Climate Change Is Local.

I grew up in Western Massachusetts where we lived in a bubble. Climate change was an understood issue, but to many people I came across it wasn’t something tangible. I mean I get it, in New England we almost never experienced anything like drought, or wildfires, or hurricanes, or prolonged extreme heat. We were far from the frontlines, and climate change really only entered our lives on the news. And while Boston and New York City became leaders in energy policy, and Vermont’s expansive wind mills were a backdrop many of us became familiar with, I still met many a NIMBYist, and folks who became comfortable with defeatism- that this was an issue for the top 10 companies that emitted the most, and for national and international governing bodies to hash out.

Now living in Northern Colorado, I’m taking the lessons I’ve learned and I know that the shortest path to ground is focusing on what’s right here in our backyard. I believe climate change is the most critical issue I’ll face in my lifetime, and I believe that we can all contribute- individually and collectively. It isn’t a headline far away- it’s here, in the places we walk every day. It’s in the smoke that settles over Horsetooth, the heat rising from our downtown spaces, the snowpack that melts too soon, and the hydrophobic soil that won’t accept a drink. It lives in our homes, our rivers, our streets, and our forests.

This project is built on a simple belief:
when we see, hear, feel a place, we protect it.

Each piece in this series is a jumping off point, focusing on an elemental force pertaining to climate change, and pairs it with real, local pathways to get involved right here in Northern Colorado. Local volunteer work, organizations, learning resources, and tools for action.

This is a collection of artwork, but also a map.
A pathway to see climate change not just as an abstract global issue, but as something alive in our neighborhoods, our hands, and our choices.

Climate change is local. And so is the path forward.