Bringing your expertise into climate
Climate Vine's Members are deep experts with biases for action and spirits of service. A majority of these Members have climate expertise, while others are looking to put their deep expertise outside of climate to use in the climate space.
Helping folks get into the climate tech space (and sometimes start companies or funds) over the past couple of years has been incredibly rewarding. They often feel like the planet is dancing on a knife's edge; going beyond our green house gas (GHG) threshold would unleash feedback loops we are barely able to predict let alone control.?Climate tipping points are scary, and every year of inaction compounds their potential harm.
And yet,?they feel a vast opportunity and momentum to shift things from the ground up. We know the “climate space” will, by necessity, become an all-encompassing economic shift. We know that taking action is the best anecdote to climate anxiety. And we know that our planet is at least as, and probably many times more, resilient than the most resilient humans. I think back to a?paper published in Nature?a couple of years back detailing how, if we take decisive action, we might see our oceans return to health within the next 30 years. That's quick, given how many years we've spent treating our oceans poorly!
There's new talent, energy and money pouring in every day and many more people looking to transition in. Thankfully,?there's room for everyone, regardless of background, area of expertise, and interest, to help us mitigate and adapt to a changing planet. Given climate’s complexity, there's an unmet need for all types of talent to diagnose problems and build solutions. And the space is vast and intersectional -- climate tech, activism, and policy are all important areas to focus on, as are?refugee?and human rights work in general (including?gender?equality).
But people can find it hard to figure out where to start, how to have the impact they hope to have, and where their specific skills fit in. To zero in on where to focus, I often share?Ayana Elizabeth Johnson's Climate Ikigai?diagram.
When someone goes through this exercise, they may realize they’d like to get into a specific climate vertical, say geothermal, regardless of the role they take. Or they may realize they don’t care about the climate vertical as long as they have a senior marketing role. Whatever they decide is great! I encourage them to just take those first right steps and reach out if I can be helpful with any of it.
Below are some of the resources and suggestions I’ve most often shared with folks trying to transition into the climate tech space.
Communities for those getting into climate tech:
Climate job lists:
领英推荐
Fellowships:
Podcasts:
Books:
Online publications:
Miscellaneous:
Let me know if other resources have been especially helpful to you & I’ll add them to this list :)
And Jack Fritzinger also recently published his list of great resources (with some overlap & a prettier format) — check it out?here!