This is the seminal post for a series of features on the incredible women from Astronomers for Planet Earth (A4E), a global network of astronomers and astronomy enthusiasts dedicated to offering their unique perspective to the fight for global climate justice. To kick things off, we'll hear from Dr. Adrienne Cool, a faculty member at San Francisco State University's Physics and Astronomy Department.
If you're interested in supporting the effort to combat climate change, join A4E's amazing community here: https://astronomersforplanet.earth/join-us-1. Really, really interested? Read the white paper, Astronomers for Planet Earth: Engaging with the Public to Forge a Sustainable Future, to learn more about what you (yes, you!) can do right now to tackle the climate crisis.
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Dr. Adrienne Cool is an observational astronomer at SFSU and the director of the SFSU Observatory and Planetarium.
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What is your current career and how did you end up there?
I've been a faculty member in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at San Francisco State University for more than 20 years. I started there after doing a postdoc at the University of California, Berkeley.
What is your role in Astronomers for Planet Earth (A4E)?
I'm one of the founders of the organization. Since we began in the fall of 2019 I've been doing a range of things, e.g., working on the website, doing intake as part of the membership working group, coordinating weekly meetings of the North America group, participating in monthly international meetings, helping organize conference sessions and symposia, giving talks, and... learning to appreciate Slack when working with people in 15 different time zones!
What goals do you have for your role in A4E?
It's been very meaningful to me that nearly 1200 astronomers from more than 60 countries on 6 continents have joined A4E in the relatively short time since we were founded. As we grow we need to be creating structures and mechanisms that will enable more and more of our diverse members' voices to be heard. Students are also critical and have been leaders from the start; A4E wouldn't exist without them. I look forward to continuing to work with the amazing, caring, and committed people who have joined and are leading this organization as we shepherd ourselves through the next transition.
Describe the first time you made a personal connection between your passion for astronomy and the urgency of fighting climate change.
The US election in 2016 was a wake-up call for me. The climate crisis had been on my mind, but the outcome of that election made me think much harder about what I could and should be doing. That's when it hit me that astronomers have an unusual perspective on our planet that could be harnessed in the struggle to combat the climate crisis. Who else knows quite as viscerally as we do just how far away the stars and their attendant planets are, not to mention the delicate set of conditions that lead to habitability? And though astronomy is a relatively small field, we have a surprisingly big reach. Astronomers all over the world interact with millions of people every year in classrooms, planetariums, and more. Putting those two things together--the astronomical perspective and the reach we have--can be powerful, I think.
How does your career in astronomy intersect with the fight against climate change?
I'm fortunate to work in a university with a diverse and engaged student population and a strong commitment to social justice and activism. So it's not a stretch to see how working on astronomy, the climate crisis, and climate justice all intersect.
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Dr. Cool teaches the next generation of astronomers at a sidewalk astronomy event for Mercury's transit across the sun on November 11, 2019.
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How can the astronomical community engage with the climate crisis movement?
There are many ways we can engage. Fundamentally, A4E exists in order for astronomers to help one another find ways to engage effectively with the climate crisis movement and make meaningful change. One way of course is to work to make our own field sustainable. That includes observatories, astronomical institutes, universities, science museums, planetaria and more. Another is to use our voices as educators and public speakers. When we're talking and teaching about astronomy and astronomical discoveries, we can make a practice of making the link between what we're learning about the cosmos and what it means about the preciousness and vulnerability of our own planet. There's more, but those are two main strands I see.
If you weren’t in the field of astronomy, what would you be doing?
I'd probably be a carpenter. Or maybe a school teacher. I've always loved teaching and building things.
Do you have any advice for future astronomers who might also be interested in addressing the climate crisis?
Join us. Astronomers for Planet Earth needs your ideas, your voice, and your help!
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