Building Community Even When Faced with Climate Disparity
A candid conversation between Christina, from DC, and Sia, from Nairobi, on how they continue to push and create spaces for the community to cultivate awareness of the environmental-health prolonged shock known as climate change, changes the rhythm of how to survive in this world.
Christina Cilento
Board Presidents, Climate DC
is the president of Climate DC, a network that convenes the climate community in the greater Washington, DC area. In this capacity, she organizes monthly events for climate professionals and those looking to transition into the industry, with the hope of strengthening the local climate community. In her professional capacity, she is the Manager of the Equity in the Energy Transition Initiative at nonprofit think tank Resources for the Future.
Sia Were
Junior Fellow, Carnegie Endowment
is an environmental scientist with a focus on geological and regulatory matters involving the energy, agricultural, and infrastructural industries. She completed an undergraduate degree in Environmental Science from Pitzer College with a thesis on 'A Comparative Analysis of Geothermal Energy in Kenya and California’ (read more here). She is also passionate about the climate change scene. Thus, she is currently working as a Junior Fellow at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace under their Sustainability, Climate, and Geopolitics program.
WHAT IS CLIMATE CHANGE?
Climate change is a long-term change in average weather patterns. While anthropogenic climate change refers to human-inflicted shifts due to extractive, pollutive, and exploitive industrial human activates such as burning fossil fuels, deforestation, fertilization, waste management, livestock management, etc. The burning of fossil fuels, for example, leads to an increase in greenhouse gas (GHGs) levels which impacts our water, our food our health out environment and our infrastructure. Common symptoms of climate change are: (1) Sea Level Rise; (2) Storm Frequency & Intensity; (3) Precipitation & In land Flooding; (4) Warming Air Temperatures; (5) Warming Water Temperatures; (6) Changing Biodiversity.
Global warming is evidence of human-induced climate change. The long-term heating of the Earth's surface
This graph illustrates the change in global surface temperature relative to 1951-1980 average temperatures, with the year 2020 statistically tying with 2016 for hottest on record (Source: NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies). Learn more about global surface temperature here.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
References
Introduction to Climate Change . (n.d.). Climatechange.ri.gov. https://climatechange.ri.gov/climate-science
NASA. (2024, October 21). What Is Climate Change? Science.nasa.gov; NASA. https://science.nasa.gov/climate-change/what-is-climate-change/
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (2025, June 13). Climate change impacts. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; NOAA. https://www.noaa.gov/education/resource-collections/climate/climate-change-impacts
Christina Cilento:
2025 has been a year of major change in the climate community, especially those of us living in Washington, DC. With so many federal government employees now out of work (either by force or by choice) and a rollback of landmark climate programs that climate advocates and government employees (both in DC and out) spent years working to construct, the vibes here are pretty bleak.
**Describe job transition and professional uncertainties earlier this year.** It feels incredibly important in this political moment to still be working a climate job, and to find professional meaning even when things are going sideways. But sometimes a work community just doesn’t cut it. In the current moment, I’m finding myself craving community outside my 9-5 more than ever.
Earlier this year, I joined the board of Climate DC, a local network of climate professionals and those looking to transition into the climate industry. We organize monthly events that convene the climate community, most often for social purposes, but sometimes also for educational and professional development programming. Our community has grown dramatically this year, and while the reasons for that growth aren’t entirely clear, I have to guess it’s at least in part due to climate’s precarious position federally and its ramifications on people’s professional and personal lives.
Over the course of my eight months engaging with this community (so far), I’ve noticed how much even basic community-building events mean to people. And I’ve come to appreciate even more the vital role that community plays in my own wellbeing during these times. ​
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​Here are three observations on my attempts to create community for myself and others working on climate in DC: