“Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something is worth doing no matter how it turns out.”
— Václav Havel
All of our actions and all of our lives are linked to climate. Pro-climate action requires something of each of us. We must do some slow thinking, listen to our hearts and each other, and make some effort. But our work can be–must be–joyful and creative. These resources are offered to inspire you to explore the world wild web of life on Earth as a field of Bodhisattva practice.
–Eden Heffernan
START HERE
But, What Do I Do?
The climate crisis requires change at many levels. Foremost, we need pro-climate laws and regulations, which means we need pro-climate voters to elect pro-climate politicians.
On the personal level, some actions have more impact than others. After years of disinformation campaigns, there is much confusion. Here is an excellent article that sifts the myths from facts and points to choices that make your own behavior climate friendly. Also, let all your representatives know that you support climate positive laws. If you don’t know your representative, here is a handy tool that will list all your elected reps from the President down to city council.
The Climate Crisis Calls Us into Deeper Relationship with the Great Earth
https://www.upaya.org/2023/11/figueres-what-does-the-climate-crisis-teach-us/
Christiana Figueres is a Costa Rican citizen who practices in the Thich Nhat Hanh Plum Village lineage. She is a global climate diplomat and served as the Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change from 2010-2016. Her recent talk at Upaya Zen Center is essential listening for all Bodhisattvas:
Read excerpts from Christiana’s interview by Krista Tippet:
Visit Christiana’s website for more information and inspiration:
https://www.globaloptimism.com/why-stubborn-optimism
Ven and the Art of Climate Action
Yes, “ven,” not “zen.” Watch Finding Joy in Climate Action with Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, marine biologist, climate activist, and co-editor of All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis.
Further sources of information and inspiration
https://www.nottoolateclimate.com/
“#NotTooLate is a project to invite newcomers to the climate movement, as well as provide climate facts and encouragement for people who are already engaged but weary. We believe that the truths about the science, the justice-centered solutions, the growing strength of the climate movement and its achievements can help. They can assuage the sorrow and despair, and they can help people see why it’s worth doing the work the climate crisis demands of us.”
Understanding Climate Change
There has been a lot of extreme weather lately. What’s the cause?
https://phys.org/news/2023-10-life-earth-existential-threat-climate.html
Support a Climate Advocacy Organization
Founded by Bill McKibben, a journalist and activist on climate for over thirty years, 350.org is at the forefront of organizing communities and nations to apply science to policy and behavior aimed at averting the worst that our historical actions are wreaking on our Earth.
Climate Conversations
Conversations about global warming lead to greater acceptance of climate science:
“These findings suggest that climate conversations with friends and family enter people into a proclimate social feedback loop.”
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1906589116
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/climate-conversation-groups-action/
Facts Don’t Change Minds, Behavior Does
Compounding the fact that fossil fuel industries have conducted a decades-long misinformation campaign is the fact that facts alone don’t change minds. Most effective is witnessing pro-climate behaviors.
We do know the climate-related actions of trusted friends, relatives and neighbors can have a profound effect on the people around them.
Solar panels are a classic example. In a 2021 paper published in Nature, researchers found the most important factor that determined whether someone installed panels on their roof wasn’t subsidies, geography or policy. It was whether their neighbor had them. A single solar rooftop project increases installations by nearly 50 percent within a half-mile radius, a second study found.
Solar panels, in other words, are contagious.
–from “The surprisingly simple way to convince people to go green”
Climate Anxiety is Here to Help
https://slate.com/podcasts/how-to/2023/08/how-to-cope-with-climate-anxiety
Generation Dread, by Britt Wray
Solutions Journalism
Grist
Heated – Emily Atkin
Balance Your Media Diet
Stop doomscrolling, start joyreading.
Climate Works
Many great people are doing many great things around the globe (Full disclosure: Richmond Zen member Gretchen Rau works for this organization!)
Virginia Energy Policy
Be informed and let your representatives know that you are a pro-climate voter.
https://www.cleanvirginia.org/
Climate and Mind
No separation.
https://www.climateandmind.org/
Advocate
“I stand for what I stand on.” –Wendall Berry, novelist, poet, farmer
Get the Climate Action Now app or subscribe to their email newsletter for prompts to make vitally important calls to politicians and others. Here is a recent newsletter.
Today, the Climate Action Now app (links in the newsletter above) directed me to five actions all of which I did in five minutes:
1. tell UN leaders to ban the fossil fuel industry from leadership roles at COP28 UN Climate Change Conference
2. Read a short news announcement regarding a new Big Oil plan to cut methane emissions.
3, 4, & 5. Email my state reps supporting a bill to cut methane emissions in our state.
At Home in the World
Plant more native plants
Here is your guide–paid for by your tax dollars–to Virginia native plant species and sources of plant materials. (Full disclosure: Eden may have had something to do with this online tool.)
www.virginianativeplantfinder.org
Low-hanging fruit: Eat less meat
Rebecca Solnit offers ten more ideas for your (climate) positive life:
Eden’s four-word guide to becoming a happier, healthier, sexier & wiser Earthling
“Drive less; walk more.”