With this website I am hoping to encourage people to share best practices in addressing climate change.

I figured I’ll start by sharing my own experience as a non-scientist climate activist living in a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts, USA. I want to share what I learn about the climate crisis, what I learn about solutions, and how I try to reduce my carbon footprint and encourage others to do the same.

The consequences of climate change are already affecting most strongly the most vulnerable among us–children and the poor. I know that environmental racism is real. As a white middle-class academic living in one of the wealthiest areas of the United States I know I am hardly an average consumer. I know my own carbon footprint is above average just because I fly long distances at least a couple of times a year to see either my kids in California or my family in Germany.

But the climate crisis is real and scary. I want to use my privilege to speak up and take action and encourage others to do the same. We can all learn from each other’s ideas.

Please be in touch if you have suggestions for how I could improve this site or my work to solve the climate crisis. I’m totally new to this!

Who am I?

Sabine Photo Lotte Dale (2)

My name is Sabine von Mering. I was born in Oldenburg, Germany, and grew up on the North Sea island Langeoog. I studied Anglistik and Germanistik at the universities of Koeln and Goettingen, completing my Staatsexamen in 1991. I then spent half a year in London and a year at Reed College, Portland, Oregon. From 1993 to 1998 I was a graduate student at the University of California, Davis. Since 1998 I have been teaching at Brandeis University in the Department of German, Russian, and Asian Languages and Literature.  I teach classes in German language, literature, and culture. I also direct the Center for German and European Studies.

Since the fall of 2013 I have also been an activist with 350Massachusetts for a Better Future, a statewide grassroots climate movement.

My peach tree before…and after 😦

My Peach Tree SvMdead tree

In Spring 2023 I was named one of twenty 2023 Public Voices Fellows on the Climate Crisis with The OpEd Project, in partnership with the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.  See a list of my op-eds linked on the top page.

I was also really happy to publish my translation of German Fridays for Future Co-Founder Luisa Neubauer and Alexander Repenning’s book Beginning to End the Climate Crisis. A History of Our Future with Brandeis University Press in April 2023. Check it out!
At Brandeis I continue to host webinars in our popular webinar series CGES Online, many of which are devoted to the climate crisis and what to do about it: visit our archive of CGES Online Webinars.