Ayana Elizabeth Johnson’s first love was and is the ocean. As a marine biologist, writer, and climate activist, it’s something she thinks about all the time even though the trajectory of her career, and her climate work, has shifted beyond dives and field research.
“The ocean is such a critical part of our climate system,” Johnson says. Not only does it absorb carbon dioxide, but the currents drive weather patterns that are shifting as the water warms. Increasingly, people are recognizing its importance as another tool in the fight against climate change.
Comprehensive climate solutions will need to do more than electrify technologies that oil and gas used to fuel, she notes, “there’s lots of really important work happening on the salty side of things too.” Johnson is on the board of GreenWave, an organization training a new generation of ocean farmers in the U.S. to help shift our food systems from extractive to regenerative through initiatives like farming shellfish and seaweed, which can soak up excess carbon and nitrogen from the water.
In the last two decades, Johnson has alchemized scientific knowledge into climate action, both through policy work with government leaders and with Urban Ocean Lab, the think tank she co-founded to map out strategies for coastal cities to adapt to climate impact. She’s also been highlighting conversations around innovative sustainability strategies through the All We Can Save project, the podcast How to Save a Planet, and her 2024 book What If We Get It Right. One clear message seen throughout her work: we already have the tools we need to take action on climate change—including the knowledge, the technology, and the policy ideas.
When Johnson received a TIME Earth Award on Oct. 30 at the TIME100 Next Gala, she centered her speech around how every one of us are responsible for translating these existing solutions into actions.
“The average person needs to be engaging with these issues of climate risks and solutions with their family and friends,” she says, “[but] the average citizen is not really encountering very much information on climate, let alone climate solutions.”
Cultural engagement with climate change in popular media plays a role in how widely solutions are implemented. In a race against the clock, creating more awareness and communicating what’s currently working, and what strategies are dangerous or counterproductive, matters. In addition to her podcasts, Johnson plans to work on a children’s book, and hopes to advise artists, writers in Hollywood, and more on ways to integrate climate into the videos and content that people see and interact with everyday. “One of the major things that’s been holding us back from implementing all these solutions we have at our fingertips is people not being able to see that it’s worth it,” she says.
Climate solutions’ potential can be harder to envision in a moment when the environmental movement faces significant headwinds, with the U.S. government continuing to subsidize fossil fuels and rolling back protective regulations from the EPA. “There are some very serious setbacks in terms of our court system, in terms of what’s going on in federal agencies, in terms of scientific research on climate, in terms of data disappearing from government websites,” she says. “At the same time as we’re seeing all these setbacks in the U.S., we’re seeing other countries still move forward, and we’re seeing the economic shift. Solar and wind are now the cheapest ways to generate electricity, and that changes everything.”
Additionally, pro bono law firms like Earth Justice and local land trusts are continuing to fight for environmental protections; and homeowners are converting their grassy lawns to food gardens with pollinator-friendly plants, upgrading their homes through heat pumps and solar panels, and switching to electric vehicles. Although grassroots, small-scale changes aren’t enough to offset changes at the federal level, it’s a promising trend to see, Johnson says. “We’re building enough momentum that even without the federal tax credits, that work will continue.”
Johnson also points to a generational shift in thinking, as younger people who are better-versed on the need for climate solutions and mitigation enter the workforce and the electorate. “Across the political spectrum, young people expect more from their political leaders in terms of climate action. There’s way fewer climate deniers in Gen Z,” says Johnson. Plus, Zohran Mamdani, who will be the youngest New York City mayor in over a decade, has argued that policies for affordability and climate action can go hand in hand.
Although such large-scale shifts are important, the fight is ultimately a collective effort—according to Johnson, every household decision, community action, and successful local policy helps to move the needle.
“We need to stop thinking about this like it’s too late… It really is a question of the order of magnitude of the impacts,” Johnson says. “It actually does matter whether the earth warms three or 10 degrees Fahrenheit. These are totally different future versions of the world.”
