White House honors Aquarium staffer as a climate change education champ.

"I, Sarah-Mae Nelson, pledge to stop purchasing stupid plastic."

That's how Monterey Bay Aquarium's conservation interpreter began her pledge to live without plastic for a year in 2011.

Four years later, she's still living plastic-free—or at least, close to it. "I do not use single-use plastic at all and do my absolute best to avoid everything else," she writes by email.

Nelson's environmentalism doesn't stop there. At the Aquarium, she creates training materials for staff and volunteers to talk about climate change impacts, and solutions, with millions of visitors each year. She's also online community manager for ClimateInterpreter.org, which provides teaching resources for science educators worldwide.

Yesterday, Nelson was among eight people honored at the White House as Champions of Change for Climate Education and Literacy. 

The Weekly caught up with her a few months ago to talk about the biggest human-caused threats to the sea, including plastic trash. Read the full Q&A here.