On Kinship With Alex Pretti

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LISTENING: to some sad girl tunes
FEELING: grateful for warmer temperatures
SEEING: a pile of books mailed to me from a mystery person (was this you!?)

About a week and a half has passed since federal agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement killed Alex Pretti. I'm still thinking of him. I'm still thinking of Renee Good, or Nee as her brother so dearly referred to her during a Capitol Hill testimony Tuesday. I'm haunted by the names of those we don't yet know — the children, the mothers, the fathers, and the elders. The families held in cages whose lives may be cut short too soon.

Today, however, I want to paint a portrait of Pretti. As we've learned over the last week, he was many things: a nurse, a believer in the Second Amendment, an advocate for veterans, a son. He was also a nature lover, a treehugger perhaps, an outdoorsman — what many would consider an environmentalist.

Alex Pretti was one of us. His love for the world didn't end in the wild. He extended that love to his immediate ecosystem: his neighbors.

Welcome to Possibilities, a creative climate newsletter on the possibilities that lie where crisis meets community. I’m Yessenia Funes, and I believe that we can win if we work together and break down our silos.

Pretti majored in biology, society, and the environment during his undergraduate years at the University of Minnesota. I majored in environmental studies during my undergraduate years, and I wonder how many of the same books we read. I wonder if his education on the intersection of society and environment helped radicalize him as it radicalized me.

I reached out to the department, and none of the staff who taught him remain at the institution, said department chair Vinay Gidwani. The department's tribute to him said:

"An avid outdoorsman, Alex’s parents noted that he was deeply concerned about the health of our environment ... In his final, purposeful act — leaning over to help a fellow human being in need, an act of care that ultimately led to his death — he exemplified the dedication to others that many of our students share. Alex was, in every sense, the best of us, and we are proud that someone of his character, integrity, kindness, and commitment to human well-being chose to pursue a degree in our department."

The best environmental advocates are the ones who move with kindness and generosity. The ones who do this work not out of a disconnected obsession with that foreign separate force of nature — but the ones who recognize that we, together, are nature.

Pretti and I both loved our bikes, too. (What environmentalist doesn't?) I wasn't as fearless as him — I stick to New York City roads and parks. Pretti, however, preferred to ride mountains. The biking community came out in force over the weekend. Across 12 countries and 42 states, 209 bike rides were held to honor Pretti. This show of solidarity was spearheaded by the Minneapolis bike shop Pretti frequented, Angry Catfish, which wrote in an email statement:

"[W]e asked folks around the country to join together in unity and ride for all, for Alex. We saw the call filled globally, proving that community in the face of an occupation is strongest, love for our neighbors towers over the fear there may be. We are stronger together, and they cannot take that away."

Minneapolis's bravery has reverberated across borders, but it's a small town where everybody knows somebody who knew Pretti. Ethan Nuss, a Minnesotan and climate justice organizer, lives next door to Pretti's best friend. He wrote about this on a Facebook post. He's seen the depth of Pretti's loved ones suffering up close. And as someone who dedicates his life to fighting climate change, he recognizes the parallels between this critical work and the safety Pretti was trying to provide to others.

"If we are really not just working to stabilize the climate, but do it in a just way, then it has to be with community," Nuss told me, "and it has to be done in a way that centers human rights and Indigenous rights."

Nuss told me that he feels a sense of kinship with Pretti, a fellow Minnesotan who shared an enthusiasm for the outdoors. His neighbors tell Nuss the same. Some actually knew Pretti; others didn't but see themselves reflected in his story. Environmental and climate organizers should, too. How many of us spend our weekends on a mountain, hiking or biking our way up? How many of us do this work because we love our community and we want the best for them?

"If this is the community response to crisis, then that gives me real hope that we'll be able to address the climate challenges ahead in ways that I've never felt."

Despite the grief and loss, this moment has left Nuss with one gift: embodied hope. Indeed, he's never felt this hopeful before about society's collective ability to survive climate collapse, he explained.

"We are seeing this incredible creative outpouring of mutual aid and organizing and connection and everyone pitching in," Nuss said. "If this is the community response to crisis, then that gives me real hope that we'll be able to address the climate challenges ahead in ways that I've never felt. We're living it right now."

We can survive this crisis and the ones to come — if we work together and move with love. If we protect the most vulnerable among us — not just from the cruelty of masked federal agents, but also from the grips of polluters and poverty.

Pretti seemed to understand the importance of systemic change. From 2016 to 2025, he made several small donations to progressive leaders who have promised to build a new world through policy and legislation: Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vermont), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (New York), Sen. Raphael Warnock (Georgia), and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota).

Pretti's commitment to community didn't end with the click of a button and the shuffling of funds. He gave his time and, ultimately, his life in defense of his neighbors. The cost was too high, but we'll never forget him. We can't. We won't let history erase his name. Alex Pretti was one of us, after all. 🌀

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Rest in Power

While we can't say for certain that climate change led to these specific weather events (we need attribution studies for that), we do know that the Earth's rising temperatures are already creating more frequent and/or stronger disasters like these.

The cold snap to strike the U.S. has resulted in two more deaths in New York City.

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Poetry

THE DAY THE SKY LOST ITS BLUE

one day, I gazed at
the clouds above,
swimming
in a sea of cyan

the next, the blue was gone —
stolen, plundered, replaced
with orange and gray and green
— all varying shades of the same ugly

but blue is special
it's not only
the color of the sky

blue is the color of a lover lost,
his eyes a compass to the rising sun

blue is the color of the soothing sea
its waves pulling me under —
lulling me to sleep

blue is the color of my niece's teeth
her guilty smile, the evidence
of one too many candies

but these other colors?
they're just not right —
not for my dear sky
who comforts me with her light

I call for the blue
"oh, where are you?"

I don't want the orange haze
I don't want green, toxic hues
I want the skies of my youth
where clouds swim and float idly by
and I feel calm by the safety they provide

-ylf-

- Yessenia xx