People all over the world are participating in September 20’sglobal climate strikes. They’re taking place in citiesfrom Alice Springs, Australia to Jakarta, Indonesiato New York City. Police estimate100,000 protestersgathered around Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate.
Acoalition of organizationsworked to raise awareness about the strikes, but it started with children and young adults. Sixteen-year-old Greta Thunberg, who recently testified before acongressional committee, gained fame for her three-week sit-in outside the Swedish Parliament to protest its lack of action on climate change. She continued weekly strikes, and other school kids around the world started joining her forFridays for Future. In an interview withTeen Vogue, Thunberg asked people to imagine themselves looking back on today in 20 to 30 years. “Do you want to be able to say that you did fight against it and tried to push for a change early on?” she said. “Or do you want to say that, ‘No, I just went on going like everyone else because it was too uncomfortable.’”
The September 20 strikes come ahead of next week’s United NationsClimate Action Summit. Another worldwide protest is planned for September 27. The organizers, especially the young ones, are hoping leaders will take the protests seriously ahead of the summit and find realsolutions to climate change.
How did we get here? The science around climate change is robust and spans decades. Here are a bunch of resources to get you up to speed on why protesters are so anxious and angry.
What to read about climate change
The Guardian has 10 charts that explain theglobal climate crisis.
In 2014, PBS had two scientists try to explain why people don’tbelieve in climate change.
NASA shows that there’s a scientific consensus thathumans are causingthe planet to warm.
InLosing Earth: A Recent History, Nathaniel Rich writes “nearly every conversation we have in 2019 about climate change was being held in 1979.”
The New York Times explains whywinters can still be cold, even as the planet warms.
The recentNational Climate Assessmentwas alarming, butdealing in deadlinesmay be counterproductive, according to The Conversation andGrist.
National Geographic has some suggestions forhow to talk to your kidsabout climate change, as doesThe New York Times.
InThe Sixth Extinction,Elizabeth Kolbert explains why humans are threatening species’ survival all over the world.
Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shoreis Elizabeth Rush’s book of vignettes about places that are already experiencing the effects of climate change.
The Pacific Standard spoke to Leanne Betasamosake Simpson about the ways indigenous people have beensounding the alarmon environmental changes for centuries.
InThe Archipelago of Hope, Gleb Raygorodetsky says that indigenous communities are vital to finding solutions to climate change.
Amitav Ghosh’sThe Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkablewondered why literary fiction was failing to address climate change; his new novelGun Islandtries to do just that.
Popular Science explains why “apocalypse is not inevitable.”
What to watch about climate change
Forget Shorter Showers(2015) argues small sustainability fixes aren’t enough; bigger shifts in policy are needed to make substantial changes when it comes to a real environmental impact.
Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman(2017) introduces viewers to “heartland conservations” who are trying to preserve their livelihoods, which include fishing, farming, and ranching.
Leonardo DiCaprio narratesIce on Fire(2019), which marries science and solutions for melting Arctic ice.
In an episode ofPatriot Act, Hasan Minhaj explainsoil’s environmental impact.
A UN-funded documentary,Thirty Million(2016), shows the potential impacts Bangladesh’s residents face as sea levels rise.
Each episode ofYears of Living Dangerouslypairs a celebrity host with an environmental expert, as they interview people who are affected by and seeking solutions to these issues.
Netflix’sChasing Coral(2017) goes underwater to show how warming waters are affecting reefs.
Before Jay Inslee ran for president, Dr.Andrew J. Weaver made climate change his platform as a Green Party candidate in British Columbia, Canada;Running on Climate(2015) chronicles his run.
InClimate Change: The Facts,Sir David Attenborough and experts walk viewers through the consequences of ignoring the science and letting fossil fuel companies continue to plunder the planet.
What to listen to about climate change
What does the “crying Indian” have to do with individuals’ — as opposed to corporations’ — responsibility to keep the environment clean? Anepisode ofThroughlineexplains.
Should you stop flying? Not have kids?Terrestriallooks at questions like these and other ways people are reacting to environmental anxieties.
The BBC’sCosting the Earthspotlights at the many ways humans are impacting nature, and how nature reacts in response.
Climate Castcovers all the latest scientific news around climate change, like how it intensified Hurricane Dorian and what’s causing a spike in methane emissions.
America Adaptstakes the approach that humans will have to learn new ways of survival as the earth changes.
Reversing Climate Changeis exactly what it sounds like: an examination of the tech that could clean up some of the messes we’ve made.
A sort of beginner’s guide to climate change,TILClimatebreaks down everything you need to know about a big, complex topic.
Warm Regardsbrings in a variety of experts to talk climate and science, especially in a social context.
With a large backlog of episodes,Climate Onehas interviews and panels with everyone from Jane Goodall to the recently deceased Oracle of Oil, T. Boone Pickens.
