In anticipation of the Global Climate Strike, my wife Margaret and I held a salon on September 11th, 2019 at our home titled “What’s Your Golden Spike?” or, in other words, when did climate change impact your personal life? The point of the salon was to raise awareness around the facts of climate change. “Golden Spike” comes from the term for the geologic marker to a new age, in this case the Anthropocene. For the salon we were very fortunate to have two guest speakers committed to this issue.

The first speaker was Lucky Tran, who calls himself a science explainer. Trained as a biologist, Lucky has since become a science journalist, policy advisor, and community organizer. Working out of Columbia University, he teaches other scientists the vital art of communication. Lucky believes scientists have to go from their labs to the streets and get in front of microphones. Otherwise, the din of the media will continue to drown out their warnings. In his talk at the salon, he traced his odyssey from Vietnam War refugee growing up in Australia to his current role as champion of climate justice. He urged everyone to attend the Sept. 20th New York City Climate Strike, which he helped organize.

The second speaker was public artist Anita Glesta. She presented her project, Watershed. Inspired by the destruction caused by Super Storm Sandy, Glesta developed a beautiful video installation that projects the images of fish in water. Since it premiered at New Museum's Ideas City Festival in 2013, versions of Watershed have appeared at London’s National Theatre in 2015, Ellis Island’s Custom House in 2016, and in 2017 at Red Hook’s public housing projects. Glesta chose all three locations to highlight their vulnerability to rising sea levels.

I rounded out the presentations by reading from “My Golden Spike for the Anthropocene,” the first chapter in a developing collection of personal essays