Discussion of climate, how it is changing, activism around that, the politics, and the energy systems change we need in order to stabilize things.
As a starting point, the burning of fossil fuels, and to a lesser extent deforestation and release of methane are responsible for the warming in recent decades:
How much each change to the atmosphere has warmed the world:
Recommended actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the near future:
Anti-science, inactivism, and unsupported conspiracy theories are not ok here.
The numbers change, but it alone doesn’t affect the people in power. We’re always breaking records, and everyone gets used to the new normal. What do you think we should do about all of this?
There are a couple of ways I think that people should or could be tackling this.
Protest – Civil disobedience in the name of societal change is arguably the oldest and most effective way to go about affecting real change, especially when it comes to things those in power have little interest in tackling.
Voting – Vote with the climate crisis in mind, voting in a democracy is one of the best ways to have your say. One of two things can happen when people vote. Those in power feel that their position is threatened and so adopt the policies people are demanding in order to stay in power, or the people that you vote for get into power and effect the change you have been looking for. The former obviously isn't the best situation, but it's something, the latter is preferred.
Money – Lastly, vote with your money. Try to stop spending money on companies that actively ravage our ecosystems around the world. These corporations often only respond to one thing, and that is revenue. If enough people get together to begin strangling their revenue streams, they will absolutely look to change their business models moving forward.
Money is hard for a lot of people though, cost of living around the world is also skyrocketing, making it harder to be conscious of where your purchases go, which is completely understandable.
Thanks, both for the great piece and this comment. To me, comments like these matter. It can be so incredibly hard not to feel overwhelmed and defeated in the face of all this news. Also, I sometimes get pessimistic because I feel that the people who read news regarding climate change are already aware of it (amd trying to make a change), and people who don’t want to know just stick their head in the sand…
Thanks for the kind words, and I couldn't agree more!
Awareness is half the battle a lot of times, there may well be some fatigue with the issue, but it's still as imperative as ever to make sure it's front and centre.
Keep it up! Writing about it keeps it in our minds, which keeps us motivated, which keeps us acting.
I challenge everyone reading this to do one act per day to fix our climate crisis!