“When I was taking exams to qualify for PhD candidacy in 2019, I had to write an essay describing what I saw as the top three most central issues in planning and public policy. When I was struggling with this question, I came immediately to climate change. Climate change is the central theme of my academic work, and my dissertation explores the social impacts of a changing climate, including issues around household food, energy, and water conservation. I think often about how individual action contributes to climate change, and this crosses boundaries from professional to personal and back in my life. It seemed obvious that I would articulate this in my qualifying exam as the most urgent problem in our historical moment. This changed after I met Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, an atmospheric scientist and superstar climate communicator, when she gave a talk at Rutgers. I asked her what she thought about the question, and she reasoned that instead of thinking about climate change as a problem to solve in itself, we might start thinking about why it is so essential for society to mitigate and adapt to a changing climate. No matter what you care about, climate change will impact it. For example: if you are worried about homelessness, property damage from extreme weather events will cause more poor families to lose their homes. If you are concerned with health care, days of extreme heat or cold will cause the chronically ill to miss crucial appointments, increasing their risk of adverse health outcomes. If you study violence and conflict, you might see that conflicts arising over resource use will grow as our water and energy resources dwindle. No matter what you care about, climate change will impact it. I am particularly concerned with racial injustice and know that impacts from climate change will continue to exacerbate existing economic and social inequality. This mindset continues to motivate my work and activism, and I am hopeful that we can imagine and build a better future.”
Holly Berman
PhD candidate at Bloustein
Co-chair of the CTF’s student advisory panel