Climate & Environmental Justice
People. Planet. Peace.
Climate and environmental justice are about protecting the resources people depend on every day: clean water, healthy air, safe communities, reliable infrastructure, and a livable future.
Environmental decisions are also economic and public health decisions. Pollution, extreme weather, aging infrastructure, industrial development, and growing demands for water and energy can affect household costs, community health, food production, and long-term stability.
My approach prioritizes prevention, accountability, conservation, and environmental justice—especially when communities are asked to carry environmental risks without receiving the benefits.
We should strengthen aging infrastructure, protect groundwater and natural resources, build climate-resilient communities, support sustainable agriculture, and ensure emerging industries do not overwhelm local water and energy systems.
One Water Collective
I launched One Water Collective to bring people together around one of our most important shared resources: water.
Water connects our health, environment, economy, agriculture, infrastructure, energy grid, national security, and peace. Protecting it requires understanding those connections and acting before problems become crises.
One Water Collective Video Series
One Water Collective invites community members, students, advocates, researchers, farmers, professionals, and others to create a 30–90 second video exploring a water issue that matters to them.
Potential topics include:
AI & Data Centers — Their growing demand for water and electricity and what that means for local communities.
Nitrate Contamination — Agricultural runoff, unsafe drinking water, and protecting our aquifers.
Water Infrastructure — Aging pipes, treatment facilities, affordability, reliability, and access to clean water.
The Boom-and-Bust Cycle — What happens when communities become dependent on industries that consume enormous amounts of water and energy, then leave behind economic and environmental costs.
Energy Grid Reliability — How grid overloads or prolonged outages can interrupt water treatment, pumping stations, wastewater systems, and access to safe drinking water.
Water & National Security — Why water is increasingly becoming a strategic resource and why protecting water systems matters to national security.
War on Water — The humanitarian consequences of bombing dams, reservoirs, pumping stations, treatment facilities, and desalination plants, leaving entire populations without clean water.
Climate & Water — Flooding, drought, extreme weather, changing conditions, and building resilient communities.
Agriculture & Water — Supporting farmers while protecting the groundwater, rivers, lakes, and aquifers we all depend on.
Conservation — Practical ways communities can safeguard rivers, lakes, wetlands, groundwater, and other shared water resources.
Environmental Justice — Why some neighborhoods and communities bear a disproportionate burden of contaminated or unreliable water and other environmental hazards.
Public Health — The connection between clean, reliable water and healthier families and communities.
Local Water Issues — Tell us what is happening where you live, how it affects your community, and why it matters.
Your Video
Choose a topic you are passionate about or curious to explore. Your video should answer:
Why does this issue matter?
How could it affect everyday people and your community?
What solutions should we be discussing now—not after a crisis?
You do not need to be an expert. The goal is to educate, ask questions, share experiences, and encourage people to become more engaged with the decisions affecting our water.
Preparation, Not Fear
Many of these challenges are already emerging, while others are becoming more likely as infrastructure ages, technology expands, extreme weather intensifies, and demand for water and energy grows.
We should not wait for contamination, cyberattacks, shortages, infrastructure failures, or other emergencies before responding.
Water is an environmental issue, an economic issue, a public health issue, a national security issue, and a peace issue.
It also has the power to unite us across communities and political divides.
Protecting water means protecting our future.
From Awareness to Action
One Water Collective is not only about raising awareness. I plan to work alongside scientists, engineers, farmers, environmental advocates, public health professionals, utilities, local governments, Tribal Nations, and impacted communities to identify practical solutions to the environmental challenges facing Minnesota.
At the Capitol, I will be a champion for climate and environmental justice—fighting to protect our water and natural resources, strengthen infrastructure, hold polluters and major resource users accountable, and make sure communities have a meaningful voice in decisions that affect their health and future.
We do not have to wait for a crisis to act. We can bring expertise, community knowledge, and public policy together to prepare Minnesota for what is ahead.