I grew up in a forest, a 489-acre oasis surrounded by suburbia. We had coyotes trot along our street and raccoons stand at our screen door. Growing up outside Seattle, in the Evergreen State, I learned to take for granted that it was normal to be outdoorsy, to be an environmentalist, and always carry a Nalgene bottle. It wasn’t until I was 17 that this world view was shaken.

It first shook me when I was reading State of Fear by Michael Crichton. It was a thriller about the dangers of global warming, yet the ‘bad guys’ turned out to be the environmentalists. At the time I was deciding what I wanted to study at university and I dreamed of being a backcountry ranger equipped with a degree in forestry or conservation. But Crichton made me question if we had it all wrong. In part, this awakening led me to a study in St Andrews and the UK’s flagship degree programme on Sustainable Development. In my first-year lectures, my concerns about the veracity of climate science disappeared and since then I’ve been studying and researching the complex question: how do we live an environmentally friendly life?

Trying to figure out where it’s best to exert efforts led me to walk the talk. I founded a Transition Town and for a decade I have lectured on sustainable consumption and climate activism at UK universities. I helped raise more than a £1 million to set up community sustainability projects. I’ve been part of rewriting my University’s environmental policies, been one of hundreds of volunteers planting kale in a dozen new community gardens, and gotten my hands greasy at a weekly-sessions fixing bicycle brakes.

I want to share all of I’ve learned: blending IPCC reports, sustainable consumption research and the lived reality of processing climate grief, finding community, motivation and joy in climate activism.