Remember when small differences in shared ideology were enough to divide us? I do. As an advocacy journalist, I have gotten pushback over the years from people I consider colleagues. Let’s just say that some scientists and doctors, usually also mothers, don’t always relish having their research translated by me into consumer English in an effort to change behavior and spark mass action.
Now I long for those slights.
Small shades-of-gray differences between people working collaboratively for the same outcome—the health and safety of our children and our planet—seem so quaint now, 30-plus days into Trump 2.0. Considerable climate progress of the past four years is being undone or frozen in intended chaos—along with the funding to keep it going. And we’ve already pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement again, threatening global efforts to tackle climate change and safeguard our kids’ future. Economically, things are off the rails. It’s not just eggs, but also the possible defunding of very popular cleaner energy tax credits that were helping families afford electric vehicles, heat pumps, and solar at home.
Tell Congress: Hold the Line on Progress to Cut Air and Climate Pollution
It’s clear that all “green” moms must unite. Immediately. It’s going to take all types of moms to fight RFK Jr., the former Riverkeeper environmentalist who has already killed the National Institutes of Health Climate Change and Health Initiative, and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, who seems hell-bent on allowing, not cutting, climate pollution, by revoking the Endangerment Finding, the foundation of EPA’s work to limit greenhouse gases for over 15 years.
Consider this an invitation: Democracy and clean air will only prevail when all of us come together and harness our boundless love for our own children—and everyone else’s children—and shout that this terrifying experiment has gone too far. I believe we are more on the same page than not. If you’re a feminist and upset that I’m singling out moms, please know that I agree with you, and also, get on board. There’s unique power to motherhood that must be mobilized to save democracy and slow climate devastation. It’s both-and.
Here are a few groups of mothers I know can join forces immediately, even if they appear to have little in common:
Advanced degree professional moms
I am not a scientist. I’m still trying to forgive the biologist-author whose books I adore but who rudely refused to be interviewed for one of my six books; she doesn’t speak to people she thinks “only” help regular moms shop their way out of huge environmental problems. But here’s the thing: I agree consumerism isn’t the answer to decades of legislation that has put profits over public health! And also: meeting people where they are (at stores daily) is one key way to get the latest environmental health research out far and wide! We can and need to work together.
I’m not the only one who feels this way. Take the scientist-author of “Hegemonic stories in environmental advocacy testimonials” (an article title I personally would edit to make it make sense to the average reader!). She dismisses environmental advocacy organizations that “use narrative persuasion techniques to change climate change opinions and overcome climate change inaction,” deriding stories written from the perspective of parents and grandparents (particularly mothers) as “pernicious.” But then, she admits they do exactly what they intend: motivate environmental concern. Both-and!
I don’t feel pernicious when I answer questions from concerned parents, mostly moms, for Moms Clean Air Force’s Ask Mom Detective column. I believe I’m a helpful bridge between the scientists doing critical work and the families who want to protect their kids. There’s so much overlap when we collaborate.
Faith moms
In one analysis of my book sales, a publishing house marketing team member told me I had a strong following in various religious communities. I made these sales despite writing in my own pages that I am an atheist not married to my kids’ father—and with no intention of ever having a wedding! Here we are, still together 30 years in. What I share with these women is a deep desire to safeguard pregnancy and children’s health, if and where we can. Our common goals could not be more urgent today.
Economically diverse moms
When my first book, The Complete Organic Pregnancy, was published, I was invited to speak at a shelter for teenage girls. I was nervous going in, second-guessing my beloved book. Was it just a guide for anxious privileged ladies looking for safer nursery paint and crib mattresses? Ugh.
But meeting this group of young women up against enormous life odds helped me stop doubting my work. I had plenty of solid and mostly free advice to share with them that was rooted in the most recent environmental health science, ideas that could possibly impact their health and the health of their growing babies.
We discussed city-funded programs that made fresh produce at urban greenmarkets accessible, why not to microwave in plastic, the benefits of drinking water over soda, and vinegar and water versus cleaning products with unlisted ingredients. We chatted about breastfeeding, hand-me-downs, potentially unsafe chemicals in beauty products, and how taking off shoes when coming indoors reduces residue like lead and pesticides on floors where babies crawl. I suspect I learned more than they did that night—and the commonality and lessons have stayed with me.
Wellness moms
I have been torn up about the polarization of so-called Make America Healthy Again moms and other green mothers I know. It was only 15 years or so ago that we became friends at the playground—bonding over preferring wooden toys to plastic and working together to get healthier snacks and safer cleaning products at our kids’ preschool. We shared concerns about fragrance in the hand soap in the bathrooms with those adorable close-to-the-floor toddler toilets. I looked the other way when the topic of vaccination came up—I am pro, they were not. Maybe I shouldn’t have.
While I can’t believe my kindergarten compatriots willingly chose this administration that is deeply harming, not helping, children, I know that there are still intersecting concerns when it comes to MAHA and other green moms, especially when it comes to processed food, food additives like dyes, toxic chemicals in our everyday products, and sources of chronic disease. This gives me the smallest bit of hope that when MAHA moms see they’ve been duped by this administration, they’ll say, Enough! When they do, I’ll be waiting and ready to work with them again.
Surely I am missing more moms who can join the opposition. The hard-to-define “moderate” moms who can, like unicorns, truly see both sides of an issue but I need to hope will prioritize their children’s health when they witness it being systematically and irrevocably harmed? Farmer moms feeding our nation’s children? The Washington Post recently covered “Republicans caught between Trump and farmers pleading for frozen funds.” Survivors of extreme weather? Yet another headline: “Their homes survived the L.A. fires. Now they live in a moonscape of ash and debris.” Surely there are families in Los Angeles who now regret their votes and want legislators who will provide, not cut, emergency funds to rebuild homes where kids can grow up breathing safe air.
The more moms the merrier—and the stranger the bedfellows—is what we need now to fight so our kids can breathe clean air today, tomorrow, and in their futures.
Tell Congress: Hold the Line on Progress to Cut Air and Climate Pollution