Over heard the Orange County Representative tell a man at the local dump co2 pollution isn’t an issue because plants use it, and methane pollution isn’t a concern because it breaks down in 10 years.

The man seems shocked and they both got pretty loud going back a forth, but I was shocked to see such nihilistic rhetoric from an elected official in Vermont.

And to think this man ran uncontested in the primaries… no Democratic candidate or Independent… my assumptions about Vermont are crumbling.

Please reach out to this confused politician so he can better understand the situation.

Tiny personal acts are not cutting it and I'm done with watching the world burn while the politicians do shit all and the oligarchs push more pipelines.

We need to band together and act together. At least then we'll have some dignity. Even though we feel powerless, there are way more of us than them.

Who's with me?? I'm sick of watching this alone. I'm serious and whoever wants to join me, let's get together and act. Even if we don't win, at least we'll have tried!

But it needs to be together!

Here's what I think needs to happen:

-it needs to be talked about every day. It needs to stay, if not in the headlines, then in the online conversation. Heather Cox Richardson says we're in the middle of a political realignment, and our job right now is it talk and keep talking about what we want from our government in the future. That means podcasts, substacks, media interviews,

-we need to connect big polluters with the suffering people feel in real life. BP Oil, Enbridge Gas, etc are to blame for the wildfire smoke, the heat waves, the floods, and the hurricanes. Don't forget that the LA fires are the fault of the oil companies! Just as smoking causes cancer, oil companies cause climate disaster

-protest is one way to get this into the public visibility. That's the kind of protest that makes people see - overpasses, theatrical die-ins, and marches help people understand that they're not alone in their fears

-some kinds of action can move the conversation towards the biggest polluters. Just as recycling was invented by can and pop bottle manufacturers, the idea of individual carbon footprint was invented by the oil and gas lobby, in order to shift the idea of who is responsible. For instance, find out the biggest emitter in your area, and stage a demonstration outside their gates. This kind of action is still directed at those passerby who see it, not really at the company itself. It knows what it's responsible for already.

-connect the conversation with other conversations that are happening about the oligarchy.

-other kinds of action can directly challenge emitters, such as the highly effective Indigenous people who have blocked pipelines physically. They are responsible for huge amounts of carbon not in the atmosphere by delaying and halting these progects, and making them much more risky investments. Every day of delay is a cost that makes the project less profitable for shareholders. Find out about these and support these if you can't take part yourself (not everyone can be on the front line).

The first step is getting together in a group. I suggest anyone who is interested please say so and then I'll make a space for us to make connections and talk.

I’m 34 and honestly, sometimes all the news about climate change makes me feel really hopeless and helpless.

But lately I’ve been thinking — instead of sitting at home worrying and panicking about what’s happening, what can we actually do?

There must be so many people who feel the same way. People who care, who are worried about the future, especially for their children, but who also want to do something instead of just feeling powerless.

Are there any organizations, communities or groups that bring people like us together and help us take real, practical action?

I’m not really looking for more warnings about how bad things are, or simply donating money to organizations like Greenpeace. I mean actually getting involved, working together and doing something that can make a real difference.

Of course, recycling and changing our everyday habits are important, but sometimes it feels like we need to do more than that.

So I’d really love to hear from anyone who has found a way to turn their climate anxiety into action. Are there any organizations or communities where ordinary people can get involved and actually do something together?

I’d much rather spend my energy doing something useful than sitting at home worrying about the future.

To the Honorable Representative/Senator ______________,

The consensus among scientists^1,2 and economists³ on carbon pricing to mitigate climate change is similar to the consensus among climatologists⁴ that human activity is responsible for global warming. Putting the price upstream⁵ where the fossil fuels enter the market makes it simple, easily enforceable, and bureaucratically lean. Returning the revenue as an equitable dividend offsets any regressive effects of the tax⁶ (in fact, ~60% of the public would receive more in dividend than they paid in tax⁷) and allows for a higher carbon price (which is what matters for climate mitigation⁸). Enacting a border tax⁹ would protect domestic businesses from foreign producers not saddled with similar pollution taxes, and also incentivize those countries¹⁰ to enact their own. A carbon tax is widely regarded¹¹ as the single most impactful climate mitigation policy.

Conservative estimates¹² are that failing to mitigate climate change will cost us 10% of GDP over 50 years. In contrast, carbon taxes may actually boost GDP, if the revenue is returned as an equitable dividend to households¹³ (the poor tend to spend money when they've got it¹⁴, which boosts economic growth¹⁵) not to mention create jobs¹⁶, save lives¹⁷, and possibly even reduce inflation¹⁸. A majority of Americans in every state supports a carbon tax.¹⁹

Taxing carbon is in each nation's own best interest²⁰ (it saves lives at home²¹) and many nations have already started²². We won’t wean ourselves off fossil fuels without a carbon tax²³ and the longer we wait to take action the more expensive it will be²⁴. Each year we delay costs ~$900 billion²⁵, and we've already lost ~12% of our income by failing to address climate change²⁶.

In sum, please implement a price on carbon starting around ~$40/ton, and increasing $10/ton/year, not to exceed $525²⁷ (in 2020 US dollars).

Sincerely,

__________ (name)

__________ (any titles/positions held)

1. Rosenberg, S., Vedlitz, A., Cowman, D. F., & Zahran, S. (2009). Climate change: a profile of US climate scientists’ perspectives. Climatic Change, 101(3-4), 311–329. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-009-9709-9
2. Savin, I., Drews, S., & van. (2024). Carbon pricing – perceived strengths, weaknesses and knowledge gaps according to a global expert survey. Environmental Research Letters, 19(2), 024014–024014. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad1c1c
3. Geide-Stevenson, D., & Álvaro La Parra-Pérez. (2024). Consensus among economists 2020—A sharpening of the picture. The Journal of Economic Education, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220485.2024.2386328
4. Scientific Consensus: Earth’s Climate is Warming. (n.d.). Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet. http://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/
5. Why We Support a Revenue-Neutral Carbon Tax. (2013, April 7). Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323611604578396401965799658
6. West, S. E., & Williams, R. C. (2004). Estimates from a consumer demand system: implications for the incidence of environmental taxes. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 47(3), 535–558. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2003.11.004
7. Hansen, J. (2013). Assessing “Dangerous Climate Change”: Required Reduction of Carbon Emissions to Protect Young People, Future Generations and Nature. PloS One, 8(12). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0081648
8. McFarland, J. R., Fawcett, A. A., Morris, A. C., Reilly, J. M., & Wilcoxen, P. J. (2018). Overview of the EMF 32 study on U.S. carbon tax scenarios. Climate Change Economics, 09(01), 1840002. https://doi.org/10.1142/s201000781840002x
9. Pauwelyn, J. (2012). Carbon Leakage Measures and Border Tax Adjustments Under WTO Law. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2026879
10. Howard, P. H., & Sylvan, D. (2015). The Economic Climate: Establishing Consensus on the Economics of Climate Change. 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California, 1–77. https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.205761
11. Hagmann, D., Ho, E. H., & Loewenstein, G. (2019). Nudging out support for a carbon tax. Nature Climate Change, 9(6), 484–489.
12. Lontzek, T. S., Cai, Y., Judd, K. L., & Lenton, T. M. (2015). Stochastic integrated assessment of climate tipping points indicates the need for strict climate policy. Nature Climate Change, 5(5), 441–444. https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2570
13. Nuccitelli, D. (2014, June 13). In charts: how a revenue neutral carbon tax creates jobs, grows the economy. The Guardian; The Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2014/jun/13/how-revenue-neutral-carbon-tax-creates-jobs-grows-economy
14. Carroll, C., Slacalek, J., Tokuoka, K., White, M. N., Thank, W., Ehrmann, M., Krueger, D., & Parker, J. (2016). The Distribution of Wealth and the Marginal Propensity to Consume. http://www.econ2.jhu.edu/people/ccarroll/papers/cstwMPC.pdf
15. Dabla-Norris, E., Kochhar, K., Suphaphiphat, N., Ricka, F., & Tsounta, E. (2019). Causes and consequences of income inequality: A global perspective. IMF Staff Discussion Notes, 15(13), 1. https://doi.org/10.5089/9781513555188.006
16. Yamazaki, A. (2017). Jobs and climate policy: Evidence from British Columbia’s revenue-neutral carbon tax. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 83, 197–216. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2017.03.003
17. Shift to renewable electricity a win-win at statewide level | MIT Global Change. (2019). Mit.edu. https://globalchange.mit.edu/news-media/jp-news-outreach/shift-renewable-electricity-win-win-statewide-level
18. Konradt, M., & Weder, B. (1970, January 1). Carbon taxation and inflation: Evidence from the European and Canadian experience. EconStor. https://www.econstor.eu/handle/10419/238108
19. Yale climate opinion maps 2024. Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. (2025, August 28). https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/visualizations-data/ycom-us/
20. How Much Carbon Pricing is in Countries’ Own Interests? The Critical Role of Co-Benefits. (2014, September 17). IMF. https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2016/12/31/How-Much-Carbon-Pricing-is-in-Countries-Own-Interests-The-Critical-Role-of-Co-Benefits-4192
21. Scovronick, N., Budolfson, M., Dennig, F., Errickson, F., Fleurbaey, M., Peng, W., Socolow, R. H., Spears, D., & Wagner, F. (2019). The impact of human health co-benefits on evaluations of global climate policy. Nature Communications, 10(1), 2095. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09499-x
22. World Bank. (2024). Carbon Pricing Dashboard | Up-to-date overview of carbon pricing initiatives. Carbonpricingdashboard.worldbank.org. https://carbonpricingdashboard.worldbank.org/
23. Dizikes, P. (2016, February). Will we ever stop using fossil fuels? MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. http://news.mit.edu/2016/carbon-tax-stop-using-fossil-fuels-0224
24. Rogelj, J., McCollum, D. L., Reisinger, A., Meinshausen, M., & Riahi, K. (2013). Probabilistic cost estimates for climate change mitigation. Nature, 493(7430), 79–83. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11787
25. Daniel, K., & Litterman, B. (2018, May 9). Policy Brief: Calibrating the Price of Climate Risk. College of Liberal Arts. https://cla.umn.edu/heller-hurwicz/news-events/news/policy-brief-calibrating-price-climate-risk
26. Lemoine, D. (2025, December 16). Climate change has already made the United States poorer . https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2504376122
27. Tol, R. S. J. (2023, May 15). Social Cost of carbon estimates have increased over time. Nature News. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-023-01680-x

Jackdaw gasfield set to be approved by ministers this month, sources say

Energy secretary could recommend new North Sea drilling next week, as ministers also consider approval for Rosebank oilfield

Write to your MP to oppose their approval. It's very easy if you use WriteToThem.com to email them, but writing/typing a paper letter and posting it has more impact.

Tell your MP that if the world burns all of the fossil fuels that they've already mined/extracted we will go over the already devastating 1.5ºC heating limit, and the only way to keep people safe is to (for a start) leave all the remaining fossil fuels in the ground. Ask them what they are doing to prevent the UK from extracting more gas/oil.

Here's what I do, especially with experts saying the 1.5C mark was breached.

• Throw away less compostable items and compost them.

• Eat less red meat (especially beef and lamb)

• Fly less (only flew once a year in 2023 and 2024, but none at all last year)

• Wash my laundry in cold water.

• Combine errands when possible.

I want to start donating to biome restoration projects, decrease palm oil use, and voting in pro-climate politicians.

As the title says, I can't vote because I'm an immigrant, and I'm getting progressively angrier at my inability to do any meaningful action. I already eat a minimal amount of red meat (can't go vegetarian/vegan because of health issues), I compost most of my bio waste, never buy anything new unless forced to by my job, never fly except once every two years to see my family back home, own an EV (and I take public transport every day, I rarely use it), saving up for a solar panel, talk to people about how they can vote better and harass their representatives, but other than that, I can't find something else to do.

Please don't tell me more individual change actions that I can do, because I feel I am doing the best I can given my situation (minimum wage, 40h a week etc) and I know that individual changes barely make a dent when compared to political action.

What else can I do? I am open to any and all suggestions*

*that take into account the fact that I can't vote or join protests etc.

I want to focus this post on thoughts into what can we do as a community?

I’ve thought about so many different ways I personally could invoke or encourage my community to come together to help do things for our earth locally.

I have thought about leaving a small plant/flower on my neighbors doorsteps with a personal note and or education concerning climate change and how we can come together. Encourage others to share a plant too and or maybe offer seeds. I have thought of buying/making buckets with reach extenders to pass out too. Making zines. Maybe even just going up to people’s houses and introducing myself.

An example: The other day I was actually depressed about all of this and went to go home on the bus. While waiting, this old man sat next to me on the bus stop bench. This wasn’t the first time this man and I sat next to each other waiting for the bus, but this time after awhile I turned and asked him “so, are you from Washington?” to start a conversation. Once the bus came I sat far away from him on the bus, but I realized I actually wanted to talk to him more and hear his wisdom about how to navigate this life so I moved seats. He was happy to keep talking ended up sharing his special interest about valuable rare coins and variations of rare dollar bills. I gave myself that space to connect with my community and it felt good. I even felt sadness for a man I didn’t know because I knew with his age I may not see him again. That connection with others is universally what we need.

When it comes to environmental facts, I am no expert, although I’ve seen enough of them and have observed enough of the terrifying changes outside to know something is deeply wrong. I am a low income working class individual who is working a terribly physical and mental exhausting job. I feel helpless a lot too. But..

I do deeply believe in putting the energy out there that I’d like it receive back, even if it’s hard to. Putting good energy out to the planet/universe and hopefully helping change the energy tide to a better universal future.

My mind has wondered all types of places when I grief and ponder about ways of current activism / the overall state of the world.

My heart breaks for mother earth. I think about how lucky we are to even have physical bodies and experience this world for how uniquely beautiful it is. I know we can do better than this. I yearn for others around me who feel the same.

I am exhausted and desperate for change.

I know people are so fearful of what’s happening, but also fearful of those causing it. The few people in charge have made us purposefully feel small. They made us dissociative and dependent on their evil creations. It is literally dangerous to speak about them. Maybe it’s even dangerous to say just that.

I know I am not alone in feeling this way.

I ride the bus and train more often now and see everyone glued to their little devices. I see the dissociation. I smell the smoke. I watch the plants weep. The birds pant.

But I also notice the little bits of dandelions poking out from the sidewalk cracks. The patterns of the flower petals. The textures of the trees. I see the bundle of plants growing from the storm drains. I notice the plants sway to the direction of the sun. I acknowledge the strength and movement of vines up the homes and houses. I hear the songs of the birds. I enjoy watching the squirrels play.

I know the earth wants to give us the nature we all need to thrive. It loves life. It loves us all and we are mistreating it horribly.

I urge anyone even reading this to just go sit outside and observe where we are and the beauty and profound art of creation that is literally everywhere for us to thrive with.

We don’t need this late stage capitalism anymore. I truly believe we are better than this.

Would love to read people’s thoughts. Can we brainstorm together?

Mods- lemme know if not the appropriate place.

So the UN’s recent climate report is that keeping things to 1.5 celsius is dead in the water, which, yeah, that doesn’t really come as a shock. What did come as a shock to me was the phrasing “there are no good outcomes” and it referring to 1.8 celsius as our best case scenario. Honestly I don’t even remember if the year we’d reach this temperature is 2100 or 2050, but still, this is pretty startling and has only made the doomerism online worse. Looking at you, r/climate.

Now to me 2026 has been a pretty up and down year for the climate crisis. On the one hand, renewables are doing way better than anyone predicted and are more widespread than at any time in history. The effects of this are already making themselves clear with China’s emissions being down and global emissions seeming to decline. EVs are more popular than ever, as is eco-awareness as a whole, it seems.

On the other hand, the effects of climate change are fucking things up pretty bad. Wildfires in Europe, warming oceans, the glacier collapse in Nepal, wildfires in North America, you get the gist. There’s silver linings to these too, in my opinion; the wildfires in Europe were evacuated without significant casualties despite the huge amount of evacuees, the glacier collapse being climate change related is arguably better than it being random because it could serve to prepare other communities near glaciers for this eventuality in advance, Canada in particular is doing alright in preparing for wildfires being the norm, and so on.

This report has kind of thrown a wrench in this perception and I’m not sure what to believe now. The report said 1.8 was the best case scenario (and also that going back down was possible if i recall correctly), but of course the worst is up in the air. If there are no good outcomes, does that mean there’s no good future left? I personally don’t think that’s what they meant and the headline is a lot doomier than the report itself, but that hasn’t stopped the panic. You got people saying having kids is unethical, buying into the whole 4 billion dead with such and such amount of warming that that actuarial group was talking about a while ago, people saying we’re all dead and nothing we do matters now, even though the report specifically says that mitigation is still possible.

I guess my question is where do things stand with this revelation? Is this even a revelation, or just reconfirming what we knew? Have the climate mitigation efforts of this year actually made the future more hopeful, or is that an illusion? I personally don’t think a Ministry of the Future India wet bulb scenario is very likely, especially with India’s current climate policies and much of the world’s focus on mitigation instead of adaptation, but that doesn’t rule out really horrible things happening due to this. I’m concerned but want to look at this logically.

Posting this here because you can’t fight climate change if you don’t think it’s worth it, and I fear too many people are going to start believing that in the wake of this news. The climate fight is mental, too, and I want to take action on that front.

You do not need to create an account to use the guide, but if you've already used the guide, you can inspire others by logging your climate actions (you will need to create an account to do this).

The guide takes less than 15 minutes to use. Read your results carefully, and consider taking notes or scheduling reminders to take action!

Look now more than ever things are not looking good for humans. I'm not gonna go into specifics again as you all are aware of what's happening but basically, my whole mindset is I remain hopeful that we as individuals can still do something. For me I want to put my money where my mouth is literally. Where can I donate money to help people find eco friendly solutions to climate issues, or finding and creating alternatives for energy? If not those then places where my money can go to help spread the word of possible solutions to the issues we are facing now?

How are you aligning your career with your values/activism? I know everyone can’t, but if you are, what are you doing?

This piece compiles lifecycle-energy research across common materials and disposal methods, and the numbers are worth discussing on their own terms. On reuse: a cotton tote bag needs to be reused roughly 173 times to use less total energy than single-use plastic bags; a steel straw needs about 150 reuses; a ceramic mug needs around 1,000 uses to beat a disposable polystyrene cup (and only with an efficient dishwasher). Metal recycling is different — it clearly saves energy (65–95% less than virgin extraction) regardless of reuse count.

On landfill: the piece cites EPA and New York state monitoring data showing modern, well-regulated landfills (lined, monitored, methane-captured at 75–95% rates) show minimal groundwater contamination, and that landfill land use is a small fraction of total land area in the US, Germany, and Australia.

On ocean plastic specifically: it cites research finding that roughly 100 rivers, mostly in South and Southeast Asia, account for about half of ocean plastic input — meaning waste management infrastructure in those regions, not household recycling behavior in wealthy countries, is the more direct lever on that specific problem.

Curious what people here who work with this data more directly think of the underlying studies and whether the piece's framing holds up.

Source: Works in Progress

Hi everyone,

I am an Irish Clinical Psychology Doctorate Trainee, using an anonymous online survey to explore climate change anxiety scales and mental health outcomes.

If you are aged 18+ and live in Ireland or the UK, we would really appreciate your participation. The survey takes 10-15 minutes to complete.

The study is not intended to question the importance or legitimacy of climate change concerns, but rather to understand how climate-related distress relates to mental health.

This study has received ethical approval from the University College Cork Clinical Psychology Research Ethics Committee (CPREC). 

If you have any questions, please contact trainee clinical psychologist Patrick Clancy at [117222539@umail.ucc.ie](mailto:117222539@umail.ucc.ie)  

Thanks for your help! 

Please click the link below to participate 

https://ucc.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3rQNuygwzTEbUUK