Attend Class, March for Science, Lobby Congress: A Week in the Life of This Fifth-Grader

Check out this pint-sized smackdown.

Nicole Coleman


Haven Coleman is one of the tens of thousands of science defenders who took part in the March for Science protests around the world on Earth Day, and she’ll be one of thousands more who participate in the People’s Climate Marches around the country this weekend. And when the 11-year-old fifth-grader isn’t attending classes, or taking to the streets, she’s lobbying her Republican congressman to change his position on climate change.

At Rep. Doug Lamborn’s (R-Colo.) town hall in Colorado Springs earlier this month, Haven read him her argument that clean energy is a job creation opportunity for veterans, in an effort to convince him of its merits. Lamborn has incorrectly claimed there are “a lot of contentious facts and claims about global warming and whether it is man made” and has taken a pledge to oppose most climate change legislation.

But Lamborn didn’t respond to Haven’s invitation to her presentation about climate change for her science class the following week. She later learned, through a spokesperson quoted in my story, that he wasn’t going to make it.

That’s when Haven and her mom, Nicole Coleman, decided to make things even easier for Lamborn. On Sunday, Coleman filmed Haven’s adapted version of her class lesson just for Lamborn’s benefit, and Haven sent it off to Lamborn’s aide. She shared the 15-minute video with Mother Jones.

Haven marching for science in Denver Nicole Coleman

 

Recorded in one of her favorite outdoor spots, Haven makes an  impassioned case for taking action while explaining how greenhouse gases are warming the atmosphere and how climate change is affecting people around the globe. One of the biggest challenges in communicating the problems we face from climate change is to explain why people should care about an issue that still feels far into the future. But Haven, who attended Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project training in Denver in early March, keeps bringing it back to the present, how it is affecting her and her classmates, and how the problems will intensify in their lifetimes.

Her personal version of Gore’s famous slideshows tries to tug on heartstrings, too. At one point she talks about how climate change has exacerbated wildfire seasons, pointing to the Waldo Canyon Fire and Black Forest Fire in 2012 and 2013 that destroyed hundreds of homes, including some in Lamborn’s district. “I bet you still remember them,” she says. “The pain on people’s faces, the smell of burning houses and the ashes flying in the air. Many kids in my class told stories of how they were affected by the fires when I gave my presentation. I wish you could have heard them.”

Coleman didn’t expect a response to Haven’s submission, but Communications Director Jarred Rego emailed Haven back the next day, promising to share it with the congressman.

In her email to Lamborn’s office, Haven took the long view. “When I am a representative, Congressman Lamborn and I could join the Climate Solutions Caucus together,” she wrote. “You have to have one Republican and one Democrat to join. It could be fun!”

More Mother Jones reporting on Climate Desk

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate