How to become a climate activist

Published Friday, 7th February, 2020

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)