By Katie McGinty

PennFuture is honoring Katie McGinty with a lifetime achievement award at the Fourth Annual Celebrating Women in Conservation Awards for her work as a former state and federal environmental policy official, as she served as an environmental advisor to Vice President Al Gore and President Bill Clinton, and for her work as Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection in the Cabinet of Governor Ed Rendell, among many other environmental policy leadership accomplishments.

I have felt privileged to work throughout my career on protecting the environment. The reasons are obvious as well as more subtle: at an elemental level, nothing is more essential than air, land and water. So, there is no question that a career dedicated to the environment has purpose.  

Less straightforward, but even more compelling to me, is that the environment is and can be a common ground for humanity in a world rife with battle grounds. 

Now, sometimes the environment can invite fighting words. We are all too familiar with the tired thinking that, "It is jobs‎ or the environment; the environment or the economy."

But I've seen action on the environment heal wounds, too. Neighbors banding together to clean their watershed, even when they otherwise have little in common; logging communities moving away from mowing forests down and adopting sustainable forest management to preserve timber jobs for the long haul, and to unleash local creativity to diversify the economy. I have seen coal towns recognize that making renewable energy equipment creates good jobs, while also helping to tackle climate change.

Here is the key: using environmental problems not as a wedge, but as the glue to pull people together in joint purpose.

And we need that so very much now. I believe we face an existential moment in this still young democracy. We seem rapidly to be devolving into endlessly warring factions. Facts don't seem to matter and respect for a different point of view is in dangerously short supply. Tribalism is kryptonite to self-governance and representative democracy. Yet, attachment to our own narrow self-interests is trumping commitment to truth, to rule of law, to any attachment to transcendent ideas and ideals.

Calling forward our commitment to that special river, park, or to a climate that nurtures and sustains life can be a mighty force against the forces otherwise ripping and tearing us apart. Never has it been more urgent that we redouble our dedication to environmental protection as an inspiring mission, as something that binds and calls forth the "better angels of our nature."

It is my honor to be recognized by PennFuture, an extraordinary organization that was always my "go to" partner in reaching far and high to protect the environment. With many joint efforts to celebrate, what a joy to know: we are just getting started!

The 2018 Celebrating Women in Conservation Awards will be held Thursday, April 19 at the Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia. Click here to purchase tickets.