My picks this week were inspired both by current events and by the writers’ ability to tie said current events to larger interconnected systems. These articles did a good job of not only covering the immediate ramifications climate events, but explaining what they could mean in future years.

For my for fun article this week — find a friend with a truck, gather up some blankets and prep for the upcoming Perseid Meteor Shower! More information at the bottom of the post. Now, without further ado…

Okay, these El Niño forecasts are getting ridiculous

By Ella Lapointe for Gizmodo

If you take the time to subscribe or read a newsletter titled “Weathering Climate Careers”, I believe the odds are in my favor that you are a climate, weather or overall science nerd — and this suggestion is certainly aimed at that demographic. I’ve seen plenty of articles explaining what the potential impacts of the upcoming El Niño are, but I love the level of detail that this Gizmodo article goes into while also making sure to keep it fairly broad by reminding us of sobering global impacts of this weather system.

Toxic underground fires are spreading at California landfills

By Tony Briscoe for the L.A. Times

As a Californian, air pollution — whether from traffic or wildfires — is unfortunately nothing new to me. This particular source of air pollution, however, caught me off guard: waste burning underground at California landfills, resulting in toxic gases and hazardous liquid waste called leachate.

Though one toxic underground fire is bad enough, Briscoe’s mention of two other landfills struggling with this — El Sobrante in Riverside County and Avenal in the San Joaquin Valley — proves that this isn’t a one-off issue we’ll never have to worry about again. As waste piles up and temperatures county to rise, how worried do we need to be that underground burning at landfills, once rare, will becoming a regular risk?

Spokane Shows What the New Era of Wildfires Looks Like

By Sachi Kitajima Mulkey for WIRED/Grist

I was in my early teens when a wildfire destroyed the town of Paradise, California. Wildfires and the smoke they cause are something that even by then I’d grown used to. What there was no comparison for, though, was the destruction, the loss of homes, and the changing of lives which that particular wildfire brought with it. During the fire and for months after, donation drives to help the victims were widespread, and I remember boys from my high school bragging they’d gone up there to volunteer.

I wish I could say that nothing like that wildfire will ever happen again. Unfortunately, this month’s wildfire which has brought pain and destruction to the community of Spokane, Washington shows that catastrophic wildfires which destroy towns and cities are growing more, rather than less, common. Mulkey’s article shows not only the on-the-ground reaction to the fire itself, but explains the science behind the fire’s spread — and why similar events are only more likely going forward.

Western Europe sets new temperature record as heat waves pummel the region

By Stefanie Dazio for AP News

There are places that are built to handle intense heat… but heatwaves in areas not equipped for them can be deadly. Western Europe has been dealing with prolonged heat for months now, exacerbated by El Niño conditions as reported on by Stefanie Dazio in this article. Dazio’s article makes the list for a similar reason to Lapointe’s Gizmodo article. Dazio does a phenomenal job of displaying why temperatures themselves are not our sole concern — the wider effects they play on an interconnected environment and climate are.

And finally…

Perseid meteor shower set to dazzle northern hemisphere this week

By the Associated Press

Admittedly, most of the news in this newsletter isn’t exactly cheery. This is more of a forward-looking piece (the meteor shower is taking place this coming week), but sometimes it’s good to remember and appreciate nature’s beauties. After all, if we don’t take time to take care of ourselves and enjoy the restorative wonders nature has to offer, burn out comes all the quicker. So find a dark spot, maybe bring a loved one, and make some memories while witnessing this phenomena later this week.

Though I have been encouraged to not treat AI as a “black box” that we simply will never be able to truly understand, I will be the first to admit that its mechanics can be at best, confusing, and at worst, downright creepy.

Hallucinating that a certain paper or book exists when it doesn’t? Confusing, but could be worse.

Escaping from the sandbox you make for it to hack into other companies’ servers to cheat on a cybersecurity test? Downright creepy.

One example I’ve seen to explain AI in plain language is that it reads all of the information available on a particular topic you ask it about and then churns out a condensed answer for the reader. Sort of like a student writing a report on a particular topic, except AI reads at a pace that a human simply can’t rival and doesn’t necessarily question the sources it finds.

I’ve seen some people argue that AI is just saving time; whereas to know everything about bumblebees, I would’ve once had to comb through multiple websites, articles, and books, now, I can ask AI about bumblebees and it will tell me the same information I would’ve learned anyway except faster — and if I really care all that much, I can even ask it for its sources to fact-check it.

About a week ago, I was reflecting on the idea that AI simply streamlines finding information, allowing me to learn “faster”. Specifically, I was reflecting on this idea through the lens of a quote by the legendary David Attenborough which has been haunting my TikTok algorithm:

“If children don’t grow up knowing about nature and appreciating it, they will not understand it. And if they don’t understand it, they won’t protect it.” -David Attenborough, Conserving Wonder, 2015

When I reflect on what has made me who I am today, I think of kindergarten, when I systematically made my way through the entire section of my elementary school’s library dedicated to cats because I just couldn’t get enough about learning about each individual breed.

I think of reading books about insects, birds, and trees from my shelf at home, stopping to look at the details of each diagram and learn about the intricacies of migrations and seasonal changes.

I think of the little girl who hid a flashlight under her blankets to read after dark, and the little girl who tried to master recognizing her parents’ footsteps in the hallway so they didn’t prevent her from reading at ungodly hours of the night.

Most importantly, though, I think about all of the times that a sentence, or heck, even a single word tripped my curiosity and made me want to learn more — about cats, about bumblebees, about evergreen forests.

Because that, I can promise you, AI CAN’T predict. Or maybe, the better phrasing is that that is one thing that AI shouldn’t TRY and predict. Algorithms can get very good at guessing what you might like or might care about, but we grow as people by discovering those things for ourselves.

If we rely on the AI overview at the very surface of our research rabbit hole and don’t probe deeper, don’t ask further questions, how will we ever know if there was something that AI just… decided wasn’t relevant to our interests, and left out?

Returning to Attenborough’s quote: I decided to pursue environmental communication because nature, in all of its states, leaves me with a feeling in my heart and in my head that I can’t put into words. Being outdoors brings me a sense of wholeness I have failed to find anywhere else. But, I only KNOW that because instead of relying on overviews and even solely relying on reading and indoor learning, I had the privilege to spend time outdoors from a young age.

I had the privilege to have a Dad who pop quizzed me on what kind of trees we were driving past; a Dad who grabbed insects from trees and taught me to recognize their different body parts and ecological functions. I had the privilege of being a part of communities — like 4-H, for example — that prioritized getting children outdoors, active and learning — and of having a school that sent me to science camp in sixth grade.

As a young person, I worry constantly about my job being taken by AI. I worry about what effect AI will have on our climate in coming decade, and about what AI means for misinformation and censorship, to name a few. But worries aside, what I do know is that apps like iNaturalist are going to be more important than ever in the coming years.

David Attenborough’s quote is inspirational, and getting children out into nature is vitally important — but the importance of fostering connections with nature doesn’t stop once people turn 18.

Attenborough’s focus on the next generation does well as a motivational TikTok sound, but what it truly made me realize is the importance of not only having people of all ages UNDERSTAND environment and climate, but interact with it on a personal level.

iNaturalist and applications in its same vein require people of all ages to get outdoors to participate, provide them a community to engage with, and even foster healthy competition (I get a small burst of joy every time I identify a new creature on iNaturalist). Plenty of attention has been paid to these apps as a way to get scientists more data, but we are entering an era in which their function to the general population is going to be just as valuable — or maybe, these apps have always had this value to non-scientists, and we’re simply entering an era in which their value is undeniable.

It is clear that with each passing day, AI is becoming more deeply ingrained into every day life, whether we want it to be or not. When I think of this, though, I remind myself what AI cannot replace: the first breath of fresh air when you arrive in a forest grove or at the beach, the intense shade of blue of the sky the first time you step outside on a given day, or the brief glimpse of a bird or wild animal you see on a hike.

AI cannot replace a personal connection with nature and environment, at any age, and similarly, cannot (and should not) replace the curiosity to learn voraciously. I pray that the ability to experience the beauties of nature remains for future generations — because though AI cannot replace these beauties, it might darn well destroy them.

For a less climate-heavy read, though, read to the end of this week’s post to hear about my favorite just-for-fun science article of the week. Hint: the story is so interesting, even eating lotus flowers couldn’t keep me from finishing it! Without further ado…

Can we alter ocean chemistry to absorb carbon? Here are the pros and cons

By Harris Anderson, Andrew Lenton, and Mathieu Mongin for The Conversation

Awareness of climate change itself is key to maintaining an informed public, but climate solutions are a key part of the puzzle to fighting or at least mitigating effects of climate change moving forward. This article from The Conversation goes over the basic science behind ocean alkalinity enhancement for increased carbon capture, but it also touches on a less scientific, equally significant point: community involvement. Keeping people safe from the effects of climate change will involve not only consulting communities, but involving them in decision-making, exemplified in the article’s “Community Support” section which calls for inclusion of First Nations communities in designing field tests and proposed projects.

As Maui recovers from devastating fires, a study offers vision for new rural health model

By Angus Chen for STAT

After speaking with Aline Maybank in my last Q&A (which you should totally read at the link here if you haven’t already), it felt like a natural continuation to highlight this article this week. More than just continuing featuring wildfire health research, though, this article shows quite possibly the most important part of science as a whole: making it, as said in the article by Jen Runkle, “science as service”. Hours spent in the lab or behind a screen crunching numbers mean nothing unless we can figure out how to have actual, tangible effort with the results we find. This article shows exactly how providing care such as that given at MauiWES can help provide clarity long-term through data collection, while also providing life-saving information to locals.

Risk of Parkinson’s disease may increase with prolonged exposure to road traffic noise

By Ushika Kidd for The Guardian

When most people think “environment”, they think trees, air, chirping birds — you get the gist. However, the reality is that many people’s immediate “environment” is much more than that. With 68% of the world’s population expected to live in urban areas by the year 2050 according to the UN, findings such as those found by Jama Neurology in this study are essential to keeping as many people as possible happy and healthy long-term.

California wants to build biggest reservoir in 50 years. There may not be enough water to fill it

By Kurtis Alexander for the San Francisco Chronicle

Growing up in Central California, I’m no stranger to hearing about water struggles. In this piece, the SF Chronicle does a great job not only of illustrating why water-related projects are so hard to get off the ground, but of showing varied perspectives of how different people and communities feel about the project.

And finally, the fun article of the week…

The Odyssey is fiction. But its monsters and magic may have been based on real science.

I joined the flock of millions this past weekend and made my way to my local movie theater to see Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey on the big screen. For three hours, I hid in a cylcop’s cave, fought Laestrygonians, and survived shipwrecks alongside Matt Damon. In the back of my head, though, was this article by National Geographic attempting to bridge science and myth by explaining the scientific realities behind the story.

I won’t spoil the read (or the movie) for you, but my thoughts? If you want to suspend your disbelief, maybe read the article after watching Nolan’s Odyssey, but regardless of timing, this one’s definitely worth the read.

Above: Aline Maybank, whose work centers around air pollution, community health and remote sensing, will be entering an MD/PhD program in hopes of becoming a clinician-scientist.

Aline Maybank began growing her social media presence about a year and a half ago after noticing a lack of content covering environmental health. Since then, Maybank — who goes by AlineTheSoybean on TikTok, Instagram , YouTube and Threads — has gained over 14,000 followers on TikTok and 3,000 followers on Instagram.

Maybank began pursuing medical sciences during her undergraduate at Dalhousie University in Canada, where she also obtained an Environmental Science minor. After finishing her bachelor’s, Maybank got her Master’s of Public Health in Environmental Health Sciences at Yale University in Connecticut, and will be beginning her MD/PhD program at the University of British Columbia this August. Her research focus will be environmental health. Aside from her academic pursuits, Maybank is currently a Digital Science Communication Fellow through the Museum of Science in Boston, and a Voices for Science Fellow through the American Geophysical Union.

Maybank sat down with Weathering Climate Careers via Zoom from Vietnam in order to discuss her path to combining environment, climate and health, what her work looks like, how she strives for balance, and more.

Charlotte Burks

My first question is a “chicken or egg” style question… which interest came first, environment or health? What has your career journey looked like combining the two?

Aline Maybank

Chicken or egg… I feel like it was a convoluted tornado going back and forth.

My earliest memories are of being at summer camp and absolutely loving the outdoor education activities. I was obsessed with memorizing the proper names for spiders and types of clouds and was so fascinated by the levels at which fire burns. I also grew up in a family where we talked about climate change all the time. We talked about how our environment and communities support us, and why we brought apple slices to school in cream cheese containers instead of paying for Pyrex or Tupperware.

It wasn’t until grade 9 or 10 that I started really caring about health, due in part to some health challenges my family was experiencing, but also due to seeing how drastically health can change someone’s quality of life. I believe everyone deserves the highest quality of life our society can provide, so to see that ripped away because someone you know can’t afford or access healthcare was hard for me. I got into a one-track mindset that it had to be medicine. “Sustainability and environmental science will just be the ways that I live my life,” I thought.

My second year of undergrad, I was studying for the MCAT outside during the summertime because a week-long heat wave 118 degrees Fahrenheit (or 48 degrees Celsius) kept causing my community’s power generator to explode. I had to wear an N95 because the air pollution levels were so high, and a wildfire was burning across the mountain from us. I studied for the MCAT with a to-go bag always packed, thinking about evacuation routes while memorizing the function of alveoli. I ended up evacuating due to that wildfire, flying across Canada, and taking the MCAT on a three-hour time change two days later.

Climate change isn’t just an issue — it’s affecting our lives and health now, and we need people in the medical field that can help our healthcare become more environmentally resilient under climate change. Otherwise, we’re going to face more dire consequences due to our inability to prepare for and attack it. I’m never giving up on that dream of cross collaboration between environment and health. Chicken or egg? I think it’s both, almost like I’m a Russian doll instead.

Charlotte Burks

Your research is at the nexus of air pollution, community health, and remote sensing. What does that look like? Can you share some examples of work you’ve done?

Aline Maybank

I started to be interested in remote sensing when I realized that there are so many existing datasets funded by taxpayers in the US and Canada, and around the world through the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) or the European Space Agency (ESA) which cover entire countries or provinces at a relatively good resolution scale. These datasets fill in the gaps that exist with just ground level sensing. With ground level sensing, you’re not included in the research if you don’t have an air pollutant sensor because your community couldn’t afford it or maintain it.

Often when we talk about wildfires, for example, we’re talking about health equity. We’re trying to understand the health disparity that exists, and how can we do that effectively if we can’t get the exposure data for an entire area?

The community health lens came in because people’s health is shaped by their environments and communities long before a singular medical diagnosis. Medicine is often viewed on the individual scale, but there is very high variance to treating illness or disparities on a community level, because we are all in this together. It’s like a team sport. I think public health tries to look at that lens. I want to continue to frame health and disease through the lens of, “We’re trying to support each other to have a more fruitful community together.”

An example would be my master’s thesis on the chemistry of wildfire smoke. For this project, we worked with project partners in British Columbia to measure smoke in a valley [in B.C.] and used public remote sensing datasets tracking where all the smoke was coming from, so we knew where the air was flowing from between Washington State and British Columbia. We tracked concentrations of health-relevant chemicals in wildfire smoke and tried to characterize what is in the wildfire smoke we’re breathing, since it’s what we’re breathing that has impact downstream on our bodily systems.

Charlotte Burks

Speaking of all your work, you wear a lot of hats. You got your master’s in public and environmental health, you’re a science communicator, you’re an incoming MD/PhD student. What motivated you to add science communicator to this list of many things?

Aline Maybank

I do community engaged environmental health work. I go into communities and talk about air purifiers, wildfires and extreme heat exposures, for example. A lot of the topics that I was bringing to the community felt so far beyond what the community was thinking of. I didn’t want to add the burden of reading the scientific literature to their lives — they have busy lives and other priorities. Air pollution is likely not in their top 20 concerns.

Then, I was thinking about my interests in policy. There’s a lack of literacy in environmental health because it’s a relatively new field, so people aren’t always drawing the connection between environment and health. Instead, there’s such strong research occurring in the fields of medicine and environmental science, but it’s just siloed in academia.

I wish that when I was in undergrad, someone had told me, “Aline, environmental health exists, you can do both.” Instead, I was almost told the opposite — you do have to pick. I was told, “Oh, if you want to go to medical school, you need to do this, this, and that.” And I did this, this, and that, and yet my heart was still aching for the connection to environment and climate.

I saw the lack of role models on social media and reflected on how I’m the perfect demographic to have environmental health content recommended to me, yet I never received it. I got so many “Day in my Life as a Medical Student” videos, and never a “Day in my Life as an Environmental Health Researcher” or epidemiologist. I couldn’t even define what epidemiology was before I took a class on it.

So, I started my science communication channels to provide data and information to the public accessibly through social media, to provide a role model to the generation that is going through science today, and also to experiment with communicating with the mass public, because there’s so much cool knowledge and free courses out there that we aren’t reaching the public with.

Charlotte Burks

With all that you do, what does balance look like as a science communicator who’s also a full-time researcher, soon-to-be medical student?

Aline Maybank

I strive for balance through constant equilibrium — finding a new balance every day. For example, my goal today is to do my full-time job, push out a post to TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, and maybe see a friend. As a scientist, I’m analytical. I’m like, “This one’s a time deadline, this one’s a time deadline, and I can post one video across three platforms.” Most times, I’ll make videos in advance. Sometimes I’ll make them while my R code decides to run for 30 minutes, or I’ll make them during my lunch break or before work. I think what’s important to me, though, is it doesn’t feel like a burden to post on social media.

If ever I feel burdened by it, I just don’t post on social media. I absolutely love what I do, and I think that’s also how I strive for balance. I love medicine, I love research, I love social media outreach, I love connecting. I’m playing to my strengths, and where my strengths lack — for example, the aesthetics of my Instagram page or making long form content — I try to work sustainably, meaning working in a form I can keep up. I make my videos something that I would want to watch, which most likely ends up being short form content. Conversely, if I picked a style of content that felt like a chore to make, I would have a video every month and a half. I’m literally traveling in Vietnam right now, but I can continue to work with my style, since it is relatively low hanging fruit for the lifestyle that I have and want to have. I think that that comes across on social media too. People will say I come across as very genuine to them, which is so nice, and I think that it’s because I’m creating videos I like to create.

I try to post every day on social media, at least my day-to-day life, and maybe that becomes posting once every other day while I’m at school. What’s important to me is to still maintain this constant, continuous social media presence. I think that’s where you have strong relationships made, compared to posting a lot, then disappearing.

Charlotte Burks

Where do you see yourself long-term, and what impact do you hope to have with your work?

Aline Maybank

My goal is to truly become a clinician scientist… being in the clinic working with patients one-on-one a few days a week and doing research within an institution focused on environmental health a few days a week. Hopefully a couple years after my PhD graduation, I’ll also involved in policy making on the provincial or federal scale within Health Canada or Environment and Climate Change Canada.

Basically, my end goal is to not give up anything that I currently do. I found that MD/PhD gives me the network and the balance — although the balance is insanely skewed towards the chaotic end. As an MD/PhD, you’re sort of expected to do both research and clinic work, and so you’re protected from doing only clinic work, and you’re protected from doing only research work. I really like that aspect of a clinician scientist.

I also hope to inspire the next generation through social media. I would have never assumed that through videos you could easily like inspire someone, but I’ll get messages from viewers maybe four or six times a week. For example, one person recently reached out and said they’re a medical student, and they took up an environmental health elective because I’ve shaped how they view their medical degree and the impact they can have. Someone else told me that they started watching my videos a year ago, and now they’re just finishing up the first year of their Masters of Public Health. Someone from Australia reached out to me saying, “I don’t know if you’re going to see this, but you’ve inspired me to continue my passion in environment and health — before I thought I had to pick between the two of them, but now I know I can do both.” They finished the message with, “Your sharing your story means so much more than you could possibly know.” That’s just to name a few of the messages I’ve received. Overall, I hope to create this ripple effect of respecting and understanding the value of bringing a well-rounded mindset to medicine related to environmental and community health disparities.

Charlotte Burks

What advice do you have for students or for professionals who are interested in environmental health? Is there anything about this path that you wish you’d known sooner? Wishing you’d known the field existed seems to be a theme.

Aline Maybank

Truly!

If you look back on my LinkedIn or career, it looks like I do so much, have achieved so much, have gotten so many awards, and done so many cool things. And it is true, I have done that, but also, what you’re not seeing is all the awards I didn’t get. Like, I got an award to study in Japan and do research. Before that, though, I didn’t even get an award to study at my own home university. I got almost a full ride to Yale, but Harvard didn’t give me any merit-based aid. It was so important that I learned to not take it personally. If I hadn’t kept my ego high after taking hits, I would never have applied for half the awards I’ve applied for to this day.

I think [those awards] have set me apart. The awards themselves take maybe six hours of application work to put together, but then when you get one, you’re part of a science communication fellowship for a year — that’s worth it. Many people don’t apply because they’re like, “Oh, they’re not going to pick me. I only have 3000 followers on TikTok.” When I applied, other people who got it didn’t have any followers on TikTok, so don’t let yourself be the decision maker. Put that into the hands of a random person, and if that person doesn’t want you, okay, it sucks. But if you keep trying, then at least you’re putting your best foot forward, and you’re constantly trying your best, and you’re constantly trying for new experiences.

It’s not eloquent at all, but this is the environmental health related tip I give to everyone. A lot of places will make you pick, because environment/earth science and medical are in two different academic silos. You can uno reverse them and pick neither by applying to both. Apply your environmental health project to the earth sciences scholarship and apply your geo-health project to the medical scholarship and see how those cards fall. Why not use these academic silos as an advantage?

People still, to this day, think environment has no place in medicine, yet they’re going to go home and complain about how hot it is, and how wildfire smoke is impacting their lives, and how they’re wearing masks. We are starting to see a change, and that’s why it’s so important to be resilient when applying. If one person says no, it might literally just be their own old-school bias towards not having environment-related things [in medicine].

Thank you so much to Aline for joining us for this Q&A! I strongly encourage everyone to give her socials a follow — I’ve followed her myself since long before this interview, and her content is not only educational but also incredibly fun to watch.

Aline’s Instagram

Aline’s Threads

Aline’s Tiktok

Aline’s YouTube

I believe that the internet is a safe, judgement-free space (cue the laugh track).

So, I’m going to confide a secret in you all: it took me about halfway into college to realize that careers can be incredibly interdisciplinary.

For most of my life, I considered the answer to “What do you want to be when you grow up?” to be a cage. A singular definition that meant I couldn’t possibly explore any other fields in a professional capacity ever again.

Dramatic, I know.

In high school, I ping ponged from dream job to dream job: architect, veterinarian, doctor, reporter, back to architect — and that’s the abridged list. In college, declaring a major was my personal hell: civil engineering, classics, communication, then BOTH classics and communication, then I considered dropping both and switching to environmental science… you get the point.

Somewhere on this journey, I fell into journalism and communications. I expected to fall in love with these fields because I’ve always loved writing, but honestly? The best part of my jobs by FAR has been getting to talk to people I might otherwise never have met, or even heard of. Interview by interview, I’ve uncovered stories of people who have fused their passions together, landing in jobs they didn’t even know existed or carving out Franken-careers for themselves based on their own interests.

Now, I want to share these stories with you through Weathering Climate Careers. Though the research success stories of long hours spent in a lab chasing results or answers are fascinating, I would argue they are the most often seen or imagined perspective of environmental science (and science at large). What about the people who work with climate and environment, but AREN’T scientists or researchers in the traditional sense? For many, climate careers mean approaching climate and environmental issues from finance, communications, policy, medicine and more. These perspectives are what Weathering Climate Careers will feature.

Every other week, I’ll be introducing you all to someone who has found a way to blend their interests in climate and environment with other disciplines in a Q&A-style interview. Through these conversations, we’ll explore career paths, motivations, and desired impact, all while (hopefully!) learning something new about how different disciplines intersect with climate and environment.

And, because I know you all love journalists and storytellers just as much as I do, I’ll be sending out a weekly digest of science-related stories and content that I loved. I’m always open to suggestions, and the more the merrier — so if you see something you think deserves to be highlighted, send it my way!

When I cover events as a reporter, I always ask organizers what they hope attendees take away from their event. Turning that question on myself, my primary goal is that this Substack help inspire people at every stage of their career to find ways to bridge their everyday work with their passion (if they haven’t already). If that passion is for climate and environmental science, even better.

Climate change doesn’t care what country you live in, what language you speak or how rich or poor you are; its effects are already felt worldwide, and will only worsen. Though wealthier countries and individuals may be able to keep themselves protected from the harshest effects for longer, the reality remains: preventing the worst impacts of climate change for everyone will require widespread effort from countries and individuals around the world.

At least for now, I can’t really do much about inter-country collaboration. But sharing stories of people bridging climate work with other disciplines is, I hope, a start on inspiring others to contribute their individual effort.

The entire internet might not be a safe, judgement-free space, but I believe that Weathering Climate Careers can make room for people to share their experiences working in climate and environment, while also gleaning lessons from others’ career paths. Whether you work in the climate space yourself, are trying to find a way to transition mid-career into doing so, or are just curious about other peoples’ passions, I hope you stick around and join us on our own journey discovering and weathering climate careers.