Mariah Tinger on pioneers and heroes: The Climate Minute Podcast

This week, we interviewed Mariah Tinger, co-author of the book, Protecting the Planet: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change, winner of the Green Book Festival’s 2017 Best General Non-Fiction Book Award.

Climate change is often associated with predictions of dire calamities. But in the past, heroic individuals have stepped forward to meet even the most ominous ecological challenges. This book tells an inspirational story--a story both of pioneering environmentalists who raised our collective consciousness regarding nature's value and heroes of today who are working to secure a sustainable future.

In this father and daughter collaboration, Mariah Tinger and Budd Titlow tracked down fifty of the nation’s most interesting climate change experts and wrote Protecting the Planet: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change to illuminate featured heroes’ lives and work. The heroes’ stories include hate mail, death threats, jail sentences, venomous spider bites and fantastic adventure. They also tell of beautiful moments that inspired their passion, love that keeps them hopeful and the exciting new solutions that are on the horizon. The text is uplifting, inspiring and highlights what the reader can do to join the effort.

Protecting the Planet brings climate change to the public in a digestible and optimistic way, pulling readers in through the connection to people. Part of the book includes a study and presentation of the leadership characteristics of past environmental champions. In today’s podcast, Mariah highlights characteristics of persistence, singleness of purpose, and devotion to nature from some of the books heroes including Harriet Lawrence Hemenway, William Temple Hornaday, John James Audubon, Howard Clinton Zahniser, as well as contemporary heroes such as Bill McKibben and James Balog. We have much to be inspired by from these individuals who maintained hopefulness for environmental issues despite pushback, rejection, and political hurdles.

Tinger and Titlow’s book also includes comprehensive background on climate science and a section devoted to things we can all do as citizens for climate action. We highly recommend their book for your reading enjoyment and as an excellent reference for your home libraries.

Protecting the Planet: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change (Prometheus Books ISBN: 9781633882263) is available on Amazon in hardcover and eBook versions and can be ordered through all major booksellers as well.