Climate science is pretty tricky to understand, so here it is in a nutshell. The Paris Agreement (endorsed by nearly all countries on earth) say they wish to stop the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees C above pre-industrial levels, otherwise the present warming of the planet is likely to hit the target sometime between 2030 and 2052. But this goal can only be achieved if we cut global carbon dioxide emissions by around 45% by that time. And that’s not through planting trees (won’t do enough) but by massively cutting down on flying and polluting energy (mostly from powering homes and eating meat).
Things You Can Do (how to fight climate change and reduce waste) makes small changes to live a greener life and reduce your carbon footprint in this stunning illustrated book by award-winning climate journalist Eduardo Garcia. No lectures, just tips to slash emissions with over 350 illustrations by painter Sara Boccaccini Meadows. Each chapter digs into choices to cut carbon emissions then delivers things you can to eat a climate-friendly diet, reduce food waste, save energy and adopt zero waste practices.
Make your garden safe for pets and know toxic houseplants to avoid. Don’t display foliage facing gardens, to help stop birds flying into windows. For beauty/cleaning recipes, avoid aromatherapy oils for pregnancy/nursing (and certain medical conditions) and keep them away babies and pets (including candles). Avoid shea butter for latex allergies (and avoid cocoa butter near pets).
100 climate change solutions for everyone
The Climate Action Handbook is a visually stunning guide with approachable ideas for anyone to help. Offering hope from actions that can improve air quality, equality, communities, save money and build local economics, the actions cover food and fashion, travel, house and garden, community climate planning and civic action. Dr Heidi Roop is Assistant Professor of Climate Science at University of Minnesota. Her work involves making changes from city and state, to national and international levels. Dr Heidi shares ways to move the needle like:
- Cutting food waste and swapping to oat milk
- Reducing your driving speed
- Voting and engaging in local actions
- Eco laundry and cleaning options
- Creating healthy soil and green communities
- Deleting unused email and online accounts
- Cleaning your heating and cooling systems
The problem is that most governments won’t play ball, as it interferes with ‘economic growth’. So for instance, the airline industry is responsible for a huge amount of emissions along with water vapour, soot and sulfate aerosols yet not much is being done to reduce their use (the HS2 project instead is not just bulldozing trees and harming wildlife, but even planning to make some stations ‘hubs’ for local air travel). Another way to help is to cut down on your use of technology. You may need a laptop and phone for work, but spending hours surfing YouTube and being a phone addict all contributes to energy-hungry use of power stations (and mining to make the goods).
the big story about climate change
Palm Trees at the North Pole is a book for children age 8 to 12, to share the science and history of our climate, to be part of the solution. The science and facts are accompanied by vivid illustrations, from a history of our climate (exploding volcanoes and extinct mammoths) to how humans are creating climate change today. Educational but never scary. The books everything from greenhouse gases to disappearing islands, with an ultimately reassuring text.
