VIDEO: The First Step to Tackling Climate Change, with Katharine Hayhoe
Families for a Livable Climate, Moms Clean Air Force Montana, and Mountain Mamas were proud to welcome Katharine Hayhoe to Montana (virtually) for her talk, “The First Step to Tackling Climate Change”, on Tuesday, April 6, 2021.
Katharine Hayhoe is an atmospheric scientist whose research focuses on understanding what climate change means for people and the places where we live. She is an endowed professor of public policy and law in the Dept. of Political Science at Texas Tech University, she hosts the PBS digital series Global Weirding, and she has been named one of TIME's 100 Most Influential People, the United Nations Champion of the Environment, and the World Evangelical Alliance’s Climate Ambassador.
Hayhoe’s talk addressed how personal solutions to climate change are important, but they aren’t enough to fix our global problem: Our entire society is based on fossil fuels, and that’s what we have to change. And that’s why the single most important thing that any of us can do to fix climate change is to talk about it: to explain why it matters to us, to share inspiring stories of the solutions available to us today, and to advocate for change at every level: from our families and communities to our institutions and businesses.
Watch the April 6 event below, and find more resources from Katharine, and ways to get involved in Montana at the end of this post.
RESOURCES FROM KATHARINE HAYHOE
Katharine Hayhoe’s TED Talk: “The Most Important Thing You Can Do to Fight Climate Change”
Katharine’s new book is Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World. Purchase in advance through Simon and Schuster.
Science Moms: Science Moms is a nonpartisan group of climate scientists and mothers. We founded Science Moms to help mothers who are concerned about their childrens’ planet, but aren’t confident in their knowledge about climate change or how they can help. Together, we aim to demystify climate science and motivate urgent action to protect our children’s futures.
And more answers to FAQs, like “what about climate and covid?” are available here! -> Global Weirding
OTHER RESOURCES MENTIONED
Need inspiration and confirmation that we have the solutions we need to solve the climate crisis? Visit Drawdown! Drawdown.org - The World’s Leading Resource for Climate Solutions
Merchants of Doubt documentary
Tali Sharot’s TED Talk, “The Optimism Bias”
Citizens Climate Lobby (See Montana list for statewide contacts): Citizens’ Climate Lobby is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, grassroots advocacy climate change organization focused on national policies to address climate change.
Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth - Plus, her TED Talk, “A Healthy Economy Should Be Designed to Thrive, not Grow”
The Nature Conservancy: The Nature Conservancy is tackling some of the toughest problems facing people and nature today, replicating good ideas to save many places and improve people’s lives.
GET INVOLVED IN MONTANA
Families for a Livable Climate
Get involved with our Let’s Talk Climate campaign, which aims to generate climate conversations across Montana in order to end climate silence, and build broad support for action:
Share your climate story
Join one of our small-group Let’s Talk Climate events (inspired by Katharine Hayhoe’s work),
Host Let’s Talk Climate for your network of friends or colleagues (or other group),
Join Families for Action where we build community, discuss climate and climate justice, and organize events
Moms Clean Air Force Montana
Moms Clean Air Force Montana has a monthly meetup for moms to talk about climate and justice. Email Michelle Uberuaga at muberuaga@momscleanairforce.org for more information.
Montana Mountain Mamas
Check out Montana Mountain Mamas and their great work on public lands and climate!
Dr. Cathy Whitlock and the Montana Climate Assessment
Dr. Whitlock is co-author of the 2017 Montana Climate Assessment, and the 2021 Climate Change and Human Health in Montana report (PDF). Both reports available on the Montana Climate Assessment website at http://www.montanaclimate.org. She is currently working on a detailed climate assessment for the Greater Yellowstone region which will be released in June 2021. This report has been a three-state effort of universities, state and federal agencies, and nonprofits; focusing on the communities and watersheds of Greater Yellowstone.
Read the recent editorial in the Missoulian by Whitlock on climate change and wilderness.