Curt
Newton

I believe that our collective response to the climate emergency is the defining challenge of our time. Professionally, I'm Director of MIT OpenCourseWare, with over 15 years experience building and promoting open online learning resources, and see great opportunities to support climate action through open knowledge and lifelong learning. As part of the ClimateX startup team (2016-18), I focused on our connections with the MIT academic and research community, advised on climate change content, and co-hosted video interviews and podcasts. During the 2018-2019 academic year, I was the staff representative on MIT's Climate Action Advisory Committee. Outside work, I'm a 350 Massachusetts node coordinator and rep for the state steering team; facilitator of workshops and simulation game activities using tools developed by Climate Interactive; and a trained Climate Reality Leader. My climate inspirations are many: the wakeup call of Bill McKibben's 2012 Rolling Stone article "Global Warming's Terrifying New Math;" my two young-adult kids; frequent trail running and hiking; Rebecca Solnit’s book “Hope in the Dark,” and the students of Fossil Free MIT. Coming from a Midwestern farm family, I feel particularly close to food and agriculture, and how climate change plays in the US heartland.