Paths through the Arctic lead to Washington, DC
Ben Wessel
By Ben Wessel
2009 Clean Air-Cool Planet
Climate Fellow for Policy Communications
Working on the ground in DC to influence climate policy is important work, but sometimes it’s easy to get trapped in a maze of numbers, analyses, rumors, and blogs. Somewhere between calculating the percentage of carbon permits allocated to state wildlife and natural resource agencies and combing through a Senator’s website for mentions of support for the latest energy efficiency proposal, it’s easy to lose sight of what you’re actually fighting for.
Which is why I jumped at the chance to interview Clean Air-Cool Planet’s Brooks Yeager this week. Brooks has had a long career advancing and advocating for the answers to many environmental problems that face threatened areas of the world, particularly the Arctic. More than anyone else in our office, Brooks has a real grasp of the ways the climate crisis will impact our world, since his work focuses on the most vulnerable place of all. Beyond all the legal lingo and policy wonk talk, the fight to stop global warming is truly about protecting the places in the world that we value most and, for Brooks, that place is the Arctic. The interview is posted on Clean Air-Cool Planet’s arcticwarming.net website.
This opportunity was particularly meaningful for me, as my own road to the movement to pass strong climate policy runs through the Arctic as well. In June 2008, I was selected to join seventeen other young people from nine countries around the world on a “Voyage for the Future” (www.voyageforthefuture.org) hosted by the World Wildlife Fund. We visited the Norwegian arctic archipelago of Svalbard and learned about the ramifications of arctic warming on the local people, arctic ecosystem, and the globe as a whole. While the experience was somewhat disheartening in that we learned that this miraculous place that we had just begun to explore was under such dire circumstances, we were also encouraged to take action and get involved to drive the change that would save the Arctic. Now that I’m doing policy work at Clean Air-Cool Planet that will help combat the climate crisis, and protect the Arctic, I feel as if I’m living up to the charge. Do your part by exploring www.arcticwarming.net and educating yourself about the different impacts we’re having on the Arctic and learning about how to change your behaviors to protect the great white north.
Tags: arctic governance, arctic ocean, arctic warming, brooks yeager, climate expert, climate policy, global warming, Policy
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