Act One. As a precocious child in the late 60s-70s, I was enthralled by the social change movements. In 1969, I asked to go to Woodstock. My mom replied, “You’re 11. You’re going to summer camp.” When I was 13, I attended the first Earth Day, which inspired me to write a poem called “Vote Yes on Proposition Life.” “Fly high with me my little white dove, Fly high with me today. Don’t fly too low, or you’ll turn black. Pollution is here to stay. Swim deep with me, my little goldfish. Swim deep with me, my love. Don’t swim too high, or you might die. Oil slick floats above.” Remember when the biggest environmental problem was just pollution?
In college, I protested the Seabrook nuclear power plant construction. In 1979, a near meltdown at the Three Mile Island plant happened shortly after I’d seen “The China Syndrome.” I wrote an article called “The China Syndrome: First the Movie, Now the Mess.” I wanted to be a broadcast journalist, just like Jane Fonda in the film. I believed television was the most powerful medium for shaping public opinion and affecting social change.
At age 24, I was running a public access cable TV station in Boston, teaching residents how to make shows about local issues, believing that change is most achievable at the local level. I then worked for a cable network in NYC who transferred me to Los Angeles. I got married in 1989 and worked a couple more years before becoming a stay-at-home mom.
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Act Two. In 1989, I read Bill McKibben’s “The End of Nature,” the first book to alert the general public about climate change. My last paid job was as Jerry Brown’s media adviser in his 1992 presidential campaign. (20 years later I’d protest him as California governor for not banning fracking.) For the next decade, I was not involved in politics. That changed after 9/11. I took my five year old to a peace vigil, but spent the whole time trying to stop him from blowing out peoples’ candles.
Soon I was organizing documentary screenings and panel discussions. At one, featuring Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth,” we asked attendees to send postcards to Governor Schwarzenegger to sign the Million Solar Roofs bill. He did, and the goal was achieved before the deadline.
In 2011, I joined the Occupy movement, convinced that due to outsized influence of money in politics, voting and calling your Congressman weren’t cutting it. I organized 36 protests, several against the Keystone and Dakota Access pipelines. I led two campaigns, one to get a legislator to drop her weak fracking regulatory bill, which failed, and another to get Beverly Hills to ban fracking, which succeeded. In 2016, I started and ran LA for Bernie and was a Sanders delegate at the Democratic National Convention. I also began my show “The Robust Opposition,” where I interview organizers and activists hoping to inspire others.
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Act Three. When I turned 60, I decided to leave LA. I was alarmed by the frequent and severe wildfires and chronic drought. I moved to Asheville, a resilient city. Last year, I hosted an event to raise money for a low income solar program featuring Bill McKibben. He just started a new organization called, coincidentally, Third Act, for climate activists over 60. Its first local action is at noon March 21 at Pritchard Park. We’re asking folks to withdraw their money from Wells Fargo, Citibank, Bank of America and Chase, because of the money they’ve spent financing dirty energy projects. We need to stop extracting fossil fuels to prevent human extinction. You don’t have to be over 60 to join.
If you’re cynical about our chances, remember the divestment movement was credited with helping end South African apartheid. I’ve learned after a lifetime of activism that finding meaning and purpose in life does not come from success but from effort. Even if it’s too late and individual actions cannot collectively save the planet, when I’m on my deathbed looking back on my life, at least I can say I tried. The last verse of my poem was prescient. “Come out with me to find an answer. Come out we’ll look for peace. Don’t give up. We’ll keep on looking, lest life on earth should cease.”
A former cable TV professional and mother of two grown sons, Lauren Steiner is an activist, organizer and independent journalist. Her show “The Robust Opposition” can be seen on her YouTube channel @laurensteiner.