What More Can I Do?
If you’re a climate-conscious person, you likely already know some of the main ways you can reduce your contribution to greenhouse gasses: Buy fewer things, eat less meat, ride your bike.?
But there are other, less obvious methods we don’t always think of: voting, having climate conversations, engaging with your local government, changing where your money is invested. And while our role as individuals does matter, we’re more powerful when we work together in collective action.
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Tuesday March 28 | 12:00 p.m.
Elizabeth Kolbert began reporting on the increasingly devastating effects of climate change in the early 2000s — before Al Gore’s breakthrough documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.” Kolbert’s reporting became the foundation of her book “Field Notes from a Catastrophe,” which sounded the alarm on the causes and effects of global warming. In the two decades since then, the frequency and intensity of climate-induced disasters has only intensified. And yet, Kolbert’s latest book is titled “H Is for Hope: Climate Change from A to Z.” So where does she see cause for hope? What is the world finally doing right? And what work still needs to be done?
Join Climate One co-host Ariana Brocious for a live-streamed conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist Elizabeth Kolbert as we unpack the state of the world’s climate and ongoing efforts to mitigate future disaster.
What We’re Reading This Week: Two of World’s Largest Cities Confront Total Drought
Despite being located on opposite ends of the globe, Mexico City and Bengaluru are both confronting the same problem: The two cities are almost out of water. Nearly 90% of Mexico City, home to more than 20 million people, is already experiencing severe drought, and the region’s rainy season is still months away. Meanwhile, a weak monsoon season has the 14 million residents of Bengaluru fearing for the worst as temperatures begin to climb.
While the La Ni?a/El Ni?o cycle in the Western Hemisphere and the monsoon cycle in the Indian subcontinent are both natural processes, human emissions have exacerbated the extreme ends of these cycles, intensifying both droughts and deluges. In India last year, at least 428 people died due to flooding and landslides caused by erratic monsoon storms. And thanks to this unprecedented drought, Bengaluru, regarded as the “Silicon Valley of India,” has already been forced to implement a full day of water supply shut off.
Of course, Mexico City and Bengaluru are not the first major urban areas to approach the precipice of water supply failure. In 2018, Cape Town and its 4.5 million inhabitants came within days of reaching what water supply experts call Day Zero, where a city’s water reserves fall below the point of no return. Virtually all of California’s population centers were plunged into severe drought from 2011-2017 and again from 2020-2022, and rising sea levels threaten to salinize the city of Miami’s water supply.
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Connecting the Dots
To better prepare for the climate crisis, many communities are building resilience hubs. These community-based centers foster mutual aid while doing the hard resource and infrastructure preparedness work necessary to confront the climate disaster. And, as Grist discovered last month, many of these resilience hubs are inspired by works of fiction.
Climate change is showing up with increasing frequency in works of literature, television, and cinema. But beyond simply instilling fear in audiences, these narratives are inspiring some people to take action. To learn more about the growing role of climate in our stories, listen to Climate One’s conversation with writer, director, and producer Scott Z. Burns and CEO ? Anna Jane Joyner , available on all major podcast platforms.
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One More Thing
Have you moved within the United States for climate-related reasons? Tell us about it!?
For the chance to have your climate migration story shared on Climate One, give us a call at 650 382-3869. Please keep your voicemail under two minutes and include your name and contact information so we know how to reach you if we decide to feature your story.