Mainers from every corner of the state are stepping up to the climate challenge. Practical, creative and trailblazing teachers, bus drivers, students, communities, recent graduates and professional athletes alike are taking action to get ahead of the climate curve. Read their stories.
Carter Frank used to love playing City: Skylines, an Xbox game where players get to build their own city, decide the placement of roads, and design public transportation. Frank, now a senior studying Environmental Planning and Policy and the University of Southern Maine, had no idea just how much a childhood hobby would translate into his career trajectory.
Like many other students, Frank’s educational journey had a few twists and turns before he found his passion for environmental planning.
Martin Carriere first faced the reality of the climate crisis in 2014, when the farm that had been in his family for generations struggled with drought and a new uncertainty due to climate change. Then in 2021 there was not enough water to flood his grandfather’s rice fields in California, a phenomenon that had never occurred since the farm was founded in the 1800s.
From a young age, Alyssa Soucy was fascinated with graphs, maps, and data But it wasn’t until she attended college in Lowell, Massachusetts that she learned about climate change in an academic setting. As Soucy undertook a degree in geology, she learned about earth systems and earth history but recognized that her interests expanded beyond the physical aspects of the earth and into the human dimensions and interactions with these systems.
It can seem pretty overwhelming to navigate the world of green jobs in Maine. So, we sat down with Kassie Murch of Maine Public's @GreenJobsExplained to break down everything you need to know about sustainable careers.
Q: How did you get to where you are now – running the Green Jobs Explained Instagram account for Maine Public?
At age 17, Leela Marie Hidier of Yarmouth published her first book, Changes in the Weather, and her life began taking a whole new trajectory that has included a new love of social justice, climate action, and an honor by First Lady Jill Biden at the White House. Her novel follows four teenagers displaced by climate change in the U.S.