EXTERNAL RESOURCES
Learn more about the Climate Crisis and find out what you can do to start reversing its effects immediately.
ARTICLES
Global Warming Update: Earth Briefly Surpasses Key Climate Threshold for First Time
On 11/17/23, the globe hit 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels for the first time in recorded history.
What Is the Carbon Footprint of Bottled Water?
We know that plastic is bad for nature, rivers, lakes and oceans but what’s the environmental impact beyond this? What is the carbon footprint of manufacturing of plastic, filling the bottles, transportation and end of life depositing or recycling?
How Raging Wildfires Could Break the Global Carbon Budget
As worsening wildfires emit record levels of carbon, global forests could become a source rather than a store of the planet-heating greenhouse gases.
Sports Stadiums and Zero Waste
As businesses and municipalities grapple with the plastic pollution scientists say is causing a global crisis, sporting events are rapidly implementing new initiatives that reduce their trash, and stadiums are becoming helpful testing grounds.
A Consumer’s Guide to Reducing Pollution
A surprising amount of pollution starts at home. The car you drive, the household and personal care products you buy, the chemicals and equipment you use to keep your lawn and garden in shape all contribute to water and air pollution. But there are consumer choices you can make that will reduce your environmental footprint.
Are Corporate Climate Change Pledges Legitimate?
Climate change is a global problem that requires global solutions. That means every sector of society — citizens, local and national governments, corporations and businesses — has a role to play in limiting global temperature rise.
The Only Solution: Try Everything
- Has the Carbontech Revolution Begun?
- The Little Hedge Fund Taking Down Big Oil
- What if American Democracy Fails the Climate Crisis?
- Climate Change Is Destroying My Country. The Nations Causing It Must Help.
Quartz.com | Generation Gap
“Kids around the world are suing their governments for ruining the planet.”
By Ephrat Livni, December 16, 2017
TeenVOGUE | Plastics Planet
People of Color Deserve Credit for Their Work to Save the Environment. An article by Jenn M. Jackson
Big Oil Is in Trouble. Its Plan: Flood Africa With Plastic.
Faced with plunging profits and a climate crisis that threatens fossil fuels, the industry is demanding a trade deal that weakens Kenya’s rules on plastics and on imports of American trash.
How Plastics Contribute to Climate Change
Plastic pollution is not just an oceans issue. It’s a climate issue and it’s a human health issue, said Claire Arkin, communications coordinator for the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, a global network aiming to reduce pollution and eliminate waste incineration.
Zero Waste Design Guidelines
The Zero Waste Design Guidelines addresses the crucial role that design plays in achieving NYC’s ambitious goal, outlined in OneNYC, to send zero waste to landfills by 2030. More than 100 collaborators visited more than 40 buildings and held discussions with porters and supers to fully understand waste collection issues across building types.
Four Reasons To Never Drink Bottled Water Again
As an expert on global water ethics, I believe that water does more than just quench our thirst. The type of water we drink speaks to the type of world we want to live in. Here are four reasons I recommend avoiding plastic water bottles for the sake of your health and the planet …
The Plastic Pandemic | COVID-19 Trashed the Recycling Dream
COVID-19 has hit plastic recycling, just as big oil firms are investing hundreds of billions of dollars to make new plastic. These investments massively exceed the industry’s spending to tackle plastic waste.
As Oil Demand Rebounds, Nations Will Need to Make Big Changes to Meet Paris Goals, Report Says
COVID-19 decreased oil demand by almost nine percent last year, according to the International Energy Agency. But it could surpass pre-pandemic levels within a few years.
TeenVOGUE | 9 Teen Climate Activists Fighting for the Future of the Planet
Teen Climate Activists Fighting for the Future of the Planet, Gen Z has taken on the enormous task of saving the planet from future destruction and ensuring we have a future to look forward to. By Marilyn La Jeunesse, July 24, 2019
Ellen MacArthur Foundation | Designing Out Plastics Pollution
We must change how we design, use, and reuse plastics. We cannot simply recycle or reduce our way out of the plastic pollution crisis. If we don’t act now, by 2050 there could be more plastic than fish in the oceans.
The Revelator | Wildfires Ignite Mental Health Concerns
“Wildfires Ignite Mental Health Concerns,” By Tara Lohan, August 4, 2021
We know a lot about how wildfires can affect our physical health. New research shows there are mental health implications, too.
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation | Plastics & the Circular Economy
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation develops and promotes the idea of a circular economy. We work with, and inspire, business, academia, policymakers, and institutions to mobilize systems solutions at scale, globally. Our mission is to accelerate the transition to a circular economy.
National Geographic | Circular Economy Special Feature
Is A World Without Trash Possible?
Switching from fossil fuels to renewable energy, such as the geothermal heat from magma beneath Iceland’s lava fields, is an essential step toward a circular economy one that would produce no waste of any kind.
American Institute of Architects: Climate Change & Support
Architecture’s Carbon Problem - Buildings create about 40% of the global CO2 pollution. The AIA | The American Institute of Architects is a national professional support organization for architects and designers. This website is for climate change awareness specific to the building trades.
BOOKS
The Future Earth:
A Radical Vision for What is Possible in the Age of Warming
The first hopeful book about climate change, The Future Earth shows readers how to reverse the short and long-term effects of climate change over the next three decades.
Enviromedics
Many of us have concerns about the effects of climate change on Earth, but we often overlook the essential issue of human health.
This book addresses that oversight and enlightens readers about the most important aspect of one of the greatest challenges of our time.
The Great Derangement:
Climate Change and the Unthinkable
Are we deranged? The acclaimed Indian novelist Amitav Ghosh argues that future generations may well think so. How else to explain our imaginative failure in the face of global warming? In his first major book of nonfiction since In an Antique Land, Ghosh examines our inability—at the level of literature, history, and politics—to grasp the scale and violence of climate change.
DRAWDOWN: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming
Drawdown has become a seminal text on climate solutions, drawing on humanity’s collective wisdom about the practices and technologies that can begin to reverse the buildup of atmospheric carbon by mid-century.
The material contained within Drawdown has influenced university curricula, city climate plans, commitments by businesses, community action, philanthropic strategy, and more. This website provides a supplemental list of references used in development of the book.
All We Can Save:
Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis
Intermixing essays with poetry and art, this book is both a balm and a guide for knowing and holding what has been done to the world, while bolstering our resolve never to give up on each other or our collective future. We must summon truth, courage and solutions, to turn away from the brink and toward life-giving possibility. Curated by two climate leaders, this book is a collection and celebration of visionaries who are leading us on a path toward all we can save.
On Permaculture and Sustainable Farming
Mycelium Running | How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World -By Paul Stamets, 2005
This book is a manual for the mycological rescue of the planet. Based upon the premise that habitats and humans (animals) have immune systems, and that mushrooms are the beneficial bridges for both, Mycelium Running marks the dawn of a new era: the use of mycelial membranes for ecological health. Linking mushroom cultivation, permaculture, ecoforestry, bioremediation and soil enhancement, Stamets makes the case that mushroom farms can be reinvented as healing arts centers, steering ecological evolution for the benefit of humans living in harmony with its inhabitants.
How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need
In this urgent, authoritative book, Bill Gates sets out a wide-ranging, practical and accessible plan for how the world can get to zero greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid a climate catastrophe.
Bill Gates has spent a decade investigating the causes and effects of climate change. With the help of experts in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, political science, and finance, he has focused on what must be done in order to stop the planet’s slide to certain environmental disaster. In this book, he not only explains why we need to work toward net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases, but also details what we need to do to achieve this profoundly important goal.
VIDEOS
Video Explanation of Blockchain Technology
The Story of Plastics
We think we know the story … but that’s only the beginning! The Story of Plastic is an Emmy-winning feature-length documentary and companion animated short. Explore the films or take action for a future without plastic pollution!
Seaspiracy
How our seafood industries and uninformed appetites have decimated ocean animal species, plunged the ocean environments toward irreversible harm and already caused species extinctions with our greed, pollution and shocking disregard for our oceans.
Disobedience
Disobedience is a new film about a new phase of the climate movement: courageous action that is being taken on the front lines of the climate crisis on every continent, led by regular people fed up with the power and pollution of the fossil fuel industry.
8 Billion Angels
A world soon to be supporting 8 billion lives is breaking from the demands of human population. What if we could consider reducing the human birth rate in order to more humanely meet the needs of a reduced human population instead of asking us to drastically change our lifestyles. Thought provoking
The Beauty
Simultaneously stunning and filthy is how director Pascal Schelbli describes his 2019 short film, The Beauty, a cautionary reimagining of the world’s rampant plastic pollution, the arresting animation re-envisions waste as lively sea life: a bubble-wrap fish puffs up, a serpentine tire glides through the water, and an entire school of discarded footwear swims in an undulating mass.
TED Ed | What Really Happens to the Plastic You Throw Away
We’ve all been told that we should recycle plastic bottles and containers. But what actually happens to the plastic if we just throw it away? Emma Bryce traces the life cycles of three different plastic bottles, shedding light on the dangers these disposables present to our world. Lesson by Emma Bryce, animation by Sharon Colman.
WASTE LAND
Filmed over nearly three years, WASTE LAND follows renowned artist Vik Muniz as he journeys from his home base in Brooklyn to his native Brazil and the world’s largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. There he photographs an eclectic band of “catadores”—self-designated pickers of recyclable materials. Muniz’s initial objective was to “paint” the catadores with garbage. However, his collaboration with these inspiring characters as they recreate photographic images of themselves out of garbage reveals both the dignity and despair of the catadores as they begin to re-imagine their lives.
ORGANIZATIONS
Algalita.org
An environmental science and research platform with over 25 years of experience and ground- breaking global field studies and research from all 5 plastic gyres around the world; policy impacts; educational support for youth leadership.
SustainUS
SustainUS is a U.S. based youth-led organization advancing justice and sustainability by empowering young people to engage in advocacy at the domestic and international levels.
The CLEO Institute
The CLEO Institute is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-partisan organization exclusively dedicated to climate crisis education and advocacy. Founded in 2010, we work with communities across Florida to build climate literacy and mobilize climate action for a just, resilient future.
Center for International Environmental Law
More than just a legal resource, CIEL supports advanced scientific reporting, policy research & support, legal counsel and advocacy for 3 main areas: climate & energy; environmental health; and people, land & resources.
Water Footprint Network | Clean Drinking Water
The water footprint is a measure of humanity’s appropriation of fresh water in volumes of water consumed and/or polluted.
A plentiful educational support regarding conservation of safe drinking water.
Inside Climate News
Founded in 2007, Inside Climate News is a Pulitzer Prize-winning, nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that provides essential reporting and analysis on climate change, energy and the environment, for the public and for decision makers. We serve as watchdogs of government, industry and advocacy groups and hold them accountable for their policies and actions.
Orb Media
Orb Media unearths global insights on how our world can forge a more sustainable future. We use journalistic craft, data analysis and networks to transform global, long-term issues of social and environmental sustainability into locally actionable information.
Pangaia
A fashion company with a creative stand in support of climate change education and science.
“From exciting developments around how to deal with plastic waste, to World Heritage marine sites that store billions of tonnes of CO2, discover the stories that caught our eye this week.”
Resurgence & Ecologist Magazine
Resurgence & Ecologist Magazine is packed full of positive ideas about the theory and practice of good living: permaculture, community supported agriculture, local economics, ecological building, sacred architecture, art in the environment, small schools and deep ecology.
Surfrider Foundation
Through a strong network of volunteers along the U.S. coasts, the Surfrider Foundation supports climate change campaigns and movements, and legal and policy campaigns with their love for the beauty and play our oceans offer.
EcoWatch
EcoWatch is a long-time leader in environmental news. Founded in 2005 as an Ohio-based environmental newspaper, today they are a digital platform still dedicated to publishing quality, science-based content on environmental issues, causes and solutions.
Roots and Shoots
Roots & Shoots is an international youth-focused education and empowerment support platform inspired and seeded by the Jane Goodall Institute.
“When young people practice compassion, determination, collaboration, and are empowered to use their voice and take action, transformational change occurs in their communities and in themselves.”
Carbontracker.org
Carbon Tracker is an independent financial think tank that carries out in-depth analysis on the impact of the energy transition on capital markets and the potential investment in high-cost, carbon-intensive fossil fuels. Its team of financial market, energy and legal experts apply groundbreaking research using leading industry databases to map both risk and opportunity for investors on the path to a low-carbon future.
The Ocean Cleanup
Dutch inventor Boyan Slat founded The Ocean Cleanup at the age of 18 in his hometown of Delft, Netherlands. The Ocean Cleanup’s team consists of more than 90 engineers, researchers, scientists and computational modelers working daily to rid the world’s oceans of plastic.
Check out the videos on their About page.
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
The Sabin Center develops legal techniques to fight climate change, trains students and lawyers in their use, and provides up-to-date resources on key topics in climate change law and regulation.
Break Free From Plastic Movement
Since its launch in 2016, more than 12,000 organizations and individual supporters from across the world have joined the #BreakFreeFromPlastic movement to demand massive reductions in single-use plastics and to push for lasting solutions to the plastic pollution crisis.
Earth Uprising
Earth Uprising is poised in making great demands from adult leaders around the world and collaborate with other youth movement organizations to create excellent demonstrations, public youth summits, education and calls for action via social media outlets.
Architecture 2030
Architecture 2030 is a non-profit, non-partisan and independent organization established in 2002 in response to the ongoing climate emergency.
Architecture 2030 mission is to rapidly transform the built environment from the major emitter of greenhouse gases to a central solution to the climate emergency.
Earth Guardians
Earth Guardians is an intergenerational organization with youth at the forefront that trains diverse youth to be effective leaders in the environmental, climate and social justice movements across the globe – using art, music, storytelling, on the ground projects, civic engagement and legal action to advance solutions to the critical issues we face as a global community.
CCA | Architectural Ecologies Lab
The Architectural Ecologies Lab at California College of the Arts serves as a platform for collaborative research that leverages interdisciplinary expertise and meaningful collaborations with science and industry and develops compelling architectural strategies to address ecological challenges like sea level rise, habitat restoration and climate change.
Uplift Climate Conference
Uplift Climate Conference educates, connects, trains and gathers young people from the Colorado Plateau and the greater Southwest to empower action for climate justice to build “a just and livable future.”
CO2 Earth | Online CO2 Tracker
The Earth CO2 Homepage online CO2 tracker.
Sunrise Movement
Sunrise Movement supports youth organizers for the Green New Deal and other initiatives that make climate change an urgent priority across America, end the corrupting influence of fossil fuel executives on our politics and elect leaders who stand up for the health and wellbeing of all people.
Project Drawdown
Founded in 2014, Project Drawdown is a nonprofit organization that seeks to help the world reach Drawdown – the future point in time when levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stop climbing and start to steadily decline.
Since the 2017 publication of the New York Times bestseller, Drawdown, the organization has emerged as a leading resource for information and insight about climate solutions. We continue to develop that resource by conducting rigorous review and assessment of climate solutions, creating compelling and human communication across mediums, and partnering with efforts to accelerate climate solutions globally.
ConsumerNotice.org
Consumer Notice is a consumer advocacy organization that informs the public about the health and safety risks associated with defective products, environmental dangers and other hazards and presents legal options to those who have been injured through the fault of another person or entity.
FUTURE COALITION
The Future Coalition educates and supports youth organizers to create movements and awareness campaigns around the impacts of fossil fuel investments and fossil fuel industries. With a focus on supporting BIPOC young people, queer young people and young people on the frontlines, Future Coalition works collaboratively to provide youth-led groups with the resources, tools and support they need to create transformative change in our communities and in this country.
This Is Zero Hour
The mission of Zero Hour is to center the voices of diverse youth in the conversation around climate and environmental justice. Zero Hour is a youth-led movement creating entry points, training, and resources for new young activists and organizers (and adults who support our vision) wanting to take concrete action around climate change. Together, we are a movement of unstoppable youth organizing to protect our rights and access to the natural resources and a clean, safe, and healthy environment that will ensure a livable future where we not just survive, but flourish.
INFOGRAPHICS & EXHIBITS
Breaking the Plastic Wave
Extensive and positive research.
The Plastic Bag Store | Climate Change and Plastics Pollution
“Every year Americans go through billions of plastic bags. We often use them once, for a short amount of time, then they’re tossed in the trash. But it’s the kind of garbage that takes centuries to decompose. The artist Robin Frohardt wanted to draw attention to the problem, so she created an immersive art exhibition inside a storefront in Times Square called “The Plastic Bag Store.” The pop-up exhibition looks like a grocery store, but instead of food, visitors will see hand-sculpted items like cereal boxes, bananas and ice cream, all made from the discarded plastic bags and single-use plastics Frohardt collected.” –Marisa Mazria Katz for MARKETPLACE