Climate knowledge kick-start
Ever wanted to quickly get an overview on the climate crisis? Let’s dive right in! For starters, we’d like to recommend to you four trustworthy, influential articles that look into past, present and future with the forth article providing a sound list of the most promising actions humanity can take.
Past: Losing Earth by Nathaniel Rich, New York Times, 2018
The impact of fossil fuel on the climate was discovered in the 50s. It will come as an agonizing revelation to many readers to understand how thoroughly the problem was grasped and how the crisis was almost avoided in the 70s and 80s.
Present: The Emergency by Extinction Rebellion
Extinction Rebellion are doing an outstanding job at collecting and maintaining an overview of the latest science. Including charts and covering topics from the climate breakdown to the Sixth Extinction currently under way.
Future: The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells, New York Magazine, 2017
Our current policies will lead to a heating at least4C by 2100 (and much more afterwards). This influential article explores what earth will like at various degrees of heating.
Action: Project Drawdown
Project Drawdown is a list of the 100 most substantive and economically viable solutions to reverse global warming, compiled by an international coalition of researchers, policymakers, and scientists. The actions described range from clean energy to educating girls in lower-income countries to land use practices that pull carbon out of the air.
Book Recommendations
Academic and popular science author Jared Diamond reviews the causes of historical instances of societal collapse — and what coping strategies failed or turned out successful. Diamond also explains that humanity collectively faces, on a much larger scale, many of the same issues, with possibly catastrophic near-future consequences to many of the world’s populations.
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond
Academic and popular science author Jared Diamond reviews the causes of historical instances of societal collapse — and what coping strategies failed or turned out successful. Diamond also explains that humanity collectively faces, on a much larger scale, many of the same issues, with possibly catastrophic near-future consequences to many of the world’s populations.
Must Watch Films
L’homme a mangé la Terre (“Man ate the Earth”) (2019)
From the industrial revolution to today, this documentary minuitiously illustrates the course of development of humanity into the Antrophocene and the continued destruction of the planet. Sadly it’s not easily available on the internet. Please reach out to us if you know how it can be accessed legally.
An Inconvenient Truth (2006)
This documentary follows Al Gore on the lecture circuit as he campaigns to raise public awareness of the dangers of global heating and calls for immediate action to curb its destructive effects on the environment.
It is the first documentary to win two Oscars and remains influential to today.
Other Interesting Reads
The End of Nature by Bill McKibben
The first book on climate change addressed at a wider audience. The author offers two paths forward: “The Defiant Reflex” or a “more humble” way of living.
Nature has been replaced by an artificial nature in whose processes human beings play a part. McKibben, who subsequently founded 350.org points out that humanity’s impact is unlike anything experienced before. We cannot escape by fleeing to the woods.
Blueprint for Revolution by Srdja Popovic
A handbook for anyone who wants to effectively (and peacefully) improve your neighborhood, make a difference in your community, or change the world. Based on knowledge from many non-violent campaigns and revolutions all over the world.
Let’s make change together!
Find out how Imagine Zero is tackling the climate crisis!
Originally published at imagine-zero.org on June 20, 2020.
