Bryan Stevenson, director of the Equal Justice Initiative, claims that the first step to resolving a concern is to “get proximate.” Getting up close with unfamiliar people and issues and realities is an essential part of promoting solutions. This principle extends to climate change and environmental protection.

Our current legislature, on both the state and federal levels, is old and affluent. They live far from the heaviest polluters and, due to age or wealth, they will not reap the consequences. They are not proximate. And so we watch as they auction off San Juan County, fail to place stricter regulations on gasoline and coal and are slow to increase access to mass transit.

My baby boy is 11 months old. We felt compelled to put an air purifier on our baby registry, right next to “The Very Hungry Caterpillar.” We are proximate. We are the ones who fear that “Wall-E” is more prophetic than creative. We will vote, we will rally, and we will march, but ultimately we need those in power to listen, to learn, and to get proximate. Because even though it may not affect them, it will affect us.