Simple. We need to understand it. We ALL need to understand where we are, and based on the conversations I’m having, too many are not even thinking about it or have no idea how bad it’s getting.
The other thing that keeps coming up when I talk with people about climate change is the question: what can I do?
Here’s something you can do
Read, watch, and get absorbed in this information for a couple of days or more if you can do it.
I know you’re busy, I know you have a lot on your plate, but I believe the number one thing everyone needs to do is understand how bad it really is. We owe that to ourselves.
This is not a quick fix, although I’m making it as easy as possible by collating all of this information in one place. Something you can come back to when you have time.
But understanding this situation will require time and investment, and it is definitely worth that time. You may not feel great after doing it (it’s not happy reading and it had a big impact on me), but without knowledge and acceptance of where we are, we’re not going to do what needs to be done.
I believe we all need to know what we’re facing, because until we do, the push for the massive changes needed is not going to happen. It can’t, because it is only our united voice that can get governments, businesses, the media, and other important groups, on the bandwagon of big change. Without our collective will, we can’t succeed.
So I’m making it easy for you to learn
Everyone tells me they are overwhelmed by all of the information out there. I get it. I live in this world of information and while overwhelming, it doesn’t bother me so much. I’ve learnt how to navigate it and besides, I like it. Knowledge is such a gift.
I’m also one of those weird excessive consumers of knowledge and have no problem navigating through it, so I realized this is a way I can take action, by packaging it up for you.
I can collate and share the information I find valuable; however, I’m also expecting you to see this long list of articles and think: CRIKEY, how am I going to get through all of that?
You don’t need to read it all. Read some or read the one’s where the headline captures your imagination. Agree to read five, 10 or 20. Even better, why not take a weekend off and read it all? Or take a couple of days off sick and invest in it?
The most important thing is don’t ignore it. We can’t keep ignoring it. We need to know so we can act, and we need to do it right now. Because what is more important than a future for all of us? Nothing else really matters right now. Truly.
Even if you read it and still don’t think it’s an issue, that’s fine. At least you gave it some decent consideration!!
Is it all bad?
Of course not. Here’s some hopeful articles and research…
- Massive restoration of world’s forests would cancel out a decade of CO2 emissions, analysis suggests
- Youth climate strikers: ‘We are going to change the fate of humanity’
- EU’s Juncker proposes billions of spending on climate change after a 16-year-old’s speech
- French experts propose trillion-euro EU climate finance pact
- Lockerbie plastic roads firm MacRebur opens first factory
- Trader Joe’s Phasing Out Single-Use Plastics Nationwide Following Customer Petition
- UK shows how climate action done, with cuts to emissions for six years in a row
- India and China are leading the greening of our planet
- UK experiences hottest winter day ever as 21.2C is recorded in London
- The rejuvenation of Maya Beach in Thailand
- Beer rings that marine animals can eat
- Climate strike: Schoolchildren protest over climate change – go kids!
- Avoiding meat and dairy is ‘single biggest way’ to reduce your impact on Earth
- ‘We won’: Landmark climate ruling as NSW court rejects coal mine – bravo
- Grocery bags and takeout containers aren’t enough. It’s time to phase out all single-use plastic
But here’s the not so positive – six months’ worth of collation
- My deep investment in self education (even though I’ve always been interested) began in earnest with the release of the IPCC Report, October 2018 (FYI there’s a problem on the IPCC site, so here’s the Facebook page)
- But this isn’t new. This piece was published in 1989 – U.N. Predicts Disaster if Global Warming Not Checked – no time to lose…. And then this story goes back to the 50s: Big Oil Knew: The Confusion Memo
- One of the most alarming pieces this year so far!! Our planet just set a scary new carbon dioxide record
- Microplastic pollution revealed ‘absolutely everywhere’ by new research
- It’s raining on Greenland’s ice sheet. That’s a big problem.
- Oceans Losing Oxygen
- Is This the End of Recycling?
- Airlines Were Supposed to Fix Their Pollution Problem. It’s Just Getting Worse
- Best and worst airlines for tackling climate change
- Climate Change Will Increase Violent Turbulence On Airline Flights
- Climate Change Means More Extreme Weather – Here’s What to Expect If Emissions Keep Increasing
- Don’t ignore military advice on climate change, Mr. President
- Mosquito-Borne Disease Could Threaten Half the Globe by 2050
- ‘Whole thing is unravelling’: climate change reshaping Australia’s forests
- Australia’s changing climate – report by the CSIRO
- We have to fix fashion if we want to survive the climate crisis
- UN Says Climate Genocide Is Coming. It’s Actually Worse Than That – a must read
- We’ve lost 60% of wildlife in less than 50 years
- Scientists Are 99.9999 Percent Sure Humans Caused Climate Change – BTW this level of agreement between scientists is unheard of
- Of the world’s 100 most polluted cities, 99 are in Asia
- Rate of plastic pollution will double by 2030 as report calls for end to single-use plastics
- We have to fix fashion if we want to survive the climate crisis
- Rarest orangutans ‘doomed’ by Indonesia dam project
- Heatwaves sweeping oceans ‘like wildfires’, scientists reveal
- Scientists slap down Australia government over fake climate claims
- Deal signed for huge coal-fired power plants in Hunter Valley, Hong Kong firm says
- Europe’s renewable energy policy is built on burning American trees
- Revealed: Glencore bankrolled covert campaign to prop up coal
- Filmmakers “Stood There Crying” As They Helplessly Captured A Polar Bear Starving
- ‘A Harbinger of Things to Come’: Farmers in Australia Struggle With Its Hottest Drought Ever.
- Insects are dying off at record rates — an ominous sign we’re in the middle of a 6th mass extinction
- Is climate change far worse than we realise?
- Water dangers loom for South Asia
- Early spring rain boosts methane from thawing permafrost by 30 percent
- Europe’s Populist Right Threatens to Erode Climate Consensus
- A third of Himalayan ice cap doomed, finds report
- Noam Chomsky: ‘In a couple of generations, organized human society may not survive.’
- Iceberg twice the size of New York City is set to break away from Antarctica
- Don’t Save The Planet For The Planet. Do It For The Beer – maybe this is the inspiration needed?
- In the world of sustainability, colonialism is not dead
- How Quickly Climate Change Is Accelerating, In 167 Maps
- ‘There Will Be An Increase In Deforestation’: Brazil’s New President Signs Order Endangering Amazon And Indigenous Rights
- STOP THE BURNING – 30 global leaders send a collective message to end deforestation
- Japan will start whaling What? Why?? Why now? And Iceland is in on it too – Iceland to keep hunting up to 2,130 whales over 5 years
- UK experiences hottest winter day ever as 21.2C is recorded in London
- Neoliberalism has conned us into fighting climate change as individuals
- Why disaster capitalists are praying for a no-deal Brexit
- Great Barrier Reef: One million tonnes of sludge to be dumped
- What happens if all the coral reefs die?
- Iceberg twice the size of New York City is set to break away from Antarctica
- Coles Releases New Plastic Collectables Despite Public Outrage
- Tasmania is burning. The climate disaster future has arrived while those in power laugh at us
- These are the economic, social and environmental impacts of fast fashion
- The World Might Actually Run Out Of People
- UN: Growing threat to food from decline in biodiversity
- The Green New Deal Would Cost $93 Trillion, Ocasio-Cortez Critics Say
- You do a bit of a search for the cost of inaction? Inaction on climate change risks leaving future generations $530 trillion in debt
- James Downie: The fierce urgency of climate change
- Don’t look now, but the House just woke up to the cost of climate inaction
- We can pay for pollution now or later—and the price is lower now
- Year Zero: The Year When Wild Animals Are Gone
- The Countries Polluting The Oceans The Most
- Billionaires Are the Leading Cause of Climate Change
- ‘It’ll change back’: Trump says climate change not a hoax, but denies lasting impact
- Humanity is ‘cutting down the tree of life’, warn scientists
- U.S. Climate Report Warns of Damaged Environment and Shrinking Economy
- The unbelievably simple way to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half – the maths doesn’t add up, but it makes a point
- How to stop plastic pollution at source
- Be afraid—11 scary facts, stats and lies about our planet this Halloween
- Where will you be when the sea rises?
- This is how long everyday plastic items last in the ocean
- The plastic backlash: what’s behind our sudden rage – and will it make a difference?
- Global waste generation will nearly double by 2050
- Small Nuclear War Could Reverse Global Warming for Years – headline is reverse of the truth in the article
- New report finds Cadbury has destroyed over 25,000 hectares of Orangutan habitat
- ‘Time is Running Out,’ American Petroleum Institute Chief Said in 1965 Speech on Climate Change
- Drone Footage Exposes Hundreds Of Whales Trapped In Secret Underwater Jails
- How Extreme Weather Is Shrinking the Planet
- Has this Singapore-listed palm oil firm been concession laundering?
- Climate change: Warming gas concentrations at new record high
- Climate change: Concerns over report on ocean heating
- Just 100 companies responsible for 71% of global emissions, study says
- What’s Not in the Latest Terrifying IPCC Report? The “Much, Much, Much More Terrifying” New Research on Climate Tipping Points
- Final call to save the world from ‘climate catastrophe’
- Slow Arctic freeze raises risk of polar bear extinction, say scientists
- Everyone is Celebrating Congo’s Massive New Park Since Similar Preserve Saved Gorillas From Extinction
- Extinction Rebellion protests block London bridges
- Animals Are Riding an Escalator to Extinction
- The Extinction of Wilderness
- Only drastic action can save us from the sixth mass extinction
- “The Last Animals”: a journey to the frontlines of extinction
- Materialism: a system that eats us from the inside out
- Climate change: CO2 emissions rising for first time in four years
- French Government Starts Phase-Out of Glyphosate with Online Farmer Platform and Herbicide Tax
- Sperm whale found dead with 13 pounds of plastic in its stomach
- French Government Starts Phase-Out of Glyphosate with Online Farmer Platform and Herbicide Tax
- The Insect Apocalypse Is Here
- 19 of 20 World Leaders Just Pledged to Fight Climate Change. Trump Was the Lone Holdout.
- A government report outlines what a warmer world means for America
- Climate change: Where we are in seven charts and what you can do to help
Useful sites to follow
Follow the World Economic Forum. Check out Prevent Year Zero. Understand Ecological economics. Check out End Plastic Waste. Also CO2.Earth where they have weekly updates on emissions.
If you are not a believer in climate change or global warming, that’s fine. I really don’t care. Hopefully you are a believer it’s time to stop drowning our planet in rubbish?? I hope so. That’s revolting for all of us.
The reality is, no matter where you stand right now, just invest in reading what I’ve shared here. What matters is knowing we’re up against a huge challenge – one we must overcome.
If we all know and start taking this seriously, we can start making change.
I believe we are on the cusp of catastrophe, so I am driven to share this knowledge, because with what I’ve learnt, I know it doesn’t matter what changes I make. It doesn’t matter what changes my small community makes either. We need everyone on board, working together as a global community, and we need it right now.
Thanks for taking this seriously. And please, let me know if this information is of value to you? Let me know what you think we need to do? Let me know if you think we’ve hit the tipping point towards change? Let me know if you think your community is asleep? Let me know if you were asleep and this knowledge has woken you up? Let me know that you are ready to join the global challenge we’re all facing with climate change?
Sharing this with love and hope in my heart. I will also start sharing actions we can all take as follow-on.
Cheers
Andrea
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