By Carlos Roa
Since Mother’s Day is approaching, VoLo Foundation featured a YouTube Live titled “Moms vs. Climate Change”, as an answer to many mothers reaching out to us because they want to be part of the solution.
The panel gathered six amazing mothers involved in the climate change movement to talk about their experiences as professionals, warriors and heroes advocating for action.
They are Vanessa Hauc, Emmy award-winning Journalist and a Senior Correspondent for Noticias Telemundo; Hazel Chandler, Arizona Field Coordinator for Mom’s Clean Air Force; Dawn Shirreffs, Florida Director for the Environmental Defense Fund; Dr. Claudia Benitez-Nelson, Climate Scientist at the University of South Carolina; and Dr. Tracey Holloway, Professor of Energy Analysis and Policy at the University of Wisconsin. The conversation was hosted by Thais Lopez Vogel, co-founder and trustee of VoLo Foundation.
All of them shared their superpowers to fight the climate crisis. After all, being a mom is a superpower in itself.
Words of wisdom
Tracey:
“You don’t have to be an expert at chemistry or have some advanced degree to understand”.
“In many ways we have a great system, but we can make it cleaner, and we can make it better.”
“One of the reasons I’m part of Science Moms’ program is because they have developed a lot of resources to make it easier for moms to learn about the science of climate.”
Claudia:
“If you’re a mom, you’re already a scientist, if you’re doing all the things that you’re doing, if you’re planning out your day for your kids and all, you’re already doing half the job, you know, three quarters of the job of what scientists do.”
“Being in the South, where it’s really hot, it’s humid… we have some very easy connections to talk about with moms.”
“As my kids are getting older, I don’t want them looking at me and saying: ‘So, Mom, what happened? Why didn’t you do anything?”
Vanessa:
“For me, as a Journalist, one of my main goals is really to tell the story of the climate crisis in a way that it resonates with people.”
“We try to focus on solutions because I think sometimes this information is so overwhelming…”
“I know that the problem is really big but the solutions are on the way. We have the technology we have the resources we have so many groups that are doing so much.”
Hazel: -who happens to be a newly great grandmother-
“Over 50 years ago I picked up an article from a fossil fuel company that was saying that there was going to be something like global warming and by 2050, 2100 we
would have some severe consequences for our livability of our planet. Unfortunately, what they were predicting then for those dates is happening right now.”
“I saw a lot of progress in the 70s. We had the Clean Air Act, clean water a bunch of things happened.”
“I’ve seen something happening in the last few years and that’s moms, and friends, and grandmas, and grandpas, and interested people, and scientists and health professionals have come together and have formed a collaboration. This has a loud progress I would really only dream about.”
