The Number 1 Way to Fight Climate Change
We’ve been talking about climate change a lot this year, as we highlight issues from this year’s One Book One College selection All We Can Save. It’s a book that addresses the seriousness of our situation, but it’s also a book of inspiration. There are many people, from all walks of life, doing great work toward tackling the problem.
For those of us that are encouraged to act, we’ve learned about various things that we can do. We can make green energy choices in our homes and modes of transportation. We can make climate friendly food choices. We can buy less stuff. We can plant trees, or tackle something like my latest project, which is building a butterfly garden in my backyard.
All of these things are vitally important. But in all honesty, they are not enough. The problem is so much bigger than what we as individuals can do. The problem of climate change is systemic and the real change that needs to happen is at the government and corporate level. This means that the number one thing that we can do to fight climate change is to apply pressure, and not let leaders look away from the problem. With our actions, our dollars, or our votes we can support the groups that are doing this kind of work, like the authors featured in All We Can Save.
“It is time to stop focusing on what government can do and start recognizing the critical role we all play in making government do its job.” Gina McCarthy, “Public Service for Public Health“, All We Can Save
Here are a couple of great discussions about the need to keep talking about climate change to help bring about the systemic change that we need.
New York Times Podcast
Got Climate Doom? Here’s What You Can Do To Actually Make a Difference
TEDTalk
Here are a number of organizations that are doing this work.
And to leave you with a just a bit more inspiration from Paul McCartney, Jon Bon Jovi, Sean Paul and many, many more artists–Love Song to the Earth.