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Scientific American

February 2, 2021

1 min read

Amanda Gorman’s Climate Poem Says, Act ‘Now, Now, Now’

The youth poet laureate offers an urgent message

By Mark Fischetti

Amanda Gorman recites her inaugural poem, "The Hill We Climb", during the 59th Presidential Inauguration ceremony on January 20, 2021 in Washington, D.C.

Amanda Gorman recites her inaugural poem “The Hill We Climb” during the 59th presidential inauguration ceremony in Washington, D.C., on January 20, 2021.

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Amanda Gorman captured the world’s attention with her passionate delivery of her poem “The Hill We Climb” at President Joe Biden’s inauguration. For most viewers, this was probably the moment Gorman burst upon their consciousness. So, readers may be intrigued to know that in 2018, a year after she was honored as the first U.S. National Youth Poet Laureate, Gorman recorded a similarly passionate piece, “Earthrise,” that she wrote about the need for all of us to act boldly to lessen climate change.

Her spoken-word delivery in the video makes her plea—and her keen grasp of the facts—even more compelling. Striking images of Earth, nicely produced by the Climate Reality Project, reinforce the nature of our planet’s fragility. Rather than say more here, we encourage you to have a look and listen.

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Mark Fischetti has been a senior editor at Scientific American for 17 years and has covered sustainability issues, including climate, weather, environment, energy, food, water, biodiversity, population, and more. He assigns and edits feature articles, commentaries and news by journalists and scientists and also writes in those formats. He edits History, the magazine's department looking at science advances throughout time. He was founding managing editor of two spinoff magazines: Scientific American Mind and Scientific American Earth 3.0. His 2001 freelance article for the magazine, "Drowning New Orleans," predicted the widespread disaster that a storm like Hurricane Katrina would impose on the city. His video What Happens to Your Body after You Die?, has more than 12 million views on YouTube. Fischetti has written freelance articles for the New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Smithsonian, Technology Review, Fast Company, and many others. He co-authored the book Weaving the Web with Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, which tells the real story of how the Web was created. He also co-authored The New Killer Diseases with microbiologist Elinor Levy. Fischetti is a former managing editor of IEEE Spectrum Magazine and of Family Business Magazine. He has a physics degree and has twice served as the Attaway Fellow in Civic Culture at Centenary College of Louisiana, which awarded him an honorary doctorate. In 2021 he received the American Geophysical Union's Robert C. Cowen Award for Sustained Achievement in Science Journalism, which celebrates a career of outstanding reporting on the Earth and space sciences. He has appeared on NBC's Meet the Press, CNN, the History Channel, NPR News and many news radio stations. Follow Fischetti on X (formerly Twitter) @markfischetti

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