Latest news with #2025TIMEEarthAwards
Time Magazine
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Magazine
Actor Rainn Wilson on Making Climate Messaging Relatable
Actor Rainn Wilson has long been a climate activist. He hosted a travel series called An Idiot's Guide to Climate Change and camped with climate scientists at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in 2020, and in 2021, he shipped an iceberg to the COP26 conference in Glasgow so that the delegates attending would see it melting as they entered the grounds. 'I was just another actor living in suburban Los Angeles and sending out an occasional angry tweet about climate change,' the honoree said at the 2025 TIME Earth Awards in Manhattan on April 23. 'I was tired of yelling into the giant wind turbine of climate denialism, and I thought, I have to do something.' In 2022, Wilson co-founded Climate Basecamp with Gail Whiteman, a professor of sustainability at the University of Exeter Business School, with the goal of raising awareness about climate change and climate science through a pop culture lens. 'I realized that one of the most broken aspects of climate work was climate communication—it was either very well-meaning, lovely documentaries of butterflies and rainforests already preaching to the choir, or else, it was kind of angry shouting at science deniers,' Wilson said. Wilson realized there is a large young audience that is confused about climate change. 'We call this the movable middle,' he said. 'Their uncle is a climate change denier, but then they look on TikTok and they see science and they don't know what to think.' 'What we decided to do was undertake climate communications in a fresh, out of the box way,' Wilson said. To 'craft a message that's hopeful, courageous, and, dare I say, funny, to try and open people's hearts.' Climate Basecamp launched Arctic Risk Name Changer, an app that generated a name reflecting a climate risk to raise awareness on social media. Wilson's for example was 'Rainfall Heat Wave Rising Sea Levels Wilson.' The nonprofit also launched Save the Flavors, a campaign raising awareness about how common favorite foods are endangered by climate change—things like coffee, avocados, and chocolate. 'People may not relate to climate change science,' Wilson said, but they may relate to seeing the things they may eventually lose to climate change. In November, the climate crisis arrived in Wilson's own backyard. On Nov. 6, the day after the 2024 election, his home caught on fire while he was at a rehearsal as a mountain fire swept through Ventura County, Calif. While his wife and animals—pigs, dogs, and a peahen—made it out relatively unscathed, their house suffered severe damage, and several of their neighbors lost their homes completely. 'The message was clear: it doesn't matter who you are, this crisis affects all of us, from climate activists to climate deniers, and everyone in between,' TIME CEO Jessica Sibley said in presenting the award to Wilson. Wilson concluded his speech with a spiritual appeal: 'Spend more time in nature, and when you're there, let it move your heart, let it touch your heart and affect you toward action.' 'This is not simply a matter of legislation. This isn't a matter of carbon capture or limiting carbon and methane and planting more trees,' he said. 'All of those things are very important. But there's an underlying disease underneath climate change, which simply is a spiritual disease, where we are disconnected from our hearts and from beautiful, all-important Mother Earth that has fed our ancestors and hopefully will feed our descendants.'
Time Magazine
26-04-2025
- Politics
- Time Magazine
Environmental Justice Activist Catherine Coleman Flowers on Witnessing to Make Change
Catherine Coleman Flowers ' hometown of Lowndes County, Alabama, is where she learned about environmental justice—and injustice—firsthand. 'I grew up walking through corn fields, sampling ears of corn, picking melons from vines, and eating plums and green apples off trees,' said the honoree at the 2025 TIME Earth Awards in Manhattan on April 23. But the rural landscape wasn't just idyllic, it was educational: there, she saw how inadequate infrastructure impacted rural development. Many of the homes in the area didn't have access to seemingly basic services like paved roads, drainage ditches, piped water, indoor plumbing, and a sewer system. And, she learned after setting up the Alabama Center for Rural Enterprise in 2002, the lack of adequate sanitation meant businesses weren't compelled to invest in the region. Many of the problems stemming from the county's sewage crisis only worsen with heavier rainfall and flooding brought about by climate change. Witnessing these issues motivated Flowers to advocate for change for more than two decades. She's worked with banking executives, public-health researchers, the Environmental Protection Agency, and politicians across the political aisle including Vermont democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders and Alabama Republican former Sen. Jeff Sessions. Flowers 'found that the most effective method for driving change isn't to tell people what these communities are dealing with, but to actually show them—often by literally bringing them to the neighborhoods that are affected most,' said Iraqi-American activist and writer Zainab Salbi, who presented the award. As a result of her advocacy, the Biden Administration announced in 2022 a federal program to provide assistance to more than two million people across the U.S. who lack access to clean running water and indoor plumbing as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. For that, Lowndes would serve as a pilot area. Flowers paid tribute not only to the lessons she learned from her environment but also to the people she grew up with. 'Listening to the conversations of the adults in my life who were deeply involved in the Civil Rights Movement, I knew that justice was just around the corner, that we too have fought, died, and suffered to prove that we were part of the America we helped to build,' Flowers said. She pointed to her work building on that of generations before her as evidence of progress and to future generations as beacons of hope. 'I am the answer to my ancestors' dreams, hope personified. Not just my ancestors that are obvious, but the ancestors that entered what later became the United States of America, before it became a nation,' Flowers said. 'Like they fought for the right to live the American dream and the right to vote, I too fight for the future for my children and grandchildren and seven generations to come. My ancestors passed the torch to me, and at some point, I too will be passing that torch to my daughter and my grandchildren. … That is what gives me hope for the future of this planet.'
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Catherine Coleman Flowers Accepts 2025 TIME Earth Award
Catherine Coleman Flowers speaks onstage during the 2025 TIME100 Summit on April 23, 2025 in New York City. Credit - Jemal Countess—Getty Images for TIME Catherine Coleman Flowers' hometown of Lowndes County, Alabama, is where she learned about environmental justice—and injustice—firsthand. 'I grew up walking through corn fields, sampling ears of corn, picking melons from vines, and eating plums and green apples off trees,' said the honoree at the 2025 TIME Earth Awards in Manhattan on April 23. But the rural landscape wasn't just idyllic, it was educational: there, she saw how inadequate infrastructure impacted rural development. Many of the homes in the area didn't have access to seemingly basic services like paved roads, drainage ditches, piped water, indoor plumbing, and a sewer system. And, she learned after setting up the Alabama Center for Rural Enterprise in 2002, the lack of adequate sanitation meant businesses weren't compelled to invest in the region. Many of the problems stemming from the county's sewage crisis only worsen with heavier rainfall and flooding brought about by climate change. Witnessing these issues motivated Flowers to advocate for change for more than two decades. She's worked with banking executives, public-health researchers, the Environmental Protection Agency, and politicians across the political aisle including Vermont democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders and Alabama Republican former Sen. Jeff Sessions. Flowers 'found that the most effective method for driving change isn't to tell people what these communities are dealing with, but to actually show them—often by literally bringing them to the neighborhoods that are affected most,' said Iraqi-American activist and writer Zainab Salbi, who presented the award. As a result of her advocacy, the Biden Administration announced in 2022 a federal program to provide assistance to more than two million people across the U.S. who lack access to clean running water and indoor plumbing as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. For that, Lowndes would serve as a pilot area. Flowers paid tribute not only to the lessons she learned from her environment but also to the people she grew up with. 'Listening to the conversations of the adults in my life who were deeply involved in the Civil Rights Movement, I knew that justice was just around the corner, that we too have fought, died, and suffered to prove that we were part of the America we helped to build,' Flowers said. She pointed to her work building on that of generations before her as evidence of progress and to future generations as beacons of hope. 'I am the answer to my ancestors' dreams, hope personified. Not just my ancestors that are obvious, but the ancestors that entered what later became the United States of America, before it became a nation,' Flowers said. 'Like they fought for the right to live the American dream and the right to vote, I too fight for the future for my children and grandchildren and seven generations to come. My ancestors passed the torch to me, and at some point, I too will be passing that torch to my daughter and my grandchildren. … That is what gives me hope for the future of this planet.' TIME Earth Awards was presented by Official Timepiece Rolex and Galvanize Climate Solutions. Contact us at letters@
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Jay Inslee Accepts 2025 TIME Earth Award
Jay Inslee on May 18, 2023. Credit - Steph Chambers—Getty Images Jay Inslee believes in the power of local action—even in overcoming national pushback. 'Right now, we know these are hard days. We've got a person in the White House who must have been scared by wind turbines as a young man,' the three-term Democratic governor of Washington State said at the 2025 TIME Earth Awards on April 23. 'But despite the bad news coming out of Washington, D.C., we have a magic vehicle for progress that is the states.' Despite the President withdrawing the U.S. from the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement and dismantling climate initiatives across the country, 'Donald Trump cannot stop a state from defeating climate change,' Inslee said. In 2021, Inslee signed into law Washington's Climate Commitment Act, which requires the state's largest polluters to cap emissions and purchase allowances for the amount they pollute, which the state reinvests into clean energy. He has passed laws requiring a 100% clean—meaning generated from renewable or zero-carbon resources—electrical grid by 2045, invested billions of dollars into solar power and electric vehicles, and launched state programs to help businesses and residents transition to clean energy. President and CEO of American Forests, the oldest forest conservation non-governmental organization in the U.S., Jad Daley, who presented the award to Inslee, said Inslee's leadership is 'needed now more than ever.' 'The Governor's leadership in Washington State alone would merit this award,' Daley said. But Inslee 'went a pivotal step further' in 2017—when Trump first tried to withdraw from the Paris Agreement—by co-founding the U.S. Climate Alliance, a coalition of 24 states that pledged to maintain pace with the goals set forth in the accord. Member states include Michigan, where Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed into law an extensive climate package in 2023 that would push the state towards 100% clean energy by 2040, and Maine, where Gov. Janet Mills has signed multiple clean energy and solar power bills. 'The cheapest electricity today is clean energy,' Inslee said. 'We are the answer to inflation, to give people cheap, inexpensive, clean energy.' Inslee ended on a call to action. 'This is the United States, and every one of those states has the capability of advancing clean energy and fighting climate change,' Inslee said. 'I'm tired of playing defense. We need to play offense right now.' TIME Earth Awards was presented by Official Timepiece Rolex and Galvanize Climate Solutions. Contact us at letters@
