An excellent action handbook comes to us from Al Gore, Nobel Peace Prize winner and world leader of the fight to slow the emerging climate crisis.
His 2017 book Truth to Power: Your Action Handbook to Learn the Science, Find Your Voice, and Help Solve the Climate Crisis and companion film are concise and empower us to:
a) Grasp the scope of the climate crisis,
b) Transition quickly to solid, realistic solutions.
I summarize its key empowerments below… please browse them, then get started flexing your muscle by influencing friends, family, coworkers, elected representitives, and companies you buy from. As the saying goes, “to save the planet, use our voices.”
Be an involved citizen: 1) Register to vote; 2) Find your elected officials; 3) Learn how they vote; and 4) Call, tweet, and write your elected officials. I would add to this: Never, ever miss an election!
Speak at a town hall meeting or forum: 1) Make your concern about the climate personal; 2) Find the right opportunities to speak and engage, in public, with elected officials (politicians are SUPER sensitive of anything that transpires in public!); 3) Come prepared to speak; 4) Bring backup… there is strength in numbers; and 5) Then, when the time is right, speak up!
Write about climate effectively: 1) Be timely; 2) Be concise; 3) Support your argument; 4) Know your audience; 5) Pick the best outlet; and 6) Get feedback.
Start a petition: 1) Identify your target; 2) Craft a compelling and concise message; 3) Circulate widely; and 4) Deliver.
Establish yourself as a climate activist online: 1) Create social media accounts; 2) Choose your best outlets; 3) Show that you’re a climate activist; 4) Use strong visuals; 5) Follow other influencers; 6) Be creative; 7) Share facts and breaking news; and 8) Post frequently.
Magnify your impact with press coverage: 1) Build relationships with journalists – it’s easier than you think; 2) Alert the press; and 3) Prepare for the possibility that you might be interviewed.
Talk to children about climate change: 1) Foster a love of nature; 2) Track your family’s carbon footprint and waste; and 3) Promote climate change education.
Talk with climate deniers: [Prep beforehand for their onslaught of incorrect information by first getting a solid, fact-based briefing from Skeptical Science’s awesome database of denier fallacies and the correct science refuting each.] Then with patience and respect, you are ready to answer: 1) How can there be global warming when it’s snowing outside? 2) Why do some deniers claim that the Earth has been cooling since 1998? 3) How do you explain the fact that not all scientists agree the climate is changing? 4) Natural cycles have always influenced planetary climate… how can you really believe humans could possibly have that much impact? 5) Plants need carbon dioxide and we need plants… so how is more CO2 supposed to be a bad thing? 6) We all breathe out carbon dioxide… are you saying we should all stop doing that, too? 7) How can a couple of degrees be such a big deal? 8) Won’t limiting emissions also limit jobs and economic growth? 9) If warming is inevitable, even if we went 100 percent renewable, then what is the point? and 10) For the sake of argument, let’s say I get on board with climate science… what can one person do?
Find a career in renewable energy: 1) Use your technical talents; and 2) Use your other skills like networking, being an activist, follow industry news and go to school.
Make your business more sustainable: 1) Make the business case; 2) Invest in clean energy and efficiency; and 3) Make it easy to be green.
Run for office: 1) Assess your prospects; 2) Lay the groundwork; 3) Build your campaign team; 4) Craft your message; and 5) Rally support.
Walk the walk: 1) Evaluate your current impact and set a target; 2) Audit your home; 3) Look for ways to save, and 4) Make the switch: Consider going solar at home.
Eat with the planet in mind: 1) Eat less meat, especially red meat; 2) Make plant-based food a bigger part of your diet; 3) Go local; 4) Buy foods that don’t contribute to deforestation; 5) Buy in bulk; and 6) Buy organic.
Vote with your dollars: 1) Study before you buy; 2) Invest with the climate in mind; 3) Make more efficient travel plans; 4) Green your banking, and 5) Give to the movement.
Create and host events: 1) Have a strategy; 2) Choose what kind of event you’d like to put on; 3) Get people to come; 4) Manage a successful event; and Design great event materials.
Become a Climate Reality Leader, one of the world’s leading organizations for motivated climate champions: 1) What does it mean to be a Climate Reality Leader? 2) How can I attend a Climate Reality Leader’s presentation? 3) How can I train to be a Climate Reality Leader? 4) What will I learn? and 5) What happens when the training is over?
Their next three-day trainings are in Atlanta, USA in March 2019 and Brisbane, Australia in June 2019. You can sign up here to get full information.
I did the CRP training in 2017 in Denver, USA and recommend it highly: It will rocket-launch your advocacy from something you are merely thinking about, into an exciting life phase where you make a meaningful difference.
(In my case, it was developing this educational blog as a web stie, in Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. But your unique talents and the needs of your region may lead you down your own, special path.)
You are ready, and the world needs you: Make it happen!
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Not sure how to start saving the planet (civilization, really)… Start by remembering the saying: “Hope is a renewable resource.” Keep your morale up.
Then, our immediate practical first step becomes “Deeply know our personal Superpowers,” those skills over which we all have 100% control:
1) To save the planet, CHANGE OURSELVES FIRST;
2) To save the planet, INVEST OUR WORKING LIVES;
3) To save the planet, USE OUR VOICES and take advocacy seriously in all its many flavors: Never miss a vote and never stop influencing your government. Influence the vast business world by voting with your buying power… business listens when you speak its language. Set a solid example in your personal life. Tell friends what we must do. Finally, have a carefully-chosen annual donor program. All of these are ways you can use your voice.
No one can take your personal power away. Stay focussed on the list of substantive global warming solutions.
And at all times, cast aside the “learned-helplessness” that infects so much of modern life… the time is now for action.
Never give up.
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Global Warming, You and I 