What are the most important things that humans can do now in order to not destroy the planet? We have to accept responsibility for our role. I am trying to keep track of what my carbon impact is this year — America produces about 20 metric tons per person a year. We also have to encourage all sorts of people to go into science and engineering, because some of the solutions will involve new technologies.

Your stance seems to run counter to the attitude that the planet is beyond help and there’s not much more we can do. Do you think you’re more optimistic than most? Being pessimistic isn’t going to get us there. We have to take action. I’ve been helping review the National Climate Assessment Report, which provides an in-depth look at how climate change affects the country, and it’s fascinating to see how different the impact is in different regions. People are starting to organize at the level at which they live, and that’s probably what gives me hope. New York and California are significant economies and have shown that their governments can act.

Do you think conditions have improved for women in STEM fields since you entered the arena? Things have gotten better. The National Science Foundation has a program called Advance, where instead of just trying to hire individual women, you actually try to change the culture, like instead of dropping individual salmon in the stream, we’re actually trying to change ecosystems so that more salmon will survive. I did that for five years, and we managed to go from having both the teaching and research faculty at Lamont go from having single-digit numbers of women to having double digits. We still don’t see women in as many leadership positions as I’d like, and the harassment issue is probably one of the reasons we lose so many women in the pipeline in particular. Considering the cultural conversation, this is our chance to see if we can address those problems within science and to sit down and say: “What have we let go by? What have we not spoken up about? And how can we make it so we can understand what our code of conduct is going to be?”

Do you think you’re a role model for young women entering the field? Part of it is making sure people are connected sufficiently with their planet, to want to make sure it’s still here as a home for us. If we’re going to understand how our planet really works, we need everybody on deck to understand how to respond to it. The planet’s going to survive — the question is, will we?