As a climate activist, I’m always thinking about how I should engage my peers with climate topics. You can’t spell doom and gloom, or folks will get scared and shut down. But you also can’t revise the inherently terrifying moment we’re in. The future of the climate movement rests in our ability to wrestle with this question… so I wanted to bring on someone who has been experimenting in this world for years.

Today I sat down with Taiji Nelson, long-time community climate educator (and one of my comrades back home in Pittsburgh!), to chat about why engaging people around climate matters and how to do it effectively. Taiji got his start teaching kids and young adults at Pittsburgh’s Frick Environmental Center, then joined the Carnegie Museum of Natural History to foster interdisciplinary, rural-urban climate connections. Amidst his work, Taij ...