Seeds of hope: How nature inspires scientists to confront climate change

Sarah Kaplan, one of The Post’s climate reporters, introduces a series of short essays from climate scientists and conservationists where their hope comes from. She begins with her own inspiration

If hope had a color, it would be the pale green of a newly sprouted seed. It would smell of pollen and damp earth. Its shape would be the swanlike arc of a stem stretching toward the sun.

Every morning of this difficult spring, I have tumbled out of bed and immediately gone to check on the vegetable seedlings growing on my windowsill. Before checking my email or reading the news, I stop to gently moisten their potting soil and coo over each pair of soft new leaves. Only then do I feel ready to face reality: a brutal war and resurgent covid, a warming planet that accelerates toward disaster with each ton of carbon people emit.

Read more at the Washington Post.