From the Climate Week activities...

Katharine Hayhoe's weekly newsletter gives us these (just snippets from her three point presentation, focusing on now, the good new, the bad news, and what we can do.)

"Who's stepping up to address the climate crisis? After spending the last week at #ClimateWeekNYC, it’s clear the answer is -- nearly everyone. Journalist Cara Buckley describes Climate Week as “a showcase of human innovation, the countless ways people in many industries are working to slow and potentially reverse the enormous harms humans have done to the planet” -- and I agree!
 
You can listen to my conversation with Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, facilitated by Juliet Eilperin from the Washington Post, on recent weather extremes and how we can fuel action; explore ideas on how to accelerate the global energy transition with Columbia University’s Jason Bordoff, Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Steven Guilbeault, and Earthjustice President Abigail Dillen; and join Dan Costa from Worth Magazine and I as we discuss how to get everyone involved in tackling the climate crisis.

The Good News:

There was plenty of good news to be had at Climate Week this year. I’m convinced we are at the cusp of a clean energy revolution, with renewable options becoming increasingly accessible and affordable with each passing month. I also heard about countless innovations in energy storage, sustainable agriculture, and transportation that I’ll be highlighting in newsletters to come.

 
On Wednesday, President Biden announced that he was creating a Climate Corps. It’s a green jobs training program that will employ 20,000 young people to plant trees, build solar panels and wind turbines, help restore wetlands, and implement sustainable agricultural solutions. And that’s not all. The state of California already had a state Climate Corps, and this week the governors of Arizona, Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina and Utah announced they’d be launching their own programs too.
 
Also this week, Germany pledged 40 million euros to the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund. This amount is enough to make the fund, which was ratified in August, operational. The aim of the fund is to stop and reverse global biodiversity loss by the end of this decade.
 

AND also (not in her newsletter):

In a new lawsuit, California is claiming that the five largest oil and gas companies have long been aware of how their products contribute to climate change, and worked to hide those truths from the public for decades.

It also argues that companies should pay for some of the billions of dollars of damage caused by extreme weather in that state, which is fueled by climate change.

AND (from PBS Science News):

Massachusetts banned the purchase of single-use plastic bottles by state agencies.

The Bad News:

This month the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change released its first "global stocktake," a report card that measures our collective progress since the Paris accords were signed.

 
"The Paris Agreement has driven near-universal climate action by setting goals and sending signals to the world regarding the urgency of responding to the climate crisis. While action is proceeding, much more is needed now on all fronts,” it concludes. Specifically, the world must reduce carbon emissions 43 percent by 2030 if we still want to meet the 1.5 degree warming target set in Paris in 2015.
 
At the UN Climate Ambition Summit on Wednesday, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said that "the move from fossil fuels to renewables is happening — but we are decades behind. We must make up time lost to foot-dragging, arm-twisting and the naked greed of entrenched interests raking in billions from fossil fuels."

What You Can Do:

How do we spur social change? Educate yourself with books, podcasts, and documentaries (here’s my recommendation list!). Engage on social media. Join an organization who shares your values (I have a list of those too); support their work, spread their message, and volunteer your time. Share your concerns with your elected representatives at every level, not just federal, and vote.

 
Talking about climate risks and climate solutions at every opportunity is essential. Every voice, including yours, contributes to this global conversation. As my TED talk explains, it’s not about overwhelming people with the science. It’s about helping people connect their head (what they know) to their heart (why they care) to their hands (what they can do about it). Around the world, this simple message is what we most need to know, to act: Later is too late."

And I'd add to her need for conversation and education, the need for each individual, each family, to adapt to some way of living that's better for the earth. That's up to each of us to find ways we can do something, which will remind us of why we're doing it!

PS. I'm so glad to hear that our North Carolina governor, a Democrat, is launching a climate corps. With the Republican legislature, it may take some doing to get it financed!