Meet 7 Women Leading the Way to a Brighter Climate Future

Sway is a California-based startup producing seaweed-based, home-compostable packaging materials that are replacements for single-use plastic packaging. Founder and CEO Julia Marsh is a designer by trade, but an environmentalist and naturalist at heart as a result of growing up in the biodiverse Monterey Bay area. She first spoke about the idea of Sway at the 2019 Aspen Ideas Festival when it was only the subject of her graduate thesis. After a $5 million seed round of funding and winning the Tom Ford Plastic Innovation Prize, Marsh returned to the Ideas stage to talk more about her vision for a regenerative, plastic-free future.

Cristina Mittermeier pioneered the field of conservation photography—she uses visual storytelling to inspire everyday people to take action to protect the planet. Her photography has been shown in galleries around the world, published in countless magazines like National Geographic, TIME, and more, and is seen by over 2 million followers on the Instagram account for SeaLegacy, the conservation nonprofit she co-founded with collaborators Paul Nicklen and Andy Mann. Her mission is to not just inspire climate action, but foster hope for a future where people and planet exist in harmony.

Jennifer Doudna’s development of CRISPR-Cas9—a genome engineering technology that allows researchers to edit DNA—with collaborator Emmanuelle Charpentier in 2012 earned them the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Now twelve years later, CRISPR is a mainstream area of study, and researchers are investigating its potential use to improve animal health, develop drought- and insect-resistant crops, and combat climate change.

Heat kills more people than any other weather-related event in the U.S., and the planet is only getting warmer. Marta Segura is Los Angeles’s first Chief Heat Officer, and her ultimate goal is to create heat and climate resilient, equitable communities. This work touches on emergency management, health equity, sustainability, and more—she is navigating these complexities and nuances to minimize preventable deaths and injuries from extreme heat.

Stress and anxiety about climate change, otherwise known as “eco-anxiety,” is plaguing more and more mental health patients. Just ask Maymunah Yusuf Kadiri (a.k.a Dr. May), a 2024 Aspen Ideas: Health Fellow who is a leading voice on mental health and wellness in Nigeria. Her expertise as a psychiatrist gives her a unique insight on the particularities of climate-induced stress, and also makes her well-suited to help patients with coping mechanisms. At Aspen Ideas: Health, she joined a panel to discuss how to manage climate anxiety.

Jane Fonda has been an outspoken activist for her entire career. But in recent years, she has devoted herself fully to mitigating climate change and addressing the influence that the fossil fuel industry has on the U.S. political system. Fonda turned 82 in jail after she was arrested for protesting inaction on climate change outside the U.S. Capitol. In 2022, she established the Jane Fonda Climate PAC, focused on electing climate champions at all levels of government. Her unwavering commitment to climate justice and clean energy was the subject of her conversation with Katie Couric during the Afternoon of Conversation at this summer’s Aspen Ideas Festival.

People often see climate change as a far-off problem, something that will only affect us in the very distant future. But Kelly Wanser reminds us that the effects of climate change are happening now, all over the world, and will continue to worsen in the coming decades if not addressed. She founded SilverLining, a non-profit organization focusing on near-term options for ensuring a safe climate. She leads efforts to promote scientific research, science-based policies, and international collaboration to rapidly respond to climate change.