6. SHARE RELIABLE RESOURCES

It’s easy to follow the news on climate change—the challenge and its solutions—and get answers from experts. For example, check out MIT’s 2024 Climate Science, Risk, and Solutions, an interactive digital home base with quizzes, interactive graphics, and videos; written by Dr. Kerry Emanuel, professor emeritus of Atmospheric Science.

Here are a number of reliable resources aimed at a mainstream audience. Have a look at the excellent dailies from Carbon Brief (US focus here), Bloomberg Green, Heatmap, and Axios Generate. FT’s “Climate Capital”; anything from the New York Times Climate desk; Bill McKibben, Elizabeth Kolbert and others at The New Yorker. Do not miss the new ShiftKey podcast with Robinson Meyer and Jesse Jenkins; or Genevieve Guenther’s End Climate Silence newsletter. New Yorker Editor David Remnick hosts incisive podcasts, often touching on climate, including Talking to Conservatives about Climate Change (31 min., 18 Aug 2023) in which he does just that. Impressed by Shannon Osaka and her colleagues at The Washington Post, ditto Zoe Schlanger and colleagues at The Atlantic. The Wall Street Journal does a great job on energy and climate business news; unfortunately we cannot recommend WSJ editorial and opinion commentary. See NASA’s terrific new Climate Change portal. SciLine is another free, easy-to-digest resource based at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest multidisciplinary scientific society; here’s their climate section, and follow them on LinkedIn for 1:1 experts’ Zoom office hours on topics from controlled burning to pollinators to the environmental impacts of “orphaned” oil and gas wells.

In March, 2024, the International Energy Agency (IEA) launched the Clean Energy Market Monitor, a “timely, high-level overview of clean energy technology deployment. Project Drawdown is highly recommended for presenting science-backed solutions, beautifully designed and easy to navigate. For example, the Roadmap video series, which “points to which climate actions governments, businesses, investors, philanthropists, community organizations, and others should prioritize to make the most of our efforts to stop climate change.” Stanford University’s new Understand Energy Learning Hub website can help anyone find answers on more than 30 energy topics.

Local impacts vary widely in the US. Follow the U.S. Global Change Research Program, which produces a heavily vetted National Climate Assessment every five years, clearly delineated by zone.

Obsessed with how much this all costs? Follow the monthly updates on billion-dollar disasters from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). For updates on the $400+ billion being deployed via the Dept. of Energy’s Loan Programs Office (i.e. Inflation Reduction Act monies, aka IRA), follow Jigar Shah on LinkedIn via his frequent posts and occasional newsletter, Accelerating Climate Wealth. This massive policy injects funding for “real, private sector-led, government-enabled, evidence-based solutions to urgent problems of clean energy deployment… DOE’s Pathways to Commercial Liftoff initiative provides new, unique market-based insights for just that purpose.” The IRA and policies at state and local levels are supercharging clean-energy investments; keep up via Sophie Purdom’s Climate Tech VC; “Accelerating Climate Wealth,” Department of Energy banker Jigar Shah’s LinkedIn newsletter; the Zero podcast from Bloomberg’s Akshat Rathi; Cipher News from Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Anything from Ceres, eg August 2023 Benchmark Analysis of U.S. Banks re: Climate Goals and Climate Lobbying Practices. GreenBiz offers several worthwhile newsletters.

At The New York Times, Ezra Klein often illuminates clean-energy topics; his post-IRA interview with Princeton’s Jesse Jenkins (“The Single Best Guide to Decarbonization I've Heard,” 9/20/22) is a top-rated masterclass on the energy transition, very listenable. Rewiring America, Canary Media, Pique (“the opposite of doomscrolling”), Latitude Media are all worth a look.

Also strongly recommend Covering Climate Now’s “Essentials” resource hub, Climate Change Reporting 101, “10 Climate Change Myths Debunked,” and content shared via Instagram. CCN hosts first-rate trainings and briefings for journalists. NOAA is a rich resource on a wide range of relevant topics; here’s their explainer on whether offshore wind turbines harm marine life, like whales? (Answer: No.)

Recommend anything from RMI (Rocky Mountain Institute), eg June 2023 report “The Renewable Revolution: It’s exponential, global, and this decade.” Ditto the Guardian. Anything from Zach Labe, a postdoctoral researcher working at NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory and the Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Program at Princeton University. Or the monthly Temperature Updates produced at Berkeley Earth by Robert Rohde et al. Reports from the UN’s IPCC. Check out Skeptical Science for expert rebuttals to climate disinformation (albeit presented in an inexpert graphic design, but the content is bulletproof). Don’t miss MIT’s open courseware offerings. Check out Project Drawdown’s video “Climate 101” here. Also, one5c, for a positive vibe on individual actions.

Thinking it’s time to support a non-profit, like EDF or your local Land Trust? or join an activist group? Excellent choices abound, including Joel Bach’s Inside the Movement “ITM” newsletter. Bach established himself as a super-reliable resource on the Years of Living Dangerously project. Another movie producer, Adam McKay (Don’t Look Up) is behind Yellow Dot Studios. Warm up with this 90-second video from UK-based Climate Science Breakthrough. (Must I be on Twitter, er X, in order to follow climate scientists, you may well ask? The answer is Yes for now, but keeping a close eye on disinformation flow under this platform’s new ownership.)

For talented reporters you might not know, check out the 2023 award winners from The Society of Environmental Journalists and Covering Climate Now.

Angry? Tune in to Emily Atkin’s Heated.

Suggestions below include interactive data on maps, e.g., “How Much Hotter is Your Hometown Than When You Were Born?” and high-resolution data visualizations from Climate Central. How much $ does extreme weather cost in the US? Consult the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s deeply configurable running tally of billion-dollar extreme-weather events in the US since 1980, updated quarterly.

NEWS OUTLETS

  • Planet, a collection of pieces from The Atlantic

NEWSLETTERS & PODCASTS

ACADEMIC & NGOs