A Day in the Life of an Activist Mom: Fighting Climate Change

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What’s a mom to do? The climate it is a “changing” and the oil and gas industry and our government are moving fast in their attempt to push us to the brink of climate change disaster. Lacrosse practice, guitar, karate…move over! Like any mom, our Climate Mama Harriet puts her foot down when it comes to protecting her kids. Lately Harriet has been known to grab “mikes and protest signs” and speak out on “righting the wrongs she sees” by demanding action and the TRUTH from her elected officials (on this however…she is still waiting!)

While not necessarily a “typical day” let’s look at a day in Harriet’s life: February 8th.

5:30 am: wake up, check e-mails, prepare and finalize remarks for the days coming events

6:30 am: wake kids, make breakfast (chocolate chip waffles & banana strawberry smoothies!)

7:30am: drive the kids to school

10:30am : arrive in Trenton, NJ
Nominate US

Congressman Jim Harris (R MD) for a “Fracky” award. He doesn’t win, but boy does he deserve the nomination. Rep. Harris recently had Gaslands Director Josh Fox kicked out of an open congressional hearing where EPA reports on the contamination of a Wyoming Aquifer from chemicals associated with fracking were to be discussed! (Other nominees included: NJ Governor Chris Christie, El Paso Gas Pipeline Company, Cabot Oil and Gas and The American Petroleum Institute – who was the eventual 2012 “Fracky” winner!)

11:45pm: wardrobe change

12:00pm: arrive in Westfield, NJ. Attend an Environment NJ Rally. Harriet makes a statement on behalf of NJ parents, in support of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, and in opposition to NJ Governor Christie’s unilateral and unsubstantiated move to pull NJ from one of the few tools we have in the NJ Toolkit to fight climate change. RGGI works by capping power plant emissions, and then charging polluters who go over the “cap.” Governor Christie’s move makes NJ the only state of the 10 state compact to attempt to pull out. The NJ legislature passed legislation to keep NJ in the compact, however the Governor vetoed this. He is putting his “weight” behind this one..and trying to do this on his own, without the support of the people of NJ or it’s legislators.

3pm: return to office, catch up on calls, mail etc.

5:30pm: make dinner

6:30pm: drive Elliot to guitar lessons

8:00pm: drive Alana to lacrosse game (stay and watch – multitask by writing first draft of this blog post)

What does the next day bring for our Climate Mama? Attend a county hearing on the construction of a proposed gas pipeline through a State Park and demand an environmental impact statement be conducted. The pipeline, which would carry “fracked gas” through NJ to export markets, has already ripped up NJ parklands and currently threatens the drinking water of close to 1 million NJ residents.

All in a mom’s “day of work!”

How was your day?