“It would expand offshore renewable energy, wind energy, and wave energy,” Johnson says, while also
“restoring coastal ecosystems and protecting them, because wetlands can absorb five times more
carbon in the soil than a forest can.” In fact, a Blue New Deal addresses everything from fishing to
farming, transportation to pollution, and would bolster the more than three million jobs that rely on
what’s called the “blue economy.” Johnson was encouraged when Senator Warren adopted the deal
into her presidential campaign’s environmental platform, and she hopes other candidates will follow.
“It’s suggestions for what the future could look like,” she says.
In a way, the Blue New Deal brings together Johnson’s decades of ocean advocacy work. After
her college graduation, she worked at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency during George W.
Bush’s presidency. She has since had her hand in a long, long list of science-focused, community-
building, ocean-saving projects, like the Environmental Voter Project, the Billion Oyster Project,
and Oceanic Global.
Despite these accomplishments, Johnson wouldn’t call herself an optimist. Conservation policy-
making has largely stalled or been rolled back under the Trump administration. It’s now time to
reimagine our solutions. “When we think about climate change, it’s about running away from the
apocalypse,” she explains. “If we get this right, the world is just so much nicer to live in—when
nature starts to heal, when our air is cleaner, when our water is cleaner, when there are more trees,
when we never need to get an oil change again. Life will be more pleasant once we deal with all of
these things. That’s the narrative I’m working on.”
GENIUS!
HER INSPIRATION:
In 2014, college student and
fourth-generation
beekeeper Leigh-Kathryn
Bonner persuaded a
Durham, North Carolina,
company to install
a rooftop beehive.THE SWEET RESULTS:
That first beehive grew into
about 250 that Bonner’s Bee
Downtown manages on
corporate campuses in
Atlanta and around Raleigh/
Durham/Chapel Hill
(including Delta, AT&T, Chick-
fil-A, and IBM). Hive-centric
educational events were
a hit, so Bonner, 27, hatched
a leadership institute
inspired by the ultimate
team: bees. “There’s
something about putting on
a beekeeping suit and
learning how thousands of
bees communicate,” she
says. “It’s very memorable.”
—Emily L. FoleyLeigh-Kathryn
Bonner
A buzzy businessONE WOMAN,
ONE BRILLIANT IDEAIn the last decade, climate
change has gone from
niche topic to the front
page. In 2019 alone, fires
raged from Australia
to the Amazon, and whole
towns were wiped out by
flooding. Unfortunately,
2020 isn’t looking any bet-
ter. That’s why The Future
We Choose: Surviving the
Climate Crisis, by
Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac, the archi-
tects of the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement, is
a much-needed breath of fresh air. The authors don’t
gloss over the scary future ahead of us if we heat up
more than the 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit as laid out in the
Paris Agreement. They outline concrete actions for
getting to a carbon-neutral, regenerative world where
both humans and nature thrive. —Sarah Sax
Marie Claire: You write that we all need to become
“stubborn optimists” to combat climate change.
Why is it important to stay optimistic?
Christiana Figueres: Frankly, we don’t have any other
choice. This is one human challenge that we can’t
afford to lose. My main concern right now is a grow-
ing despair and hopelessness, where people feel that
climate change is so big, there is nothing they can do.
MC: You give scenarios of the world we want and one
we don’t. What gives you hope for attaining the former?
CF: The Paris Agreement was hailed as historic,
and if we’ve done it once, we can do it again. The
good news is, those most negatively affected by climate
change—young people—are taking to the streets.
MC: What else can “regular people” do to engage?
CF: Engagement needs to be intentional. Challenge
your unbridled consumerism. Make a personal
plan to reduce your emissions at least 50 percent
by the end of this decade, and then talk to friends
O about your plan. Plant a tree. Plant many trees.
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Totally
immersed
in her work
as a marine
biologist,
Johnson
swims in a
seagrass
meadow off
the coast
of Jamaica
in 2018.52 MARIECLAIRE.COM April 2020
NEWSFEED
JOHNSON:^ JEREMY^MCKANE;BONNER:^ TRAVIS^BORDLEY^(@UNCLE_TREEVIS);^BEE:OLGA^NEFEDOVA/ISTOCK/GETTYIMAGES;^ BOOK:COURTESY^OF^THE^PUBLISHER^