Are you a future sustainability scientist?

My daughter recently came home from preschool with a picture that said "If I were a scientist, I would look like this." She colored it rainbow, of course. But seeing it lit me up inside with happiness – that preschoolers are being taught they can be a scientist some day. We will desperately need them!

Just in the past few weeks, we've been inundated with terrifying reports about the current climate change situation. These reports have been painting a bleak picture of what the world could be like in about 30, 50, or 80 years if we don't act now to drastically cut global greenhouse gas emissions. Time is running out.

What will my daughter's future be like in 2050 or 2100? Her generation will need to create sustainable solutions to deal with climate change, overcome dependence on oil, eliminate toxic chemicals from entering our bodies and environment, and combat problems and challenges that we haven’t even imagined yet. It’s hard to envision how different the world will be in my daughter's lifetime.

The latest greenhouse gas and climate change predictions are explained in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report Global Warming of 1.5° C released in October and in The Fourth National Climate Assessment by the US and the UN's Emissions Gap Report 2018 published in the past week. Climate change will impact all of us, some parts of the world (and parts of the country) more than others. The urgency should jumpstart us all to action.

Patagonia's CEO announced this week that the company will donate $10 million from tax cuts to "groups committed to protecting air, land and water and finding solutions to the climate crisis."

But how can we make progress quickly toward reducing global greenhouse gas emissions? Bill Gates proposes "five grand challenges in stopping climate change", based on the percent contribution to greenhouse gas emissions: electricity (25%), agriculture (24%), manufacturing (21%), transportation (14%), and buildings (6%) (and the last 10% is miscellaneous). Which grand challenge do you want to work on?

This is a call to act now to create green and sustainable answers. It will take all kinds of disciplines and sectors working together: businesses, policymakers, advocates, researchers, educators, and students. You can focus your career on sustainability. It can be your reason for working. And it can be very fulfilling, meaningful work.

We need better ways and lots of people working on it. We need sustainable energy sources, non-petroleum feedstocks, biodegradable or compostable materials (that are disposed of properly so they do in fact degrade), recyclable materials that are actually recycled and upcycled, conservation of water and nature, life cycle and closed loop thinking, and a cycle of safer chemicals being used and reused.

For me, I've made it my mission to work toward safer, more sustainable chemicals and products. I'm inspired and motivated by the people I've met working in this field. I recently posted some tips of how to get started in green chemistry, which is a piece of the sustainability picture.

A change in mindset is needed – one of conservation and holistic sustainability in everything we do. I’m trying to instill these ideas in my young daughter. Now she asks me if something is recyclable and today asked me to turn off the running water. I'm optimistic that, although it will be very challenging to minimize climate change, we can do it. We must.

I imagine a beautiful, sustainable future.