Climate Change
The latest IPCC report on climate change, released March 20, 2023
UW Climate Impacts Group
Swinomish Climate Change Initiative
Climate Change Conversations: Whidbey Climate Consortium Keynote Speech, Dr. Richard Gammon, UW. (17 minutes, with a couple minutes intro by SWHS students) Nov 15, 2019
Climate Progress
Resilient Living
Post Carbon Institute
Resilience
Transition sites
Transition US
Transition Culture
Transition Lopez
Chuckanut Transition
Transition Whatcom
Local 2020 (Port Townsend)
Book Recommendations
Here a few we’ve found especially helpful on both the climate situation and what we can do to strengthen ourselves and our communities to meet the challenges ahead.
Here’s a start:
Active Hope: How to face the mess we’re in without going crazy, by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone. This is the book we’ve used in the TF&F study group, and I encourage everyone to read it and talk about it with others, perhaps even start your own study group. The book doesn’t sugarcoat our situation but focuses on facing our grief, fear, anger, and denial so that we can be of service to a world in dire need of our attention and actions.
Great Tide Rising by Kathleen Dean Moore. This book has it all. The hard questions. The moral urgency. The need to bear witness. What you can do (and no it’s not “change your light bulbs”) and who you should be at this time in this time of collapse, if you truly love this earth. (Extra bonus: an imagined interview with Ed Abbey.) Wonderful writer, wonderful book.
This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate by Naomi Klein. Klein writes about how we can use the current crises to build the world we want, a world no longer devoured by an economy addicted to endless growth. “What the climate needs to avoid collapse is a contraction in humanity’s use of resources. What our economic model demands to avoid collapse is unfettered expansion. Only one of these set of rules can be changed, and it’s not the laws of nature.” Right on, Naomi.
Mosaic Voices podcast: In these mind-shifting podcasts, wise elder Michael Meade takes a mythic perspective on the troubles of our times. A unique, frank, and much-needed voice. https://www.mosaicvoices.org
Post Carbon Institute: Provides resilience-building resources and the info needed to understand and respond to the interrelated ecological, economic, energy, and equity crises (E4) of our time. https://www.postcarbon.org
Sightline Institute: A think tank based in Seattle. Great for local research and analyses on climate, energy, and a number of other critical issues. https://www.sightline.org
No “alternate facts” here: Confused about what you hear or read? Maybe you heard a Congressman say rocks falling in the ocean cause sea-level rise? Or you saw the last couple of eye-rollers in the Skagit Valley Herald’s letters to the editor section? Climate denial may be on its deathbed but it sure ain’t dead yet. Here are two resources with the facts:
https://www.skepticalscience.com/ and
https://www.desmogblog.com/global-warming-denier-database