Can Gina McCarthy help save the planet one straight-talking conversation at a time?

A May 27, 2018 cover story in the Boston Globe Magazine profiled Gina McCarthy, director of the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment (C-Change) at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

The article followed McCarthy from a lecture in Falmouth to a speech in Ontario to her home in Jamaica Plain, homing in on her efforts to recast the climate change argument so that the focus is on the threat global warming and pollution pose to human health, especially children. “I’m tired of climate change being projected as polar bears, or EPA being looked at as the birds-and-bunnies agency,” she said. “I work for children, for human beings.”

Throughout the piece, McCarthy’s sense of humor is brought to bear, as is her ability to communicate complex science in simple terms. In addition to tracing McCarthy’s career, including her recent appointment at Harvard Chan School, the article examines the politicization of climate science and the risks posed by environmental activists who favor an alarmist approach. “They say if you don’t do something in three years, it’s over!” McCarthy said. “Did they ever work in government? Does anything get done in government in three years?”

Read the Boston Globe Magazine story: Former EPA head Gina McCarthy knows why climate change activists aren’t getting their message across