In a special Mother’s Day episode for the Climate One podcast, which ran on dozens of NPR affiliate stations across the country, Moms Director and Co-Founder Dominique Browning discussed her inspiration for starting Moms Clean Air Force.
“15 years ago, everybody was focused on climate change as a faraway issue that was going to happen in a far-distant future, and we weren’t talking about the impact on people,” Dominique says.
As a frequent reader of parenting blogs, Dominique started to notice that, actually, many mothers were already talking about pollution and toxic chemicals—mostly focused on items that would keep their babies safe, like BPA-free baby bottles or air filters for kids’ rooms. She recognized in these conversations an untapped potential to harness the energetic desire of moms to protect their children and founded Moms Clean Air Force to channel their passion into systematic change and regulatory protections.
Today, a decade and counting later, Moms is a force of over 1.6 million moms, parents, and caregivers working toward nonpartisan climate protections.
Tell Congress: Hold Zeldin Accountable for Corrupting EPA’s Mission
“We say we are ‘mom-partisan,’ because we are supportive of anybody on either side of the aisle who is trying to make things better for our children, safer for our children,” Dominique says.
In other news
- The New York Times published a letter to the editor from Senior Manager for Field Partnerships Ali Simpson (pictured), countering an op-ed downplaying the importance of climate change as an elections issue.
- Jayne Black, Moms’ Wisconsin field organizer, shared how her daughter’s diagnosis with multiple sclerosis and son’s asthma lead her to environmental activism—and ultimately to Moms. Much of her current work centers on fighting pollution from fossil-fuel powered data centers. Read all about it in People magazine and La Vanguardia.
- Blue Dot Living highlights Moms volunteer Shaena Crossland (our April Supermom of the Month) and her work helping to organize a Harvard University study on the potential air pollution impacts of a proposed data center campus and methane gas plant in West Virginia.
- Michigan Moms recently held a press conference to raise awareness about the Energy Bills Relief Act. In The Rapidan, Michigan Field Organizer Elizabeth Hauptman explains how the bill would help families pay their electricity bills while also protecting their health.
Honorable mentions
Over the last few weeks, Moms earned mentions in We Are Green Bay and Tap Into Newark.
Tell Congress: Hold Zeldin Accountable for Corrupting EPA’s Mission