Tinger Mariah - Protecting the planet: environmental champions from conservation to climate change

Though all of the material in this book grew from our perspective and interpretation of the challenges and solutions of climate change, our deepest gratitude goes to the visionaries who spent precious time with us, sharing their exceptional and inspiring knowledge over the past year. We are particularly grateful to Thomas Lovejoy, who beguiled us with delightful stories alongside his critical climate insights, and his wonderful assistant Carmen Thorndike. Sarah Shanley Hope left us breathless after presenting everything that the Solutions Project is working on (and even skipped lunch for us!). Reverend Canon Sally Bingham may not realize this, but she was our first interview, kicking off a wave of hope and excitement for this project. Bill McKibben prioritized a meeting with us, despite being buried in world-altering grassroots actions in Parisand was always quick with a word of inspiration, support, and encouragement. Jeremy Grantham and Ramsay Ravenel devoted an entire Friday afternoon to bouncing around ideas for heroes and insight on the economic aspects of climate change. Gus Speth easily endeared himself to us during our chat as the kind of guy you wish you could join every night for a dinner conversation. Father John Chryssavgis provided invaluable advice and counsel. Janine Benyus took time away from her own writing retreat in a cabin in Montana, and, despite the chilly air, spoke with us from a spot by the lake for a full hour. Naomi Oreskes welcomed us and a camera crew into her office (patiently sitting through the sound-checks) and then stunned us with scintillating information. James Balog squeezed in an interview despite a trip to Mt. Kilimanjaro the next morning. Budd had a particularly fun time connecting with Joe Romm, as both share a passion for science and writing, and grew up with fathers who ran newspapers. Katharine Hayhoe, in true college professor fashion, offered some very constructive criticism on our initial set of interview questions (greatly improving them as a result) and then gave us a rock-star interview in Paris, joined by her friend Jonathan Patz. Bob Inglis made us laugh and broadened our horizons and perspective. Mark Jacobson's time was short, but his information was richhis remarkable research offers an enormous light at the end of the (often dark) climate-change tunnel. Paul Hawken provided us with first-hand input on his remarkably ambitious Project Drawdown research and book. Paul Crutzen updated us on his viewpoints on geoengineering solutions to climate change. Wally Broecker provided us with his detailed description of how carbon capture and burial could work. And, finally, Amory Lovins gave us a detailed look inside some landmark climate-change studies being conducted at his Rocky Mountain Institute.

And we are grateful to Debby Titlow (Budd's wife and Mariah's mom), for being our secret third author, despite her own illustrious writing and teaching career. We offered her the position, but she just laughed and then corrected our sentence structure in the offer email. She has been a rock for both of us, reviewing our words, brainstorming titles, acting as a voice of reason for ideas that were too out there and a muse for our writing.

To Lorraine and John Tinger, for whisking away Mariah's kids (Budd's grandkids) for adventures so that she could write, always taking a deep interest in our book, and always being the first to support any social networking initiatives (including our Kickstarter projectthank you!).

To Merisa Titlow (Budd's daughter and Mariah's sister), for deep insight into many key players and for being a powerful sounding board for suggestions and approach. Additionally, Merisa and her husband, Sam Eisenstein, supported our Kickstarter project.

To David Denny (Budd's son and Mariah's brother), for challenging Mariah's views in particular, as her devil's advocate, and pushing all of her buttons as a good older brother should. And for constantly providing you can get this done support to us every step we took along the way.

To Dr. Tim Weiskel, Mariah's professor at Harvard University, for his continued counsel, inspiration, promotion, and advice, in person, and through the content on his website www.EcoEthics.net.

To the good sisters, especially Sister Mary Frances, at St. Scholastica Priory in Petersham, Massachusetts; and Preston Browning at the Wellspring House. Both provided a quiet and motivational place to write.

A big thanks to Jason LaChapelle, who provided counsel and videography of our heroes (for a potential future project!).

To all of our Kickstarter supporters, who believed in us, believed in our book, and sponsored our research trip to the climate change conference (COP-21) in Paris. The firsthand experiences we had there added important depth and understanding to the book, and allowed us to be part of a historical moment. First and foremost among the supporters are Ryan and Rekha (Madan) Hayden, and the rest of the Madan and Hayden clans, who are like family to Mariah. They continually delight us with their curiosity, passion, and support for climate-change solutions. To our fabulous, kind neighbors Abby and Georgetheir four beautiful, vibrant children remind us regularly of the importance of the work we are doing for future generations. Urvi Mujumdar was the very first person to support our project, and she thoughtfully connected me with her uncle, Jayant Sathaye, recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for climate change alongside Al Gore. We are grateful to Urvi for her support and Jayant for offering his valuable insight. Vanessa Parker-Geisman, David Morin, Nicole Tateosian, and Sara Radkiewicz supported our Kickstarter, but also spent hours discussing the book with us on hikes and over dinners; We thank Jacob Holzberg-Pill and Grace Oedel, who are working climate miracles with Dig-In Farm; Molly Benson, who was so inspired by the book idea that she supported our Kickstarter in honor of her friends David Scoglio, Amanda Kelly, and Kristen and Brian Burdt; Reeta and Prabhu Rao, Chris and Kristen Buchanan, Tom Breider, and Lauren Kyser Newsom, who are all deeply involved in climate-change solutions themselves; dear friends Cindy Koenig, Florentien de Ruiter, and Tom Bock, Julia and Dave Long, Brad and Katy Langhorst, Katie and Ron Cooper, Wendy Palto, Andy and Lisa Schneider, Jana Eisenstein, Kath Hardcastle, Kurt and Kelly Anderson, Jeremy and Jennifer Schley Johnson, Ken and Kelly Kozloff, Tim and Erin Morin, Brendan Kearney, Gregory Soutiea, Jinju and Justin Fong, Alex White aka A, Eric Weeks and Kelly Mac, Michelle and Saul Farber, Kara Brickman, and Hao Chen and Michael Winderthank you all so much! Tina Tobey and Chris Mack, supported our Kickstarter, and Tina is helping us to spread the message in exciting ways. A big thanks to Dana Zemack, who deftly guided me through optimizing the Kickstarter process; and last, but not least, we thank George Clark, who not only supported our Kickstarter, but dispensed invaluable advice as Harvard's environmental librarian, including some suggestions for amazing titles!

Budd would like to thank Andrew Miller, his next-door neighbor and retired professional aquatic ecologist, for providing valuable sources of material and serving as a continuing sounding board (over dark beers) for our book's progress. Also his thanks goes to the Board of Directors (BOD) of the Apalachee Audubon Societyespecially Dr. Sean McGlynnwho graciously allowed him to defer his BOD presidency for a year so that he could write this book.

Mariah extends a big shout out to her support team. She had several babysitters who lovingly cared for her children, but notable were Paige Coyne and Danielle Bertaux, who always delighted the children, and the staff at the Beverly Athletic Center, Emily, Kelly, Brianna, Nina and Mel, who watched her kids while she cleared her mind and sorted her thoughts over a five-mile run.