Climate change is a massive problem, with far-reaching effects that touch every aspect of society. It’s also already here. The impacts long forecast by scientists—heat waves, droughts, encroaching sea levels, thawing Arctic ground, frequent storms, and wildfires—are being felt now by communities from Alaska to the Amazon. But these communities, throughout the hardships being thrown their way, are learning to adapt. While national and international climate efforts take small steps, towns and cities are striding forward, building resilience through community engagement, urban planning, and advocacy.

What resilience looks like is different in every community. It is defined by each place’s unique challenges and ways of life. It requires creativity, trial and error, and unwavering persistence. These five community leaders share lessons learned from lives spent anticipating oncoming obstacles, finding and inventing solutions to each new challenge, and cultivating resilience in the face of climate change.

Resilience is… Proactive planning and learning from others.

Dale Morris

Former Chief Resilience Officer for the City of Charleston, SC and Climate Adaptation Consultant.

Charleston is a coastal city that floods on average 70 days in the year. When Woodwell Climate reached out to offer a free climate risk analysis as part of the Just Access project, Charleston was in the midst of their own comprehensive water plan. Morris recognized the need for expanded risk modeling for the wider County of Charleston, which encompasses three of the four largest cities in South Carolina, and whose upstream flooding risks were less understood but already impacting downstream communities. He facilitated the project, which modeled flood risks out to 2080.

“In the City of Charleston we weren’t at all surprised, but when we shared the results with the other cities, everyone was like ‘whoa, this is worse than we thought.’ Floodplain inundation from rainfall was a big part of it. And when you factor in sea level rise at the outfall of creeks and rivers, there’s less drainage capacity. Where does the water go?”

For Morris, understanding risk is a crucial first step towards building a resilient community. The next is putting that knowledge to use. In Charleston, city and county officials have used the Woodwell report to apply for grant funding to further improve stormwater management.

Though the risks can sometimes seem daunting, Morris says learnings from other communities, even those many thousands of miles away, can offer inspiration and guidance. Earlier in his career, Morris managed outreach for the Dutch government in the United States, helping apply learnings from the Netherlands to community flood programs.

“The Dutch, by necessity, have to know how to live well with water, with the use of different approaches—hard engineering, soft engineering, good spatial planning.” 

Morris was at the Dutch Embassy when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005. Seeing the devastation there affirmed his belief that planning and governance also play a huge role in how well a community can recover from a disaster.

“I saw very clearly this was a failure of government and governance at all levels. The economic disruption, the family disruption, the devastation across wide swaths of New Orleans and along the Mississippi coast, it made me mad, and it motivated me to do more.”

“More” means more planning, more foresight, tackling future risks before they happen, and pursuing projects that produce multiple benefits.

“These are generational kinds of recoveries. We should think about proactive investments, not reactive responses.”

A resilient Charleston looks like: Clear future flood risk assessment, adaptive management plans for residents in flood zones, smart new development that can receive moving residents, city infrastructure planning that adapts to changing future conditions

Resilience is….Changing mindsets and changing economies.

Ben Robinson

Martha’s Vineyard Commission member and founder of the MVC Climate Action Task Force.

The island of Martha’s Vineyard can be a place of strong contradictions. Transient vacation-goers share the beaches with life-long residents. Multimillion dollar homes are being constructed while local workers struggle to find affordable housing. Rural fields border suburban neighborhoods which, in turn, border both forests and salt marshes. 

These complex dynamics are what Robinson grapples with as he leads the island’s climate adaptation planning efforts. As a member of the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, he aided the creation of a climate action plan to identify areas of work across sectors, from food security to transportation. Woodwell Climate worked with the Commission to produce an assessment of the Vineyard’s drought, precipitation, and wildfire risks, as well as a study of existing carbon stores on the Island.

According to Robinson, the Vineyard faces not only increasing climate risks but also challenges in creating the needed social changes for adaptation.

“The social change piece is the one that’s really been the most frustrating, because it entails sacrifice. It entails recognizing the privileges that we’ve had and we still have and taking on a global responsibility.”

One of the trickiest areas to tackle has been the island’s main economic driver: tourism. Summer months are extremely popular with wealthy tourists, and much of the island’s infrastructure is built to serve this influx of temporary residents.

“The Vineyard is really catering more and more every year to a wealthier and wealthier constituency. And they demand more services, more things, a different feel. And that level of over-consumption is one of the primary drivers of climate change.” 

It has also made life harder for ordinary residents, driving up property values to an untenable degree, forcing much of the labor force to live off-island and commute. 

“Those are really poor trends for a community that wants to be resilient.”

Additionally, reliance on imports undermines food security for residents. Currently, close to 95% of food has to be imported from the mainland.

“Right now there’s no way we would survive without the supply chain to the island, which has just become more and more intertwined with our everyday lives.”

The Vineyard is working to improve its food security by producing more on-island through agriculture and foraging. And despite the challenges in other areas, Robinson reminds himself that the best thing he can do is just keep chipping away at the problem.

“It’s easy to be frustrated in this kind of work, but this is a multi-generational change. I’m only going to see one period of it, and then somebody else is going to pick it up. This is just going to be a slow process of evolving our community. If we can do it right, we’ll be better off in the future.”

A resilient Martha’s Vineyard looks like: A robust, electrified public transit system, a diversified  economy with a non-extractive tourism industry, locally produced food, offshore wind 

Resilience is…A holistic approach to conservation.

Alexis Bonogofsky

Director of the Sustainable Ranching Initiative for World Wildlife Fund and Yellowstone County Planning Board member.

Being a rancher on the Northern Great Plains can be challenging. Profit margins can be low. Markets can be uncertain. And then there’s the increasing droughts and unpredictability of precipitation caused by climate change. As a resident of Billings, Montana who runs her own family sheep and goat ranch, Bonogofsky is acutely aware of these challenges.

“The larger Northern Great Plains is definitely experiencing impacts from climate change already. Our winters are getting warmer, so we have less snow pack, and we have less water going into the growing season and into the summer.”

Bonogofsky works on programs at World Wildlife Fund (WWF) that provide funding support and guidance for ranchers pursuing regenerative grazing practices which can make ranches more resilient to climate change. Woodwell Climate partners with WWF to analyze ecological data that can help inform those practices and model future outcomes based on changes in land management. When properly managed, grazing animals can actually help mitigate climate change as well, promoting the growth of native plant species that lock away carbon in their deep roots.

“When you think about iconic Western wildlife, grassland ecosystems are where they thrive and where their best habitat is. Ranchers are managing a lot of grass, and the healthier the grasslands are, the more wildlife we have and the cleaner water we have. Grasslands also sequester a lot of carbon, so healthy grasslands that stay intact are necessary to help mitigate the effects of climate change.”

To improve management practices and achieve healthy grasslands, Bonogofsky says, you have to employ solutions that address the entire system holistically— and that includes the people.

“For resilient communities and ecosystems, you can’t separate the people from the land.

For the land and wildlife to be healthy, the people in those communities have to be healthy too.”

That means conservation work isn’t always just protecting plants or animals. It’s also working with community groups to improve housing options in nearby towns or setting up daycare services for ranching families. Strengthening communities, Bonogofsky says, makes people more likely to stay and invest in a place, to do their part in making it better.

“I do this work because it matters. I have a niece and nephew and I want to say to them that I did everything I could to try to make the place better—a place where people can thrive in the future. I’m surrounded by people every day that are making a difference in their communities. And I think if we all do that where we’re from, we actually have an impact.”

Resilient rangeland communities look like: Diverse and intact native grasslands, ranches that are profitable while storing carbon and maintaining ecosystem services, rural communities with services like daycare, housing, and healthcare

Resilience is… Getting creative with your resources.

Sean Hogan

Environmental Sustainability Manager for Barnstable, MA

Hogan’s job is to care about everything climate change, energy, and emissions-related in the town of Barnstable, Massachusetts. He works with the municipal government to identify and pursue funding for projects that could help the town adapt. Barnstable, the largest town on Cape Cod, is one of several Massachusetts communities for which Woodwell Climate conducted a risk assessment, modeling flood risk and stormwater system vulnerability. 

Because of his position, Hogan has a clear view into the challenges faced by municipalities in regards to climate resilience. Funding is often short, offices understaffed, and public opinion hard to sway. Hogan has found the best way through is to chase opportunities that combine immediate positive impacts with long-term climate benefits.

“So far, I’ve found in municipal work you have to work opportunistically as to where grants might be available or where there’s institutional interest. We have a finite amount of resources, and if we can husband those resources appropriately, we can spend them in ways that serve the public good.”

Hogan uses the example of electric vehicles, which reduce emissions from transportation, contributing to long-term climate mitigation as well as reducing air pollution for residents in the near term.

“[Climate change is] a problem that’s uniquely designed to foil humans, because we have a hard time grasping those kinds of slow-moving crises. So you either have to change people’s minds, or you find projects that fit into a more favorable psychology.”

Funding opportunities for adaptation projects of all kinds have also become more uncertain with a federal administration slashing climate programs.

“We’re having to come to terms with the change in administration and the financing landscape. We’re gonna have to navigate this period by being a little bit cautious and we’re going to have to become more creative and keep a closer eye on the bottom line so we can create the savings necessary to fund more.”

Resilience will also involve building positive relationships, which for Hogan have been crucial to moving work forward.

“Relationships are important for everything— for building political support, access to resources, expertise, and different perspectives.”

A resilient Barnstable looks like:  Electrified systems that don’t depend on fossil fuels, loan programs to help homeowners install solar and resources for renters looking to lower energy bills, public projects that offer both immediate and long-term benefits, dedicated staff time to pursue climate and sustainability solutions. 

Resilience is… An uphill battle with a wildfire behind you.

Brooke Woods

Climate Adaptation Specialist for Permafrost Pathways and Tribal Citizen of Rampart, AK.

Woods’ hometown of Rampart, Alaska is a small fishing village on the Yukon River. Here, Alaska Native residents practice a subsistence lifestyle of hunting, fishing, and living off the land. Rampart, like many communities in interior Alaska—and across the Arctic—is feeling the impacts of the warming climate now.

The Arctic is one of the fastest warming places on the planet, and as it heats up, permafrost, or perennially frozen ground, upon which many villages are built, is thawing. This can lead to erosion, ground collapse, and infrastructural damage. Woods’s role on Woodwell Climate’s Permafrost Pathways project is to use her policy expertise to help Tribal partners navigate the tricky landscape of federal and state agencies and funding, as well as uplift tribal sovereignty.

On the Yukon River, one of the biggest concerns is the complete collapse of multiple salmon species. Salmon are suffering heat stress from increased water temperatures, changes in the marine environment, overharvest from bycatch in federal and state fisheries, and competition from hatchery-produced fish. 

“We have not been able to fish for five years with an expectation that we will not fish for seven more, and that is a climate and cultural crisis.”

Losing access to these fish cuts off Tribes from a traditional cultural practice as well as a critical food source. Both state and federal agencies are involved in managing fisheries in Alaska, and while there are options for consultation, there is no deference to Tribes in decision making.

Additionally, the threat of permafrost thaw places Tribes in an emotionally challenging position. Community members must decide whether to relocate their villages or stay and shore up crumbling infrastructure, with little guidance or support from government agencies. 

“There is no adaptation framework for the crisis tribes are in when it comes to relocation. One big hope of this project and working with our Tribal liaisons is developing that [framework] in any stage. That would be a big success.”

The fight for deference, respect, and resources has not been an easy one. Woods compares it to escaping a wildfire to face an uphill climb. But her people’s history of resilience—of maintaining their connection to the land over 10,000 years in Alaska—gives her strength. 

“You get out of the wildfire and you make your way up, and it’s a constant fight. Our ways of life are so connected to our ability to hunt, fish, and gather that Tribes are willing to continue this good fight. When it comes to advocating for our ways of life, our people are so humble and working tirelessly.”

A resilient Yukon River community looks like: Healthy salmon populations, stable permafrost, legal deference to Tribes in decisionmaking around natural resources, federal and state support for relocation, continued traditional ways of life

Learn how managing your yard for wildlife can enhance habitat and biodiversity. Studies show that wildlife-friendly yards—with less lawn, diverse plantings, and reduced fertilizers—support more native plants and attract a greater variety of birds, bees, and beneficial insects. Make a positive impact in your own backyard!

Each year at the Mountainfilm documentary film festival a mural is erected on a coffee shop in downtown Telluride, Colorado— a mountain mining town turned world-class winter sports destination. The festival showcases films with thought-provoking themes including environmental justice, Indigenous sovereignty, racial equity, and our collective responsibility to care for the natural world. These murals carry those themes year-round, becoming an integral part of Telluride’s main avenue and vibrant art culture. Past murals have been commissioned from artists including Shepard Fairey and Banksy.

This year, Woodwell’s lead cartographer Greg Fiske was selected to display his maps as art for the mural wall. The resulting piece, “Cartographies of Arctic Change”, will remain in place until next spring, and shows the rapidly changing Arctic landscape as seen by Fiske during the process of turning satellite imagery into data used by the Center’s climate scientists. Here, Fiske talks about his process and thinking behind the creation of this mural:

SR: How did this opportunity come about?

GF: It kind of came out of nowhere. I certainly wasn’t expecting it when they said, “we think your stuff would look great on this wall. What do you think?” And I said sure! 

Of course, I’ve never created a map this size (26.5 by 36 feet), so I was eager to experiment. We had to go back and forth about which of the maps would best suit the space, yet also tell a story that leads viewers to our science here at Woodwell.

SR: How did you decide on the final image?

GF: I was told that whatever you put on the wall tends to influence the feeling that you get while you’re sitting there, having your coffee. [The shop owners] said that they made a mistake one year putting up an image of something cold like an iceberg, and it kind of made the whole place feel cold and dreary. So when we selected the maps, we had to make sure that they didn’t make people feel awkward while sitting there enjoying the outdoor space. 

We came up with the idea of multiple maps in strips instead of one big map to be able to have each map show something different, but could all have a single theme and tell a story.

SR: What is that story?

GF: “Cartographies of Arctic Change”— it’s what we look at on a regular basis within our geospatial analyses, modeling, and science here at Woodwell that indicates rapid change in the Arctic. 

Each one of these slices in the mural, in addition to being beautiful art, are also actually the data that goes into the models that drive Woodwell’s Arctic science. 

The Arctic is one of the fastest changing landscapes on the planet— melting ice, thawing ground, lakes forming or draining, less snow and more fires— and you get a unique view of those changes when you spend so much time looking at geospatial data and satellite imagery.

I’m one of the people who pull in this raw data and prepare it for others who may be creating models or mapping some element of a landscape. I look at this data and make sure it’s the right format, quality, and resolution to satisfy the needs of models, but in doing so, there are many cases where I’m like, “Wow, this is really beautiful. Other folks should see the data at this stage, instead of just the final product.” So some of those images are what ended up in the mural. I hope it can give the many viewers who will see it a new perspective on the impacts climate change is having on one of the most beautiful regions of the world.

SR: What does it mean to you to have been selected to showcase that beauty through this mural?

GF: Of course it’s an honor. It’s interesting to think about something that I’ve seen so many times at screen size or social media size now being amplified to building size.  I’m super thankful to the folks at Mountainfilm and Telco for displaying our work. I’ve never seen any of my maps in mural format and I won’t actually know how it’ll look until I get to Telluride and see it in person. I’m super excited!

With stronger storms, higher seas, and hotter days, climate change is disrupting the assumptions on which most of our modern systems were established. The insurance industry is feeling the acute impacts of increasingly extreme weather and disaster events, and regulatory policy has failed to keep up—putting communities and companies at risk of huge financial losses. 

That’s the message Woodwell Climate Research Associate Dominick Dusseau carried to policymakers during a congressional briefing in Washington DC on May 6. Woodwell Climate has conducted an extensive analysis of climate-caused vulnerabilities within the insurance industry. In a recent policy brief, Dusseau and Policy Analyst Jamie Cummings outlined major risks, as well as proposed regulatory solutions.

One of the chief concerns is the use of “catastrophe models.” Insurance companies calculate potential financial losses from natural disasters based on these models, which estimate the likelihood of something like a category 5 hurricane occurring in a particular year based on historical data. What these catastrophe models generally do not take into account are increases in the frequency and intensity of such events due to climate change. Additionally, population expansion in risk-prone areas continues to increase the potential for damage.

“Climate change is making extreme weather events less predictable and that uncertainty makes it harder for models to get it right,” says Dusseau.

This means the cost of existing insurance policies in high-risk areas like coastal or wildfire-prone communities may not reflect the actual risk to life and property. Alternatively, those insurers who do account for climate change might raise premiums out of the range of affordability or be unable to price high-risk areas appropriately due to regulation and decide an area is altogether uninsurable—a trend being felt acutely in California in recent years.

Catastrophe models are also proprietary, meaning the price of similar insurance policies can vary widely depending on which one a company uses, and lack of transparency leaves the public in the dark on what’s accounting for those differences.

“Depending on which model insurers use, the premiums could be significantly different,” says Dusseau. “This is one of the reasons that greater review and regulation of these models is necessary, so that the risks associated with those premiums are calculated accordingly.”

Solutions, Dusseau and Cummings propose, lie in coherent federal regulation. The brief proposes a national public catastrophe model and rules around fair and appropriate pricing, as well as more accessible public information about insurance. The report also proposes we explore alternative methods of insurance, like parametric policies that cover lost income when a certain metric, like temperature, breaches a threshold, like heat that makes working conditions unsafe.

To get this information into the hands of policymakers, Dusseau participated in a panel briefing for congressional staff hosted by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI). The briefing identified areas where Congress should play a role in bolstering the long-term resilience and insurability of communities. Dusseau highlighted areas of Woodwell’s report, speaking on the shortcomings of catastrophe models, as well as areas for improvement within the National Flood Insurance Program. 

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island provided opening remarks at the briefing. Whitehouse is the Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and former chair of the Senate Budget Committee. Through both his current and former leadership positions, he has been a steadfast champion of climate mitigation and adaptation, underscoring the economic ramifications of climate change.

“The insurance industry makes trillion dollar bets anticipating what’s going to happen in the real world, and it also has a fiduciary duty…to get it right,” said Whitehouse.

The 100-year flood event currently impacts more than 840,000 structures and causes greater than $1.47 billion (2025 USD) in building damages across Ethiopia, according to a country-wide climate change risk assessment from the Woodwell Climate Research Center. The report, titled “Climate Risk Assessment: Ethiopia,” was released May 14 and offers granular projections on risk factors that will impact Ethiopia’s communities over the coming decades. 

“Ethiopia faces big climate risks like droughts, extreme rainfall, unreliable stream flows, and floods, but they’re not impossible to overcome. By using robust data, focusing on communities, and taking a joined-up approach (like Woodwell Climate Research Center suggests), Ethiopia can become more resilient and create a sustainable future for everyone. The time for action is now,” said Professor Engdawork Assefa with the Center for Environment and Development at Addis Ababa University. 

“The climate risk assessment enhances Ethiopia’s capacity to take targeted action, boosting its national climate goals under NDC 3 and supporting its case for equity in Loss and Damage frameworks. By offering a scientific foundation, it enables Ethiopia to strategically direct investments, policies, and partnerships toward a resilient future,” said Abbas Mohammed with the Ethiopian Ministry of Planning and Development.  

The assessment, completed in collaboration with the Addis Ababa University and Ministry of Planning and Development, reveals that climate change will reshape weather patterns across Ethiopia, posing challenges to water availability for agriculture and flooding in the built environment. Key findings include:

“Climate shocks threaten food security, yet targeted investments in closing the yield gap—through improved seeds, irrigation, livestock practices, market access, and insurance—can help mitigate crisis impacts.,” said Dr. Abay Yimere, CEO of African Climate Center for Adaptation and Mitigation and Woodwell collaborator.

The report underscores that while Ethiopia has established a strong policy landscape for climate action through several strategic initiatives, including the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) and the Climate Resilient Green Economy Strategy (CRGE), localized data insights are crucial for evidence-informed approaches to resilience. 

“Ethiopia has done excellent work on climate research and resilience, and it is an honor to be able to support those efforts with our science,” said Woodwell President Dr. Max Holmes. “We hope that this risk assessment will help our Ethiopian government partners prepare for additional climate change impacts and invest in adaptation.” 

Upcoming Workshop to Share Climate Analysis Skills

In conjunction with the report launch, Woodwell will host a capacity-sharing workshop after the report delivery in Addis Ababa. The workshop will provide participants with technical skills in climate data analysis fundamentals, including QGIS exercises and Google Earth Engine techniques.  

“Knowledge sharing and growing capacity is a crucial part of building climate resilience,” said Dom Dusseau, Lead Author on the report who will be facilitating portions of the workshop. “I am very excited for the bi-directional skill transfer that will be taking place.” 

The full-day workshop will include hands-on exercises, discussions on climate analysis methodologies, and resources for continued learning.

Cost estimates rising for permafrost-related damage to Alaska roads and buildings

Better knowledge and mapping of existing infrastructure is leading to a new estimate of future thaw costs under varying climate scenarios

a long, straight road flanked by evergreen trees runs off into the horizon, where a massive, snow-capped mountain dominates the background

Permafrost thaw is expected to impose costs of $37 billion to $51 billion to Alaska roads and buildings through the middle of the century, according to a newly published study.

The calculated toll, detailed in a study published in the journal Nature Communications Earth and Environment, is higher than previous estimates of thaw costs to Alaska permafrost. That is because of a more complete inventory of roads, buildings and structures like storage tanks, made possible by improved satellite imagery and other technology, said lead author Elias Manos of the University of Connecticut.

Read more on Alaska Beacon.

My first attempt at using Woodwell’s new Total Organic Carbon (TOC) analyzer began with a week of performing potassium chloride (KCl) nutrient extractions on 120 soil samples , and abruptly ended when the analyzer immediately failed to accurately measure total nitrogen correctly. While this disruption was frustrating, experiencing setbacks is a common part of lab work. 

Woodwell Climate Research Center has four labs used by researchers to prepare and analyze soil, plant, gas, and water samples. In the preparation labs, scientists spend hours filtering, treating, extracting, and grinding samples, usually hundreds at a time. My job involves doing biogeochemical analyses on soils and water to understand how nutrients and greenhouse gasses are affected by different land management practices. The projects that I have worked on include studying the role of cover crops on soil health, exploring the impacts of tropical agriculture on reservoir dynamics, and the impacts burning of arctic tundra on nutrient availability. As a result, I have become extremely familiar with the breadth of complex assays that Woodwell Climate’s labs offer. 

Performing these tasks can feel tedious, and facing boxes upon boxes of samples can be daunting. But when I put on some R&B and dig in deep, I’m able to transform the work into more of a meditation. Suddenly the rhythm of the music aligns with my pipetting, or how I change out samples while weighing, or my pace when cleaning and preparing materials for the next batch of samples. Recently, I spent an entire week grinding 500 soils for Woodwell Climate Carbon Program Director, Dr. Jon Sanderman’s Rangeland project. In the beginning, it was a little awkward finding the best approach to the grinding/cleaning dichotomy, which involves filling capsules with dirt, loading them onto a shaking instrument for grinding, storing the ground samples, then spending a decent amount of time cleaning up for the next set. With time, though, I caught a groove and the work became almost muscle memory. 

Once the preparation steps are complete, the samples are ready for analysis on our sophisticated instruments, which measure greenhouse gasses, nutrients, carbon and nitrogen levels, and other soil and water qualities. Analysis might seem like the more complex aspect of our work, but between automation and well-developed methods, data collection can be as simple as loading samples into the apparatus and pressing start. 

However, sometimes the instruments misbehave, and that’s where my biggest challenges begin. Troubleshooting is a very open ended process, so knowing where to start requires experience and in-depth understanding of the instrument. The answer to a problem can come from the manual, other lab users, or tech support, and often encountering an unfamiliar error can be the best way to learn the intricacies of equipment, and ultimately new skills. Since joining this lab, I have learned a good deal about electronics by having to check the performance of, and occasionally replace, components such as fusion boards, distribution boxes, and fuses. Similarly, software engineering has become less elusive to me. Familiarity with these and similar aspects of our instruments allows lab members the ability to restore harmony when they begin to misbehave. 

Despite the challenges, lab work is really fulfilling. Watching the seemingly endless queue of samples dwindle down to nothing is gratifying, and the data produced can provide long-anticipated answers to some of our biggest research questions. Trial and error is a tried and true way to learn, so needless to say, a lot of learning occurs in the lab. Lab results are rewarding by nature, because they drive the important work done at Woodwell Climate, but after an uphill battle, they become much more gratifying. Struggling with an instrument only increases my appreciation for smooth sailing and working through so many samples reminds me of the thorough research that all our scientists are doing every day. My work may seem aggravating at points, but it is very much worthwhile for the greater mission of mitigating climate change.