Earlier this fall, I took the train down to New York for a few days to join in on Climate Week—a collection of events organized by the non-profit Climate Group in service of reaching net zero by 2050.
The sessions were spread out all over Manhattan, so I spent three days taking the subway uptown, then downtown, and over to Brooklyn at night, where I stayed in a hotel room that was only a few square feet bigger than the double bed within it.
Down by Wall Street, I heard about how 3D printing has made it vastly cheaper to create living seawalls, opening opportunities to grow marine ecosystems that will protect coastal cities from flooding.
The next morning, I went to N.Y.U. to learn about resilience hubs, where people can get support during and after extreme weather. Later, I travelled all the way up to Columbia University (trust me when I say that Manhattan is not a small place) for a session about optimizing the electrical grid.
Throughout the sessions, what struck me was the sheer amount of momentum that’s built up around climate change. Reading article after article about the federal government’s attempts to derail clean energy can make it feel like we’re headed for Coal Era 2.0.
And don’t get me wrong, there was plenty of talk about how tough the sector is right now. The word “headwinds” was in heavy rotation. But looking at how many businesses and other organizations are now part of the climate equation, it was hard to imagine those headwinds prevailing.
Business-types crowded into a standing-room-only event meant to connect Korean climate tech companies with American investors. Members of the insurance industry asked questions at more than one session I attended. A communications person from the Natural Resources Defense Council talked about her organization’s partnerships with Hollywood. The Church of Latter-day Saints sent people.
It all felt incredibly… mainstream. There were far more suits than dreadlocks and Birkenstocks (although often those suits were worn with sneakers, which is apparently the thing to do now).
Now I’m back in my home office in the attic, settling in to spend the winter writing about what I learned. The life of a freelancer is a solitary one, so it was good to be reminded that I’m not alone. Far, far from it, in fact.
Saima Sidik is a science journalist from Lincolnville who now lives in Somerville, Massachusetts. You may subscribe to her newsletter at saimamay.com/newsletter.
