This is why we do what we do

By Kimberly Larson
Climate Solutions

Working to stop climate change seems so daunting, and we get so caught up in our mission, that we often forget to stop and think about why we're working so hard in the first place.

About a year and a half ago, I was having breakfast with my daughter (then one and half) and my son (almost four). My son asked me what I did for my job.  

“Well," I told him,  "we need energy to turn on things like the lights, the TV and have a lot of other things work in our lives. We can make that energy from things like coal, which we have to dig up from under the dirt and burn, but that means yucky stuff gets into the air and water. Or, we can get more energy from the sun and wind, and use less energy too. We need to do that or the trees, animals and people won’t be ok.  It’ll get too hot and the air and water too dirty.  So that’s what I do for my job.  I work to keep it clean.”  

He looked up at me, paused, and then hugged me. It was a surprising reminder of why I do what I do.

Today, the day we honor all our mothers, seems like a good time to stop and reflect on what we're working for. Some of us moms at Climate Solutions want to share with you our Mothers’ Day wishes for our children's futures:

Jessica Finn Coven, Washington Director

My dreams for my son are for health and happiness; that he will breathe clean air and drink clean water and always raise his voice so that others will have the same opportunity. I pray that he inherits a world that isn’t dominated by fossil fuel companies, that he experiences a democracy where corporations are not considered people. For his sake, I hope that our generation gets serious about climate solutions so that he can inherit a planet full of all the beauty it holds today. 

Ann Gravatt, Oregon Director

 Of course I have a long list of what I want for my children. But, the easiest answer is that I want them to be happy. John Lennon captured this better than anyone:

"When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy.’ They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life." 

Kimberly Larson, Director of Communications and Marketing

My Mother’s Day wish for my kids is for our region and our country to be a leader in clean-energy generation and innovation. That we quickly accelerate what we need to do to address the climate crisis before it’s too late to change things for the world they will own as adults. I wish that, in the words of Thomas Friedman, “green will be the new red, white and blue” and we will all be new pioneers and patriots.     

Suzanne Malakoff, Communications Specialist

Eli, Natasha, and Aaron: May you always be accepted for who you are, your strengths recognized and respected, your challenges supported. I hope that you continue to ask difficult and seemingly unanswerable questions, and that you actively seek out or are a part of discovering or demanding the answers. May you live and work alongside people who share a vision of investing in the care of Mother Earth. And may you always be willing to say, “I can help.”

Eileen V. Quigley, New Energy Cities Program Director

My Mother’s Day wish for you, Anna and Jacob, is that in the 21st Century that we reverse the carbon pollution and toxicity that our dependence on fossil fuels created during the 20th Century, and that we also radically readjust the balance of power and wealth in our country as it is tipped way too far in the direction of the few at serious expense to the many.