What Will You Tell Your Grandkids About Climate Change?
When my grandkids ask me what I did to combat climate change, I’ll proudly tell (and show) them that I was part of a diverse, global team of curious strangers who were invited and assembled by entrepreneur and author Seth Godin to write The Carbon Almanac, which will be published in June 2022.
We created the Almanac so that others could read in simple, sensible language, the facts on climate change in one place; connect those facts and the likely outcomes of several seemingly disjointed, yet interrelated events to their own lives; and join together to take action in their own communities.
Why this? Why Now?
The ”What will you say?” question was one that lurked in the back of my mind as I saw, and mostly ignored, all the signs of climate change around me as I sped through my early- and mid-adult life and career. Loving the world and its wonders while living the all-consuming dream (literally and figuratively given Americans’ share of global consumption of nearly everything) — for the most part, at least.
In full transparency, I need to use the term that really started it all — global warming — and all of the controversy and angry accusations it has engendered for 40 or more years now.
In the beginning, it was a few iconoclastic scientists who sounded the alarms, using direct research, collected studies, ongoing surveys and tracking of climate trends, and more to state their case for a global wake-up call on planetary warming.
And after the initial focus on the term greenhouse effect, they isolated (or at least popularized) the real culprit in this human tragedy-in-the-making: carbon. A substance in us and all around us. How could carbon be bad for us?
Well, the facts show that extreme weather has increased in intensity and begun to ravage and transform the world around us, with information and media in overdrive. We couldn’t get away from the impacts of it if we tried.
The silver lining is that research, data, and information are accessible to the masses, which means we can all learn the basics. We can then choose to act on what we’ve learned, to confront climate challenges together.
Enter The Carbon Almanac.
Working on The Carbon Almanac offered me the chance to employ and share my skills as a writer, editor, reader, connector, collaborator, coach, encourager, financial expert, business media leader, community volunteer, thinker, avid traveler, citizen of the world, and parent of three to make a difference.
The incredible group of people who came together to create the Almanac aren’t all climate experts, but we’re all experts in something, and we are all committed to finding and sharing the facts.
I can’t speak for all of my fellow volunteers who produced and are now promoting the Almanac and its website, educational programs, podcasts and other resources. But after years of saying “somebody else will do it” and hearing “they’re overstating this for their own gains”, I can say that I now speak from a point of knowledge and truth.
Because I found the facts on climate change and what they mean to us. That’s the power of The Carbon Almanac.
What we’re saying now.
Now, it’s not about “What I can do?” but “We are doing what we must” to get those climate facts out there for everyone to see, so they’re accessible, relatable, honest, and actionable. What we do with that knowledge is up to all of us, including my own children and grandchildren.
And that’s how we’ll tell our grandkids we confronted climate change.
After we do it, together.
Scott Hamilton is a global financial services professional and writer, and a member of The Carbon Almanac Network. Learn more at thecarbonalmanac.org.
