How to become a climate activist

Understand the problem

• Watch Climate 101 with Bill Nye
• Watch Al Gore's 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth
• Read This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein
• Keep an eye on respectable news outlets and recognise and accept that extreme weather events and climate change are inextricably linked
• Find out more about global carbon budgets and what happens if we exceed them by reading Global Carbon Budget 2019
• Read the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Special Report on what happens at a global warming of just 1.5ºC

Understand the solutions

• Accept there is consensus. 97% of peer-reviewed climate scientists agree climate change is human-caused.
• Watch Al Gore's 2017 documentary An Inconvenient Sequel
• Read Project Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming
• Read How Bad Are Bananas: The Carbon Footprint of Everything by Mike Berners-Lee
• Research zero-waste living. Research plastic-free lifestyles. Research recycling schemes in your area and fossil fuel free sources of power (I use use Bulb)

Act

• Swap to products and companies that share your newfound values
• Weigh your options and cut your own carbon footprint
• Read This is Not a Drill: An Extinction Rebellion Handbook
• Read No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference or watch a speech by Greta Thunberg
• Read On Fire by Naomi Klein
• Donate to an environmental not-for-profit
• Plant trees (US: One Tree Planted / UK: Offset Earth)
• Write to your local elected representatives and ask what they're doing to address the climate crisis. Press them. Keep pressing them. Fire them if they don't act.
• Write to your local business leaders and ask what they're doing to address the climate crisis. Press them. Keep pressing them. Boycott their companies if they don't act.
• Refuse to debate the science. The climate crisis is fact and we have no time for liars or self-preservationists.
• Go on a climate march
• Go on climate strike
• Tell others about the climate crisis (and feel free to share this page to help inform them)

This post was published by Adam Stoner on February 7th 2020. It's available copyright-free meanining you can do what you want with it. If you enjoyed it, sign up to my newsletter and get personal monthly updates from me.