Dozens of policy makers, scientists, activists, scholars, and others recently convened for Aspen Ideas: Climate Chicago 2025, an event intended for “educating, inspiring, and provoking action to combat climate change and adapt to a changing planet.” I attended the event looking for feminist perspectives and leadership in the efforts to find solutions to the climate crisis.

Under Trump 2.0, federal support for climate mitigation, adaptation, and transitions to renewable energy have been gutted. On his first day in office, Trump declared a national emergency focused on expanding fossil fuel extraction. In April, the administration suspended renewable energy project authorizations on federal lands. Last month, tax credits and subsidies for wind and solar energy that had been included in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 were canceled (federal support for geothermal and nuclear energy remains). The revamped Environmental Protection Agency has even announced plans to reject the scientific finding that enables the government to take action on greenhouse gases. Conference attendees took on the challenge of mitigating this assault on climate, seeking solutions not reliant on federal support.

One keynote speaker, Bernadette Woods Placky, is chief meteorologist of Climate Central, an independent group of scientists and communicators who report facts about climate and who publish the Climate Shift Index, a daily report that maps the influence of climate change on temperatures across the globe. She directed her message on urgent climate action to the 64% of Americans who are alarmed and concerned about climate impacts. Placky pointed out that the public’s understanding of climate change must be strengthened by referencing specific impacts on their daily lives. “Weather is the tangible way people are experiencing it,” she said, adding that those experiences can be used to motivate people to take action. She urged members of the media not to focus on the approximately 15% of the public who do not accept climate impact data. “People are OK with science on their phone, airplane, bridge,” said Placky, “so let’s build on that” to increase public support for climate-positive policies.

Placky also highlighted data from extreme event attribution science, which studies the relationship between human-caused climate change and specific extreme weather events. Globally, temperatures have been rising rapidly since the 1980s. In 2003, after climate scientists had been warning about the health threat of global warming, an extreme heat wave in Europe led to more than 70,000 deaths. “More alarming,” warns Placky, “is where we are seeing most of our heat go, and that is in the ocean — almost 90%.” Rising ocean temperatures have widespread climate impacts — threatening marine life, increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, and contributing to sea level rise.

The first climate attribution study was done following the 2003 European heat wave. World Weather Attribution (WWA) is a team of researchers that does rapid attribution studies using scientific evidence to show the extent of climate change influence on a given extreme weather event. “We review how climate change is modifying the weather we are experiencing — on frequency, intensity, duration — to pinpoint impact.” said Dr. Joyce Kimutai, a climate scientist with WWA and the Kenya Meteorological Department.

Dr. Kimutai is part of an Oxford University working group that includes lawyers who are using attribution science for evidence in loss and damage litigation. In one such case, Luciano Lliuya v. RWE AG, a German court earlier this year upheld the principle that major greenhouse gas emitters can be held accountable for the impacts of their emissions under German civil law. Dr. Kimutai is a key expert in another case still in preparation stage.

Beyond measuring impact and damages, there is a critical need to replace the lost U.S. federal support for renewable energy and climate solutions. According to panelist Dr. Vanessa Chan, former chief commercialization officer at the U.S. Department of Energy, who spoke on bringing energy technology to commercial stage, the estimated total loss to renewable energy and other environmental programs is “half a trillion dollars [in tax credits and federal contracts] to solar and wind development which will no longer be available after this year.” The magnitude of this loss remained a pall over deliberations.

Since the federal government is now hostile to action on climate change, focus is shifting to initiatives that can be taken by states. With that in mind, I sought out state-level women climate leaders. Georgie Geraghty is executive director of The Nature Conservancy in Illinois. TNC uses a model of holding privately held nature preserves that are open to the public. However, this limits its direct conservation to about 3.1 million acres owned by them, compared to 680 million acres of public lands now under threat of drilling. To expand impact, TNC is transitioning from ownership to a stewardship model, which involves collaborative transfer after restoration to private trusts and state entities. For example, last year TNC completed a project in which the organization transferred restored buffalo herds to the InterTribal Buffalo Council and other Indigenous partners for ongoing care under traditional herding methods.

TNC’s work in a key state like Illinois has impact across the country. With the Illinois River a major tributary of the Mississippi, TNC Illinois’ floodplain restoration project focuses on restoring the natural functions of floodplains, which are vital for flood control, wildlife habitat, and water quality. Strategies include easements, levee setbacks, and removing barriers to reconnect floodplains with rivers.

While these private, innovative methods are positively affecting climate change, the overall mood at Aspen Ideas was cautious. It is clear that the size of funding, investment, and regulatory power of the federal government cannot be fully replaced by a loose network of states, foundations, and private investors.

Can women working at the community level revive crucial climate mitigation? As powerful as the force of nature is the force of mothers advocating for their children’s health. Of the many women’s and environmental advocacy groups working at the local level, one of the most effective is Moms Clean Air Force (MCAF), with 1.5 million parents working across political party lines, at the state and community level, against air and climate pollution. Their model — community-level volunteers working with state environmental protection agencies, scientific experts, and local coalitions — is very effective. I talked to two mothers from “purple” states.

Patrice Tomcik, based in Western Pennsylvania, is MCAF senior national field director overseeing 17 organizers in 13 states. “Methane gas fracked wells were a half-mile away from my children’s schools,” she said. “We investigated. Mothers banded together and convinced our school boards to turn down the lease to drill under our schools. The company then set up the well pad across the street on private property. The company finally agreed to self-monitor emissions with air monitors around the sites,” she said, describing the constant vigilance needed to monitor the health effects of drilling.

Pennsylvania’s orphan gas wells date back to the 19th century. These are abandoned gas wells that extracting companies have left open with dangers of methane and benzyne leaks. As they are no longer owned by a company, they are considered the responsibility of the state. “We [in Pennsylvania] have anywhere from 300,000 to 700,000 [such wells]; 30,000 [have been] located so far under homes, under game lands, streams,” Tomcik said. “We then turn them over to the state government as wards of the state to remediate and plug.” The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) of 2021 allocated $4.7 billion for plugging orphan wells; Pennsylvania received $400 million for this work.

Michigan is the heart of the American love affair with the automobile; weaning it off the internal combustion engine is a herculean task. Elizabeth Hauptman has been a MCAF volunteer since her son was 1 1/2, and her passion is infectious. “We are the faces that the EPA regulations are for,” she said. “Kids are tailpipe-high. Diesel school buses give them headaches, nausea, and worsen their asthma.” Hauptman works with It’s Electric!, a coalition of nurses and other health workers, pupil transportation groups, and the Michigan environmental agency. The coalition connects school districts to federal and state funding for replacing diesel school buses with electric buses.

According to Hauptman, when school superintendents do ribbon-cutting ceremonies for each new EV bus, ripple effects occur, with schools installing solar panels, sometimes with vegetable gardens under the panels. Hauptman makes it clear that parental advocacy is crucial to community action, with positive actions that take little time. “I call it nap-time activism,” she said, “15 minutes to learn about an issue, phone your rep, add your name to an EPA rule letter; [after all], you can’t buy your child clean air!”

Dr. Chan expressed optimism about the rising numbers of women in STEM in engineering, life sciences, and other fields related to climate change. “[We must] mentor other women; don’t wait till [we] reach senior management,” said Dr. Chan, herself an MIT-trained engineer. The increasing numbers of women in STEM, along with local and community initiatives, however, will not make up for the harmful climate actions of the federal government. But passionate, committed women and men across the country are doing what they can to protect and preserve nature, including all living beings. Whether it will be enough is an open question.

Published by Women’s Media Center

Image Credit: © 2025 The Aspen Institute.