The following list of resources is an evergreen compilation of the tools, readings and resources that have informed and inspired me. I hope you will find them as helpful and empowering as I do! I’ve tried to organize them roughly by category, with a brief introduction to each.
Your Role
What can you do to help move climate action forward? What can your meaningful contribution be? The possibilities are endless and the need is great, so check out Ayana Elizabeth Johnson’s Climate Action Venn Diagram to find your place in this work.
More from Elizabeth Ayana Johnson: The All We Can Save Project
Understanding Global Inequality
The End of Poverty? This film was so instrumental in helping me understand the economic system that perpetuates wealth in the Global North at the expense of communities in the Global South. I think it is essential viewing for everyone living in the global north, to acknowledge and understand our complicity in a deeply inequitable, life-robbing global economic model.
For an academic text on the same topic: Imperialist appropriation in the world economy: Drain from the global South through unequal exchange, 1990–2015
The Root Causes of Environmental Crises
How Degrowth Can Save the World This short video succinctly explains why we can’t address climate change without first dealing with capitalism. To quote Andrew Sage in this video: “There is no green capitalism. Replacing fossil fuels with renewables and electric cars is not a solution. We’re not going to decouple growth and GDP from ecological annihilation. And if we treat renewable energy the same way we treat fossil fuels – to power continued growth and extraction and production capacity – we will continue to fill our landfills, wreck our soils, raze our forests and fisheries and decimate the biosphere … We do need tech and improvements in technology in the fight against ecological breakdown. But not when that technology serves to feed a growth-oriented economy. We simply cannot keep growing our economies – ie. raising out GDP , ie. raising our energy demand – while trying to heal the planet. And capitalism cannot survive without constant, exponential growth.”
Simple and Accurate Climate Information
With contradictory messaging and misinformation rampant across social media and the internet, it can be very challenging to know what information is credible when it comes to climate change. Carbon Brief is a great website for fact-checking potential misinformation and for buiding your knowledge and understanding of climate change. Type a keyword into the search to find articles related to your topic of interest.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has produced an excellent educational overview – Climate Science, Risk & Solutions of climate change.
Project Drawdown is a great resource for getting facts around the many climate solutions at our disposal.
I find Project Drawdown’s Table of Solutions particularly helpful – make sure to click on scenario 1 or 2 column headers until you see that the data is organized with the higher numbers appearing first. This table will give you a sense of which solutions will have the most impact on reducing emissions. It can be overwhelming to think about what we can do to make a difference, and this list helps to put things in perspective. Note that they’re global solutions so some are directed at industries or Global South consumers, for example. I do have some questions about the ordering of some of these solutions but I still find it an interesting and helpful resource.
Equity Resources
This is a succinct and illuminating table to help you evaluate how inclusive your organization (or social network, I would venture to saContinuum on Becoming an Anti-Racist Multicultural Organization
Accessibility and Inclusion Toolkit
(divorcing) White Supremacy Culture – Coming Home to Who We Really Are website
Indigenous Reconciliation (resources are primarily from a so-called Canadian context)
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action
5 Things You Need to Know About Solidarity in Reconciliation: Calling in White Settler Canadians
Beyond Territorial Acknowledgments
Psychological Barriers and Motivators for Climate Action
How to transform apocalypse fatigue into action on global warming A great 15 minute TED talk describing some of the psychological barriers and motivations to climate action
Effective Climate Communications
The Most Important Thing You Can Do to Fight Climate Change : Talk About It
Talking About Climate Change Through the Side Door
Inspiring Hope, Not Fear: Communicating Effectively About Climate Change and Health
Empowerment and Capacity-Building Tools