"In 'Celeste Saves the City,'" author Courtney Kelly told CG, "New Orleans is saved from flooding through the construction of multipurpose barrier islands that help to mitigate the impact of storm surge while allowing for the regeneration of existing wetlands."
Growing up in New Orleans, Louisiana, Courtney Kelly's youth was shaped in part by the impacts of Hurricane Katrina. The storm devastated the region in 2005 with destructive floodwaters that left lasting effects. Kelly herself was forced to evacuate her home as a high schooler.
The hurricane also impressed upon more than one generation that pollution and rising temperatures had the potential to supercharge extreme weather events — and that environmental racism meant communities of color would feel the impacts disproportionately in the absence of climate justice.
Kelly may now be taking her place in that justice movement.
Pursuing degrees in civil engineering and mathematics at the very university where she now adjuncts, the Southern Methodist University professor has also had a career in construction project management and civil infrastructure projects, according to her website, including at airports and on highways. But just a few years ago, as Essence recently reported, Kelly answered a personal call to become a storyteller — and with purpose.
She told Climate, Gendered that "creating a book that allowed girls of color to see themselves [in engineering] was the catalyst" for writing her children's book Celeste Saves the City.
"Working in construction, I often didn't see many people who looked like me in meetings or on jobsites," Kelly wrote via email. "When I visited schools, kids didn't have a good understanding of what civil engineers did or the career opportunities that are present in construction either. Add on top of that the loss of confidence in STEM-related subjects as girls get older and you have the perfect environment to dissuade them from considering or staying in the field. In life, we need role models to help us believe that what we want to do is possible."
As Kelly's books make clear, very real possibilities include engineering for climate resilience, with effective problem-solving sharpened by the critical thinking, creative innovations, and lived experience of a young girl — Celeste — whose community faces disproportionate impacts of climate change.
"In Celeste Saves the City," Kelly said, "New Orleans is saved from flooding through the construction of multipurpose barrier islands that help to mitigate the impact of storm surge while allowing for the regeneration of existing wetlands."
In Kelly's second book, Celeste Tunnels Underground, Celeste works to reduce traffic congestion and heat-trapping pollution in Dallas, Texas, while creating new green spaces.
It's not hard to see Kelly's books as something of a time machine. For kids today, the books are an invitation to a future improved by their own ideas, experiences, and skills. For Kelly, as she describes on her site, her "dream of saving [her] city is being fulfilled through Celeste."
Olubusayo Ruth Akinola — Head of the Social Welfare, Drug Control, and Crime Prevention Division of the Union — exchanged emails with CG following the release of a new report from the African Union.
"We did not directly address this through these separate papers," study lead author David Luglio told CG, "but it is also important to understand if and how these wildfire and heat effects on autism development combine, especially given that they will likely co-occur in the future."
ProPublica said in late February that the agency shared it "has stopped distributing" gear containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances following the outlet's early-February reporting that the agency knew for years its pants contained potentially harmful "forever chemicals."
The U.S. halted oil shipments from Venezuela to Cuba in January. Later, the Trump administration threatened to impose tariffs on other countries that sent oil to the island nation. There have been reports of women cooking with charcoal amid blackouts — and of a surge in solar energy interest.
