Sunny, green hills and a person with a backpack standing on a cliff, perhaps envisioning a sustainble future?

SaraNewmountain

Catalysing climate action for individuals and organisations

Learn more about climate change

If you don’t know so much about the causes and effects of climate change it can be hard to talk about it with others. And if you don’t know about the urgency of the climate crisis you’re likely less motivated to take immediate action. Therefore I have put together this list of some resources, from which you can learn more about climate change and other environmental issues, and about the solutions.

Websites

Climate science facts and basics

  • IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change. They gather extensive research on climate science, its effects and about climate mitigation (reducing emissions to, and increasing the uptake of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere) and adaptation. The full reports are very extensive, but they have good summaries for policymakers which are shorter and easier to read. Thelatest one is the Summary for policymakers about the Physical Science Basis from the Sixth Assessment Report.

  • DN klimatet just nu: One of the largest Swedish newspapers has gathered facts of where we are right now concerning climate change, and where we are heading.

  • Klimatklockan: shows how much time we have until the remaining Swedish carbon budget has run out, if we continue to emit at the current pace.

How and in which speed to reduce the emissions

  • Project Drawdown – a leading resource for information and insight about climate solutions

  • The Exponential Roadmap Initiative is for innovators, transformers and disruptors taking action in line with 1.5°C, with the mission to halve emissions before 2030 through exponential

  • Climate Interactive creates accessible, scientifically rigorous tools that help people see connections, play out scenarios, and see what works to address the biggest challenges we face. They have developed the En-ROADs simulator, a policy simulation model that gives everyone the chance to design their own scenarios to limit future global warming.

  • Climate Watch - offers open data, visualizations and analysis to help policymakers, researchers and other stakeholders gather insights on countries' climate progress

  • Klimatsekretariatet has developed the ClimateVisualizer, a tool which helps municipalities in Sweden to see the roadmap to reduce emissions in line with the Paris Agreement.

It’s not only about climate...

  • The Planetary boundaries concept presents a set of nine planetary boundaries within which humanity can continue to develop and thrive for generations to come. Crossing these boundaries increases the risk of generating large-scale abrupt or irreversible environmental changes.
  • Doughnut Economics Action Lab is working with 100’s of companies, cities and individuals to support a holistic world economy, by putting the concepts of Doughnut Economics into transformative action. In short, Doughnut Economics is about how we should keep within the planetary boundaries (under the ecological ceiling), and fulfil people’s essential needs (above a certain level of social foundation).
  • The Global Goals for Sustainable Development, also known as Agenda 2030, because it’s important not only to focus on climate – we have 16 other sustainability goals as well.

Books

  • “Exponentiell Klimatomställning” by Rebecka Carlsson. It’s a great book about exponential climate technologies and behavioural changes; about climate solutions and with a sustainable business canvas – a tool and mental framework for developing successful, sustainable and scalable business models. Order one or several books on Rebecka’s website.
  • “Changing the world we create” by Mark Drewell and Björn Larsson. It’s introducing the concept of meta crisis: We’re not only facing a climate crisis, but also biodiversity, health and other crises. More interesting are the parts about the need for new perspectives, which those are and how we can shift to those. The perspectives are the views of ourselves, of the world, of our mind, of society and of our lives. Buy the physical book on e.g. Adlibris, or as ebook on goodreads.com.
  • “Doughnut economics - seven ways to think like a 21st-century economist” by Kate Raworth (links to where to buy the book), see information in short on the Doughnut Economics Action Lab website.

Workshops and courses

  • I participated in the Climate Fresk workshop in early 2021 and participated in a training to become a facilitator in mid-2021 to be able to facilitate such workshops. The workshop consists of three parts: First, you and other participants together put 42 cards in the correct order to show the causes and effects of climate change. This is followed by a part where you tune into your feelings, and finally you explore what actions you can take to have a positive impact on the climate.

Video clips