We’ve all heard it before—“listen to
your mother.” Now an effort is underway to get Washington D.C. to follow this
age-old wisdom when it comes to the issue of climate change and clean air.
The Moms Clean Air Force is
a community of mothers and fathers working to tackle air pollution and climate
change in order to protect children and the planet we’re leaving them. The
organization is connecting the dots between air pollution, climate change, an
imperiled food system, toxic products and the well-being of kids, and
encouraging parents to learn and take action.
Led by co-founder (and mom) Dominique
Browning, 59, the organization now has more than 570,000 parents involved, and
is working at both the national and state level to organize parents to push for
air pollution regulation and climate change action.
Browning and I had a phone chat this
week about the group’s work, what her sons think about their mom yelling at
politicians, and getting celebrities to join the cause.
(Interview has been lightly edited for
brevity)
 |
| Dominique Browning |
I see you’ve been a writer and editor
for some time. What made you want to get involved in clean air and children’s
health issues?
I’m obsessed with climate change. As a
magazine editor for all of my life, I was struck by how much the conversations
about climate change were directed at people in the know, instead of people
like me who want to know more and understand but couldn’t understand it. I
wanted to change the conversation from polar bears to people, reaching out to
people like me to see what we can do to make a difference, and communicate how
urgent this problem is.
For
example, when I first got started, while I knew some things about mercury, like
don’t eat tuna sandwiches when you’re pregnant, but I had never understood it
was an air pollution problem from coal-fired power plants.
All of this is interrelated, so we want
to talk about climate change as a clean air issue.
Parents are busy people. Knowing this, how do you get them get involved?
I call it “naptime activism” for parents
that might be too busy. It takes maybe 10 minutes to sign a petition, or read,
or send something off to a senator. Some of these things don’t take a lot of
time, and your voice as a citizen does matter.
And lots of parents, including me, are
starting to think 'what are we leaving behind for our children?'
With so many things to worry about when
it comes to children, how do you make clean air a top priority for parents?
For one thing, I’m not really fighting
against anybody’s idea of what’s most important. When you look at the polls,
climate change ranks way down there on people’s concerns, and I understand, we
have to pay our mortgage, work at our jobs. I’m not saying you should put
climate change at the top of your list.
But I am saying recognize it's an
important part of your everyday life, by letting people know there’s a health
connection, asthma connection, a food-you’re-eating connection, and to be aware
of it. And there are solutions.
To view Julianne Moore on behalf of Moms' Clean Air Force on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=UU1_YGB_IyynqvzDNUp2MW9Q&v=uTO8UnIG_Cs
That brings me to my next question. What is it that you all are advocating for? What’s the goal?
That brings me to my next question. What is it that you all are advocating for? What’s the goal?
Well, first off, we are non-partisan.
The only place we see solutions coming from are the EPA (Environmental
Protection Agency). We are supporting EPA rules that are strong and good, such
as the regulation of methane emissions from new sources, and we’re pushing for
regulations for existing sources.
In terms of renewables, a lot of that is
at state-level work, supporting the Clean Power Plan and helping people
understand why their state should stay in the plan and not opt out.
We call for an end to fossil fuel
subsidies … there’s no traction for that right now, but we would love that.
I see you have two sons (26 and 30).
What do they think of your work as a mom for clean air?
My sons are thrilled by it. My younger
son is a lawyer with an interest in environmental issues … so this is very much
on his radar.
I find in general that people younger
than 20-years-old, everyone wants to say they don’t care about climate change,
but I don’t find that to be the case.
Some celebrities have signed on to the
Moms Clean Air Force. Were any of these a particularly big deal to you?
I’d say the biggest deal was getting
Julianne Moore on board. She was a friend of a friend of a friend, and it took
like five phone calls, but she’s really passionate about mercury and clean air.
I wish more voices like her would jump
in on climate issues.
For questions or feedback about this
piece, contact Brian Bienkowski at bbienkowski@ehn.org.