists racing to prepare us for a drier and drier future, knapp’s jungle gym science experiments—and his tenacity to tackle unanswered conundrums from the past—offer key insights into the preparations farmers will need to make across the american mid-west. 

on september 17, i joined an estimated 75,000 activists in a climate march through the streets of new york city to end fossil fuels.

the morning of the march, i went to the gym at 7am for an arm workout, not realizing that my arms—not my legs—would soon be screaming in protest from four hours of waving a sign at the front of the youth hub.

i donned my rachel carson council t-shirt, a pair of walking shoes, and an edgy nose ring—not realizing i would end up on the front page of the new york times.

and i stuffed three granola bars into my bag—not realizing that i would scarf all of them down in one sitting at a 5 pm rally standing 3 feet away from bill mckibben.

there was a lot that surprised me about the march, even as a frequent attendee of climate protests.

the most delightfully unexpected aspect of the march was that it felt like a festival.

is that allowed? i asked myself. to simultaneously celebrate our wins and air our grievances? ultimately, the march reminded me that a joyful protest does not lose its urgency in any way.

there have been a considerable number of climate wins over the past two years, from the passage of the $369 billion inflation reduction act in 2022 to new york university’s divestment from fossil fuels only days before the march.

these victories likely fed into the colorful, raucous ambience of the march, with joyful reunions between cross-college student groups, hilariously stinging chants about famous oil and gas companies, and selfies at every street corner. somewhere in the streets, activists danced atop a decorated school bus. music echoed through the city. it was truly a “divestival.”

but the march was not without its demands. lives are at stake. in one of the most vibrant and intergenerational protests i have ever witnessed, i joined the crowd in chanting our conglomeration of “asks”:

1. to president biden, halt all new fossil fuel projects and declare a climate emergency.
2. to the united nations—meeting just down the road for general assembly and climate week—use your powers to implement a systemic just energy transition with provisions for water, soil, ecological health, and equity.
3. to the dwindling leftovers of the climate denial movement…get over yourselves.

there was something nostalgic about the protest. as clichéd as it may sound to say that the march echoed the 1970s, my surroundings felt like how i would’ve imagined the decade. art, music, creativity, and rage abounded.

i conversed with an ocean activist twirling a “jellyfish” parasol dangling with tendrils of yarn. i watched a man parade the streets dressed fully as a snowman, complete with a suit of cotton balls. some activists carried an inflatable pipeline that spanned dozens of rows of protestors.

the sign i carried depicted a famous new yorker cartoon by tom toro. “yes, the planet got destroyed. but for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders.”

an elderly woman approached me on the subway and asked about my sign. i bristled, ready to defend myself against the anti-climate comment she was surely about to make. instead, she smiled, told me she was marching too, and asked for directions to 56^th and broadway.

one of my friends, shubhangi, volunteered to be a marshal at the event. she later told me, “my job was boring, in many ways. i didn’t have to push or hold anyone back. everybody was peaceful.”

yet it was the first time i have blocked traffic. as i walked through the intersection, i tried to make eye contact with several of the drivers to gauge their facial expressions, offer a nod of acknowledgement, or pinpoint the location of intermittent angry honks.

there were several angry honks. however, it stood out to me that most stranded drivers did not honk but sat in stunned silence. maybe it was out of reverence for youth turnout. maybe it was resigned gratitude for the mildness of the protest compared to the recent activists who blocked washington d.c. rush hour traffic by sitting in the road, or activists who threw soup onto famous paintings (both of which i consider equally controversial and unproductive).

does protest work? i’ve talked at length about this in my book, growing up in the grassroots, as well as in several of my other articles for the rachel carson council.

the question has become so irritating to me that i refuse to answer it.

it’s not about whether protest “works.” it has never been a question of how many tons of carbon dioxide a protest draws out of the atmosphere or how many oil executives burst into tears afterward and pledge to change their ways forever. the reasons why protests matter—from antiwar, to aids justice, to civil rights and sncc—are implicitly written into united states history.

the whole point of a demonstration like the march to end fossil fuels is that there is something unquantifiable about it. there is no way to quantify the lifelong impact of sending a “climate bus” of 56 duke students up to the march to meet their climate heroes, or for activists to finally convene with their online collaborators face-to-face. (towards the end of the rally, i bumped into bill mckibben, who sent his love to the rachel carson council.)

the buzz of urgency and visibility surrounding a protest is one that permeates society in subtler ways than we realize. did people show up for an issue? we did. and are elected officials responsible? yes, we remind them of their duty. hearing congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez speak about biden’s accountability was a refreshing reminder that the climate movement is one patriotic enough to push pro-climate candidates to do even more.

all of that being said, there were tangible outcomes from the march.

only three days later, biden announced the creation of the american climate corps to employ young americans in high-paying, unionized environmental jobs. it wasn’t a declaration of a climate emergency, but to me it is a resounding victory for young people and for climate jobseekers across the working class—foreshadowing the “march” forward into a revived new deal ethic of hands-on stewardship, patriotism, and hard work.

if there had been no march, there would’ve been less impetus for nyu to strategically divest days beforehand—and perhaps for biden to tactfully declare the american climate corps just three days afterwards. if protests serve as a calendar cutoff for making sweeping environmental announcements, all the better.

i spent my final night in the city strategizing with a group of youth ocean activists on the language of a speech to be delivered in front of u.n. officials later in the week. we strategized over slices of 99-cent new york pizza.

that rainy evening seemed to epitomize everything i’d cherished about the march: the pressured excitement of youth climate action merged with the fulfilling, casual opportunities to just enjoy each other’s company.

in an unintentional nod to the new civilian climate corps and its callbacks to the new deal, i had coincidentally written a quote from franklin delano roosevelt on the back of my protest sign. it read: “the only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.”

the march to end fossil fuels alleviated any doubts that we are in a climate renaissance.

now, on the cusp of u.n. general assembly meetings, cop28 in dubai, and the final year of biden’s first term, youth and world leaders alike must ask ourselves:

what will our realization of tomorrow look like?