The world wants climate action

GOOD NEWS

Around the world, awareness of the urgency of the threat posed by climate change is growing, as are calls for climate action. This year, the UN Development Programme?surveyed ?73,000 people in 77 different countries, one of the largest surveys of its kind.

They found that 80 percent of respondents want their governments to do more to act on climate change. 72 percent said they want a swift transition away from fossil fuels. And 56 percent of those surveyed said they think about climate change “daily or weekly.”??

“The survey results – unprecedented in their coverage – reveal a level of consensus that is truly astonishing. We urge leaders and policymakers to take note. This is an issue that almost everyone, everywhere, can agree on,”?said ?UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner .?

To see your country’s results, click?here .

NOT-SO-GOOD NEWS

A mere 13 days after Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region, Hurricane Milton barreled into Sarasota, Florida this past Wednesday. Climate change’s fingerprints were all over this storm,?as they were all over Helene.

These “hurricanes of the early 21st century are not like the ones of the 20th century,”?wrote ?John Morales, an atmospheric scientist and the longest tenured broadcast meteorologist in South Florida, who found himself tearing up on the air when reporting on this event. As he says, we find ourselves living in “a century that looks nothing like the past.”??

In the?2024 state of the climate report ?published this week by many of my colleagues, the authors mince no words upon the situation we find ourselves in. “We are on the brink of an irreversible climate disaster. This is a global emergency beyond any doubt. Much of the very fabric of life on Earth is imperiled,” they write.

“For half a century, global warming has been correctly predicted even before it was observed—and not only by independent academic scientists but also by fossil fuel companies. Despite these warnings, we are still moving in the wrong direction; fossil fuel emissions have increased to an all-time high, we are failing to avoid serious impacts, and we are witnessing the grim reality of the forecasts as climate impacts escalate, bringing forth scenes of unprecedented disasters around the world.”

WHAT YOU CAN DO

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, you’re not alone. Climate change is such a huge global issues that most people these days agree that they feel helpless and don't know where to start when it comes to climate action.

A good way to both amplify your voice and feel less alone is by joining a climate action group. In fact, according to the social science, this is one of the most effective ways an individual can help to catalyze climate action. (I have the full list pinned to the top of my Instagram and Threads account if you're interested!) Another effective way we can have an impact as an individual is by voting and telling candidates why we care.?

This is exactly what Citizens' Climate Lobby does. With an astounding?528 active chapters ?in over 50 countries around the world, CCL empowers its volunteers to build relationships with their elected officials and connect with them over shared values about climate change.

?As their vision statement explains, CCL exists to "create the political will for climate solutions by enabling individual breakthroughs in the exercise of personal and political power.”?I think this is so important that I’ve served as one of their science advisors (along with famed NASA climate scientist Jim Hansen , who first testified to US Congress about the risks of global warming back in 1988) for more than a decade.?

After setting a goal of having 25,000 conversations during Earth Month this April, CCL members kept on going. Currently, they’re up to nearly 47,000 conversations about climate change this year alone. Research shows that having conversations changes people’s minds about climate. So, this week, consider signing up for your local CCL chapter and having a conversation (or two, or five) and adding it to the total!