Island Press Field Notes

In May, many of us will celebrate National Bike Month by leaving the car at home and cycling to work. It's often the fastest way across town, and it's a great way to get some exercise, reduce our carbon footprint and - importantly - remember that roads are not just for driving.

It’s so easy to fall into the mindset that your job is the most important work in the whole world. Employed as a journalist? You are dedicating your career to uncovering the truth and preserving the freedom of the press! Work at a bank? You handle the money of the masses and are an integral part of how our economy functions. Manage a factory that makes those cardboard pizza boxes?

We live in challenging times. The shocks and stresses of global warming affect every community in one form or another. Rising seas and storm surges swamp coastal communities. Floods and droughts of biblical proportions are visited on city dwellers and farmers alike. Forest fires and landslides follow in the wake of dying trees and barren hillsides. Unfamiliar viruses travel northward with pests whose ranges expand with warmer temperatures

Kathy Egland was one of the first black students to desegregate her high school in Hattiesburg, Miss., in 1967. As a child and young adult, she marched for the right to vote and against segregated buses and drinking fountains. Now she’s fighting for the right to a clean, safe environment, serving as chair of the NAACP National Board’s committee on environmental and climate justice.