Part One of a mini-series exploring potential pathways to a sustainable garment industry. We explore some routes to slow fashion: restoring regional wool production in Pennsylvania, curbside pickup of used clothes in Massachusetts, second hand clothes, and raising garment worker wages 

A Michigan environmental justice coalition is putting the "public" back in their state's Public Service Commission; closing coal plants, stopping new gas plants, and elevating the welfare of low income communities.

For decades university departments, liberally lubricated with fossil fuel dollars, have been turning out research that adds a scholarly veneer to the industry's policy agenda. First that was opposing the regulation of oil and gas; now it's promoting carbon capture so they can keep selling their product. Students and faculty are shining a light on fossil fuel infiltration of academia and organizing to ban fossil fuel dollars from climate and energy research.

We talk with undergrads and PhD students at Stanford and George Washington University about their research showing how fossil fueled research is skewing climate policy and how they are organizing to stop it. 

Solar coops bridge the partisan divide, raising panels on rooftops and building a broad movement to transform our energy system. Solar United Neighbors provides the technical know how, community groups do the organizing, and together they're removing the practical and political barriers to a clean energy transition. It's a movement which brings together conservatives and progressives and they're winning battles against powerful utilities.  

With federal climate policy blocked by Congress and the Supreme Court, we look at opportunities to advance climate action at state and local levels. Caroline Spears explains how the Climate Cabinet uses big data to find pivotal elections and help pro climate candidates win. Nathaniel Stinnett of the Environmental Voter Project explains why state and local elections are a great opportunity for the climate movement to strengthen its political muscle. And we meet Lauren Kuby, who the Climate Cabinet is supporting in her race for the AZ Corporation Commission, which regulates the state's utility monopolies. 

What did it take to get the wealthiest university in the world to break ties with the fossil fuel industry?   

9 years and the combined force of students, faculty, and alumni engaged in everything from scholarly debate, to civil disobedience, to legal action.  In the end, Harvard's divestment was most likely due to fear of having its own reputation besmirched by association with an already stigmatized fossil fuel industry.  Students, faculty, and alumni tell their stories. 

We explore other barriers to rural EV adoption with Matt Fitzgibbon of the Tri States Electrical Cooperative. 

Activists accelerate states' switch to clean big rigs.  A story about the power of coming together and speaking out for climate and justice.

Bill McKibben launches new climate group for seniors. Doctors devoting their retirement years to climate action talk about what motivates them and how they found their place in the movement. Their activities range from registering low income patients to vote to getting arrested over pipelines. Bill McKibben introduces Third Act, a new climate organization for seniors, and explains why this demographic is key to climate action.  

We talk with former contract  farmers for Tyson, Perdue, and Pilgrim's Pride;   the founder of a farmers' cooperative that outperforms Big Meat by a mile, and an animal welfare organization turning chicken houses into grow houses.