Later is too late. My kids require action now.

“You don’t have to know all the details of the science to be part of the solution. And if you wait until you know everything, it will be too late for you to do anything.” — Xiye Bastida

This past summer, with zero “formal” training on climate change, I quit my Head of Marketing job at a travel brand and joined the Potential Energy Coalition as Managing Director of Campaigns. For those who are just getting to know us in this blog post, Potential Energy is a nonpartisan, nonprofit coalition that brings together America’s leading creative, analytic, and media agencies to shift the narrative on climate change. I am also a mother of three amazing kids, a 14-year-old girl, and 10-year-old girl/boy twins. Since they were born I have told them that my number one job is to keep them safe. Now I feel at a loss when I watch leaders ignore the scientific warnings about the accelerated pace of our changing climate.

My twins will be in college in ten years, the same amount of time we have before passing the point of no return to rapidly reduce carbon pollution. This brings our man-made problem into focus: this is not about some far off future, it is happening now, it’s getting worse, but we can do something about it if we act now. Already, the storms will continue to get stronger, the worst fire season in history will be surpassed, record temps will be beaten and millions of people will lose their homes and potentially their cities and towns. What we do now will decide how much worse this gets for our kids. Later is too late.

Recently, Potential Energy launched a campaign for Science Moms, a nonpartisan group of climate scientists and mothers who aim to break down climate change in simple and engaging ways that arm mothers with the knowledge they need to take action. Our research shows that moms are the group that is both the most concerned about climate change (83% versus 60% of the general population) and the most likely to do something about it.

The Science Moms campaign is made for moms who don’t have a lot of time to learn the ins and outs of climate change. We create content that can fit into moms’ lives: short, bite-size stuff that feels like an escape, rather than a chore. We come at this issue pulling on all the emotional levers from love to humor and the reframing of the problem in simple educational videos.

I know in my heart that this approach will work because since becoming aware of the issue facing my children it has made me want to become more knowledgeable and do more. The Science Moms tell us that wherever they go — conferences, schools, book clubs, religious gatherings — they are confronted by moms asking “what can I do?” The number of concerned moms continues to grow with each encounter.

Imagine what it’s like to know what a climate scientist knows, and then imagine that scientist is a mom. The data is real to them. It’s about their kids and it’s overwhelming at times. Dr. Emily Fischer describes a time when she and her family were hiking in Colorado where they had to run from the biggest fire in CO’s history. Fischer is an atmospheric scientist studying the effects of smoke fire and that day her worlds collided. “It was very scary for my children,” Fischer told BuzzFeed News. She remembered they asked her, “Are we dying now?”

I am grateful for this unique opportunity to support the Science Moms with their efforts to create an army of moms to demand action. “We’re really speaking to moms and collectively asking them to do something about the climate crisis,” said Dr. Melissa Burt, a researcher at Colorado State University.

The list of founding Science Moms includes:

• Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, Climate Scientist and Professor at Texas Tech University
• Dr. Melissa Burt, Research Scientist in the Department of Atmospheric Science and Assistant Dean for Diversity and Inclusion, Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering at the Colorado State University
• Dr. Emily Fischer, Atmospheric Chemist and Associate Professor in the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University
• Dr. Ruth DeFries, Professor of Ecology and Sustainable Development at Columbia University in New York, member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and MacArthur “genius” award recipient
• Dr. Joellen Russell, Thomas R. Brown Distinguished Chair of Integrative Science, Professor of Geosciences, Planetary Science, Hydrology & Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Arizona
• Dr. Tracey Holloway, Professor of Environmental Studies and Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

As I mentioned, I want to know more. I want to do more. Once you turn this awareness on, it’s impossible to turn it off. You get climate-pilled. You start to see it all around you. I have detailed out a few of the actions I have taken over the last few months as some tips for you to learn and act:

#1 — Educate yourself:

• Join ScienceMoms.com
• Read or listen to two books — The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells and All that We Can Save by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson
• Watch David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet on Netflix

#2 — Take action:

• Send a letter to your leaders. If you do nothing else, do this!
• Call your utility provider and ask to switch to green energy and/or investigate solar panels.
• Strongly consider an electric vehicle as your next car. There are so many options.
• Talk about the issue to anyone who will listen to raise awareness for them so they take the same climate pill.

My kids expect me to protect them and I expect the elected leaders at all levels to help me do that. We can solve this, but it will take all of us moms, raising our voices together to achieve the level of change we need to leave our kids a safe, prosperous future.

Anne-Marie Kline, Managing Director of Campaigns