This year marks a key milestone in the struggle to address climate change.

After decades of continued warming, the effects of climate change are becoming increasingly evident around the world – and are impossible to deny. Temperature records are being shattered year after year. And countless heat waves, severe storms, floods, droughts, and wildfires are affecting millions, often with dire consequences. All the while, greenhouse gas emissions have continued, fueling the unrelenting heating of our planet.

When I graduated from college less than a decade ago, there seemed to be only two paths for people interested in fighting climate change full-time: science or policy. 

Shortly after I left academia to take a scientist position with a nonprofit environmental organization, a colleague from the Environmental Protection Agency – a key audience for my science-based advocacy – gave me some advice. 

“You need to understand,” he said, “that the government decision-makers you talk to don’t care about what you know. They care about how what you know can help them do their jobs.”

As founder of the Climate Leadership Collective and former Microsoft employee, Drew Wilkinson knows the ins and outs of getting employees engaged on climate. 

Lisa Feldman is the senior director of culinary for Sodexo, a multinational food service company that works with institutions like hospitals, college campuses, senior living centers, and company offices. 

When Suzume Soryo* started working as a technical writer at a software company, she jumped immediately into the climate community at her new organization.