This Director’s Note was originally published in the July 2017 edition of the CACHE Quarterly Newsletter.

I kicked off my summer with a trip to Warsaw, Poland, where the Climate and Clean Air Coalition had a meeting focused on heating stoves. Here’s the nexus: People who live where it’s cold need space heat — giant streams of energy; of all the needs in a house, heating is most likely to use solid fuel, which emits lots of air pollutants; and the snow that falls near cold regions could be affected by air pollutants like black carbon that warm the atmosphere. Closed loop.

Now, I’ve been talking cookstoves since 2001, and aerosol-climate interactions since 1995, and I have dear friends in both communities. Somehow I didn’t anticipate how deeply moving I would find that room: being present with people I love, who were conversing for the first time. The people I cherish are the ones who make me think, who set me back, who pop my academic bubble, who don’t fit in the mold and remind me that I shouldn’t, either. I also treasure the people who are solid hard workers, who snarl at a tough problem and gnaw it to disintegration. I’m fortunate to know people like that. We’re all lucky to be able to brush truth once in a while. Sometimes we see it in each other. Keep talking.

Best, Tami