Local Action Is Still My Reason for Climate Optimism

Hello again, Climate for Health community.

Almost five years ago, when I was newly at the helm of the American Public Health Association’s Center for Climate, Health and Equity, I introduced myself to you the same way I’m about to now: by answering the question I get asked more than any other. Where do you find your climate optimism? In that first post, my answer was local action — the momentum building in cities, states, and communities even as national politics stalled.

Today, as I return to Climate for Health in a new role, I find myself coming back to that same source of hope.

There is no sugarcoating the reality we face. Federal climate leadership has suffered unprecedented backtracking during the second Trump administration. But look beyond Washington, and something remarkable is happening. Across states, cities, communities, and institutions, people are continuing to build the healthier, more resilient future we need.

In Tualatin, Oregon, leaders are exploring innovative approaches to renewable energy and community microgrids that bring together local government, utility, and state resilience investments. Atlanta is requiring cool roofs for all new construction and roof replacements. In Illinois, environmental justice organizers have helped advance stronger consideration of cumulative pollution burdens in permitting decisions around new industrial facilities. And across the country, Indigenous communities are reclaiming ancestral lands through an accelerating movement of land return and restoration – what journalist Brandi Morin calls “not just a legal or political shift” but “a moral reckoning quietly reshaping North America, one acre at a time.”

These victories are not isolated. They are evidence of a cultural shift underway in the United States.

Most Americans are concerned about climate change, yet ecoAmerica’s research has consistently found that people tend to underestimate how much others share that concern. Many of us stay quiet because we assume our neighbors, colleagues, family members and friends don’t feel the same way. When we think everyone else is less concerned than we are, we are less likely to speak up, act, or ask our leaders to act.

The good news is that we can change that. Talking about climate solutions helps make concern visible, builds a sense of shared possibility, and makes action feel more normal. And when trusted people — especially the health professionals and institutions Americans already rely on — talk about climate in terms of health, safety, community, and the future we want to build, those conversations can ripple outward.

That is why I am so excited to be here leading Climate for Health.

Our work is not simply to help health professionals understand climate change. It is to help them see themselves as part of the solution — and give them the tools, relationships, and pathways to act. We will continue supporting health institutions as visible climate leaders, equipping trusted messengers to communicate effectively, and mobilizing our growing network of Climate for Health Ambassadors and partners to advocate for solutions in their communities.

I hope you’ll join me in this work. Right now, you can participate in our Election Earth 10-week activation challenge, or take our Climate for Health Ambassador training and join a growing community of trusted voices advancing climate solutions nationwide.

Federal policy matters enormously. But durable climate progress has never depended on one level of government alone. It is built when people understand what is possible, see others moving in the same direction, and use their own voices and influence to move their communities forward.

Five years later, I still believe local action is a reason for climate optimism. And now more than ever, I believe our job is to make that optimism contagious.