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May 31, 2022
From the Board Chair, Jared Blum
Nothing gives me more hope for the future than the enthusiasm of young people for climate action. Society’s ability to advance equitable climate solutions will be limited for as long as diversity goals go unmet.
EESI emphasizes equity in our Congressional education, including by assembling panels that represent the diversity of the communities we highlight. And we put equity at the heart of our work with rural utilities, including by joining forces with the NAACP to make solar energy more accessible and inclusive to communities of color.
We have a responsibility to do more, including by encouraging young people of color who care about the environment to lend their voices, perspectives, and experiences to climate policy-making.
EESI’s Board of Directors had a vision: a Future Climate Leaders Scholarship program to help students of color complete their studies and find their place in climate policy and advocacy. When we made our first award, our vision became a reality; with it came a realization of how much more we have to do.
You make possible everything we do at EESI to educate policymakers and help rural households access the multiple benefits of clean energy.
I hope you will share my commitment and enthusiasm for the EESI Future Climate Leadership Scholarship.
EESI congratulates Antoinette “Toni” Lorfils of Damascus, Maryland, who is the first recipient of EESI's $5,000 Future Climate Leaders Scholarship. Lorfils has demonstrated a commitment to climate action and environmental protection and is especially keen on protecting animals and wildlife.
Toni says, “My goal is to educate others, be the change and help find better solutions to make the world a better place. Once we all understand that helping the Earth is for everyone’s greater good, the world will be a much happier place to call home.”
By Tim Slattery
“I have heard people give Ted Talks on climate change, and they always tend to end with, ‘Well, despite all of this, I'm optimistic.’ And frankly, I’m not. If I was giving a Ted Talk, maybe I would say I was. It’s very hard to be all gloom and doom, but you know, this is not good. I have grandchildren, and I really worry about them. I don't moan and groan in their presence. But this is going to be their life in a much hotter world and a much different world.” Judith Weis, a marine scientist with experience working on Capitol Hill and in academia, knows from firsthand experience that adapting to climate change and curbing plastic pollution is urgent.
Judith expanded, “We scientists started talking about this in the ’80s, when it first became obvious that things were happening with bleaching of coral reefs. So we've been talking about it for 40 years, and the progress we've made is minor. We need it to be much faster, much more, much sooner.”
Judith’s matter-of-fact outlook on the urgency of the climate crisis has fueled her prolific research and outreach on environmental issues ranging from reducing the spread of microplastics to protecting coastal salt marshes through adaptation. Currently a professor emeritus at Rutgers University, she has contributed to several books and published extensively on marine aquatic organisms, tropical mangroves, the effects of contamination, parasites, and invasive species on animals in estuaries, and more.
JUDITH USED INFORMATION FROM EESI'S PREDECESSOR WHEN SHE WORKED ON CAPITOL HILL
Judith told EESI that in the 1980s, “I looked up from my lab and saw things going on in the EPA that I thought were outrageous, so I got involved in policy, And I learned about a fellowship for scientists to work for the federal government, generally on Capitol Hill. I thought I might have an impact on policy by working there.”
“When I became a fellow, I spent a year in Washington working for the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. And while there, I got these “green sheets”—literally on green-colored paper—from the Environmental and Energy Study Conference, which was the predecessor of EESI.”
“They were very helpful to me in the work I was doing, and I really was appreciative of this informative news that came to us. And then I followed from a distance as EESI went online, launched a website and all. And I’m still following and donating to EESI because I just had very good feelings about EESI’s importance from my time on the Hill!”
From her work on coastal marshes, Judith knows that people living in coastal New Jersey increasingly understand the importance of marshes, including their role in mitigating floods during extreme weather events such as hurricanes. She noted that it was very clear that during Hurricane Sandy, which caused a lot of damage to New Jersey and New York, the communities that had a more extensive marsh were much less damaged than the communities that did not. Marshes have a protective effect against storm surge and flooding but also help absorb pollutants, resulting in cleaner water.
To learn more about the climate solutions for marshes and wetlands that Judith recommends in her work as a marine biologist, check out part 2 of this article, coming soon! It will appear in our biweekly Climate Change Solutions, so subscribe here if you don’t already receive it.
The goal of these series is to educate Congress about climate impacts we are feeling and the technologies we need to cut emissions faster.
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