Science
Climate warriors fighting some of the 'greatest crises humanity has ever seen'
Aru Shiney-Ajay’s awakening to the climate crisis began in her late teens. On visits to family in India, she watched in horror as loved ones endured one disaster after another: deadly floods in her parents’ home state of Kerala and record-shattering air pollution in Delhi among them.
Aru Shiney-Ajay is arrested along with other Sunrise Movement members as they protest in July outside the Washington office of Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, who has since become the Republican vice presidential nominee.
(Andrew Harnik / Getty Images)
“The climate crisis was not just something in the background, but something that was already here,” she said. “That’s really what drove me to get involved in Sunrise.”
The Sunrise Movement was founded in 2017 by young climate activists frustrated by the mismatch between an accelerating global disaster and the staid pace of existing environmental organizations.
Theirs would be different: a movement organized for and by young people that would be unafraid of confronting powerful figures directly and dramatically.
They broke onto the national stage just a year later, when some 150 members staged a sit-in at the office of incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) to demand that the newly elected Democratic majority commit to a Green New Deal.
In September 2020, members of Sunrise L.A. Youth protested at CNN’s L.A. office to “demand that they connect the climate crisis with the wildfires, with the hurricanes.”
(Sunrise Movement)
Then a Swarthmore College student and volunteer trainer, Shiney-Ajay had helped coordinate the highly publicized action on Capitol Hill. After its success, she made the decision to leave college and work for Sunrise full time.
Last October, after a months-long search and a 95% confirmation vote from Sunrise’s volunteer delegates, Shiney-Ajay was named the organization’s executive director.
She is only the second person to lead the organization, which is based in Washington, D.C., and has thousands of members in 118 hubs in cities, towns and campuses across the U.S. There are 15 hubs in California alone.
“She is one of the sharpest and most compassionate leaders I have ever met,” founding director Varshini Prakash said in a statement last year. “I’m confident that under her leadership, Sunrise will reach new heights.”
Shiney-Ajay, 26, assumed leadership at a highly charged moment in U.S. politics. While the Democratic ticket of Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has energized young progressive voters who were deeply skeptical of both President Biden and former President Trump, the outcome of November’s election remains a toss-up. Protests over the violence in Gaza and Israel have electrified university campuses. All the while, temperatures soar and acres burn, and the time left to save a sweltering planet seems to tick closer to zero.
The Times spoke with Shiney-Ajay this summer. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
What does it feel like to lead Sunrise after having come up as a volunteer?
I feel like I get to live out my purpose in life. It’s given me a lot of meaning and energy to face down some of the greatest crises that humanity has ever seen, and do it with hope and determination, with people who I trust at my side. Sunrise gave me that when I was a member, and it feels like a privilege to be able to give that back to thousands more people.
What appealed to you about Sunrise as a new member?
I’d never seen an organization that had so much vision for what is needed to stop the climate crisis, and also so much seriousness about the power it took to get there.
They were like, “OK, the way that we’re going to do it is we’re going to push the Democratic Party to see the urgency of the climate crisis. We’re going to expose the corrupting influence of fossil fuel billionaires on our politics. We’re going to tie the issue of good, green, union jobs to climate change, to make it clear that it’s not a choice between jobs and climate.”
Lynn Wang with Sunrise Movement L.A., left, addresses a coalition of environmental groups as they stage a protest at LADWP headquarters downtown in November 2019.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
Those were really clear interventions that opened up a whole new arena of possibility.
What does Sunrise mean when you say you want a Green New Deal?
The easiest way is to think about the New Deal, which was not just one bill but a series of bills, executive actions and local rulings that happened over multiple years [during the Great Depression]. It changed the legislative landscape, and the economic and cultural landscape of society too.
That is what we need in order to stop the climate crisis. It’s legislation at every level of government, change in every sector of society. That’s what the Green New Deal is about.
What era is Sunrise in now? What are your priorities at this point?
After [Congress passed] the Inflation Reduction Act, we decided that it was time for us to take some of those wins and start racking them up locally. So that’s how we launched the Green New Deal for Schools and the Green New Deal for Communities.
It was a way for us to win things locally, but also to develop our leaders and build our base. We’ve been doing that for the last couple years.
No matter what happens with the election this year, we’re really shoring ourselves up to take the fight back to the federal level. We’re starting to do that this year with the Climate Emergency Campaign.
What’s that?
It’s a campaign to get President Biden to declare a climate emergency, which basically unlocks a lot of different executive action powers. We are facing record-breaking temperatures, floods, fires, hurricanes. This is a state of emergency, and we need to use the full might of the federal government to do everything we can to stop it.
A Sunrise Movement protester outside Kamala Harris’ Brentwood home in April.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
What do people misunderstand about your organization and the people it represents?
What we are asking for is not unreasonable. It’s not impractical. It’s actually the thing that is most in line with the physical realities of the world. As you get older, I think you start to think within the limitations of the political imagination, rather than the limitations of what literally must be done to keep millions of people alive.
People sometimes think of the Green New Deal as idealistic or impractical. Actually, I think it is the politicians who are being impractical about the reality of our situation.
Sunrise is explicitly for young people. Do members have to pack up and leave once they hit 35?
As long as young people are leading, then we welcome all the hands we can get. There’s been a lot of over-35 people in hubs who help us run logistics for training or give us their wisdom on how to plan actions or pass legislation in their city.
What does this generation understand that previous ones do not?
This generation grew up with the effects of the climate crisis being told to us since we were in elementary school, and so we know that this is an existential threat.
I also think this generation is just really oriented to justice and equality. And we’re not quite single-issue voters in the way that people maybe thought about voters 15 or 20 years ago.
When we spoke earlier this year, before President Biden withdrew from the race, you said your membership was deeply discouraged by the prospect of a Biden-Trump rematch. What’s your position on the election now?
Donald Trump is an existential threat to democracy and to our climate. Losing four more years to a president who actively promises to drill more fossil fuels would be planetary suicide. That’s why Sunrise will be doing everything we can to stop him from getting elected.
Vice President Harris’ record on climate is much more promising. As attorney general in California, she prosecuted oil and gas companies for pollution and sued the Obama administration for fracking. As vice president, she cast the tiebreaking vote on the Inflation Reduction Act, the country’s most significant climate legislation to date. With her in office, we actually have a chance at winning bold legislation that can tackle the climate crisis.
What is your message to young voters?
Our generation can turn the tide of politics. When we protested, voted and walked out in mass numbers, we won the climate legislation, an office of gun violence prevention, student debt relief, and a cap on prescription drug prices. If we vote for Harris this November, and then rally, protest and call for the scale of legislation we need, we will win the world we deserve.
Why has Gaza become an important part of Sunrise’s messaging?
We are a movement of young people, and the reality is that huge amounts of young people right now are speaking out against the war on Gaza. We think that it’s important to understand this as an election issue, alongside climate. The scale of death and destruction has been huge, and that has propelled it to a major issue for a lot of young people.
What are some of the harder decisions you see yourself having to make as a leader?
When legislation passes, there’s always a decision of how much to say, “That is not enough,” and how much to say, “I’m glad you did that.” It’s a strategic calculation every time.
One of the strengths of young people is that we are able to demand the biggest, boldest thing. But if you only ever demand the biggest, boldest thing, then it’s sometimes hard to ever feel like you’re winning, and people end up leaving because they feel like you haven’t won anything ever.
How have you evolved as an activist? Would anything about 2024 Aru surprise 2017 Aru?
I think I’ve gotten a lot better at being really disciplined about hope. It’s easy to feel like everything is falling apart when you look at the world. Something that Sunrise has taught me, and that I’ve learned from the world around me, is that hope comes through collective action but is also something that you need to practice. You don’t even know what spark will set something aflame. Just holding that hope within yourself can ignite that in other people.
Our universe might be chock-full of cosmic wonder, but you can observe only a fraction of astronomical phenomena with the naked eye. Meteor showers, natural fireworks that streak brightly across the night sky, are one of them.
The latest observable meteor shower will be the Lyrids, which has been active since April 14 and is forecast to continue through April 30. The shower reaches its peak April 21 to 22, or Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.
According to NASA, the Lyrids are one of the oldest known meteor showers, and have been enjoyed by stargazers for nearly 3,000 years. Their bright, speedy streaks are caused by the dusty debris from a comet named Thatcher. They appear to spring from the constellation Lyra, which right now can be seen in the eastern sky at night in the Northern Hemisphere.
The moon will be about 27 percent full tonight, appearing as a thick crescent in the sky, according to the American Meteor Society.
To get a hint at when to best watch for the Lyrids, you can use this tool, which relies on data from the Global Meteor Network. It shows fireball activity levels in real time.
And while you gaze at the heavens, keep an eye out for other stray meteors streaking across the night sky. Skywatchers are reporting that the amount of fireballs is double what is usually seen by this point in the year.
Where meteor showers come from
There is a chance you might see a meteor on any given night, but you are most likely to catch one during a shower. Meteor showers are caused by Earth passing through the rubble trailing a comet or asteroid as it swings around the sun. This debris, which can be as small as a grain of sand, leaves behind a glowing stream of light as it burns up in Earth’s atmosphere.
Meteor showers occur around the same time every year and can last for days or weeks. But there is only a small window when each shower is at its peak, which happens when Earth reaches the densest part of the cosmic debris. The peak is the best time to look for a shower. From our point of view on Earth, the meteors will appear to come from the same point in the sky.
The Perseid meteor shower, for example, peaks in mid-August from the constellation Perseus. The Geminids, which occur every December, radiate from the constellation Gemini.
How to watch a meteor shower
Michelle Nichols, the director of public observing at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, recommends forgoing the use of telescopes or binoculars while watching a meteor shower.
“You just need your eyes and, ideally, a dark sky,” she said.
That’s because meteors can shoot across large swaths of the sky, so observing equipment can limit your field of view.
Some showers are strong enough to produce up to 100 streaks an hour, according to the American Meteor Society, though you probably won’t see that many.
“Almost everybody is under a light-polluted sky,” Ms. Nichols said. “You may think you’re under a dark sky, but in reality, even in a small town, you can have bright lights nearby.”
Planetariums, local astronomy clubs or even maps like this one can help you figure out where to go to escape excessive light. The best conditions for catching a meteor shower are a clear sky with no moon or cloud cover, sometime between midnight and sunrise. (Moonlight affects visibility in the same way as light pollution, washing out fainter sources of light in the sky.) Make sure to give your eyes at least 30 minutes to adjust to seeing in the dark.
Ms. Nichols also recommends wearing layers, even during the summer. “You’re going to be sitting there for quite a while, watching,” she said. “It’s going to get chilly, even in August.”
Bring a cup of cocoa or tea for even more warmth. Then lie back, scan the sky and enjoy the show.
Where weather is least likely to affect your view
Storm systems sweep across the country in early spring, and some will be obscuring skies tonight. But there will still be plenty of areas with clear skies, particularly in parts of the central United States.
“The best spot is going to be in the Upper Midwest,” said Rich Bann, a meteorologist with the Weather Prediction Center.
Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa will offer especially good sky-viewing weather and a beach on the Great Lakes could be a nice spot to look up at the stars.
But don’t expect to view the show from Chicago, as Illinois could see some thunderstorms. The weather will be better in the Northern and Central Plains, particularly the eastern Dakotas.
High, wispy clouds are expected over the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys and into parts of the Mid-Atlantic. But, Mr. Bann said, “you may be able to see some shooting stars through thin clouds.”
Clouds will be draped across much of the Southeast and the Northeast, though there could be some clearing in Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia. Remember, the meteors could be visible all night long. If you look outside and see clouds, try again later.
Catching the spectacle will be challenging across much of the West, particularly from Washington into Northern California, where a storm system is bringing rain and snow. That system will move east overnight.
There are likely to be some pockets of clear skies at times across southern Nevada, northwest Arizona and southwest Utah, Mr. Bann said.
Amy Graff contributed reporting.
WASHINGTON — Amid growing national security concerns, the FBI said Tuesday that it has launched a broad investigation in the deaths or disappearances of at least 10 scientists and staff connected to highly sensitive research, including four from the Los Angeles area.
“The FBI is spearheading the effort to look for connections into the missing and deceased scientists. We are working with the Department of Energy, Department of War, and with our state and state and local law enforcement partners to find answers,” the agency said in a statement.
The FBI’s announcement comes after the House Oversight Committee announced that it would investigate reports of the disappearance and deaths of the scientists, sending letters seeking information from the agencies involved in the federal inquiry as well as NASA, which owns the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, where three of the missing or dead scientists worked.
“If the reports are accurate, these deaths and disappearances may represent a grave threat to U.S. national security and to U.S. personnel with access to scientific secrets,” Reps. James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the committee, and Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) wrote in the letters.
President Trump told reporters last week that he had been briefed on the missing and dead scientists, which he described as “pretty serious stuff.” He said at the time that he expected answers on whether the deaths were connected “in the next week and a half.”
Michael David Hicks, who studied comets and asteroids at JPL, was the first of the scientists who disappeared or died. He died on July 30, 2023, at the age of 59. No cause of death was disclosed.
A year later, JPL physicist Frank Maiwald died at 61, with no cause of death disclosed.
Two other Los Angeles scientists are part of the string of deaths and disappearances.
On June 22, 2025, Monica Jacinto Reza, a materials scientist at JPL, disappeared while on a hike near Mt. Waterman in the San Gabriel Mountains.
On Feb. 16, Caltech astrophysicist Carl Grillmair was fatally shot on the porch of his Llano home. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s department arrested Freddy Snyder, 29, in connection with the shooting. Snyder had been arrested in December on suspicion of trespassing on Grillmair’s property.
Snyder has been charged with murder.
There is no evidence at this point that the deaths and disappearances, which occurred over a span of four years, are connected.
A spokesperson for NASA, which owns JPL, said in a statement on X that the agency is “coordinating and cooperating with the relevant agencies in relation to the missing scientists.
“At this time, nothing related to NASA indicates a national security threat,” agency spokesperson Bethany Stevens wrote. “The agency is committed to transparency and will provide more information as able.”
Representatives from Caltech, which manages JPL, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The sun had barely risen over the Pacific Ocean when a small motorboat carrying a team of Indigenous artisans and Mexican biologists dropped anchor in a rocky cove near Bahías de Huatulco.
Mauro Habacuc Avendaño Luis, one of the craftsmen, was the first to wade to shore. With an agility belying his age, he struck out over the boulders exposed by low tide. Crouching on a slippery ledge pounded by surf, he reached inside a crevice between two rocks. There, lodged among the urchins, was a snail with a knobby gray shell the size of a walnut. The sight might not dazzle tourists who travel here to see humpback whales, but for Mr. Avendaño, 85, these drab little mollusks represent a way of life.
Marine snails in the genus Plicopurpura are sacred to the Mixtec people of Pinotepa de Don Luis, a small town in southwestern Oaxaca. Men like Mr. Avendaño have been sustainably “milking” them for radiant purple dye for at least 1,500 years. The color suffuses Mixtec textiles and spiritual beliefs. Called tixinda, it symbolizes fertility and death, as well as mythic ties between lunar cycles, women and the sea.
The future of these traditions — and the fate of the snails — are uncertain. The mollusks are subject to intense poaching pressure despite federal protections intended to protect them. Fishermen break them (and the other mollusks they eat) open and sell the meat to local restaurants. Tourists who comb the beaches pluck snails off the rocks and toss them aside.
A severe earthquake in 2020 thrust formerly submerged parts of their habitat above sea level, fatally tossing other mollusks in the snail’s food web to the air, and making once inaccessible places more available to poachers.
Decades ago, dense clusters of snails the size of doorknobs were easy to find, according to Mr. Avendaño. “Full of snails,” he said, sweeping a calloused, violet-stained hand across the coves. Now, most of the snails he finds are small, just over an inch, and yield only a few milliliters of dye.
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