My first-year Bucknell University students were nervous about their assignment: Interview someone in your family about climate change. Only one rule: It had to be someone 50 or older. It had to be intergenerational. If I could, I’d give everyone the same homework assignment this holiday season.
Yes, we need national and international action to solve the climate dilemmas we face. That’s what the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24), which wrapped upSunday, has been all about. But each of us also needs to talk about the issues with our family and friends, because those conversations are what will lead to concrete changes in our daily lives, specific next steps for making our lives more sustainable and eventually political action to ensure a more sustainable country.