Direct Action to Address Climate Breakdown.
You might think of direct action to address climate breakdown as something that can only be done on the ground. While you may be able to join political movements, you might not know where to start with something as complex as climate breakdown, and you might wonder if there’s any kind of direct action you can take right here and right now, in your own home. In this case it can help to think of what areas of fixing climate breakdown need work near you, as well as what areas you’re more able to give your focus to.
Project Drawdown is a nonprofit organization that has identified areas in which actions can be taken to reach “Drawdown,” what they describe as “the future point in time when levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stop climbing and start to steadily decline.”
We call this list the Top 80 Game Changers, with each solution ranked by the total amount of greenhouse gases they either avoid or remove from the atmosphere. You might not be able to influence refrigerant management (#1), but you can probably do something about reducing food waste (#3).
Here’s a look at the Top 5, just to give you an idea of the scope of the full Drawdown list.
| Rank | Solution | Sector | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Refrigerant Management | Materials | |||
| 2 | Wind Turbines (Onshore) | Electricity Generation | |||
| 3 | Reduced Food Waste | Food | |||
| 4 | Plant-Rich Diet | Food | |||
| 5 | Tropical Forests | Land Use |
You might also want to think about the 7 trends, or sectors of direct action to address climate breakdown, found by the creators of Julie’s Bicycle.
The 7 trends are:
1. Art Work
2. Activism
3. Organizational Leadership
4. Design and Innovation
5. Collaboration
6. Path Finding
7. Policy Changing
For more information on the scope of each trend, you can check out their Creative Climate trends pdf. And if you have an idea of what trend you’d fit into, and are working on a project, you can also put yourself onto their interactive map!
Or, you might be interested in participating in Ecochallenge, a habit-making game where you can participate with teams from around the world to take action on climate-helping subjects ranging from electricity; food, agriculture and land use; transportation; buildings; and others.
If you’re not ready to explore any of the approaches listed above, and you just want to get started RIGHT NOW, try one of these:
