We are in a climate emergency. And you were born at just the right moment to help change everything.

Subscribe to The Phoenix to support independent climate journalism at a critical moment in history.

STARTING TODAY: For the first 10 days of 2021, The Phoenix is doing our inaugural membership drive. If this newsletter has meant something important to you, please consider becoming a paid subscriber.

Become a paid subscriber

Our time here on this beautiful planet is so temporary.

If there’s anything that 2020 taught us, it’s that while time is fleeting for everyone, it’s the way society is structured that determines how fleeting it is, and for whom. The overlapping tragedies of Covid-19, police brutality, and the climate emergency don’t fall equally on everyone, and it’s up to us to change that system to ensure everyone here gets the chance to thrive that they deserve.

That’s the heart of climate justice.

Our window for revolutionary repair of our planet’s atmosphere and biosphere – caused by centuries of excesses brought by capitalism, patriarchy, misogyny, imperialism, and racism – is bound by physics. We can (and should!) argue about the best ways to get to a zero-carbon world as quickly as possible, but we can’t argue with the fact that current global policies will deliver a planet that’s incompatible with a safe future for billions of people who did the least to cause the climate emergency.

You can’t change all that by yourself.

On this first day of 2021, though, you might decide you want to be a bigger part of the new system – one built to live in accordance with the planet we all share, rather than in opposition to it.

This is what we’re fighting for: Indigenous sovereignty, regenerative care of the land, shelter, equity, joy. All the basics that people need to live a good life. A vision for a bread and roses future for everyone.

Getting started with that journey isn’t hard. The point is only that you show up. We need everyone to be a part of this transformation in their own way.

At the same time, becoming a Climate Person isn’t easy. But it’s some of the most important work in the history of the world. You don’t get to give up, but you do get to ask for help.

If living your best life includes making the world more life-sustaining for every creature we share this beautiful planet with, the rest of this post will help you get started.

Resolutions are a chance for revolutions

The same thing is true today that was true yesterday: We need to rebuild the whole system to have a world with justice.  This is generations-long work. It didn't start with us and it won't end with us. But every single day we can build a bit of that world in our own lives.

On January 1, 1804, Haiti became to become the first independent Black republic in  world history. In 1893, Frederick Douglass gave a speech on why Haiti's revolution was so important – because it showed for the first time on a grand scale that marginalized people can overturn the system that was built to harm them.

The Haitian revolution was very violent – it exposed the violence of slavery for the world to see. The climate revolution is already violent – every day, all around the world, people are being deprived of their ability to live because of the choices of the people who prop up this broken system.

With our carbon emissions and our apathy, all of us are at least partly complicit in that violence. But we know now that a good life is possible for everyone while simultaneously having a zero carbon world. And if that world is possible we have a responsibility to fight for it. You don’t have to be a willing party anymore. You can choose to work for revolutionary change.

Let me be clear: 2020 wasn’t just a “bad year”, it was what happens when the people in power have spent centuries exploiting others to ensure their own comfort. The uncontrolled coronavirus epidemic wasn’t inevitable, just like the climate emergency wasn’t inevitable. Another world is possible. It won't happen magically. We have to demand it.

It’s important to remember that today is just another day, and the work that we’re doing began long before we were born and will continue long after we’re gone. It’s also important to remember that today, like every day, can be revolutionary.

Your individual revolutionary acts probably won’t change the course of world history on their own. But added together with billions of others, they will.

These three tips will help you become a climate revolutionary

Part of my mission at The Phoenix is to tell the story of what we're fighting *for*, not just what we're fighting against.

And one of the most important things we’re fighting for right now is rich descriptions of what a different world looks like.

As Arundhati Roy writes:

1. Let others help you

Subscribe to newsletters like Minimum Viable Planet and the Soapbox Project specifically designed to help people get started and stay motivated on their climate journeys.

Nivi Achanta, who founded the Soapbox Project, also recommends joining a peer-group, like the Work on Climate slack group, to form community on the way. The All We Can Save Project is currently forming reading circles and raising money for grants to help jumpstart women-led climate projects.

But most of all, if you’re feeling overwhelmed, ask for help.

2. We each have a special skill. Offer it

As Mary Heglar writes in this masterful essay, being a Climate Person means figuring out what will get you out of bed, what makes you live, and put that energy to work for systemic change. There’s no secret single thing you should be doing or shouldn’t be doing. Being a Climate Person means you do what you’re good at, and you do your best. If everyone did that, it would be enough.

Almost every profession now has a dedicated faction devoted to incorporating climate justice.

Lawyers have EarthJustice, teachers have the Alliance for Climate Education, medical professionals have Climate Health Now, mental health providers have the Good Grief Network, farmers have the Land Institute, economists have the Doughnut Economics Action Lab, political folks have the Enviro Voter Project, activists have the Sunrise Movement, climate organizers have Breach Collective.

We’ll need all types of folks and all types of groups. We need moms groups, we need business groups, we need housing groups, we need faith groups. We need everyone.

If you don’t see a group that fits you, ask around. If you’ve asked around and can’t find anything, you’ve probably found a few like-minded friends. Start something new with them.

3. Live in accordance with your values as best you can

There is no difference between individual action and systemic action. For too long, climate activism has been pictured as solar panels and electric vehicles and veggie burgers and voting once every four years. What we need isn’t more things to do, or shame for not living our lives the “right” way.

What’s worse, trying to memorize the litany of best-practice green tips is a recipe for burnout. There’s no amount of recycling that’s going to get us out of the mess we’re in.

Instead, each one of us should try to live in a way where we are actively creating revolutionary change every single day. Some days, revolutionary change looks like getting out of your house to take a walk. Some days, you might be having a hard talk with your parents about racial justice. Some days, you might be teaching your kid how to read. Some days, you might be telling a friend you love them.

To me, that feels much more empowering. The zero carbon tasks will take care of themselves if we build a world where people deeply care about themselves and others.

And that’s it.

One quick ask before you go: The Phoenix is my only job and my main source of income. Today is the first time I’ve ever directly asked subscribers for money. If this newsletter has meant something important to you, please consider becoming a paid subscriber and tell your friends about The Phoenix. Thank you. <3

Subscribe now