Poet Amanda Gorman got well-deserved rave reviews for her dramatic reading of her six-minute “The Hill We Climb” poem January 20 before a global TV and online inauguration day audience.

It’s fair to say that for many, she in effect “stole the show” during the Biden/Harris inauguration day ceremonies. And she continued to do so through countless major- and social-media follow-ups since then.

But what if Gorman, 22, the nation’s youth poet laureate, could bring her poetic, presentation skills, and grace to the issue of climate change?

In fact, she’s done just that. In December 2018, Gorman presented her original “Earthrise” four-minute poem as part of a Climate Reality Project “24 hours of reality” campaign. Her reading of that poem has attracted more than 215,000 YouTube views as of January 26.

No effort here to paraphrase or quote from it: That would be like the proverbial narrative describing a photo of a painting of a unique landscape. Watch and listen to it yourself.

YouTube video

Bud Ward was editor of Yale Climate Connections from 2007-2022. He started his environmental journalism career in 1974. He later served as assistant director of the U.S. Congress's National Commission...