The true, inspiring story of the new parents who spearheaded an unlikely climate victory.
From the rising climate advocate named to the Time100 Next list, for political junkies and anyone who cares about the environment.
“Always. Read. Leah Stokes.” —Ezra Klein, author of the #1 New York Times Bestseller Abundance
They were perhaps an unlikely trio: the professor Leah Stokes, the policy wonk Sonia Aggarwal in the White House, and the DC insider Adrian Deveny in the Senate, but together, they crafted the boldest climate legislation of our times. In The Carbon Wave, Stokes chronicles the turbulent path of their climate bill as it veered between breakthrough and collapse—from the hopeful beginnings of the Green New Deal in 2018 to the bill’s near-certain defeat by Senator Joe Manchin in the winter of 2021 to the surprise passage of the landmark legislation in August of 2022. During this critical time, the author was pregnant or in the NICU by the side of her premature twins, and Aggarwal and Deveny were new parents too.
Interlacing personal narratives with stories from Congress, the White House, and outside activists, Stokes shows how dogged perseverance and collective action can still bend the course of history. The book concludes with an update from the second Trump administration, explaining the parts of the bill that were—and were not—rolled back, and why we should remain hopeful that progress is still being made.
Everyone has been told to shrink their carbon footprint and lighten their load on our planet by changing their behavior. But what if instead of making ourselves smaller, we joined with others to maximize our impact? That’s the carbon wave. And this book shows us how to make it.
“I have said before, and I will probably say again, that Leah Stokes understands the details of our energy policy dilemmas better than anyone.” —Bill McKibben, author of Here Comes the Sun
Leah C. Stokes is Anton Vonk Associate Professor of Environmental Politics at UC Santa Barbara. As a leading climate advocate, she has championed climate policy in the United States at all levels of government and was selected for Time Magazine’s Time100 Next list and Business Insider’s top 30 global climate leaders. A recipient of a Harvard University Radcliffe Fellowship, she is the author of the award-winning Short Circuiting Policy, which was listed as one of the top 5 climate books in 2020 by The New York Times.
Stokes will be in conversation with Gary Petrella, Maxine Joselow, and Christy Goldfuss.
Gerry Petrella was the Policy Director for Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, where he played a central role in legislative planning, negotiating, and executing landmark legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Over the course of his career, he has advised members of Congress, the White House, and companies on issues ranging from technology and environment to infrastructure and health care. He now serves as the General Manager for U.S. Public Policy at Microsoft, where his work spans AI, economic policy, technology regulation, and stakeholder engagement.
Maxine Joselow, a climate policy reporter for The New York Times, where she writes about how governments address climate change. Before joining The Times, she worked at The Washington Post, where she helped launch a daily climate newsletter and then served as the newspaper’s lead climate policy reporter. Before that, she worked for E&E News, an environmental publication owned by Politico.
Christy Goldfuss, the Executive Director of the Natural Resources Defense Council. Before that, she served as the Center for American Progress’s senior vice president for Energy and Environment Policy, where she convened a broad range of stakeholders to develop a climate investment strategy enshrined in the Inflation Reduction Act. She was formerly the managing director of the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), where she helped develop and implement the Obama administration’s environmental and energy policies, including its Climate Action Plan.