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Every Day Is… Earth Day. Damn it.

April 22, 2026 By meerasub Leave a Comment

But, yes, today offers a moment for your consideration. Take a breath. Ah, the miracle of air. Look at a spring leaf unfurling out of seemingly nothing. Ah, the miracle of a life. Quench your thirst. (And covering the planet.) Ah, the miracle of water.

Take nothing for granted. Fight like f#@* for the preservation of the natural world, which is a fight for humans, sure, but also the million-trillion, give or take, other species of life forms that populate this one magnificent planet we all emerged from.

The past week has been full of too many good things to fit here. But some quick snapshots…

A climate movement grows in Brooklyn

Last Tuesday night in Brooklyn, we celebrated A Better World Is Possible: Global Youth Confront the Climate Crisis in the best possible way: co-author Danica Novgorodoff and I together in the same space at Greenlight Bookstore, where the idea of a collaboration on a graphic novel about youth climate activists took root way back in 2020. AND…we were joined by three of the four youth we feature in the book. It was beyond incredible to meet, in person, Shiv Soin of TREEage, Rebeca Sabnam, and Jamie Margolin of Zero Hour. We only wish Xiye Bastida of Re-Earth Initiative could have made it, too. They have all grown into fierce young adults, working in all different ways to change the world for the better, and I was deeply moved by hearing their latest news, from struggles to sweet victories. And huge thanks to everyone that came out to pack the room and swiftly sell out books.

Selling out, in the good way

Speaking of, we are delighted to share that A Better World Is Possible is now heading into its second (paperback) printing and third (hardcover) printing!!! Help us keep the momentum going by:

✅ Giving us a review on Goodreads or (if you must be there) Amazon

✅ Bumping up the 5-star reviews with a 👍🏽

✅ Asking your local library or indie bookstore to get a copy

✅ Sharing news of the book on socials, where you can also follow us (Insta tags @meerasub and @ABetterWorldtheBook and LinkedIn) and privately with friends

✅ Considering it for your next book club

✅ Suggesting the book for fall coursework for schools, ages 12+. We’ve got a discussion guide and are happy to send desk copies to interested educators for their consideration

✅ And of course, buying a copy for yourself and every young person, friend, neighbor’s friend, family member, frenemy, and human you know who likes a liveable planet.

More live events

Danica’s finished up with event for the moment, but you can still find me out and about…

May 13, 2026: Stories from a Warming World
6:00 – 8:30 pm ET | WBUR CitySpace 890 Commonwealth Ave. Boston, MA
with Meera & others from MISI (not exactly a book event, but all about climate)

May 14, 2026: Barrington Land Conservation Trust
7:00 pm ET | 281 County Road, Barrington, RI

May 30, 2025: WBUR Festival
Time TBD | WBUR CitySpace 890 Commonwealth Ave. Boston, MA
Meera with musician Mark Erelli

July 25, 2026: YA Midwest
Naperville, IL (more info to come)

June 20, 2026: Melba’s
1525 Elysian Fields Ave, New Orleans, LA

Thanks for reading Peregrinations! Subscribe for free to receive new posts.

Enviro journalists unite

And this past weekend, I was in Chicago for my—I’ve lost count—tenth(?) Society of Environmental Journalists conference. I’ve been a part of this incredible organization for twenty years and marvel at its incarnations, even as the struggles of environmental journalists mount.

The Uproot Project has infused new energy into the gatherings, and panels directly addressed the mental health of those reporting from the frontlines of the climate crisis, which Covering Climate Now has assessed in a new report: “A Burning House, A Quiet Media, A Silenced Majority.” Here’s a discussion about it, live from the conference:

And it was so lovely to be a part of the Author Program along with Joseph Lee, an Aquinnah Wampanoag and author of Nothing More of This Land: Community, Power, and the Search for Indigenous Identity and Adam Mahoney, co-author with Judith Enck of The Problem with Plastic. Cameron Oglesby was a lovey moderator.

Stay the course, friends. Because—repeat after me—every day is…

Photo: NASA

Journalists & writer friends, take note…

  • NASW is again offering its virtual summer mentoring program for graduate and undergraduate students, which will run from June 3 to July 29. Sign up to participate or volunteer to help with mentoring and editing here. Deadline: May 1
  • Applications are open for a new round of NASW Peggy Girshman Idea Grants. Individuals or groups are invited to apply for grants of up to $10,000 to support projects and programs that will help science writers in their professional lives and benefit the field of science writing. Deadline: May 15
  • Open call for the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network Fellowships. In its sixth year, the network will select a new cohort of journalists to receive financial and editorial support to investigate the most pressing issues driving deforestation in the Amazon, Congo Basin, and Southeast Asia. Deadline: May 22

Green Fondo Berkshires 2026

  • I’m taking part in Climate Ride’s fundraising challenge as part of Team Eco.Cyclers, hoping to raise $1,000 by Sunday! Can you help? Whether you can give $20 or $100, your donation has real impact towards positive climate solutions. Plus, if you donate this week, you’ll be entered into a drawing for a reusable mug from Climate Ride as a thank you! Donate here by April 26…or really anytime. 🚴🏼 🚴🏼 🚴🏼

Coda…

Yes, it can kinda seem like a dumpster fire out there. Find beauty anyway.

Filed Under: A Better World Is Possible, climate change, events Tagged With: A Better World Is Possible, climate change, journalism, Society of Environmental Journalists, travel, USA

the dancing cobras

April 7, 2017 By meerasub Leave a Comment

Every writer on assignment ends up accruing tales that don’t fit the purpose — but that are still worth telling. Such is the inspiration behind the new magazine Off Assignment, where “the detour is the story.” I just had the pleasure of writing a piece for their Letter to a Stranger column, inspired by Pico Iyer’s quote: “…And writing is, in the end, that oddest of anomalies: an intimate letter to a stranger.”

Mine tells of a candlelit evening in South Asia and a man with a half-century-old story to tell about when he saw the cobras dance…

Read (and listen to me read) it here.

Filed Under: journalism, travels Tagged With: breakup, india, love, Off Assignment, snakes, stranger, travel

Amazing things happen… (in the most polluted city on earth)

January 25, 2016 By meerasub Leave a Comment

#HelpDelhiBreathe protest. Photo by Meera Subramanian

#HelpDelhiBreathe protest. Photo by Meera Subramanian

In which I report for Vice magazine from New Delhi, which the WHO determined to be the most polluted big city on the planet. It sure feels like it. 

New Delhi is choking on its own air.

On January 1, India’s capital made an attempt to address its status as the world’s most polluted big city, according to the World Health Organization, by implementing a temporary “odd-even scheme” for automobile use. Private vehicles could only be driven on days that matched their plate number or risk a $30 fine. There were loads of exemptions, including the two-wheelers that dominate the roads, hybrids, and cars driven by VIPs or women (with no men in the vehicle). There were jokes about “men riding in the dickey” — the trunk — of cars and more serious conversations about immediately buying a second car to get around the restrictions. But after the 15-day plan came to end, overall sentiment was high as researchers rushed to declare it a success or failure.

Read the rest at Vice.

Filed Under: journalism, travels Tagged With: air, energy, india, photography, pollution, science, travel

hitting the road soon

August 26, 2015 By meerasub Leave a Comment

Lots of book tour events are lining up. Check the calendar here for all updates & details.

ARRABooksSuitcase

  • Wed., Sept. 2 (7:00 pm): Porter Square Books, Cambridge, MA
  • Thurs., Sept. 3: WCAI The Point with Mindy Todd (Cape Cod NPR)
  • Sat., Sept. 5 (11:15 am): AJC Decatur Book Festival, Atlanta GA
  • Wed., Sept. 9 (7:00 pm): Falmouth Public Library, Falmouth, MA
  • Thurs., Sept. 24 (7:30 pm): Wellfleet Preservation Hall, Wellfleet, Cape Cod, MA
  • Wed., Sept 30 (12:30 pm): UVA Medical Center Hour, Charlottesville, VA
  • Tues., Oct. 13 (3:00 pm): Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington DC
  • Thurs., Oct. 15 (6:00 pm): NYU Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, NYC, NY
  • Sat., Oct. 17: Texas Book Festival, Austin, TX (details TBD)
  • Oct. 23 – 25: Indo-American Arts Council Literary Festival, Hunter College, New York, NY (details TBD)
  • Sun., Nov. 1: The Axe & Fiddle, Cottage Grove, OR
  • Mon., Nov. 2 (7:30 pm): Powell’s on Hawthorne, Portland, OR
  • Tues., Nov. 3 (7:00 pm): Elliott Bay Book Company, Seattle, WA
  • Thurs., Nov. 5 (7:00 pm): San Francisco World Affairs Council, San Francisco, CA
  • Tues., Nov. 17 (6:30 pm): Sturgis Library, Barnstable, Cape Cod, MA
  • Sat., Nov. 21: Miami Book Fair International, Miami, FL (details TBD)

Hope to see you. If not, there’s always this. 🙂

Filed Under: A River Runs Again, elemental india, readings Tagged With: A River Runs Again, Elemental India, events, readings, travel

getting my bearings straight

July 22, 2015 By meerasub 3 Comments

2015.07.22Fairbanks-6

Strolling through Fairbanks, Alaska is the Chena River, all glassy and glorious beneath a sky miraculously scrubbed of smoke from the fires that clouded it a day before I arrived. A visit to Alaska has been a wish for quite a long time and it’s great to finally be here on my way to Toolik Field Station as a Logan science journalism Arctic fellow with the Marine Biological Lab (MBL).

The first part of the MBL fellowship took place [Read more…]

Filed Under: journalism, photography, travels Tagged With: Alaska, Arctic, MBL, travel

garden city indeed

December 11, 2013 By meerasub

2013.12.08BloreWlks-27

Bengalaru, nestled in the Deccan Plateau in the center of southern India, is known as the Garden City. On Sunday morning, I set aside the work that brings me here, set aside the old name of Bangalore and the new moniker of Garbage City (this IT capital doubled in size in the last ten years, to 8+ million, but never quite got a sanitation system in place. And don’t get me started on the traffic…). Instead, let’s just revel together in the presence of Vijay Thiruvady, who led a group of us on a tour of the Lal Bagh Garden as part of Bangalore Walks. History! Culture! Discovery! Gorgeous, oxygen-producing greenery. I drank and drank of it. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Fulbright, photography, travels Tagged With: india, Lal Bagh Garden, travel

remember, again & again

December 9, 2013 By meerasub

2013.11.29Anchetty-188

Breyten Breytenbach, in tribute to Ryszard Kapuscinski:

Listen: you must continue traveling because the earth needs to be discovered and remembered again and again, cyclically, creatively, with her season and her sounds, with the warm breath of hospitality, with the healing touch of strangeness…lest it become cold and impenetrable — a barren place of power and politics.

Filed Under: travels Tagged With: india, quotes, travel

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